The V.I.P.s

The V.We.P.s were among the leading R&B functions to emerge from your North of Britain in the 1960s, even though they never reached genuine stardom, several the group’s users would continue to international popularity following the combo split up. Created in 1963, the V.We.P.s hailed from Carlisle, a city in North Western England not definately not the Scottish boundary. The core users from the V.We.P.s had previously worked together in another Carlisle combo referred to as the Ramrods; after bassist Dave McCumiskey remaining the music group to relocate to London, Greg Ridley required his place, becoming a member of vocalist Mike Harrison, business lead guitarist Jimmy Henshaw, tempo guitarist Frank Kenyon, and drummer Walter Johnstone. Recently christened the V.We.P.s, they truly became a regular appeal in the Cosmo Golf club in Carlisle, and in 1964 they signed an archive cope with noted maker and supervisor Larry Page. Web page certified the V.We.P.s’ debut solitary (“She’s SO EXCELLENT” b/w “Don’t Preserve Shouting at Me personally”) to RCA, however the offer was a one-off so when the disk failed to graph, the group trim a 45 for CBS in the U.K. and another one that appeared just in america on Philips. (The group also present its name briefly transformed to the Vipps, supposedly in the wish that the brand new brand appears to be more sophisticated.) The V.We.P.s still left Carlisle to stay in London and were regulars over the big city’s membership circuit, and once they parted methods with Larry Web page they signed a fresh deal with Isle Information in 1966, who promptly issued “I Wanna End up being Free of charge” b/w “DON’T ALLOW It Move,” with “ALONG to underneath” b/w “Within a Wish” following in 1967. The music group didn’t enjoy very much chart success in the home, but fared better in France after Fontana released three EPs there attracted from their Isle recordings. By the finish of 1967, Henshaw, Johnstone, and Kenyon still left the V.We.P.s, and Harrison and Ridley recruited 3 new associates — Keith Emerson on keyboards, Luther Grosvenor on electric guitar, and Mike Kellie on drums. This model became short-lived, as Emerson still left after a couple of months to become listed on the Fine (he’d continue to main stardom a couple of years afterwards with Emerson, Lake & Palmer). The rest of the four members continuing on beneath the fresh name Artwork, and cut an recording in 1967 known as Supernatural Fairytales. The Artwork recording was a industrial disappointment, however they belatedly discovered an viewers in both Britain and America after Gary Wright became a member of the group plus they adopted the brand new name Spooky Tooth. Grosvenor would later on depart Spooky Teeth to become listed on Mott the Hoople (using the brand new stage name Ariel Bender), Greg Ridley continued to try out with Humble Pie, and Mike Harrison lower a set of single albums and later on became a member of the Hamburg Blues Music group. The V.We.P.s’ singles and EPs were belatedly reissued in 2006 by Repertoire Information inside a two-CD collection called THE ENTIRE V.We.P.s.