Splinter (band)

Splinter was an English two man vocal group from South Shields, England, consisting of Bill Elliott (William Elliott) and Bobby Purvis (Robert J Purvis), who formed in the early 1970s. They were connected with ex Beatle George Harrison, and had groups of instrumentalists to back them on each album. Splinter was the first act signed to Harrison's Dark Horse Records label, when it was partnered with A&M Records. The band's sound has often been likened to that of The Beatles (particularly George Harrison and John Lennon) and Badfinger. The duo's biggest success came with their debut album, the critically admired The Place I Love (1974), which contained the hit single "Costafine Town". The Place I Love, Harder to Live and Two Man Band have been remastered and reissued on compact disc on the Big Pink Music label from South Korea. The remainder of Splinter's catalogue is out of print and has yet to be issued on compact disc. Elliott died on 7 June 2021 following a sudden illness. According to the Legacy Project website: "He was always 100% supportive of the Legacy Project and we will continue to move this forward as planned. The next album Splinter Live In England will be released in the near future, and it displays Billy and Bobby as they were never intended to be heard on record."

Splinter, who had worked together at various times in the Newcastle and London music scenes, first came to the attention of Harrison through Mal Evans, a longtime assistant to The Beatles and latterly a scout for Apple Records. Harrison was impressed with one of their songs, "Lonely Man", which he felt would be ideal for a film he was producing, based on the stage play Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs. Harrison and his then bride of two weeks Patti Boyd attended the play's opening in 1966. Harrison initially intended to sign Splinter to Apple Records and held sessions at Apple Studio in central London to work on the song; Harrison associate Pete Ham (of Badfinger) also participated in these sessions, held in mid 1973. Plans were made for "Lonely Man" to be released as an Apple single and Splinter were shown performing the piece in the Apple film. In 1971, Bill Elliot was featured on an Apple single (#1835) "God Save Us" b/w "Do the Oz" both written by Lennon/Ono and under the moniker of "Bill Elliot and The Plastic Oz Band" on the A side. The B side was credited to the "Elastic Oz Band". Elliot was also featured on the 45rpm picture sleeve. But as Apple fell apart, Harrison decided to establish his own record label, setting up offices in London on Royal Avenue and in Los Angeles. Once Harrison heard more Splinter material he invited them to record an album. Work on this spanned 17 months, with the majority of the sessions taking place at Harrison's Friar Park studio, FPSHOT. ("Kyle" appeared on the 1974 Spooky Tooth album The Mirror.) On their Dark Horse Records debut album, The Place I Love, Harrison produced all the songs and played a variety of instruments, including electric and acoustic guitars, dobro, bass guitar and harmonium. As well as Wright, other musicians included Alvin Lee, Billy Preston, Jim Keltner, Klaus Voormann, Willie Weeks and Mel Collins. The album was so heavy with George Harrison's participation it was rumoured this was secretly Harrison's new band. Most of the songs were written by Purvis, with Elliott co writing lyrics on "China Light" and "Costafine Town". "Costafine Town" was an international hit single, reaching the top ten in Australia The follow up single, "Drink All Day", was banned in the UK by the BBC for the inclusion of the word "bloody". The band were unable to use the studio time, however, due to Purvis suffering from hay fever, apparently brought on by the LA smog. This would be Harrison's last Apple album. Harrison only participated on one track on Harder to Live – a new version of "Lonely Man". The original recording from 1973 remains unreleased, apart from its appearance in the Little Malcolm movie. The song was co produced by Harrison and Tom Scott, and featured Harrison on guitar. "Lonely Man" was a hit in Japan, The main production duties were entrusted to Norbert Putnam. This album had two singles released "Round & Round" b/w "I'll Bend for You". The latter was a non LP track and lastly "Motions of Love" as double sided promo single in 1977. "Motions" did get released in 1978 with a B side of "I Need Your Love". The final Splinter album was Splinter, which was released in the UK in 1980 on the Bellaphon label. The album was also issued in Japan the following year under the title Sail Away, with a song called "Pigalle" used in place of "All That Love". Splinter finally split up in 1984. In recent years, Purvis has re emerged as a performer and composer, working for a British cancer research charity.