Love Sculpture

(For the LOVE sculpture, see LOVE (Sculpture) or Robert Indiana).

Love Sculpture was a Welsh blues-rock band ^[1] of the late 1960s, led by Dave Edmunds (born David Edmunds, 15 April 1944, Cardiff, Glamorgan, South Wales), plus bassist John Williams (born John David Williams, 19 January 1946, Cardiff, South Wales) and drummer Rob 'Congo' Jones (born Robert Jones, 13 August 1946, Barry, Glamorgan, South Wales).

Career

Love Sculpture formed in Cardiff in 1966 out of the remnants of another local band called The Human Beans^[2], and disbanded in 1970, although Edmunds went on to enjoy solo success in the 1970s. The band itself was essentially a showpiece for Edmunds' considerable technical ability on the guitar. Love Sculpture mostly performed blues standards, slightly revved-up, but still largely reverent to the originals, releasing their debut album, Blues Helping with such songs as "Summertime", "Wang Dang Doodle" etc. They are best known for their 1968 novelty hit in the UK Singles Chart, a high speed cover version of the classical piece "Sabre Dance", by Aram Khachaturian, released on the Parlophone label (R 5744). The recording was inspired by Keith Emerson's classical rearrangements.^[3] "Sabre Dance" became a hit after garnering the enthusiastic attention of British DJ John Peel^[3]. In December 1968, the UK music magazine, NME, reported that Love Sculpture had signed a U.S. recording contract with London Records, guaranteeing £250,000.^[4] The band were also given an invitation to perform "Sabre Dance" live, on the German Beat-Club television programme of Radio Bremen, being broadcast in monochrome at that time.

This was followed by a second album Forms and Feelings, with songs including: "In The Land of the Few", "Farandole", "People People", "Seagull" and the equally fast cover of Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me". The U.S. version of the album also featured a recording of "Mars" from Gustav Holst's The Planets, but Holst's estate refused to license the tune for the U.K. version.

They recorded three times for BBC Radio 1's John Peel sessions in 1968 (twice) and 1969.^[5]

Love Sculpture split up after a U.S. tour, having recorded two albums. Edmunds shortly went on to further number one hit success with "I Hear You Knocking", and collaborated heavily with ex-Brinsley Schwarz bassist Nick Lowe, eventually forming the band Rockpile with him.

Discography

Albums

• Blues Helping - (December 1968) - Parlophone
  • "The Stumble" (King, Thompson)
  • "3 O'Clock Blues" (King, Taub)
  • "I Believe to My Soul" (Charles, Learner)
  • "So Unkind" (Sehorn)
  • "Summertime" (Gershwin, Gershwin, Heyward)
  • "On The Road Again" (Jones, Wilson)
  • "Don't Answer the Door" (Johnson)
  • "Wang Dang Doodle" (Dixon)
  • "Come Back Baby" (Charles)
  • "Shake Your Hips" (Moore)
  • "Blues Helping" (Edmunds, Jones, Williams)

• Forms and Feelings - (January 1970) - Parlophone
  • "In the Land of the Few" (Finesilver, Ker, Edmunds)
  • "Seagull" (Korda)
  • "Nobody's Talking"
  • "Mars" (Holst) (US version only)
  • "Why (How Now)"
  • "Farandole" (Bizet)
  • "You Can't Catch Me" (Berry)
  • "People People" (Finesilver, Ker)
  • "Sabre Dance" (Aram Khachaturian)

Both albums were re-issued in May 2008, remastered and with bonus tracks (including the tracks from the two Singles listed below).

Singles

• "River to Another Day" - (1968) - B-side - "Brand New Woman"
• "Sabre Dance" - (1968) - B-side - "Think of Love" - UK #5 ^[6]

See also

• List of Blues-rock musicians
• List of Peel Sessions
• List of NME covers
• List of performers on Top of the Pops

External links

• Love Sculpture biography at Allmusic website
• Mini-biography from makingtime.co.uk
• Love Sculpture photographs

References