The Gothic Bram Stoker
This is part of Shiloh Noone’s weekly write up of rare groups. Group write-ups you never hear of or little is known about.
The Gothic Bram Stoker
Cressida’s keyboard dominated style was not unlike the Gothic drone of Bournemouth band Bram Stoker, singularly England’s most ignored Prog entity. Bram Stoker who rose out of the ashes of Renaissance Fare launched their 1972 Heavy Rock Spectacular which holds more emotive stirrings than any ELP refrain, harking to the tremors of Julian’s Treatment or Dr Z. The Bram Stoker live performances were sensational largely due to guitarist Pete Ballam’s legendary “Doppler” (spinning speaker cabinet) and Tony Bronsdon’s stirring organ tempos.
Bram Stoker originally formed in 1969 alongside drummer Rob Haines and bassist John Bavin, Bram Stoker stand next to Van Der Graaf as one of the first Prog Gothic groups, often supporting The Who and even booked to play the ‘Isle Of Wight Festival’. The Who vocalist Roger Daltrey helped the group to record a home demo which got them a contract with the ‘Woolworth’s budget label ‘Windmill Records’. Bavin’s eerie vox is sheer rupture on the fuzz riffing “Extensive Corrosion” while his bass rumbles superbly on “Ants” and the Wakeman styled “Fast Decay”. Bavin’s veteran past is more closely associated with the Incredible String Band, yet his production skills infiltrate Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and Kiki Dee. Haines is best heard on the emotive cymbal time signatures that embellish “Poltergeist” while Bronsdon’s classical virtues power through Felix Mendelssohn’s overture “Fingal’s Cave”, severed sensitively by Ballam’s exquisite breaks. Stoker’s post apocalyptic “Blitz” is the epic highlight with Ballam conjuring a drone lead that evokes visions of misty bomb shelters and nuclear rain. Bram Stoker re-formed in 2004 with added Pat Flynn (guitar) & Pete Rumble (drums) for Rock Paranoia which also includes unreleased material. Mysticism had also spread its claws into a variety of jazz genres, namely an eerie gathering called Ben, an offshoot of the Keith Jarrett Band. The self titled album was filled with four lengthy jazz excursions that awkwardly seemed to lack direction and appeared to more of a jam, other than the bass sensible”Gibbon”.The mystical members of Ben were saxophonist Peter Davey, guitarist Gerry Reid, keyboardist Alex Macleery, ex Nashville Teens bassist Len Surtees & ex Graham Bond drummer David Sheen who later played with Kevin Coyne. Surtees later joined Peter Green’s Kolors and Sheen to Mirage.
Another strange 1971 interlude was Dr. Z’s Three Parts of My Soul, expressed through the stirring “Evil’s Woman’s Manly Child”, a sum influence of Mojo Men’s “When You Down”. Musicians comprised Welsh Professor Keith Keyes (keyboards) Rob Watson (bass) & ex Eaglettes drummer Bob Watkins who later joined Bruce Welch’s Moonlight Shadows. The album seduced through the harmony reeling “Summer for the Rose” and their keyboard charged “Lady Ladybird” /“People in the Street”. The flute fearful “Burn in Anger” spirals in changing tempo, the stirring character of the occult flavoured album, produced by ex Nirvana Patrick Campbell -Lyons. The 10min “In a Token of Despair” is the cry of every human as it spins through a Gregorian motif with Keyes’ rippling piano. By 1967 the English had already turned a discerning ear to fusion jazz through John Lewis & the Modern Jazz Quartet which included Jean Luc Ponty when they performed at the ‘Monterey Jazz Festival’.
Courtesy of Shiloh (In ode to the artistic razorblade, Kevin Coyne)
www.shilohnoone.com