Edgar Broughton Band – Dawn Crept Away.1969

The band started their career as a blues group under the name of The Edgar Broughton Blues Band, playing to a dedicated but limited following in the region around their hometown of Warwick. However, when the band began to lean towards the emerging psychedelic movement, dropping the ‘Blues’ from their name as well as their music, Victor Unitt left. In 1968, the Broughtons moved to Notting Hill Gate, London, seeking a recording contract and a wider audience, and were picked up by Blackhill Enterprises. Blackhill landed them their first record deal, on EMI’s progressive rock label Harvest Records, in December 1968. Their first single was “Evil”/”Death of an Electric Citizen”, released in June 1969, which was also the first single released by Harvest. The first single was followed by the Broughtons’ first album, Wasa Wasa. Wasa Wasa retained a heavily blues influenced sound that was hard-driven and propelled by Edgar Broughton’s gritty vocal style, which was similar to that of Captain Beefheart and Howlin’ Wolf.[1] After a series of free concerts, many performed on the back of trucks and in the face of police harassment, the Broughtons entered into an attempt to capture their ferocious live sound on record by organising a performance at Abbey Road on 9 December 1969. Only one track was released at the time: a rendition of “Out, Demons Out!”, an adaptation of The Fugs’ song “Exorcising The Demons Out Of The Pentagon”, which had become the band’s set-closer and anthem. The rest …

Buck Norris sings “Lady Down On Love” by Alabama. Wildcountry changed its name to Alabama in 1977, the same year the band signed a one-record contract with GRT. The resulting single, “I Wanna Be With You Tonight,” was a minor success, peaking in the Top 80. Nevertheless, the single’s performance was an indication that Alabama was one of the most popular bands in the Southeast; at the end of the decade, the band was playing over 300 shows a year. After “I Wanna Be With You Tonight,” the group borrowed 00 from a Fort Payne bank, using the money to record and release its own records, which were sold at shows. When GRT declared bankruptcy a year after the release of “I Wanna Be With You Tonight,” the bandmembers discovered that they were forbidden from recording with another label because of a hidden clause in their contract. For two years, Alabama raised money to buy out its contract. In 1979, the group was finally able to begin recording again. That same year, Scott left the band. Scott was replaced by Mark Herndon, a former rock drummer who helped give Alabama its signature sound. Later in 1979, Alabama self-recorded and released an album, hiring an independent record promoter to help get radio play for the single “I Wanna Come Over.” The band also sent hundreds of hand-written letters to program directors and DJs across the country. “I Wanna Come Over” gained the attention of MDJ Records, a small label based in Dallas. MDJ released the single, and it reached number 33 …
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