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Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band | |
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| Origin | London, England |
| Genres | Soul |
| Years active | 1965–1968, 2005–present |
| Labels | Piccadilly, Pye, Castle, Marble Arch |
| Past members | 1967–1968 Geno Washington Pete Gage Lionel Kingham Buddy Beadle Geoff Pullum (aka Jeff Wright) John Roberts Herb Prestidge |
| Website | Geno Washington Website |
Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band are an England-based soul band.
The Ram Jam Band were formed around 1964 by Pete Gage and Geoff Pullum. Before taking on Geno Washington, whom Gage knew from performing at the RAF Bentwaters US Air Force base, they had a Jamaican Blue Beat singer by the name of Errol Dixon front the band as they embarked on the London club circuit. Gage approached Washington to finance his demobbing to the US and to return to front the band as it seemed essential to have an American to perform US soul rather than the West Indian alternatives in London at that time.
Geno Washington was a US airman stationed in East Anglia who became well known for his impromptu performances in London nightclubs. In 1965, guitarist Pete Gage needed a singer to front his new band and replace the previous singer Errol Dixon, and asked Washington to join. When Washington was discharged from the US Air Force, he became the band's frontman.
Their first single featuring Geno, "Shake, Shake, Senora" / "Akinla" released on Columbia [1] [2] was not a commercial success.[ citation needed ] At some stage the band had recorded a demo of the Barbara Lynn hit "You'll Lose a Good Thing". [3] [4]
They released two live albums. Hand Clappin, Foot Stompin, Funky-Butt ... Live! was released in 1966, reached no.5 on the UK Albums Chart, and remained in the charts for 38 weeks. It was followed up by Hipster Flipsters Finger Poppin' Daddies in 1967, which reached no.8 on the chart. [5] They also had some moderate hit singles released by the Pye label: "Water", "Hi Hi Hazel", "Que Sera Sera" and "Michael (the Lover)".
They managed to build up a strong following with the crowds and due to their touring and energetic performances. Like their Pye label mates and rivals, Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, they became popular with the mod scene.[ citation needed ]
The band's name came from the Ram Jam Inn, an old coaching inn on the A1 (Great North Road) at Stretton, near Oakham, Rutland. [6]
The new single "Hi Hi Hazel" was reviewed in the 16 July, 1966 issue of Disc and Music Echo in the Penny Picks the Pops section. Reviewer Penny noted that the Troggs were going to record the song as a single. recalling that the band had a previous hit, she predicted the same for this single. [7]
It was reported by Record World in the 17 August, 1968 issue that there were very few English soul bands. But Jimmy James' band and Washington's bands were the two biggest soul bands and were among the ten highest paid bands of any kind there. [8]
The band broke up in the autumn of 1969 and the band members went their own ways while Geno Washington continued as a solo artist before returning to the United States. Keyboard player Geoffrey K. Pullum became an academic linguist, and is today a professor emeritus at the University of Edinburgh. He was also a linguistics blogger at the Language Log and Lingua Franca websites. [9]
The album Sifter Shifters & Finger Clickin' Mamas was listed as one of the best selling albums from Pye by Cash Box in the magazine's July 5, 1969 issue. [10]
Washington temporarily reformed the band between February and June 1971 with new band members Dave Watts (organ), Mo Foster (bass), Mike Jopp (guitar) and Grant Serpell (drums)
Since 2005, Geno Washington and The Ram Jam Band have been constantly playing shows. The line-up of the band is in early 2024: Greg Lester (Guitar and Backing Vocals); Nick Blake (Brass), Geoff Hemsley (Drums); Steve Bingham (Bass and Backing Vocals) and Geno Washington (Lead Vocals). [11]
Pye Records was a British record label. Its best known artists were Lonnie Donegan (1956–1969), Petula Clark (1957–1971), the Searchers (1963–1967), the Kinks (1964–1971), Sandie Shaw (1964–1971), Status Quo (1968–1971) and Brotherhood of Man (1975–1979). The label changed its name to PRT Records in 1980, before being briefly reactivated as Pye Records in 2006.
Steve Gibbons is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist and bandleader. His music career spans more than 50 years.
Geoffrey Keith Pullum is a British and American linguist specialising in the study of English. Pullum has published over 300 articles and books on various topics in linguistics, including phonology, morphology, semantics, pragmatics, computational linguistics, and philosophy of language. He is Professor Emeritus of General Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh.
Geno Washington is an American R&B singer who released five albums with the Ram Jam Band between 1966 and 1969, and eight solo albums beginning in 1976.
The Remo Four were a 1950s–1960s rock band from Liverpool, England. They were contemporaries of The Beatles, and later had the same manager, Brian Epstein. Its members were Colin Manley, Phil Rogers, Don Andrew, and Roy Dyke (drums). Andrew and Manley were in the same class at school as Paul McCartney.
The Sorrows are a rock band formed in 1963 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, by Pip Whitcher, and were part of the British beat boom of the 1960s. They were a fixture in the English mod scene and are sometimes referred to as freakbeat.
The Rockin' Berries are a beat group from Birmingham, England, who had several hit records in the UK in the 1960s. A version of the group, emphasising comedy routines as well as music, continues to perform to the present day.
Michael "Jimmy" James was a Jamaican-British soul singer, known for songs like "Come to Me Softly", "Now Is the Time" and "I'll Go Where Your Music Takes Me". Based in Britain, he performed as the lead singer of Jimmy James and the Vagabonds from the mid-1960s.
Lee Vanderbilt was a Trinidadian soul and rock singer.
The Montanas were an English 1960s and 1970s pop rock band from Wolverhampton, England. Though they never found significant success in their home country, they had one moderate hit in the United States.
My Little Chickadee is a song written by Tony Macaulay and John Macleod. It was a hit for The Foundations in 1969 and has been covered by Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band and other artists.
Peter Gage is an English rock guitarist, pianist, composer and record producer, best known for his work with Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band and Vinegar Joe.
"She Shot a Hole in My Soul" was a minor hit for R&B artist Clifford Curry reaching no. 45 on the US R&B charts.
"Michael (the Lover)" is a soul song originally performed by American Chicago soul group the C.O.D.'s.
"I'm Your Puppet" is a song written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham; the best known version is the one recorded by James & Bobby Purify which reached #5 on the US R&B chart and #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. The single was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 1967. The song was featured on their 1967 album, James & Bobby Purify.
The Ferris Wheel were a British rock and soul band, who have been described as "one of England's great lost musical treasures of the mid- to late '60s" and as "one of the most popular club acts" of the time. They released two albums, Can't Break the Habit (1967) and Ferris Wheel (1970), the latter featuring singer Linda Lewis.
The Lancastrians were a British pop rock band, formed in Altrincham, Cheshire, England. They are best remembered for their only hit record, "We'll Sing in the Sunshine", released in December 1964.
"Water" was the second single released by Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band, but the first single that was credited to them as Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band. It made the UK top 40 in 1966.
"Hi Hi Hazel" is a song first released by soul band Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band as a single in July 1966. A version by rock band the Troggs was released as a single in July 1967, and both were minor hits in the UK.
Hand Clappin, Foot Stompin, Funky-Butt ... Live! is a live album by Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band, released around December 1966.
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