Les Fleur de Lys

Although many of their singles are sought after by collectors of ’60s United kingdom rock, Les Fleur de Lys remain obscure sometimes by cult standards. That’s partially because they hardly ever came near getting a strike, but also because their furious speed of lineup adjustments makes their background very hard to trace, and in addition precluded any feeling of consistent design or identification. The group do release a variety of great singles in the mod-psychedelic design that has been referred to as “freakbeat,” with an increase of of the soul music impact than most such United kingdom serves. Les Fleur de Lys transformed lineups about half-a-dozen situations during their documenting career, which approximately spanned 1965-1969. Drummer Keith Guster was the just constant member; a number of the music artists passing through continued to commercial achievement with Trip and Jefferson Starship (keyboardist Pete Sears) and Ruler Crimson (bassist Gordon Haskell). First, they recorded several singles for the Immediate label which were made by Jimmy Web page (there continues to be some controversy about whether he performed electric guitar on these aswell). A cover from the Who’s “Circles” highlighted the fluid, somewhat distorted electric guitar lines that could become Fleur de Lys’ most distinguishing quality. The 45s produced no commercial influence, nevertheless, and Fleur de Lys helped maintain themselves in the past due ’60s by support relocated South African vocalist Sharon Tandy. Carrying on to record intermittently privately, the band maintained a few good slabs of freakbeat with “HANG ON,” “Dirt in Your Eyes,” and their most psychedelic outing, the memorably entitled “Gong using the Luminous Nose. As though the musical chair of workers weren’t more than enough, they further puzzled record purchasers with songs released under different titles like Shyster and Chocolates Frog, aswell as playing on singles by Tandy, Waygood Ellis, and John Bromley. A unitary issued beneath the moniker Rupert’s People, the Procol Harum-like “Reflections of Charlie Dark brown,” became a Western strike of sorts; following singles by Rupert’s People, nevertheless, aren’t Fleur de Lys playing under an assumed name. The complicated saga found a finish in the past due ’60s. Many of the group’s better songs repeatedly arrived on collector-oriented reissues of uncommon ’60s British rock and roll, and a whole Compact disc of their function was released in 1996.