#A rock suitcase forgotten in the basement
Marmalade: The first Scots to reach number one in the UK chart
The Marmalade in 1967 in London
Marmalade is a band from Scotland that appeared in the early 60s, for the first time in the history of Scottish music, it was able to top the UK chart in 1969, and Marmalade's music itself can be considered underestimated...
The group was formed in 1961 in a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, but it was then called Gaylords, the name is scary, though not because of what you might think, but the name of one of the gangs in American Chicago, which appeared in the 50s of the twentieth century. In 1963, vocalist Dean Ford (real name - Thomas McAleese) joined the team, and she "expands" Dean to her name Ford and Gaylords.
By 1964, the musicians had become popular in Scotland and the record company EMI signed a contract with them. Dean Ford and The Gaylords' debut single was the song "Twenty Miles", previously made famous by Chubby Checker. This shrike, despite its success in Scotland, did not enter the UK chart.
In 1965, Dean Ford and The Gaylords went "to work" in Germany, as was often the case with not the most successful English bands, where they played in clubs in Cologne and Duisburg. Returning to the UK at the end of the year, the musicians decide to stay in London in order to achieve popularity, at that time none of their singles could break into the UK chart. On the recommendation of their colleagues, The Tremeloes, they sign a contract with manager Peter Walsh and his concert agency Starlite Artistes.
In 1966, the band's name changed to The Marmalade, which was much more in line with the "psychedelic phase" in music that began in Britain. According to the memoirs of the band's bassist Graham Knight, Walsh came up with the name at breakfast after seeing a jar of marmalade on his table. The manager was able to sign a contract with the new CBS record company, and The Tremeloes were released on this label.
The Marmalade's first single for CBS was "It's All Leading Up to Saturday Night", released in 1966, but it again failed to break into the UK chart.
On January 19, 1967, The Marmalade opened for Pink Floyd at the famous Marquee Club in London.
In 1967, The Marmalade released four singles at once, and although they again missed the chart in the UK, Jimi Hendrix called the psychedelic song "I See the Rain", written by guitarist William Campbell and vocalist Dean Ford, "the best track of 1967", and indeed some of the guitar parts in it were in the style of himself an American. "I See the Rain" topped the charts in the Netherlands, and the encore of "Laughing Man" is considered by modern fans of psychedelia of the 60s to be in the category of "classics" of this style.
In 1968, the long-awaited success finally came to the group, first a single with covers of the songs "Lovin' Things" and "Hey Joe" made its way to the sixth line of the British chart, and in January 1969 another cover version of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" became No. 1 for three weeks in the UK, although this version is far from the most interesting track recorded by The Marmalade. The musicians recorded such material under pressure from the CBS label, which demanded hits and threatened to break the contract in case of their absence.
In 1968, the band's first album There's a Lot of It About was released, consisting mostly of covers and tracks from singles.
The Marmalade's first single, released in 1969, "Baby Make It Soon", reached number nine in the UK chart, and the song "Reflections of My Life", released later that year, reached number three in the UK and number ten in the USA in January 1970, becoming the band's most successful release in that country.
"Reflections of My Life" has already been released on the new Decca label, the contract was signed by Dick Rowe, the one who decided not to sign The Beatles, but found The Rolling Stones. The conditions for The Marmalade were excellent creatively - the musicians could produce their own recordings, and the working time in the Decca studio was not limited.
In 1970, The Marmalade's second album, Reflections of the Marmalade, appeared, and their single "Rainbow" took third place in the UK, the next year one of the main authors, guitarist William Campbell, left the band. In his place comes Hugh Nicholson, whose songs "Cousin Norman" and "Radancer", released as singles, rose to the sixth line of the British chart, in 1971 and 1972, respectively.
Nicholson also wrote most of the material for Songs, the third album of The Marmelade, including the beautiful ballad "Sarah".
The fourth album Our House Is Rocking 1972 was recorded without Nicholson, on the new "old" EMI label and with the name shortened simply to Marmalade, guitarist Mike Japp was taken into the band, and of the musicians who recorded in the 60s, only vocalist Dean Ford remained in the band, but he would leave the team in 1975.
The history of Marmalade did not end there, in 1975 bassist Graham Knight and drummer Alan Whitehead returned to the line-up, who had a conflict with Dean Ford in the early 70s, and Sandy Newman was taken over as vocalist. In the new "version" in 1976, the band managed to return to the UK chart again (but for the last time) with the single "Falling Apart at the Seams", which reached number nine in the UK and 49th in the States.
Despite the faded popularity, Marmalade continued to release albums, although they were released in a small number of countries, and not all over the world.
The band exists in our time, however, the "oldest" member in it remains Sandy Newman, who joined it in 1975. Of the 60s, Graham Knight lost the longest in it, he left Marmalade in 2010. The last album in the band's discography remains The Full Spread, released in 2019.
