alexgitlin.com:
"This trio, formed in the late sixties in Copenhagen as Boom Boom Brothers, later abbreviated their name as B.B.Brothers and made at least one single for Sonet. The group was based in London for a while around 1968-69, where they took up their new name Hurdy Gurdy. Among the musicians they befriended was Donovan, who wrote the song "Hurdy Gurdy Man" for them. The intension was that the Danish group should record the song, but Donovan turned out to enjoy the song so much that he recorded it himself and refused to let them use it! Other Hurdy Gurdy recordings from this period are rumoured, but apart from an excellent single on Spectator ("Tick Tock Man"/"Lend Me Your Wings"), none of them have been released.
Their eponymous album for CBS was recorded with Freddy Hansen in the Rosenberg studio, a place where several legendary albums were conceived. This one ranks among the top 10 Danish albums and comprised blues and jazz influenced heavy progressive rock with strong melodies and competent vocals. The trio had obviously heard the first albums by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull, but also added an Eastern track with tablas and sitar."
allmusic:
"Hurdy Gurdy arose out of the Danish group Peter Belli & the B.B. Brothers in 1967. Three of the B.B. Brothers -- guitarist Claus Bohling, drummer Jens Otzen, and English bassist Mac MacLeod, then temporarily based in Denmark -- split from Belli to form a psychedelic-hard rock-oriented trio. The band moved to England in 1968, after MacLeod had been deported. It's been reported that Donovan, a friend of MacLeod whom Mac had played with previously as a backing musician, wanted to produce a version of the band covering "Hurdy Gurdy Man," a Donovan composition. However, Donovan released his own hit version of the song, and Hurdy Gurdy didn't issue anything while MacLeod was in the group, despite doing some recordings produced by Chris White and Rod Argent of the Zombies. Two late-'60s tracks by the MacLeod lineup of Hurdy Gurdy, "Neo Camel" and "Tick Tock Man," eventually appeared on the 2003 MacLeod anthology The Incredible Musical Odyssey of the Original Hurdy Gurdy Man, and are rather loose and frenetic pieces of period guitar psychedelia.Bohling and Otzen had to go back to Denmark shortly after those recordings, owing to their inability to secure work permits. There they picked up a new bassist, and in the early 1970s recorded a self-titled album for CBS Scandinavia. The record, a routine, early-'70s hard rock offering with Hendrix-influenced guitar by Bohling, was reissued on CD by Akarma." (
buy it)
http://lix.in/36be15
Hurdy Gurdy - Spaceman
"Good old fashioned power psych rock with scorching guitars."
