Harrison Joins McKenna Mendelson Mainline
Back in Canada later that summer, former Dianne Brooks, Eric Mercury and The Soul Searchers member, Steve Kennedy joined full-time on sax. Following a show at the Hidden Valley in Huntsville, Ontario on October 13, Mike Harrison left to join McKenna Mendelson Mainline. With Val Stevens leaving at about the same time to form his own jazz trio (he later spent some time in England, where he had spells with Tucky Buzzard and Steve Hillage's Khan), Kennedy convinced the group to recruit fellow former Soul Searcher William “Smitty” Smith on the grounds that he could play bass on the pedals of his Hammond organ, meaning there would be fewer musicians to pay.
The revised line up, comprising Grant Smith (vocals), Ralph Miller (trumpet), Brian Ayres and Steve Kennedy (sax), Ken Marco (guitar), Wayne Stone (drums) and William Smith (keyboards) was responsible for recording the bulk of the group’s album in November 1968, which also included the band’s debut single. In early 1969, however, Marco, Kennedy, Smith and Stone left to form Motherlode, who had a massive hit with “When I Die”.
Drummer Sonny “Jiggs” Bernardi (from The Spirit Revue) and keyboard player Josef Chirowski (from various bands, including Mandala and The Power Project) came in as replacements and remained until February 1970 when they were recruited to join Crowbar. (Chirowski later did sessions for Alice Cooper among others.)
Bassist Joe Agnello also came in at this time from the Lee Ashford Blues Band, though he soon left to rejoin his old mates in a renamed Leigh Ashford. Former Franklin Sheppard sideman, Frank De Felice, filled in for the last few months on drums before joining Jericho in March 1970. The band split up at this stage.
Read more about this topic: Grant Smith & The Power
Famous quotes containing the words harrison and/or joins:
“If the dignity as well as the prestige and influence of the United States are not to be wholly sacrificed, we must protect those who, in foreign ports, display the flag or wear the colors of this Government against insult, brutality, and death, inflicted in resentment of the acts of their Government, and not for any fault of their own.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from others lands, but a continent that joins to them.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)