#gbo

"WE USED TO PLAY AS A TRIO BEFORE GRAHAM GOT THE ORGAN, WITH JUST ALTO SAX, GINGER AND ME."

PIC INFO: Spotlight on a group portrait The Graham Bond Organisation (GBO), British jazz/rhythm and blues group of the mid-1960s. This photograph was later used as cover art to the band's second studio album, also released in 1965, "There's a Bond Between Us."

L to R: Ginger Baker (drums), Jack Bruce (bass guitar), Graham Bond (vocals, keyboards, alto-saxophone), and Dick Heckstall-Smith (tenor/soprano saxophone).

PSYCHEDELIC BABY MAGAZINE: "Can you tell me briefly about how you hooked up with Graham Bond, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Ginger Baker to play in Alexis Korner’s band?"

JACK BRUCE: "Well, I’d sat in with Dick’s band at a May Ball in Cambridge, and then he spent a long time looking for me and when he eventually found me he said I should come and audition for Alexis. This was the original band with Cyril Davies, Dick, Alexis, Johnny Parker and myself. This was the most settled line-up, where Ronnie Jones off the US bases would sit in with us. Then Graham joined. That’s how it all started."

PSYCHEDELIC BABY: "What was the reason you guys broke away from Alexis’s group?"

JACK BRUCE: "I came in one day and Graham handed in my notice for me. He resigned Ginger and me. (much laughing from both Jack and me). I didn’t speak to Alexis for years after that, but that was the kind of guy Graham was. I was just a kid really, I was only about 19."

PSYCHEDELIC: "How responsive were the audiences to this new R&B group?"

JACK: "We used to play as a trio before Graham got the organ, with just alto sax, Ginger and me. That was enjoyable. Then we became just about the hardest working band in the country. We used to open loads of clubs, like the Hanley R&B club in about ’65 or so. But it was just the kids that used to come and see us and they’d just go crazy. We were funny looking too, we weren’t just some boy band."

'AIR Cinema' - South Korea - GBO - via Fubiz ____