Monocled Alchemist

The Unforscene Canadian psychedelic pop duo relocate to Los Angeles and secure a deal with Sidewalk Records. Group member Terry Rowbotham confirms the details.

UNFORSCENE – ’Roses And Rainbows’/’Wait ’Til Morning’ (Sidewalk Records 937) 1968

The Unforscene, a Canadian psychedelic pop duo, were a complete mystery to me but I bought this record because it was on the Sidewalk Records label. I didn’t know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised with the light psychedelic pop tunes on offer.

I’d heard ’Roses And Rainbows’ by Danny Hutton before and The Unforscene version sticks very much to the original. The flip, ’Wait ’Til Morning’ by Terry Rowbotham is also appealing and would easily fit onto one of those lyte sike comps such as Fading Yellow or Soft Sounds For Gentle People. A disc waiting to be discovered.

I recently exchanged emails with Canadian Terry Rowbotham, who during the mid ’60s earned a contract with Sidewalk Records with his song-writing partner Dan Yard. This duo then released a couple of singles as The Unforscene.

Terry provided the following information about the psychedelic pop duo:  

”I was writing songs since I was 13 and a friend called Dan Yard was in a band called The Mods that I was giving songs to, so they could perform originals. They went down to LA to shop some demo tapes and the result was that there was interest in the songs more than in the band.

So the singer, Dan Yard and myself were the ones that ended up with the contract, originally with Momentum Records that was a small independent label owned by Don Perry.

Don later did quite well in movie soundtrack production. We released a few songs under that label then he handed us over to a friend of his called Mike Curb, who had started Sidewalk Records.

We released a couple of 45s on that label but there was not a lot of promotion behind it. Both records got some minor airplay but didn’t do much. By this this time I was 16.

That was all there was with the Unforscene. We both played in a Vancouver band and did local recordings later. I have done more studio production work, writing and arranging, producing demos etc for a long time, but nothing in last while.”

Here is a picture from 1966 of Bob Summers, myself (Terry Rowbotham), Don Perry and Dan Yard, my partner in crime.

Unforscene Canadian psychedelic pop

This was taken in the control room of Bob Summers Studio in LA during the recording of ’Roses & Rainbows’/’Wait ’Til Morning’.

I was the main singer on both sides. ’Roses and Rainbows’ was originally released by Danny Hutton who later joined Three Dog Night.

Mike Curb loved the song and wanted us to cover it. ’Wait ’Til Morning’ was a song I wrote when I was 14.

As for Mike Curb, I never really met him. We worked only with Don Perry our producer and got comments through him. This was at the beginning of his Record Mogul career”.

Discography:

• ’Little Toy’/’Happiness Is You’ (Sidewalk Records 926) 1967
• ’Roses And Rainbows’/’Wait ’Til Morning’ (Sidewalk Records 937) 1968

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