• Genre: Rock
• Active: '60s

Biography

World Of Oz is a surprisingly little known group from the Decca/Deram family of labels, considering that they got an entire LP's worth of material released. They hailed from Birmingham, England, where they'd played locally for groups such as Mayfair Set -- by 1966/67, David Kubinec was a veteran of The Pieces of Mind, who had played extensively in Hamburg. In January of 1968 he, bassist Tony Clarkson, drummer David Reay, and guitarist/singer Christopher Robin formed the original line-up of World of Oz. They were signed by Barry Class, who managed the Foundations, as their manager, and they did rather better than the Foundations by by-passing Pye Records in favor of Decca Records, who were sold on the the label was willing to commit to a 33-piece orchestra playing on the single. According to Kubinec in an interview for the psychedelic site Marmalade Skies, things began coming apart when Class went with the Foundations to America and left World of Oz in the hands of a deputy who immediately cut back on their promotion budget for the group and the single. The single never sold what it should have, and the line-up of the group began shifting midway through the making of the LP. "The Muffin Man" was widely heard in England, and two other songs, "King Croesus" and "Willow's Harp" sold well in Holland. He exited midway through the subsequent self-titled LP and was replaced by Geoff Nicholls on keyboards, while Rob Moore took over on drums and David Reay went into management. The group made it as far as appearing on Beat Club in Germany and the cover of pop magazines in Holland, before they split in 1970. Kubinec and Clarkson have since enjoyed long careers in music, right up to the present day. The World of Oz single sides "Muffin Man" and, better still, "Like A Tear", reflect a tuneful trippy sensibility and have been anthologized on various psychedelic collections. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

Representative Albums:

The World of Oz, World of Oz

Similar Artists:

Blossom Toes, The Kinks, The Bee Gees