Rock Archeologia

Mark Leeman Five - Memorial Album (1991) 

Artist: Mark Leeman Five
Album: Memorial Album
Label: See For Miles Records Ltd.
Catalog#: SEE 317
Format: CD, Compilation
Country: United Kingdom
Released: 1991
Genre: Blues, Rock
Style: Beat, Rhythm & Blues, Mod
Format: FLAC (track+.cue)
Bitrate: lossless
Duration: 01:16:22

•  Школьная группа The Mark Leeman Five собралась в Вулвиче (Англия) в 1961 году. Судя по первому демо-синглу, четко прослеживается влияние Джо Мика (Joe Meek), затем музыкальное направление группы изменилось - вторым синглом был кавер на композицию Барретта Стронга (Barrett Strong) “Money”. В 1963 году группа собрала 11 треков и долго не могла найти спонсора для издания альбома, который все же вышел под названием “Rhythm And Blues Plus!” в том же году очень маленьким тиражом на частном лейбле. The Mark Leeman много выступали «живьем», пока на их пути не оказался менеджер Manfred Mann Кен Питт. Год спустя увидел свет сингл “Portland Town” / “Gotta Get Myself Together”... Через пять месяцев Лиман погиб в автокатастрофе, возвращаясь домой с концерта в Блэкпуле. Вокалист Рождер Пикок был призван его заменить... Были выпущены еще три сингла, но удача уже ушла…

• The Mark Leeman Five assembled at school in Woolwich (UK) in 1961, and their initial influence was clearly Joe Meek judging by their first demo single. The second covered Barrett Strong’s “Money” – well before the Fabs got hold of it – and indicates their change of direction. Sometime in 1963 they cut an eleven-track demo album which was two years ahead of its time and didn’t find a sponsor. Undaunted, Leeman and the lads built up a formidable live following around the capital until spotted by Manfred Mann’s manager Ken Pitt in January of the following year; an impressed Pitt subsequently ensured prestigious support slots to the Manfreds. Twelve months later a single “Portland Town” b/w “Gotta Get Myself Together”, the latter benefitting from harp by Paul Jones, finally hit the record racks. Five months further on, and tipped by their peers as the band “most likely to succeed”, the Five’s train hit the buffers when Leeman was killed in a car crash on his way home from a gig in Blackpool. Vocalist Roger Peacock was recruited to replace him, but as a tribute to their former frontman the band kept the same name. Three further singles were released, but the zeitgeist was past and the Five folded within a year. The only member to find subsequent celebrity was Brian “Blinky” Davison, who went on to thump the tubs with the Nice.
• The Five’s recorded oeuvre remained in limbo till 1991, when with Ken Pitt’s assistance See For Miles released this compilation which includes both sides of the two early demos, both sides of the four later singles and the whole of the demo album (allegedly previously unreleased, although I’ve found reference to it as Rhythm And Blues Plus!, including cover art, on one website: possibly a few pressings did escape). The three final singles, produced by Denny Cordell, are competent, unremarkable Manfred-ish fare, deliberately commercial.
• The second demo single and the album are revelatory; though all the tunes are covers, the musicianship is impressive and the energy is astonishing, the latter blasting through the unpolished but surprisingly clean production. Goldberg’s stomping electric piano take on “Green Onions”, IMHO, blows the original away. His boogie-woogie piano and Roskams’s bluebeat guitar power a fine, edgy rendition of Simone’s “Forbidden Fruit”, while “Work Song” and “Let The Sunshine In” hold up easily against the better-known versions by Mose Allison and Ray Charles. The straightforward R’n’B cuts include the overworked staples “Shame, Shame, Shame”, “Got My Mojo Working” and “You Can’t Judge A Book”, but the Five attack these as if they’d never been heard before, with Goldberg’s piano always to the fore. The Memorial Album has never seen a re-release and is now hard to find.

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 • Tracklist:

01. Portland Town 02:18
02. Gotta Get Myself Together 02:56
03. Got My Mojo Working 02:37
04. Green Onions 02:47
05. Shame, Shame, Shame 03:10
06. Work Song 02:58
07. Forbidden Fruit 04:04
08. Let The Sunshine In 03:11
09. Frenzy 03:06
10. On The Horizon 02:35
11. Blow My Blues Away 02:39
12. Money 02:44
13. Back Home 02:20
14. The Boy Who Walks All Alone 02:15
15. Chasing Shadows 02:08
16. Moanin' 04:55
17. Dr.Feelgood 02:21
18. You Can't Judge A Book By It's Cover  04:11
19. Just A Little Lovin'  03:08
20. Going To Bluesville 02:48
21. Follow Me 02:32
22. Gather Up the Pieces 02:38
23. Forbidden Fruit 03:44
24. Portland Town 04:17
25. Gotta Get Myself Together 03:47
 

Personel:
Mark Leeman - Vocals
Terry Goldberg - Organ
Brian "Blinky" Davison - Drums
Alan Roskams - Guitar
Dave Hyde - Bass
Roger Peacock - Vocals

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