Parrish & Gurvitz Band - Selftitled (Great and Classic Rock UK 1971)

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Somewhere betweem The Moody Blues, Marmalade and Crosby Stills and Nash, for a moment Parrish and Gurvitz may have been something, if perhaps with the involvement of George Martin as producer, they had not been unreasonably hailed as the new Beatles. Still, this classic song is completely forgotten, off every list, it’s not cool, hip, Prog, Psych, Psychedelic, Garage, sixties Pop, seventies underground and has no recognised virtuosos.

Having said that the line-up of the band is impressive. Paul Gurvitz was in The Gun with his brother Adrian, remember their 1968 hit Race With The Devil. The Gurvitz brothers went on to form Three Man Army and then teamed up with Ginger Baker for Baker Gurvitz Army in the seventies. Brian Parrish played with various small sixties bands (with Gurvitz), later joining Badger. Mike Kellie was with Spooky Tooth and other seventies luminaries before joining one of my favourite bands of the new wave era, The Only Ones, Rick Wills played with countless groups including Cochise, Roxy Music, Foreigner, latter Day Small Faces and Dave Gilmour. Micky Gallagher had played with Skip Bifferty and would eventually join Ian Dury as one of the Blockheads.

With George Martin choosing, producing and arranging Parrish And Gurvitz’s material, it’s not surprising that this opening track(s) from their one and only album is so good. Unfortunately The Beatles connection hindered their progress with that overpowering legend producing mild hysteria from the press. 

They were never able to live up to their producer’s previous affiliations but you might ask why were they called Parrish and Gurvitz instead of Gasoline Toothbrush or Camouflaged Meadow or Sadness In The Trees – anything but Parrish and Gurvitz – they sounded like they were solicitors. I imagine it’s because this wasn’t their first band – they’d played together before in various incarnations and as the two main members had got the support to make a record and then hired the band to play it live. 

Unfortunately the band was much heavier than the record and the US label lost interest as the band they signed was not the band they saw live. Brian Parrish then quit on the eve of a US tour due to personal problems and shortly thereafter they were gone.

So many records out there, hailed as genius, so many worthy records out there that are forgotten – this is one of them.

In 1971 The Gun broke up Paul Gurvitz started this act simply called Parrish & Gurvitz,(Brian Parrish, formerly of Badger), which was produced by George Martin.This was a one-off project on the Regal Zonophone label featuring the additional talents of Mike Kellie (ex-Spooky Tooth,Art), Micky Gallagher (pre-Ian Dury) and Rick Wills (pre-Foreigner).Lush production over beautiful crafted songs fully infused with the US west-coast sound.

The band was co-founded by keyboardist Tony Kaye after he left Yes, with David Foster. Foster had been in The Warriors with Jon Anderson before Anderson co-founded Yes. Foster later worked with the band on Time and a Word. Kaye had worked on a solo project by Foster that was never released.

The pair found drummer Roy Dyke, formerly of Ashton, Gardner & Dyke, and Dyke suggested Brian Parrish formerly of Parrish & Gurvitz which later became Frampton's Camel (after Parrish left P&G) on guitar. The new band began rehearsing in September 1972 and signed to Atlantic Records.

The group was formed by Adrian Gurvitz and Paul Gurvitz, formerly of The Gun. Following the band's dissolution, Adrian played with Buddy Miles and Paul played with Parrish & Gurvitz, then reunited as Three Man Army. Their debut album, A Third of a Lifetime, featured several drummers, including Miles, Carmine Appice (of Vanilla Fudge) and Mike Kellie (from Spooky Tooth). Tony Newman, who had previously played with Sounds Incorporated and Rod Stewart, joined for the group's next two albums, and a fourth album was planned but never recorded. Newman then left to play with David Bowie, and the Gurvitzes united with Ginger Baker as the Baker Gurvitz Army.

Rick Wills took his own form of music degree in Cambridge during the 1960s and has since gone on to become one of the most respected bass guitarists in the business. However, it was not one of the grand colleges of the famous university City which saw his graduation; instead, it was the local bars and village halls that provided the perfect place for him to take his first steps in the industry. 

The decision has proved to be a good one and during the years that have followed he has enjoyed success on both sides of the Atlantic, including 13 years as part of one of the world’s supergroups. 

After forming his first band called The Sundowners with a group of friends in the 1960s, Wills gained experience playing the local scene before being asked by another young Cambridge musician to form a new group. “His name was Dave Gilmour and even at that early stage you could see he had star potential,” claims Wills. “We called ourselves ‘Joker’s Wild’ and we had a great time for a few years playing in places like Spain and living in Paris, before Dave got the call to join Pink Floyd.” After moving to London Wills became part of Cochise and the group made three well thought of albums before they split and Wills, along with Mickey Gallagher and Mike Kellie, became part of the Parrish and Gurvitz band. 

01. Another Time, Another Day/Take What You Want — 4:40
02. It’s A Shame — 3:21
03. Libra — 4:00
04. I’ve Got Time — 3:48
05. Janine — 3:42
06. Dozy Gwen — 2:11
07. Why — 4:24
08. As If I Were Blind — 3:50
09. More Than Life — 3:43
10. Loving You — 7:14

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