From 1968 to 1974 South East London band ‘Out of Darkness’ forged
a new form of multi-cultural gospel rock music and are now seen
as forerunners to spiritually influenced artists such as U2,
the Alarm and Ben Harper. They were a UK ‘Gospel Blues
Super Group’ with musicians selected at audition. Their
first manager Ian Wilkie created the band around guitarist Wray
Powell who with bass, keyboards & percussion player Carl
Grant were from the black Gospel group the ‘Soul Seekers’.
Drummer Tim Anderson, came from the progressive gospel blues
band ‘Insight’, as did bassist Bruce Duncan, who
joined ‘Out of Darkness’ in 1972. The vocalist and
guitarist Tony Goodman came from the band ‘The Pilgrims’.
They started their career playing London rock club venues and
regional theatre concerts then toured England and Scotland several
times and performed at the National Jazz and Blues Festival.
Rock festivals followed with BBC and international radio and
TV coverage. They also appeared with Cliff Richard, Marsha Hunt,
Quiver, Gravy Train, Terry Dene, Bill Nelson, Gordon Gilltrap,
Graham Kendrick, Judy McKenzie and Van Der Graaf Generator
Originally signed to Key Records in 1969 the band recorded one
studio LP ‘Out of Darkness’ and a live set on the
ATV Mobile in Manchester, during 1970 UK ‘Sound Vision’ tour.
The LP is regarded as an outstanding example of late 60s/early
70s rock music and is, at a price, highly collectable.
After completing a tour of Scotland in 1972 the band returned
home and recorded the tour set at the Celebration Cub in Gillingham.
The session was arranged by Graham Cray and supervised by BBC
engineer Peter Cornelius and it would have been the band’s
second album but remained unreleased until Plankton’s Simon
Law, who as a fan knew that the band’s records had become
collectable, prompted a search for new material. In 1993, 21
years after the recording took place, the ‘Celebration
Club Session’ CD was released. The Plankton CD features
material stretching out from Hendrix style heavy riffs to Afro
rock percussion. Lyrically diverse, not many bands lamented the
pain caused by drug addition, celebrated creation and dealt with
racism in the early 1970s! In their six-year history ‘Out of Darkness’ performed
with seven different line-ups. The first LP was recorded by line-up
version four and the ‘Celebration Club Session’ features
line-ups five and six, but for many the Celebration Club Band
is the favourite.
PLANKTON DISCOGRAPHY:
‘The Celebration Club Session” CD
Released 1993 Cat No: PCDN 138. Available in the on-line shop
OTHER PLANKTON RELEASES featuring Out Of Darkness
‘Plankton. The First 20 Years” CD
Released 1998 Cat No: PCDN 153. Available in the on-line shop
|
