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Splinter was an English two-man vocal group from South Shields, England, consisting of Bill Elliott (William Elliott) and Bobby Purvis (Robert J Purvis), who formed in the early 1970s.
They were connected with ex-Beatle George Harrison, and had groups of instrumentalists to back them on each album. Splinter was the first act signed to Harrison's Dark Horse Records label, when it was partnered with A&M Records. The band's sound has often been likened to that of The Beatles (particularly George Harrison and John Lennon) and Badfinger. The duo's biggest success came with their debut album, the critically admired The Place I Love (1974), which contained the hit single "Costafine Town". The Place I Love, Harder to Live and Two Man Band have been remastered and reissued on compact disc on the Big Pink Music label from South Korea. The remainder of Splinter's catalogue is out of print and has yet to be issued on compact disc.
Elliott died on 7 June 2021 following a sudden illness. According to the Legacy Project website: "He was always 100% supportive of the Legacy Project and we will continue to move this forward as planned. The next album Splinter Live In England will be released in the near future, and it displays Billy and Bobby as they were never intended to be heard on record."
Splinter, who had worked together at various times in the Newcastle and London music scenes, first came to the attention of Harrison through Mal Evans, a longtime assistant to The Beatles and latterly a scout for Apple Records. [1] [2] Harrison was impressed with one of their songs, "Lonely Man", which he felt would be ideal for a film he was producing, based on the stage play Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs . Harrison and his then bride of two weeks Patti Boyd attended the play's opening in 1966. [2] [3]
Harrison initially intended to sign Splinter to Apple Records and held sessions at Apple Studio in central London to work on the song; [4] Harrison associate Pete Ham (of Badfinger) also participated in these sessions, held in mid-1973. [5] Plans were made for "Lonely Man" to be released as an Apple single and Splinter were shown performing the piece in the Apple film. In 1971, Bill Elliot was featured on an Apple single (#1835) "God Save Us" b/w "Do the Oz" both written by Lennon/Ono and under the moniker of "Bill Elliot and The Plastic Oz Band" on the A side. The B side was credited to the "Elastic Oz Band". Elliot was also featured on the 45rpm picture sleeve.
But as Apple fell apart, Harrison decided to establish his own record label, setting up offices in London on Royal Avenue and in Los Angeles. Once Harrison heard more Splinter material he invited them to record an album. [1] [6] Work on this spanned 17 months, with the majority of the sessions taking place at Harrison's Friar Park studio, FPSHOT. [4] Also during this period, Purvis and Elliot co-wrote the song "Kyle" with Gary Wright, another friend of Harrison's who contributed to the lengthy sessions for Splinter's album. [7] ("Kyle" appeared on the 1974 Spooky Tooth album The Mirror .)
On their Dark Horse Records debut album, The Place I Love , Harrison produced all the songs and played a variety of instruments, including electric and acoustic guitars, dobro, bass guitar and harmonium. [8] [9] As well as Wright, other musicians included Alvin Lee, Billy Preston, Jim Keltner, Klaus Voormann, Willie Weeks and Mel Collins. [8] The album was so heavy with George Harrison's participation it was rumoured this was secretly Harrison's new band.
Most of the songs were written by Purvis, with Elliott co-writing lyrics on "China Light" and "Costafine Town". [10] "Costafine Town" was an international hit single, reaching the top ten in Australia [8] and South Africa, and the top 20 in the United Kingdom. [11] Both this single and the album also charted on the Billboard charts in the United States. [12] The follow-up single, "Drink All Day", was banned in the UK by the BBC for the inclusion of the word "bloody". [3]
In preparing for Splinter's second album, Harder to Live, Harrison arranged for them to record at A&M Studios in Los Angeles during the late spring and early summer of 1975. [13] The band were unable to use the studio time, however, due to Purvis suffering from hay fever, apparently brought on by the LA smog. [13] Since Harrison was in town working with fellow Dark Horse acts such as Keltner's band Attitudes, he instead used the pre-booked studio time to record his own album, Extra Texture . [14] [15] This would be Harrison's last Apple album.
Harrison only participated on one track on Harder to Live – a new version of "Lonely Man". [16] The original recording from 1973 remains unreleased, apart from its appearance in the Little Malcolm movie. The song was co-produced by Harrison and Tom Scott, and featured Harrison on guitar. [16] [17] "Lonely Man" was a hit in Japan, [17] and in recording a version of the song in Japanese, Splinter became the first western artists to sing in that language. They were helped to achieve this by Japanese actor and singer Masatoshi Nakamura. The Japanese single credited the song as written by B Pervis/M Evans. Another set of musicians provided backing: Chris Spedding, Waddy Wachtel and John Taylor. Recently the film "Little Malcolm" has been released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK.
Also during this period, Splinter won the Outstanding Song Award at the 1976 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival, held at the Budokan in Tokyo, with their song "Love Is Not Enough". This performance was released on an album that documented this annual song festival. As a result of this success, "Love Is Not Enough" was released as a single in Japan. This first version was produced by Tom Scott, and is a different arrangement from the one that subsequently appeared on Two Man Band.
After Two Man Band, Splinter recorded two more albums that were each released in just two countries. The first of these, Streets at Night , was issued only in Japan, in 1979. Purvis and Elliott produced and arranged this album themselves. Streets at Night featured Alan Clark, who played keyboards, synthesizers and clavinet.
During this period, Splinter were associated with the Japanese music TV station NTVM, and worked with the Japanese rock band Godiego. A single of Splinter singing the Godiego song "Ghandara" (associated with the TV show Monkey ) was released, and they also appeared on a compilation album, Our Favourite Songs, a set led by members of Godiego. A single "Danger Zone" b/w "Swear to God" was released in the UK in 1979 on Barn Records.
Splinter toured America briefly as an opening act for Duran Duran and other 80s British bands touring at the time.
Although the duo of Purvis and Elliott continued to perform together until 1984, Two Man Band was the last Splinter album released in most countries and their final album on Dark Horse Records. [9] Harrison is credited as co-executive producer, and played some of the guitar. [18] The main production duties were entrusted to Norbert Putnam. This album had two singles released "Round & Round" b/w "I'll Bend for You". The latter was a non-LP track and lastly "Motions of Love" as double sided promo single in 1977. "Motions" did get released in 1978 with a B side of "I Need Your Love".
The final Splinter album was Splinter, which was released in the UK in 1980 on the Bellaphon label. The album was also issued in Japan the following year under the title Sail Away, with a song called "Pigalle" used in place of "All That Love".
Splinter finally split up in 1984. In recent years, Purvis has re-emerged as a performer and composer, working for a British cancer research charity. [9]
In 2019, both members of Splinter, realising their recordings were not on the market and had not been for some considerable time, decided to commence a Legacy Project, thus ensuring that unreleased material will be made available to fans. In October 2020 they released Never Went Back, an album consisting of recordings of rehearsals for their 1981 tour. [19]
See The Place I Love
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George Harrison was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu-aligned spirituality in the Beatles' work. Although the majority of the band's songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions. His songs for the group include "Taxman", "Within You Without You", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something". Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby and Django Reinhardt; subsequent influences were Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry.
Klaus Otto Wilhelm Voormann is a German artist, musician, and record producer.
Apple Records is a record label founded by the Beatles in 1968 as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston. In practice, the roster had become dominated by the mid-1970s with releases of the former Beatles as solo artists. Allen Klein managed the label from 1969 to 1973, then it was managed by Neil Aspinall on behalf of the Beatles and their heirs. Aspinall retired in 2007 and was replaced by Jeff Jones.
Extra Texture (Read All About It) is the sixth studio album by English musician George Harrison, released on 22 September 1975. It was Harrison's final album under his contract with Apple Records and EMI, and the last studio album issued by Apple. The release came nine months after his troubled 1974 North American tour with Ravi Shankar and the poorly received Dark Horse album.
Dark Horse is the fifth studio album by English rock musician George Harrison. It was released on Apple Records in December 1974 as the follow-up to Living in the Material World. Although keenly anticipated on release, Dark Horse is associated with the controversial North American tour that Harrison staged with Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar in November and December that year. This was the first US tour by a member of the Beatles since 1966, and the public's nostalgia for the band, together with Harrison contracting laryngitis during rehearsals and choosing to feature Shankar so heavily in the programme, resulted in scathing concert reviews from some influential music critics.
"What Is Life" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass. In many countries, it was issued as the second single from the album, in February 1971, becoming a top-ten hit in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, and topping singles charts in Australia and Switzerland. In the United Kingdom, "What Is Life" appeared as the B-side to "My Sweet Lord", which was the best-selling single there of 1971. Harrison's backing musicians on the song include Eric Clapton and the entire Delaney & Bonnie and Friends band, with whom he had toured during the final months of the Beatles. Harrison co-produced the recording with Phil Spector, whose Wall of Sound production also employed a prominent string arrangement by John Barham and multiple acoustic rhythm guitars, played by Harrison's fellow Apple Records signings Badfinger.
"Dark Horse" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison and the title track to his 1974 solo album on Apple Records. The song was the album's lead single in North America, becoming a top-20 hit in the United States, but it was Harrison's first single not to chart in Britain when issued there in February 1975. The term "dark horse" had long been applied to Harrison due to his unexpected emergence as the most accomplished solo artist of the four former Beatles following the band's break-up in 1970. In the song, however, he said he used the phrase in reference to gossip about someone who carries out clandestine sexual relationships. Commentators interpret the lyrics as a rebuttal to several possible detractors: Harrison's first wife, Pattie Boyd; reviewers who criticised the spiritual content of his 1973 album Living in the Material World; and his former bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Harrison named his Dark Horse record label after the song, and his 1974 North American tour with Ravi Shankar came to be known as the Dark Horse Tour.
"Ding Dong, Ding Dong" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison, written as a New Year's Eve singalong and released in December 1974 on his album Dark Horse. It was the album's lead single in Britain and some other European countries, and the second single, after "Dark Horse", in North America. A large-scale production, the song incorporates aspects of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound technique, particularly his Christmas recordings from 1963. In addition, some Harrison biographers view "Ding Dong" as an attempt to emulate the success of two glam rock anthems from the 1973–74 holiday season: "Merry Xmas Everybody" by Slade, and Wizzard's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday". The song became only a minor hit in Britain and the United States, although it was a top-twenty hit elsewhere in the world.
"This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison, released on his 1975 studio album Extra Texture (Read All About It). Harrison wrote the song as a sequel to his popular Beatles composition "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", in response to the personal criticism he had received during and after his 1974 North American tour with Ravi Shankar, particularly from Rolling Stone magazine. An edit of "This Guitar" was issued as a single in December 1975, as the final release by Apple Records in its original incarnation. The single failed to chart in either the United States or Britain.
"Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison, released on his 1973 album Living in the Material World. It was scheduled to be issued as a single in September that year, as the follow-up to "Give Me Love ", but the release was cancelled. Music critics have traditionally viewed "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" as a highlight of the Material World album, praising its pop qualities and production, with some considering the song worthy of hit status.
John Barham is an English classical pianist, composer, arranger, producer and educator. He is best known for his orchestration of George Harrison albums such as All Things Must Pass (1970) and for his association with Indian sitar maestro Ravi Shankar.
"Simply Shady" is a song by English musician George Harrison that was released on his 1974 album Dark Horse. The song addresses Harrison's wayward behaviour during the final year of his marriage to Pattie Boyd, particularly the allure of temptations such as alcohol and drugs over spiritual goals. Harrison said the song was about "what happens to naughty boys in the music business".
"Māya Love" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released on his 1974 album Dark Horse. The song originated as a slide guitar tune, to which Harrison later added lyrics relating to the illusory nature of love – maya being a Sanskrit term for "illusion", or "that which is not". Harrison's biographers consider the lyrical theme to be reflective of his failed marriage to Pattie Boyd, who left him for his friend Eric Clapton shortly before the words were written. Harrison recorded the song at his home, Friar Park, on the eve of his North American tour with Ravi Shankar, which took place in November and December 1974. The recording features Harrison's slide guitar extensively and contributions from four musicians who formed the nucleus of his tour band: Billy Preston, Tom Scott, Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark. Reviewers note the track as an example of its parent album's more diverse musical genres, namely funk and rhythm and blues, compared with the more traditional rock orientation of Harrison's earlier solo work.
"It Is 'He' " is a song by English musician George Harrison, released as the final track of his 1974 album Dark Horse. Harrison was inspired to write the song while in the Hindu holy city of Vrindavan, in northern India, with his friend Ravi Shankar. The composition originated on a day that Harrison describes in his autobiography as "my most fantastic experience", during which his party and their ascetic guide toured the city's temples. The song's choruses were adapted from the Sanskrit chant they sang before visiting Seva Kunj, a park dedicated to Krishna's childhood. The same pilgrimage to India led to Harrison staging Shankar's Music Festival from India in September 1974 and undertaking a joint North American tour with Shankar at the end of that year.
"You and Me (Babe)" is a song by English musician Ringo Starr, released as the final track on his 1973 album Ringo. Starr's fellow ex-Beatle George Harrison wrote the song along with Mal Evans, the Beatles' longtime aide and a personal assistant to Starr during the making of Ringo. The track serves as a farewell from Starr to his audience in the manner of a show-closing finale, by lyrically referring to the completion of the album. During the extended fadeout, Starr delivers a spoken message in which he thanks the musicians and studio personnel who helped with the recording of Ringo – among them, Harrison, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and his producer, Richard Perry.
"So Sad" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison that was released on his 1974 album Dark Horse. Harrison originally recorded the song for his previous album, Living in the Material World, before giving it to Alvin Lee, the guitarist and singer with Ten Years After. Lee recorded it – as "So Sad " – with gospel singer Mylon LeFevre for their 1973 album On the Road to Freedom. The latter recording includes contributions from Harrison and marked the first of several collaborations between him and Lee.
"I Don't Care Anymore" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released as the B-side of the lead single from his 1974 album Dark Horse. The A-side was "Dark Horse" in the majority of countries internationally and "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" elsewhere, including the United Kingdom. It is one of Harrison's relatively rare compositions in the country music genre and, equally unusual among his 1970s releases, the recording is a solo performance.
The Place I Love is the debut album by English vocal duo Splinter, released on Dark Horse Records in September 1974. It was the first album released by the Dark Horse label, which was owned by George Harrison, who also produced the album. Recording sessions took place at Harrison's Friar Park home studio in Oxfordshire and featured extensive musical contributions from Harrison, on guitar, keyboards and other instruments, as well as participants such as Gary Wright, Billy Preston, Jim Keltner and Alvin Lee. "Costafine Town", the first single from the album, was a top-twenty hit in the United Kingdom and other countries.
"I Am Missing You" is a song by Indian musician Ravi Shankar, sung by his sister-in-law Lakshmi Shankar and released as the lead single from his 1974 album Shankar Family & Friends. The song is a rare Shankar composition in the Western pop genre, with English lyrics, and was written as a love song to the Hindu god Krishna. The recording was produced and arranged by George Harrison, in a style similar to Phil Spector's signature sound, and it was the first single issued on Harrison's Dark Horse record label. Other contributing musicians include Tom Scott, Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr and Jim Keltner. A second version appears on Shankar Family & Friends, titled "I Am Missing You (Reprise)", featuring an arrangement closer to a folk ballad.