Trees (band)

Folk band

Trees was a British folk rock band recording and touring throughout 1969, 1970 and 1971, reforming briefly to continue performing throughout 1972. Although the group met with little commercial success in their time, the reputation of the band has grown over the years, and underwent a renaissance in 2007 following Gnarls Barkley's sampling of the track "Geordie" (from Trees’ second album On The Shore) on the title track of their multi million selling album St. Elsewhere.

The original band comprised five members – bass and keyboard player Bias Boshell, lead guitarist Barry Clarke, acoustic guitarist David Costa, drummer Unwin Brown and singer Celia Humphris. David Costa, son of British singer and radio presenter Sam Costa, was reading Fine Arts at the recently opened University of East Anglia when he met Barry Clarke (who had been working at Royd's advertising agency in London) through a mutual girlfriend who had suggested, as they were both guitar players, that they should connect. In David's words, following their first meeting—"I never went back to University, and Barry never went back to his office." Barry Clarke was living at the time in a house in Barnes, shared with Bias Boshell. Bias Boshell and Unwin Brown had both attended Bedales School in Petersfield, Hampshire, and within a short time, all four were sharing their diverse musical experiences, exploring their different tastes and bringing together what they each enjoyed in common with each other. Lacking a singer, Costa suggested they audition the sister of an acquaintance of his and introduced Celia Humphris into the mix, who had just left Arts Educational where she had studied dance, drama, and singing. Humphris' father was the painter and illustrator Frank Humphris (e. g. for the Riders of the Range strip in the boys' comic The Eagle). The five of them began rehearsing in the early spring of 1969, starting to do their first gigs and early demo tracks throughout June and July of the same year.

Signed to CBS in August 1969, Trees produced two studio albums in relatively quick succession, The Garden of Jane Delawney (released April 1970) and On The Shore (released January 1971), both recorded at Chelsea's Sound Techniques studios, and both produced by Tony Cox. On The Shore featured cover artwork by Storm Thorgerson of the Hipgnosis studio. Like other folk contemporaries, Trees was compared with Fairport Convention, but regarded as delivering with a more psychedelic edge. The group's material was divided between adaptations of traditional songs and original compositions, primarily by Bias Boshell. In a 2020 interview, Costa commented: "We got labelled as a folk rock band, full stop, but our influences were generally far more American than British." (BASF, 1972)

Trees performed extensively throughout their career, predominantly on the university circuit but appearing twice at Fairfield Halls and at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank, with varying degrees of success and at times recognised with significant critical praise. Throughout their touring career they supported acts including Fotheringay, Fairport Convention, Matthew's Southern Comfort, Fleetwood Mac; Free and Faces on the same bill, Genesis, Family and Yes, and appeared at the Evolution Music Festival in Le Bourget, Paris in 1970 alongside Ginger Baker's Air Force, Pink Floyd and Procol Harum. A very early gig in London's Notting Hill had them appearing with a virtually unknown David Bowie. The band were often accompanied on the road and supported by singer songwriter Marc Ellington. They were originally managed by Douglas Smith and Clearwater Productions, a Notting Hill Gate company who also managed contemporaries such as High Tide, Cochise and Skin Alley and went on to manage Hawkwind and Thunderclap Newman. Trees achieved ongoing support from early in their performing and recording career by radio DJs John Peel and Bob Harris, for whom they were later to appear twice in his Sounds of the Seventies TV series, and also Pete Drummond, who was later to marry singer Celia Humphris.

Following the demise of the original lineup, Bias Boshell went on to work as a keyboard player and songwriter with The Kiki Dee Band, writing her hit song "I've Got the Music in Me", before joining Barclay James Harvest and subsequently The Moody Blues, replacing keyboard player Patrick Moraz. He now lives in North Wales. Barry Clarke went on to join the Vigrass and Osborne band, subsequently to rejoin David Costa in the 1973 band and eponymous album Casablanca (Rocket Records). David Costa went on to become art director and designer for many notable artists such as Elton John, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Costa and Boshell performed together as the "reunion" On The Shore Band in 2018.