The Flower Pot Men were a British pop group created in 1967,[1] who enjoyed fleeting fame. The group's sound was characterised by rich, three-part vocal harmonies.
History
The Flower Pot Men were created as a result of the chart success of the single "Let's Go To San Francisco", written and recorded by songwriters John Carter and Ken Lewis[1] (Carter-Lewis and the Southerners and The Ivy League, which had three UK Top 20 hits previously).
The duo licensed the recording to Deram Records which suddenly found itself with a full-fledged hit, but with no group to promote it. Carter and Lewis, having no interest in going on the road to promote the record, created the group from a hand-picked collective of recording studio session musicians and vocalists. They continued to write, record and produce all the subsequent recordings for the next three years until the project ended in 1970.[1]
The name was derived from the children's show Flower Pot Men, with the obvious psychedelic era puns on flower power and "pot" (cannabis).
Let's Go to San Francisco
Main article "Let's Go To San Francisco".
Other records
The follow-up to "Let's Go To San Francisco" was "A Walk in The Sky". It was not a hit in the UK, but got to #4 in the Netherlands and also proved popular in other continental countries such as Germany. Carter and Lewis continued writing and recording new material, but Deram wanted another hit the size of "Let's Go To San Francisco". When the third Carter-Lewis single "Man Without a Woman" / "You Can Never Be Wrong" flopped, they had the touring band record a song by Roger Greenaway (without the involvement of Carter and Lewis) called "In A Moment of Madness", but that also failed to chart. Neil Landon left in 1969 to become lead singer of Fat Mattress, the new band of Noel Redding, who had left The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The remaining three singers stayed with Greenaway, added a few musicians and changed their name to White Plains, scoring a hit with "My Baby Loves Lovin'" in 1970. The Flower Pot Men dissolved at that point.[1]
Burrows and Shaw later surfaced in another John Carter project, First Class, whose sole Top 40 hit "Beach Baby" sounded similar; a harmony phrase shortly before the fadeout of this record references "Let's Go To San Francisco". First Class also recorded a track "Let's Go Back to San Francisco", but it later appeared on a compilation album by the Flower Pot Men.
In 2002 Carter released a CD Peace Album / Past Imperfect that comprised two albums recorded between 1967 and 1969 as The Flower Pot Men, which were not released at the time.
Personnel
Tony Burrows in concert. Taken on May 17th, 2008.
The complete line-up of The Flower Pot Men and Their Garden, as they were sometimes billed, was loosely based around the following:
- Tony Burrows: vocals - ex The Ivy League, later with White Plains, and The First Class
- Neil Landon: vocals (born Patrick Cahill, 26 July 1941, Kirdford, Sussex)
- Robin Shaw: vocals (born Robin Scrimshaw, 6 October 1943, Hayes, Middlesex) - later with White Plains, and The First Class
- Pete Nelson: vocals (born Peter Lipscomb, 10 March 1945, London) - also later with White Plains
- Ged Peck: guitar (19 October 1947, West Hendon, London)
- Carlo Little: drums (born Carl O'Neil Little, 17 December 1938, Shepherd's Bush, West London - died 6 August 2005, Cleadon, County Durham).
- Nick Simper: bass
- Jon Lord: organ
Singer Tony Burrows' voice is also heard on many UK hit singles of that era, such as, White Plains: "My Baby Loves Lovin'", Brotherhood of Man: "United We Stand", Edison Lighthouse: "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)", The First Class: "Beach Baby" and The Pipkins: "Gimme Dat Ding".
In 1968, Nick Simper and Jon Lord became founding members of the heavy metal rock band, Deep Purple. This connection was later lampooned in the fake rock documentary, Spinal Tap, whose fictional first hit was called "(Listen to the) Flower People", a reference to "Let's Go to San Francisco".
References
External links
