Monocled Alchemist

“Remember The Times” is my pick from the LP | Leviathian – ‘Unleashed’ (Record Collector RCLP004) June 2012

Leviathan | Unleashed | (Record Collector) 2012 | Back in January 1969 everything seemed to he coming up roses for Stuart Holiday, Brian Bennett, Gary Murphy and Roger McCabe. Their band Mike Stuart Span had started life as a mod/soul band releasing two singles on Columbia, then self-financing a psychedelic 7″ Children Of Tomorrow/Concerto Of Thoughts in 1967, before recording two ill-advised cover versions – You Can Understand Me/Baubles And Bangles – for Fontana. None of these records had sold well, but they now had their big break, signing to the U.K. arm of Elektra records. By the end of the year however, this good fortune had turned into a nightmare when, despite releasing three singles, Elektra cancelled the release of their debut LP. By 1970 the band had split up.

Over the last forty years, this LP has taken on legendary status amongst Mike Stuart Span fans and collectors worldwide. The band themselves had all but resigned themselves to the music never being released on any format, let alone vinyl as originally intended. Well, what you are holding in your hands is that album. Leviathan has been unleashed! from the depths!

B.G. Jones Studio

Ironically, some of the tracks that appear on this LP had already been recorded as demos when the band was working under the name of Mike Stuart Span. World in My Head. Blue Day, Tune, Remember The Times and Flames had been recorded at B.G. Jones studio in Morden in 1968 and eventually ended up on the desk of Clive Selwood who helmed Elektra Records in the U.K.

“Clive sent them to Jac Holzman in the States,” recalls drummer Gary Murphy, “and he liked what he heard and said, ‘Ok put the boys in the studio, get all the stuff re-recorded and let’s have a listen.

There was only one problem – the name. “Jac Holzman felt that, whilst he liked the music,” chips in vocalist Stuart Holiday, “he wanted a name that was more appropriate to the label. So I sat down with a dictionary and went through it looking for inspiration. I suddenly came across the word Leviathan and I thought that would work.”

Leviathan | Unleashed | (Record Collector) 2012

The other three hand members agreed as did Elektra and Mike Stuart Span had a new name. “A leviathan was originally a sea monster and is often depicted as a whale. I sat playing with the name,” recalls Holiday, “and fitted it into the shape of a sort of cartoon whale. So we gave that to Clive, he sent it across to Elektra’s designers in America and back came the logo.”

Significantly, the deal advanced the band a sum in the region of £1000 and they were soon in the studio. “Remember The Times and Second Production were recorded at IBC studios in a morning session that began at 9.30,” remembers Stuart Hobday. “The rest were recorded, often overnight, at Trident Studios and engineered by Rob Cable.”

“Trident was probably one of the best studios at the time,” says Gary Murphy. “I think they had 16-tracks, which was quite amazing as the BBC was still on 4-track. It was quite a joy to work in there.”

As for what was recorded, the band used their previous demos as templates.

“The basis of the songs we knew,” continues Murphy, “but the arrangements were sometimes changed, the intros became longer and, thanks to the facilities, the quality of the recordings was better.”

Leviathan | Unleashed | (Record Collector) 2012

Elektra were very keen to promote Leviathan as a new band and when it came to their first release in April 1969 the label boldly decided not to issue one debut single but two on the same day. These were Remember The Times/Second Production and The War Machine/Time. Both 7″ were presented in a special package extolling the virtues of the ‘Four Faces of Leviathan’. The label also arranged a special launch at, of all places, Harrods.

“That took us all by surprise,” recalls Murphy, “we thought “Wow!” Strange place, but perhaps ideal.”

Leviathan performed a short 20 minute set. “We did not have a stage or anything,” laughs Hobday, “we were kind of scattered around this sort of coffee bar. I don’t think it was particularly well attended, I think that the people who happened to he there drifted in and out. It did get a lot of publicity but it did not translate into record sales.”

One reason was that releasing two singles at once caused some confusion. “In retrospect it was a bold move,” muses Holiday, “but one that worked against the material because nobody quite knew what they were meant to be going out to buy or listen to. I think in the end it was probably confusing.”

The songs hardly garnered any airplay and John Peel, for instance, reviewed The War Machine in his column in Melody Maker, whereas Chris Welch favourably reviewed Remember The Times. The band were also being filmed over a period of 12 months for a documentary by the BBC and this may have also influenced Elektra’s plans to do something different to promote the band.

Leviathan | Unleashed | (Record Collector) 2012

The album was, however, what the band was desperate to see released, so work continued at Trident between live gigs which, as Leviathan was marketed to promoters as a new group rather than the already known Mike Stuart Span, were proving harder to find. As the year wore on Elektra decided to issue another single and thought that the track Flames would make a good release.

The only problem was that the version recorded for the album clocked in at nearly five minutes, so it was decided to re-record it.

“We went into Trident and beefed it up and made it harder edged,” recalls Murphy, “The album version was softer and more mellow. I understand why we re-recorded it as, with a single, you want to draw attention, but I quite like the original softer version as that is how I envisioned it when I co-wrote it.”

The B-side Just Forget Tomorrow was written on the hoof, “Stuart more or less wrote it before we went into the studio,” recalls Gary Murphy, “I think it was great.”

Released in October 1969, as with the first two singles, Flames failed to ignite.

Certificate

Around this time the tracks recorded at Trident – including the singles – were sent over to Jac Holzman in America for approval. Holzman decided against releasing them as an LP. Why? Was it because the band had only recorded 11 tracks and so he could not cherry pick, or did he not like the material that ranged from the groove of World In My Head to the extended blues of Evil Woman?

Whatever, when the bomb dropped the band were crushed, “We were devastated, absolutely devastated,” Gary Murphy recalls with an element of pain even four decades later, “Elektra was a very important label at that time; perhaps less so to the outside world but to musicians it was the pinnacle.

“The only other UK hands on the label were the Incredible String Band and Eclection so, as the third U.K. signing, we felt privileged and honoured. We were excited by it all and thought it was the big break we had been waiting for. Now it had not come to pass and we were devastated. We could not believe it. The singles had not sold well, but we felt that we were more an album band, and it would come out and do great things. But it didn’t. We were absolutely knocked sideways.”

Hobday was equally decimated and in retrospect wonders why Elektra were not willing “to pay a few hundred quid to patch one or two recordings up or come up with some new numbers. They presumably decided to cut their losses and say that was it.”

Leviathan | Unleashed | (Record Collector) 2012

As well as ending the hopes of the band to release an LP it also signalled the end of Leviathan. With live work drying up the band split up. Ironically, when the BBC aired the documentary about the band, Leviathan was no more.

As time passed the singles issued by Mike Stuart Span and Leviathan became collectable and fans began to agitate for the release of the Leviathan tracks. As did the band. Well, now they are finally out of captivity and in your hands.

Therefore as well as the vibrant singles there are some unheard gems including the extended blues of Evil Woman, “Larry Weiss wrote that,” recalls Hobday,” and we were sent a demo of it. It seemed to me that there was this menace in the lyrics and I guess that when we were rehearing it the inspiration came to do it as a slow number and build up tension – and it seemed to work. It was one of the numbers that I felt went well on stage because it does start off very quietly giving you a chance to feel the lyrics, which are quite potent. The way the lyrics are written, it really is a song full of hate. I think Larry Weiss must have had a very unfortunate relationship at some point before he wrote this!”

One interesting fact about the recordings is that Elektra gave the band total artistic freedom, which meant that there was not a producer in the studio, although Clive Selwood did take an active interest,

Promo material

“Clive came along to the studio and we kind of assumed that he was taking on the role of producer, recalls Hobday, “Maybe that is why Jac didn’t like the recording because it did not have a qualified producer looking after it and guiding us. We were very much left to our own devices in the studio. As someone who went on to be a studio producer, I think we would have definitely have benefitted by being given a producer (Saying that, this did allow the band to do as they wanted, which is why The War Machine is smeared with all manner of sound effects and is hard edged and lyrically hard hitting, whilst World In My Head is the kind of powerful groove that has one foot in the group’s early mod and soul roots.

A track like Blue Day even features a bass solo, although the origin of this song is fascinating, “When we were still Mike Stuart Span,” Holiday recalls, “we occasionally went on Radio Luxembourg where we had recorded that infamous single that came out on Fontana.

On one visit I was introduced to Marshall Seahorn, Lee Dorsey’s producer. Someone told him that I wrote songs and he said that if I wrote anything that would be useful to him I should send it to him. It stuck in my mind for some time that it would be quite nice to write a bluesy number and, though in the end I didn’t write it for Lee Dorsey, Blue Day is what came out”.

Leviathan | Unleashed | (Record Collector) 2012

Another unheard track is Through The Looking Glass. “I certainly remember where the inspiration for the opening lines came from for this song,” recalls Hobday, “We were driving down to the West Country after a gig in Southampton the night before. It was about 9 o’clock in the morning, very misty and autumnal. We were driving past this area of forest and this phrase came to me of “shades of autumn in the moming mist” which I wrote down somewhere and later built into a song.”

The band are very happy that the Leviathan tracks are finally being issued, “I’m delighted, not to say ecstatic to know the album is about to finally see the light of day,” beamed Gary Murphy, “It’s been far too long, having had our hopes raised and dashed many times previously. It was certainly on my personal list of “things to do and see before I die”.

It remains to be seen whether this album will raise the same amount of interest as did the Children of Tomorrow single (as Mike Stuart Span) which, years later, propelled the band to almost cult status! Whatever the outcome we are proud to have been part of the sixties and honoured to have been signed to one of the most prestigious labels of that era, albeit only for a short space of time.”

Stuart Holiday is also happy “In 2009 I made the first approach to Warner Brothers to see if it were possible to acquire the material. After months of passing it around, the ball finally ended up with Ian Shirley at Record Collector – and it’s a credit to his persistence that these recordings are now available. Even so, I still find it slightly strange that these grooves will finally meet up with a stylus and be heard as was intended 43 years ago. We were still developing a style in 1969 and the songs on this album are testament to that. Having lain dormant for so long, let’s hope that the Leviathan still has something to offer.”

Clocking in at over fifty minutes the tracks have been spread over three sides of vinyl with the fourth side etched. It is with great pleasure that the work of Leviathan can finally he heard as the band intended. (Ian Shirley, June 2012)

Click on gig poster for information about the Mike Stuart Span