Chimera Album?

[chriskisn]

While looking around various music blogs today I came across an unreleased album (which kind of resembles a collection of demos) by Chimera from 1969-70 that supposedly features our Bob Weston playing guitar on it. Now I know that Bob Weston is a common name (think Shellac) but the site in question does say that it is "the future FM guitarist Bob Weston".

Does anyone actually know if this is correct? John (wetcamelfood) I'm looking at you here... ;)

BTW I guess they call it acid-folk for a reason, suspect you need acid to listen to it :lol:

[wetcamelfood]

Hmm, haven't heard of this one.

Do you have the link?

Just in case the page you saw has further info. :)

John

[chriskisn]

This is the site that I downloaded it from:

http://time-has-told-me.blogspot.com/2006/09/chimera-uk-acid-folkbaroque.html

[Wouter Vuijk]

This is taken from:
http://www.unsignedcity.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=82
which also shows the sleeve of the album

Chimera (Pink Floyd fans read this)

Chimera were formed in the late 1960's by West Country girls Francesca Garnett and Lisa Bankoff.

The line up of musicians supporting the girls often changed and among them featured artists such as Mal Luker (the Smoke), Bob Weston (Fleetwood Mac), Nick Mason/Rick Wright (the Pink Floyd) and Wil Malone (Orange Bicycle & later arranger for The Verve, Simple Minds, Massive Attack etc).
The songs represented here are all mastered from a cassette tape which is all that survives of the original recordings (Paul Martin - June 2003).

Chimera were signed to Morgan Bluetown records and as so often happens with record labels they stalled on releases (actually they didn't release anything), this led to members of the band becoming disheartened with what should have been a straightforward fairly successful project, without an impending release several musicians saw little future in Chimera and they disbanded leaving an array of classic late 60's progressive, acid-folk songs unreleased.
Nick Mason from Pink Floyd was producer for the band and subtle similarities can be heard on Pink Floyd's later album "Dark Side Of The Moon", *especially the guitar work on Peru.

Francesca and Lisa have since published a book 'Making It: Famous Names And Silly Girls', there was a website chimeramakingit.com but sadly this no longer exists, 'Peru' was released on a "bargain bin" album 'The Best Of & The Rest Of British Psychedelia' on Action Replay records in 1991, this is now very difficult to find on both cassette and CD. Mary's Mystery and Peru also featured on 'House Of Many Windows: Psychedelic Pstones V.3' compilation released 2003.

Finally in 2006, Tenth Planet records managed to release an albums worth of material, Chimera - Chimera (TP054) was released 37 years late on 190gm audiophile vinyl only, it was limited to 1000 copies. This very important release features a full colour sleeve and an insert that details the full Chimera story with quotes and photos.
We can only guess what would have become of the Chimera had things gone more smoothly with Morgan Bluetown, the Tenth Planet release has opened a door 37 years back into the future and with enough interest who knows, maybe even a CD could magically appear. If you enjoy the songs featured here please seek out the album on vinyl, there are other songs which deserve a listen.

Then there also seems to have been a CD release:
http://www.freakemporium.com/archive/artist/Chimera/artistpage.html
http://www.forcedexposure.com/artists/chimera.html

And a couple tracks are to be listened to at youtube:
Come Into The Garden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YAaol7-WIE
The Grail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmOz8leJRwQ&feature=user
Mary's Mystery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO1b3oGxcu8&feature=related

[wetcamelfood]

Thanks for posting these links you two! :)

Looks interesting/promising, I'll have to see if I can get a copy of this CD and when I do I'll post any further info I come up with (if any) about this, might take a couple weeks, but hopefully when Weston's new solo album comes out (according to the listing on his site) he can do another Penguin Q&A to promote it & we can clarify this with him then (as I sure have lots of questions for him, wasn't around when he did his one here before) and I can't seem to get replies when I try to e mail him at his site so hopefully that can happen soon since his CD should be too (hint hint Michelle! :) ).

I remember someone asking on the last Q&A if he played guitar on a Garth Hewitt album and he said no and I think the Shellac Weston didn't appear on albums as far back as the 70's so we do have at least one other guitarist named Bob Weston that played on 70's albums to weed through to boot!

We keep hearing about how he had done a lot of session work for TV/film scores that weren't "released" as such, but there's bound to be a lot of records that were releeased that he played on over the years that we haven't found out about yet due to his unjustly obscure level of stardom etc.

John

[michelej1]

Looks interesting/promising, I'll have to see if I can get a copy of this CD and when I do I'll post any further info I come up with (if any) about this, might take a couple weeks, but hopefully when Weston's new solo album comes out (according to the listing on his site) he can do another Penguin Q&A to promote it & we can clarify this with him then (as I sure have lots of questions for him, wasn't around when he did his one here before) and I can't seem to get replies when I try to e mail him at his site so hopefully that can happen soon since his CD should be too (hint hint Michelle! :) ).

John

Excellent idea!

Michele

[Neb-Maat-Re]

Hi Chris!

This is from a Floyd site:


Lisa Bankoff now lives in Perth, W. Australia and still writes songs and plays "a little bit here and there".

Their book, Making it! : famous names and silly girls / by Francesca Garnett and Lisa Bankoff is held by the National Library, The WA State Library and the NSW State Library - nothing I can get to easily. Apparently it has detailed session information.

[Wouter Vuijk]

Hi Chris!

This is from a Floyd site:



Can you let us know which Floyd site (link)?

[Wouter Vuijk]

Hi Chris!

This is from a Floyd site:



Their book, Making it! : famous names and silly girls / by Francesca Garnett and Lisa Bankoff is held by the National Library, The WA State Library and the NSW State Library - nothing I can get to easily. Apparently it has detailed session information.

What made this information suddenly disappear from your original post?:shrug:

[Wouter Vuijk]

Hi Chris!

This is from a Floyd site:



Their book, Making it! : famous names and silly girls / by Francesca Garnett and Lisa Bankoff is held by the National Library, The WA State Library and the NSW State Library - nothing I can get to easily. Apparently it has detailed session information.

What made this information suddenly disappear from your original post?:shrug:
Chimera - Chimera
Tenth Planet TP 054

Limited to 1000 copies (104/1000)

Tracks:

1. Come Into The Garden*
Interlude #1
2. The Grail
Interlude #2
3. Sad Song For Winter
Interlude #3
4. Mary's Mystry*
5. Lady With Bullets In Her Hair
6. Black Hat Babe*
7. Song In E*
8. Episode At Telegraph Hill*
9. Morning Sounds
10. Peru*

All tracks written by Lisa Bankoff
Tracks recorded 1969 except* 1970

Produced by Mal Luker
except* produced by Nick Mason
Orchestral arrangements by Wil Malone

Personel:
Lisa Bankoff - guitar (tracks 2,3,9) and vocals on all tracks
Francesca Garnett - vocals on all tracks except "Sad Song For Winter"
Mal Luker - guitar and keyboards on "Sad Song For Winter"
Bob Weston - guitar on tracks marked *
Nick South - bass on tracks marked *
Roy Temro - drums on "Mary's Mystery"
Nick Mason - drums on "The Grail"
Rick Wright - keyboards on "Lady With Bullets In Her Hair"
Ian Milne - keyboards on "The Grail"

Lisa Bankoff now lives in Perth, W. Australia and still writes songs and plays "a little bit here and there".

[chriskisn]

Lisa Bankoff now lives in Perth, W. Australia and still writes songs and plays "a little bit here and there".

Well of course it is the best place on earth to live! (if you don't mind the shops closing at 6pm and no shopping on a Sunday)

[Neb-Maat-Re]

What made this information suddenly disappear from your original post?:shrug:


Hi Wouter

I just noticed the same information was already in the link Chris gave to the blog where he found the album, so didn't want to repeat it. I thought the last bit which I left in was of most interest to Chris, anyway!

[Neb-Maat-Re]

Can you let us know which Floyd site (link)?

I found it on The International Echoes Hub here:

http://www.echoeshub.com/recordings/jumphere.php?id=871

A closer look shows it has more than just Floyd - I just made an assumption from the "Echoes" name.

[wetcamelfood]

OK I got a hold of the Chimera CD reissue and here's the liner notes that pertain to Weston:

"Now back to square one, Lisa and Francesca advertised for guitarist in the musicians' bible, Melody Maker. One of number of applicants was Bob Weston, who had already had stints with London underground blues band Black Cat Bones and Ashkan, who'd issued an album on the Decca Nova label in 1969. "Bob was a master", claims Lisa. "When he started to play it sent shivers down our spine. We begged him to join us perhaps the Floyd interest was an added bait, but he obvious liked the music and enthusiastically agreed". Fortunately Weston was also able to recruit the rest of the band - West Indian drummer Roy Temro and bassist Nick South, a seasoned session man who'd briefly helped out cult psychedelic band Second Hand on their Reality album before swiftly moving on to join Alexis Korner.

Placed on retainers by Nick Mason, the newly-christened Chimera ("Greek myth: a fire-breathing monster, with a lion's head, he-she goat's body and a serpent's tail") received further Floyd help when Hipgnosis produced a suitably striking albur cover (sadly no longer in existence). The girls were thrilled with Hipgnosis' work, though they had actually drawn up contingency plans for the sleeve. Armed with a knife, they had carved their names on the main wall at a particularly famous sporting venue in North London! "We thought it would make a nice album cover", Lisa laughs.

Opting for a communal lifestyle, the band rehearsed in an asbestos-clad basement, but soon found themselves caught up in a decidedly claustrophobic atmosphere. Lisa: "Day and night merged as we totally immersed ourselves in music. We hardly stopped to eat; just endless cups of coffee and cigarettes. It was as if we had become some sort of incestuous family, and there were different threads of tension underlying the dynamics."

With a harder, bluesier band now in tow, Lisa and Francesca were unwilling to see the first Chimera album released in its entirety, and implored Monty Babson to allow them to make a second LP whilst keeping the quartet of aforementioned performances. Babson agreed, and the new band set to work in the studio, with the girls' old Three Tuns contact, David Bowie (also recording at Morgan), occasionally looking in to check on their progress. Though the playing was more visceral than before, Lisa's songs continued to be influenced by two of her favourite acts, Jefferson Airplane and Joni Mitchell.

Chimera made their stage debut at this point with a gig that Nick Mason had arranged for them at the Speakeasy, though they were severely hampered by their lack of a P.A. Mason once again stepped into the financial breach to solve this particular problem, but he could do little about the complex group politics that seemed to be escalating with each passing day. Despite having been recruited by Weston, South and Temro plotted behind the guitarist's back to introduce an old friend, Micky Finn, on rhythm guitar. Once the album was complete, South and Temro then gave the girls an ultimatum: either Weston went or they did. Unused to dealing with such pressure, the girls caved in, and meekly told the guitarist to leave. "We took the soft option", Lisa now admits.

Having engineered Bob weston's removal, Nick South then announced that he was leaving to join another, better-paid band. Digesting large amounts of humble pie, Francesca and Lisa asked Weston to return: perhaps surprisingly, he agreed, Micky Finn moving to bass to accommodate Bob's return as lead guitarist. It was this revised line-up that, after Francesca's boyfriend Roberto had pulled a few strings, travelled to Rome for a week's residency at the Vun Vun club. "This was really the first time that Francesca and I had to put some thought into stage presentation", says Lisa. "We were into an exotic dress mode at the time, lots of black and wild printed dresses, masses of silver jewellery and very long hair. Francesca occupied her hands with tambourine and spoons while I tried to think of Jim Morrison while I clung seductively (I thought) to the microphone".

By this stage (the end of 1970) Morgan Blue Town had ceased operating, though the Willesden studio complex continued to thrive. On their return from Rome, Nick Mason told the girls that he had been working on getting a new deal for the album, and that Atlantic were showing interest. Perversely, however, the capricious duo were beginning to lose their enthusiasm, particularly after Mason told them that they would need to be more committed in order to make a career breakthrough. "A thing Nicky said about only getting away a couple of weeks a year really brought home to me the full implications of being in a band", Lisa noted in her diary. "No taking off to Greece for a couple of weeks to lie on beaches ... "

Leaving Mason to finalise a deal with Atlantic, the girls took what was intended as a short sabbatical, vowing to meet up again in a month's time to make some tough decisions.

Francesca returned to Rome with her boyfriend Roberto (whom she subsequently married), while Lisa went to Los Angeles to visit her father. While in America, however, she broke both her legs in an horrific car accident, and was confined to a wheelchair for the best part of two years. With Francesca still in Rome, the Chimera project duly collapsed. Back home, the rest of the band fell apart: with no working band to promote the album, Atlantic withdrew their interest. The girls went their separate ways, though both continued to be involved with music over the ensuing years.

Bob Weston, meanwhile, joined Fleetwood Mac in 1973, though he had left hy the time that the band made their US breakthrough a couple of years later. He also worked with the likes of Long John Baldry, Dana Gillespie and Sandy Denny. Nick South continued to be an in-demand session bassist, while Micky Finn (not to be confused with Marc Bolan's sidekick) went on to play with Steve Marriott and ex-Pretty Thing Phil May. There was even something of a Chimera reunion in 1975 when Weston, South and Finn all found themselves back at Morgan Studios in Willesden to work on the Murray Head album Say It Ain't So Joe. No doubt Lisa and Francesca would love to have been flies on the wall when the session musicians were introduced to each other... "

Oddly, the CD liner notes don't state what was kindly posted above from another source (about which tracks Weston played on so I'm definately going to keep a note of that for future use! :)

If Weston does come back here for another Q&A to promote his upcoming CD, I don't know whether to ask him about this or not as at first I thought no because of possible bad feeling regarding him getting squeezed out but then since he surprised them by agreeing to return after the squeezers had left themselves, maybe he wouldn't mind talking about this sesion?

If nothing else, I hope by mentioning this session if there is another Q&A that it might remind him of some other sessions he did back then that he coulnd't remember the specifics of when he was asked about his session work by someone in the "old" Q&A (let's say). :)

There were only captions to some photos in the booklet and attached is part of one that didn't have a caption that I thought MIGHT be Weston. Any thoughts?

Well hope this helps anyways and thanks again for pointing this out this session, I never would've known about it otherwise. :)

John

[aleuzzi]

wow, thank you for this ^^^^^

[Neb-Maat-Re]

"A thing Nicky said .... No taking off to Greece for a couple of weeks to lie on beaches ... "


Ironic, given this is how the individual members of Pink Floyd appear to have operated through much of the 70s.