Marmalade, The

This is Scottish band formed by Pat Fairley and Bill Johnston in 1961 in Baillieston, Glasgow, Scotland calling themselves The Gaylords after the street gang Chicago Gaylords. Their frontman was the singer Wattie Rodgers, their lead guitarist was Pat McGovern and their drummer was Tommy Frew. Before very long, on 31st May 1961, Pat McGovern was replaced by William Junior Campbell who was celebrating his 14th birthday. Wattie was then replaced by the vocalists Tommy Scott and Billy Reid, who didn’t stay long either and left Scott to be the only singer. The co-founder Bill Johnston was then replaced by local bassist Bill Irving who had played with The Cadillacs.

By 1963 they were starting to become known and that year they signed Thomas McAleese, who had been working with The Monarchs, to replace Tommy Scott. Tommy McAleese didn’t just change his group, but changed his name to Dean Ford at the same time. Before long the group was billed as Dean Ford and The Gaylords. Tommy Frew also left and was replaced by Raymond Duffy on drums.

Not only experiencing various changes in the artists, they decided to add the organist Davey Hunter for a brief period. At this time they were being managed by Billy Grainger. The Scottish journalist Gordon Reid took a lot of interest in the group and helped them land a deal with Columbia (EMI) after auditioning at the Locarno Ballroom in Glasgow. They went on to release four singles with their cover of “Twenty Miles” only gaining local popularity.

Line-up changes happened yet again in 1965 when the bassist Bill Irving was replaced by Graham Knight of The Vampires, which was another local group. That same year they went to Duisburg and the Storyville in Cologne, Germany and were also becoming known as one of Scotland’s top groups. They decided to go to London after returning from Germany and stayed there, changing their agency and manager.

The band joined Starlite Artistes agency in London after being advised by the band The Tremeloes, who had performed with them previously in Glasgow. They started to gain attention at the clubs and changed their image and name in 1966 when they became The Marmalade. When their Columbia (EMI) contract ended they signed with CBS Records. Unfortunately the first singles released by them at that time didn’t gain chart status.

Ray Duffy left the group to get married in Scotland in 1966 and was replaced by the ex-drummer of Loose Ends, Alan Whitehead. His first single with the band was “Can’t Stop Now” which the group performed in the The Fantasist which was a play in the BBC Two Theatre 625 series. Their 1967 single “I See the Rain” with Graham Nash of The Hollies making a contribution to the recording, was said to be “the best cut of 1967” by Jimi Hendrix and topped the singles chart in the Netherlands. It didn’t, however, see any success in the UK. That same year, however, they started to become known when they supported Pink Floyd and The Action when they were playing at the Marquee Club and became a resident band there until autumn 1968 and touring with top bands and artists that include Joe Cocker, Gene Pitney, The Tremeloes and The Who as well as appearing an music festivals.

It wasn’t all good though as CBS were still concerned about them now having a hit record. They wrote the song “Man in the Shop” but it wasn’t successful so they were told they need to record songs that were more likely to enter the charts. They did record “Everlasting Love” but it was then given to Love Affair which had a No. 1 hit. They then recorded “Lovin’ Things” and this time they saw it reaching No. 6 on the UK chart in 1968. The same year they released their debut album There’s A Lot Of It About.

The next single was “Wait For Me Mary-Anne” which had minor success when it hit No. 30 but soon after that they became nationally and internationally known in 1969 with their No. 1 hit “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” which was originally recorded by The Beatles’. Next was their No. 9 hit “Baby Make It Soon” and the band appeared on the TV show Colour Me Pop and the special live broadcast Pop Go The Sixties.

The band signed to Decca in November 1969 and having more freedom to write and record their own material they recorded and released “Reflection of My Life” which was to become their biggest international hit when they were No. 1 on the charts in several European and South American countries and reaching the Top 10 in the US chart. The songwriters, Junior Campbell and Dean Ford, earned the song a Special Citation of Achievement by the BMI for being played on the radio over a million times just in the United States let alone all the other countries it would have appeared in broadcasts. More chart entries such as the UK No. 3 “Rainbow” and the UK No. 15″My Little One” came along and the album Reflections of The Marmalade also released in 1970.

In 1971 Junior Campbell left the band to study at the Royal College of Music and pursue a solo career. This was the start of another change of the line-up as Alan Whitehead also controversially left after being pushed out by the new guitarist, Hugh Nicholson, to be replaced by Dougie Henderson.

Songs was released in 1971 with the singles “Cousin Norman” and “Radancer” both written by Hugh Nicholson and would prove be their last hits. The album was not a success and the co-founder Pat Fairley left the band in 1972 to run the band’s music publishing company. Hugh Nicholson also left to form the band Blue, later replaced by Mike Japp, while the others remained with The Marmalade.

Changing record labels again they went back to EMI and released “Wishing Well” and changed their name from The Marmalade to Marmalade. They recorded Our House Is Rocking in 1974 but at the same time the bassist Graham Knight left the band and was replaced by Joe Breen who had been with the Dream Police.

The ex-members Alan Whitehead, Graham Knight, Sandy Newman and Charlie Smith formed the band Vintage Marmalade in 1975 with their old manager, Peter Walsh, also coming on board. After the original Marmalade members had called it a day the line-up of Vintage Marmalade dropped “Vintage” from their name and signed up to Tony Macauley’s Target Records as Marmalade. The band released the single “Falling Apart at the Seams” in 1976 and it reached No.10 in the UK and the top 50 of the Billboard Top 100 becoming their last chart hit in the USA. Their later single “Talking In Your Sleep” was released in 1978 and failed to reach the chart, but Crystal Gayle had a huge hit with it six months later.

Since 1975 the band have been fronted by Sandy Newman and although releasing a further 11 singles they saw no success with them. Charlie Smith left in 1977 to perform with Hugh Nicholson’s Blue and was briefly replaced by the guitarist Garth Watt-Roy who had come in for the recording of Only Light On My Horizon Now. He left in 1978 and the position was taken by Ian Withington. The Drummer Stu Williamson also joined them for recording Doing It All For You. Alan Whitehead also left in 1978 to manage other artists.

1980 came around and saw Ian Withington being replaced by Alan Holmes and the return of Charlie Smith, but this time playing drums. The band released Marmalade in 1980 and two years later Heartbreaker. The band toured in the nostalgic circuit with further line-up changes when Charlie Smith was replaced by the drummer Glenn Taylor. He returned later to perform with them from 1989 to 1998. From 1987 they had Dave Dee appear as a guest singer until 2009 and he also recorded the single with the band “Scirocco”.

Graham Knight, who was the band’s last original member, left the in 2010, as did Glenn Taylor. They were replaced by Mike Steed on bass and Damon Sawyer on drums. They released Penultimate which was the first studio album after 34 years. Two years later in 2015 they replaced Mike Steed and Damon Sawyer with Jan Robinson and Chris North.

They continue to perform in nostalgic shows and tours.

The Marmalade recordings
Falling Apart at the Seams (Tony Macaulay)
Target (TGT 105) UK single

Sources:

Marmalade, The

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