Blossom Toes
Blossom Toes was formed in 1962 at the Halver and Watts scientific instrument factory in Highbury and Islington, North London as The Gravediggers by bassist Brian Belshaw (born 25.2.1944, in Wigan, Lancs), lead guitarist Alan Kensley and rhythm guitarist / vocalist Brian Godding (born 19.8.1945, in Wales). They then got in drummer Fred Love. Kensley left to get married and was replaced by Eddie Lynch, a gawky guy with national health specs and rabbit teeth! Belshaw and Godding later changed the name of the band to The Ingoes. When Eddie Lynch left The Ingos he joined The Cheynes (Jul 1963 - Apr 1965), a band that included Peter Bardens organ, vocals (born 19.6.1944, in Westminster, South-west London died 21.2.2002, in Malibu, California, USA) (later in Them); Mick Fleetwood drums (born Michael John Kells Fleetwood, 24.6.1947, in Redruth, Cornwall) (later in Fleetwood Mac) and Phil Sawyer lead guitar (born Philip Sawyer, 8.3.1947, in London) (later in The Spencer Davis Group). With a new change came a new drummer Colin Martin, who replaced Love. They later recruited lead guitarist / vocalist Jim Cregan (born James Cregan, 9.3.1946, in Yeovil, Somerset), replacing Lynch who was asked to leave and went to The Cheynes. Then Martin left to be replaced by Kevin Westlake (born Kevin Patrick Westlake, 5.3.1947, in Ireland died 30.9.2004) (ex Johnny B Great and the Quotations, who included future Rockpile guitarist Billy Bremner (born William Bremner, in 1947, in Scotland). Later in 1967 The Ingoes became The Blossom Toes at the suggestion of someone who worked for their manager Gomelsky. When Kevin Westlake left Blossom Toes he was replaced by Poli Palmer in Late 1967. Palmer was replaced by Barry Reeves, ex soul band Ferris Wheel. Palmer went onto Election (Sep - Oct 1969) and Family (Oct 1969 - Oct 1973).
They were then housed in a flat in Fulham by manager Giorgio Gomelsky and entered Chappell Studios to record their debut album, We Are Ever So Clean, with an arranger and an advanced copy of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album. The backing of much of the album was recorded by an orchestra and session men. The album was a 15 track collection of inventive psych pop (i.e. Telegram Tuesday, When The Alarm Clock Rings) with it’s share of weirdness (i.e. The Remarkable Saga Of The Frozen Dog). In 1967, the band contributed music to “La Collectionneuse”, a film by Éric Rohmer and appeared in “Popdown” by Fred Marshall.
Unfortunately, their live act at this time suffered due to the inability to reproduce most of the album on stage. As a live recording from their 1967 Swedish tour reveals, the Toes live material from this time has the band doing Captain Beefheart & Tim Hardin songs which is hard to imagine how that fit in with material from their debut, but it did hint at what changes in style they were to make by the time of their second album two years later. After a Swedish tour, Westlake left the band.
During 1968, there were two singles released, both featuring new member Poli Palmer (born John Michael Palmer, 25.5.1943, in Eversham, Worces) (ex Deep Feeling) on drums, flute and vibes. They released a cover of Bob Dylan’s I’ll Be You Baby Tonight and followed that with a true lost gem, Postcard backed with Everyone’s Leaving Me Now. The latter was written and sung by Poli Palmer and shows them playing on the jazzy side, while the ‘A’ side was a tightly crafted psych pop song. Palmer left shortly after the single and was replaced by Barry Reeves from the soul band Ferris Wheel. Their second album, If Only For A Moment was released in 1969. It was much less psychedelic than their debut, but is still a strong album in the hard rock vein and has some fine moments with the epic Love Bomb and the madness of the first track, Peace Loving Man.
Around this time, the band guested on Julie Driscoll’s 1969 album. There are also some recordings of the Blossom Toes of their BBC sessions which feature a few tracks off their second LP that show what the songs might have sounded like if Palmer stayed with them as well as unreleased songs like Collects Little Girls and Ever Since A Memory.
The Blossom Toes split in 1970. Their spirit lived on most notably with B.B. Blunder, which consisted of Belshaw and Godding who rejoined Westlake. They recorded an album, Workers Playtime, which has some excellent moments, including a remake of the Blossom Toes obscure 1969 single New Day.
Finally, in 2007, Sunbeam Records reissued both albums in cooperation with the band. These releases include bonus tracks with all their non-LP singles and demos, outtakes and live tracks collected plus liner notes by Brian Godding.
