Representative Songs: "My White Bicycle," "Hallucinations," "Revolution"
Biography
In the early days of British psychedelia, three bands were consistently cited as first-generation figureheads of the London-based underground sound: Pink Floyd, the Soft Machine, and Tomorrow. Pink Floyd became superstars and the Soft Machine influential cult legends, but Tomorrow is mostly remembered (if at all) for featuring Steve Howe as their lead guitarist in his pre-Yes days. Actually, Tomorrow was nearly the equal of the two more celebrated outfits. Along with the early Floyd and Soft Machine, they shared a propensity for flower-power whimsy. Though they were less recklessly innovative and imaginative, their songwriting was accomplished, with adroit harmonies, psychedelic guitar work, and adventurous structures and tempo changes. They never succumbed to mindless indulgence or jamming; indeed, their tracks were rather short and tightly woven in comparison with most psychedelic bands. A couple singles (especially "My White Bicycle") were underground favorites, but the group only managed to record one album before breaking up in 1968. Lead singer Keith West, even before the breakup, had a number two British hit with "Excerpt From a Teenage Opera," which helped inspire Pete Townshend's Tommy. Drummer Twink joined the Pretty Things and, later, the Pink Fairies. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
Not to be confused with Toomorrow, a band fronted by Olivia Newton-John.
Tomorrow (previously known as The In Crowd and before that as Four Plus One) were a 1960s psychedelicrock band. Despite critical acclaim and support from DJJohn Peel who featured them on his "Perfumed Garden" radio show, the band was not a great success in commercial terms. They were among the first psychedelic bands in England along with Pink Floyd and Soft Machine. Tomorrow recorded the first ever John Peel show session on BBC Radio 1 on 21 September 1967.
Film directorMichelangelo Antonioni intended to feature the band in his 1966 filmBlowup, but instead used The Yardbirds. However Tomorrow did appear in the 'Swinging London' film Smashing Time under the name of The Snarks. John "Junior" Wood was ill and was replaced by John Pearce, a clothes dealer. Again their music was not used in the film. The rock group sounds used in the film are by Skip Bifferty.
Tomorrow's September 1967 single "Revolution" was likely the primary inspiration for the John Lennon song Revolution which was released a year later.[citation needed] Tomorrow's lyric "Have your own little revolution, NOW!" sounds like it prompted Lennon's response "You say you want a revolution."[citation needed] Though Tomorrow's song was not a hit the group was well known to insiders of the London music scene. Frank Zappa met the group on his first trip to England in 1967 and praised Steve Howe's guitar solo on the song Claramount Lake. Zappa later chose to play Claramount Lake during a radio guest DJ appearance in the 1980's.
