The Idle Race
| The Idle Race | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | pop |
| founding | 1959 |
| resolution | 1972 |
| Last occupation | |
| Mike Hopkins | |
| Roger Spencer | |
| Greg Masters | |
| Dave Pritchard | |
guitar |
Dave Walker |
| former members | |
Vocals, guitar |
Jeff Lynne |
guitar |
Roy Wood |
singing |
Billy King |
singing |
Mike Sheridan |
bass |
Brian Cope |
guitar |
Al Johnson |
The Idle Race was a British band from Birmingham , England, founded in the late 1960s . It was the first musical group of Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood , the later founders of the Electric Light Orchestra .
Career
The band was formed in 1959 with Al Johnson, Dave Pritchard, Brian Cope, Roger Spencer and frontman Billy King as Billy King and The Nightriders . They were only able to achieve smaller successes with Mike Sheridan as the new singer, and in 1964 they signed a record deal with EMI under the name Mike Sheridan and The Nightriders . At the time, guitarist Roy Wood and bassist Greg Masters replaced Cope and Johnson. When the commercial success continued to fail, Wood left the band and founded his own band The Move in 1965 . Sheridan also left the band shortly afterwards, which was now called The Nightriders . Wood's successor as lead guitarist was Jeff Lynne, at whose instigation the band name was renamed The Idle Race . In 1967 Wood, now in the UK charts with The Move, helped his former band to get a record deal with Liberty Records .
Although radio host John Peel's band received frequent airplay on BBC Radio and received favorable reviews, none of their singles ( Here We Go Around the Lemon Tree , The Skeleton and the Roundabout and The End of the Road ) made it into the charts place. At the end of 1968 the first album The Birthday Party was released. There was no commercial success. In the meantime, Lynne and Wood had become friends and began to think about a collaboration, which initially did not materialize. A second album named after the band was released in late 1969, which sold just as badly as the previous one. Shortly thereafter, Lynne accepted Woods' offer to join his band The Move , from which the Electric Light Orchestra developed in 1972 .
After Lynne left, Mike Hopkins and Dave Walker joined the band. After the last album, Time Is , the band broke up.
Discography
Albums
- 1968: The Birthday Party
- 1969: The Idle Race
- 1971: Time Is
Singles
- 1967: Here We Go Around the Lemon Tree
- 1967: The Imposters of Life's Magazine
- 1968: The Skeleton and the Roundabout
- 1968: The End of the Road
- 1969: Days of Broken Arrows
- 1969: Come with Me
- 1970: In the Summertime
- 1970: Neanderthal Man
- 1971: Dancing Flower
Web links
- History of The Idle Race at brumbeat.net (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Story of The Idle Race. In: members.iinet.net.au. Archived from the original on June 21, 2000 ; accessed on August 7, 2016 .