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Main » 2006 » July » 18 » McCully Workshop Inc. - 1969 - McCully Workshop Inc.
McCully Workshop Inc. - 1969 - McCully Workshop Inc.
22:22

McCully Workshop Inc. - Same - 1969
(South African Garage/Psych)

Excellent debut album (the first of four by  this South African Group) and a real rarity from 1969. A great album with a  Pretty Things meets The Beatles vibe; psych blended with R 'n' B and garage punk  tunes. Excellent songs with lovely vocals strong harmonies and super distorted  guitar work.

The Psychedelic-Music.com Website describes McCully  Workshop's first album like this: "Of all the albums we've heard from South  Africa this one is topscore. What a beautiful masterpiece. Pepper-influenced  Underground music with great songs, lovely vocals, strong harmonies, great  distorted guitarwork."

Since 1965, the McCullagh brothers, Tully (born  Terence on 31st May 1953) and Mike (born Michael on 7th April 1947), have become  an integral part of the South African pop and rock scene.

"My brother  [Mike] who plays drums and myself would play around and record ourselves in the  lounge, I was about nine at the time. We recorded a track called 'Swinging Time'  with some other friends when I was thirteen and sent it to a record company. The  track didn't get anywhere but it was quite interesting. We grew a bit more and  when I was sixteen (and Mike 22) we started a band called McCully Workshop and a  whole string of other bands and I started a garage studio." – Tully  McCully

McCully Workshop have had many line-up changes over the years, but  the brothers have always surrounded themselves with superb musicians.

In  1965 they started as a folk-rock trio with Richard Hyam and called themselves  the Blue Three. Richard had been in a folk duo, Tiny Folk, with his sister  Melanie.

After a few personnel- and name-changes, like The Blue Beats and  Larfing Stocke, the line-up settled down (for a while) in 1969 and they called  themselves the McCully Workshop because they used to rehearse in Mrs McCullagh's  garage.

Glenda Wassman later married Richard, and they formed the pop  band Pendulum and had a big hit with 'Take My Heart' in 1976. Glenda then went  on to major success with the all-girl group, Clout, who had a huge hit with  'Substitute' which went to #2 in the UK in 1978.

'McCully Workshop Inc'  was produced by the great South African singer and producer Billy Forrest. The  cover photo was taken by Sigurd Olivier and the cat's name was  Sirikit.

'McCully Workshop Inc' was released in June 1970 and included  the epic and powerful 'Why Can't It Rain' which went to #12 on the Springbok  Radio charts in July 1970.

The follow-up to 'Inc' was an album titled  'Genesis' released in 1971. It was a concept album based on the book of Genesis  from the Bible and included a number of long tracks with sub-sections, typical  of other prog-rock albums of the time.

Crocodile Harris (real name Robin  Graham, from Cape Town), recorded the brilliant haunting pop classic 'Miss Eva  Goodnight' (Springbok #5, April 1974) which was written by Mike & Tully and  featured the musicianship of all the then current McCully Workshop  members.

'Ages' was  released in 1975 and reflected musical styles from different ages of music and  various influences could be heard: Uriah Heep, The Beatles, The Kinks and The  Beach Boys, for example.

Their 4th album, 'Workshop Revisited', released  in 1977 shot them to prominence when it introduced South African fans to hits  like 'Buccaneer' and 'Chinese Junkman'. The album also saw Mike McCully winning  the 1978 'Songwriter Of The Year' award.

They used to play in the late  70s at the Canterbury Inn in the Fairmead Hotel in Cape Town and wonderful  renditions of classic rock songs could be heard on a Sunday night. Chicago's  'I'm A Man' (with a lo-o-ong percussion solo), Barry Ryan's 'Eloise', Grand  Funk's (or Traffic's) 'Feeling Alright' and of course their own brilliant 1977  hit single 'Buccaneer' could all be heard; of course no dancing was allowed on a  Sunday in those dark days, so the audience had to just sit and listen... and  listen they did.

In 1998 the line-up from the late 70s reformed and  re-recorded the old McCully Workshop classics and hits as well as 6 new songs  and released the album 'Buccaneer'. 'Why Can't It Rain' also received a  make-over losing none of its power and gaining an even stronger  production.

In 2002 Tully is still running his successful Spaced-Out  Sounds Studio in Cape Town and Mike regularly packs out concert halls with his  nostalgic revue shows 'Sixty Something' and 'Music Of The  Millennium'.

McCully Workshop is a band that deserves to be listened to,  over and over again.




Originally posted by arcadium
Category: Psyche/Garage/Folk | Views: 2870 | Added by: Past-Contributor | Rating: 0.0/0 |

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