Blue Goose (1975)

Personnel:
Allan Callan - Guitar, Vocals
Eddie Clarke - Guitar
Nicky Hogarth - Keyboards
Chris Perry - Drums
Nick South - Bass
Mike Todman - Guitar

"Crunchy guitar driven rock in the vein of mid-70s Stray, strong vocal presence, great dynamics, keyboards and harmonica, shame this was a one-off!"

******

"Inspired, firstly by Eric Clapton, then later by Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Clarke began a guitar-playing career around his hometown of Twickenham in Middlesex. By the time he was 15, Eddie had been through many local bands, one of whom went under the name of The Bitter End.

Eddie continued gigging around locally until 1973, when he turned professional by joining Curtis Knight’s band, Zeus, as lead guitarist. This was an incredible turn of coincidence for Eddie, as most rock fans will probably know that Jimi Hendrix played with Curtis Knight’s band, The Squires, during his pre-Experience days, so for Eddie, this was a particularly poignant step to take. Other personnel in the Zeus line-up at the time were Chris Perry (drums), Nicky Hogarth (keyboards) and John Weir (bass).

During his 18-month stint with Curtis Knight and Zeus, Eddie and the band recorded an album titled The Second Coming at Olympic Studios during March 1974. The Clarke guitar style is indelibly stamped within the songs on this album, and Eddie also wrote the music to Curtis’ lyrics on the track titled The Confession. Eddie also appeared on the single, Devil Made Me Do It, which had an album track, Oh Rainbow, as the flip side. A further album titled Sea Of Time was also recorded and released, but only in Europe where the band was very popular.

Whilst still with Zeus, a guitarist friend, Allan Callan, invited keyboard player, Nicky Hogarth, and drummer, Chris Perry, to a jam session at Command Studios in Piccadilly. Four tracks came out of this session, three of which were complete except for the addition of bass and vocals. In fact, the tracks were that good that the quartet managed to secure a deal with Anchor Records, and called the band Blue Goose.

With the Anchor contract in their pocket, Eddie, Nicky and Chris left Zeus to concentrate on their own project with Allan Callan. Curtis Knight was outraged at this mutiny, so much so that he put the word around that if he ever met up with them again he would beat them up for leaving him in the lurch.

Allan Callan had no amps of his own, so Eddie allowed him to share his during rehearsals. This later flared into an argument as Eddie found it impossible to hear his solos as Callan was drowning him out. The upshot of this ended in Eddie being sacked. However, within a few days, the band had asked him to re-join them, but he refused as he felt that they, as a band, were doing Anchor an injustice in that they had been paid an advance for the recording of an album, but at the time they had made no moves towards doing so.

The self titled Blue Goose album was released by Anchor in 1974. The only reminder of Eddie’s time with the band was an instrumental track titled Over The Top, credited to Clarke-Hogarth-Perry, and is nothing like the Motorhead track sharing the same title.

Almost immediately after the high noon with Blue Goose, Eddie formed another band with Be Bop Deluxe bassist, Charlie Tumalhi, Ann McCluskie on vocals and Jim Thompson on drums, under the name of Continuous Performance. This liaison lasted through to early 1975 when their demo tracks failed to secure a suitable record deal. The band, as such, then folded, but Eddie enlisted Nicky Hogarth from Blue Goose to try again with Tony Cussons (bass) and Terry Slater (drums). Sadly, the line-up suffered the same fate that led to Continuous Performance disbanding and Eddie giving up the music business for a short while."

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Blue Goose - Let Me Know