Flamin' Groovies: История американского рок-н-ролла

American rock music band of the 1960s and 1970s

Flamin' Groovies is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965, originally co led by Roy Loney and Cyril Jordan. After the Groovies released three albums, on Epic (Supersnazz) and Kama Sutra (Flamingo and Teenage Head), Loney left the band in 1971. He was replaced as co leader by Chris Wilson, and the band's emphasis shifted more toward British Invasion power pop. The band signed to United Artists Records in 1972, releasing just three more singles until 1976. The Groovies then signed to Sire Records and released three albums between 1976 and 1979, Shake Some Action, Flamin' Groovies Now (both produced by Dave Edmunds at Rockfield Studios in Wales) and Jumpin' in the Night. The 1976 album's title track "Shake Some Action" (also released as a single) became a power pop anthem and is revered by many, including Greil Marcus in his book, The History of Rock and Roll in Ten Songs. Wilson left the band in 1981, and the band continued in various forms, including the release of three more albums, before breaking up in 1991. After a couple of limited reunions with different lineups, the 1970s nucleus of Jordan, Wilson, and Alexander reformed the group in 2013, and the band's first post reunion album, Fantastic Plastic, was released in 2017. Alexander left the reformed band in 2017, and in 2019 Wilson went on hiatus. In addition to the band's role in the advancement of power pop, the Flamin' Groovies have also been called one of the forerunners of punk rock.

Roy Loney and Tim Lynch, who met in first grade, had put together a Kingston Trio type folk band with guitars when they were in junior high and high school. Beginning in 1965, after adding their friend George Alexander (whom they told to learn bass), they became a Rolling Stones influenced rock band with drummer Ron Greco. who quickly became a part of the group, although Greco then left and was replaced by Danny Mihm. As a result of its success, they were signed to a contract by Epic Records; at about the same time, their manager leased The Fillmore from Bill Graham, and they became managers of the venue, which introduced them to a much wider variety of music, including The Stooges and Alice Cooper. During this period, they released 1969's Supersnazz. Despite the critical plaudits, though, neither album sold well, which caused Loney and Lynch to lose interest and left the Groovies in limbo about their future. leading to a meme that "Roy is the Stones guy, Cyril is the Beatles guy".

Not long after the KSAN concert, Loney also left the band and was replaced by 18 year old singer and guitarist Chris Wilson, who, along with Jordan, began to move the group in a more overtly power pop direction. even though the U. S. division of UA had already turned down the band. The Groovies moved to Britain, where they remained for the rest of 1972, but the UA deal was never expanded beyond two single releases, "Slow Death"/"Tallahassee Lassie" and "Married Woman"/"Get a Shot of Rhythm and Blues", which United Artists preferred to Edmunds and the band's choices "Shake Some Action" and "You Tore Me Down". The failure of these singles effectively left the band in limbo for two years. In an effort to gain some leverage, the band agreed to release the Edmunds produced version of "You Tore Me Down" as the first single on the brand new Bomp! Records label in 1974. Some of the various released and unreleased recordings made and produced by the Groovies during this period (six demos from 1971, "Tallahassee Lassie" from 1972, one TV recording from 1972, and the two Capitol demos from 1973) were later collected on the 2002 Norton album Slow Death. Finally, in 1975, Greg Shaw from Bomp! became the Flamin' Groovies' manager and arranged for them to sign to the new (but poorly distributed) label Sire Records, headed by Seymour Stein. The Groovies continued to tour continually and were supported by the Ramones and The Stranglers at the Roundhouse in London on July 4, 1976 (which was coincidentally the US's bicentennial) in the former band's first ever appearance in the UK. This concert has been widely noted as a seminal moment in the development of punk rock. Sire's distribution was taken over by Warner Bros. Records in 1977, and so the Groovies returned to a major label; however, shortly before that, James Ferrell, who had been unhappy with the band's "Beatle esque" direction, was fired and replaced by Mike Wilhelm, who had previously played with Wilson in the San Francisco band "Loose Gravel".

The commercial failure of Jumpin' in the Night, as well as clashes between Jordan and Stein, led Sire to drop the Flamin' Groovies in 1980, although the band nevertheless added keyboardist Mark Dunwoody. (in which only five complete songs were recorded in a three week period, but four of them were covers) Wilson called the Gold Star sessions "a complete debacle" and referred to the time as being "like a messy family divorce"; the Flamin' Groovies once again had to reform. Later in the 1980s, the Groovies, now including Jordan, Alexander, guitarist vocalist Jack Johnson, and drummer Paul Zahl, became involved with an Australian promoter named Peter Noble (the owner of AIM Records), who began to issue various Groovies live and studio recordings and reissue prior albums. After a 1987 live in the studio recording in Australia for AIM entitled One Night Stand,

In 1979, Roy Loney formed the Phantom Movers featuring two other former Groovies, drummer Danny Mihm and guitarist James Ferrell, as well as Larry Lea (guitar) and Maurice Tani (bass). The band released several albums between 1979 and 1993 as well as a greatest hits CD (A Hundred Miles an Hour 1978 1989 on the Raven label out of Australia). Loney and Lea continued to work together after the band folded. Loney, Mihm and Ferrell, who were then playing together in a band called the Fondellas, tried to put a Groovies reunion together to capitalize on that interest, which had been further fueled by re releases of Flamingo and Teenage Head, but Jordan wasn't interested at that time. In 2005, Jordan founded a new band, Magic Christian, which released a self titled double album in 2005 and the album Evolver in 2009. In 2009, Loney and Jordan reunited and embarked on a brief tour, backed by members of the A Bones and Yo La Tengo, including the Ponderosa Stomp in April. The tour focused on the Groovies' pre 1972 catalog, omitting the later songs; Jordan noted that, despite the band's continuing popularity, "when I did that tour with Roy, . the halls didn’t exactly fill up." One result of the Loney/Jordan tour were more reunions on the 2010 Chris Wilson album Love Over Money. George Alexander, Roy Loney, James Ferrell and Mike Wilhelm all appear on the CD, as does Procol Harum's keyboard legend Matthew Fisher and Barracudas guitarist Robin Wills. The album was released on the French label Rock Paradise. Wilson then followed this up with the 2013 album It's Flamin' Groovy, which featured the same musicians as previously plus three songs with both Alexander and Cyril Jordan. Guitarist Mike Wilhelm (1976 1982) died from cancer on May 14, 2019. Drummer Danny Mihm died on March 26, 2020, following a stroke.

Beginning in late 2012, following the "reunions" on Wilson's solo albums, Jordan and Wilson considered reforming and relaunching the band. Said Jordan, "the Flamin' Groovies Shake Some Action version makes way more money and did make way more money in the '70s than the Roy Loney version ever did. So it was a no brainer to put that second version back together again and see if we could make some good money." Jordan noted that the band received $75,000 for six or seven shows on the tour, which was enough money to overcome the band's post breakup geographic spread. As a result, Jordan, Wilson, and Alexander decided to reform the Flamin' Groovies and to record a new album. Their first release was a limited edition single (on vinyl) in 2016 to commemorate the band's 50th anniversary entitled "Crazy Macy" b/w "Let Me Rock", followed by the album Fantastic Plastic, which was released in September 2017. In 2019, the Groovies, consisting of Jordan, Von Sneidern (now on guitar), Sales, and Atom Ellis (on bass), with special guest Roy Loney (vocals) but without Wilson (who was on hiatus in 2019), embarked on the "Teenage Head Tour" in the US and Europe. However, Loney was hospitalized after a fall at the airport in June, just as the tour was headed to Europe, which forced the European leg of the tour to continue without him. Loney died on December 13, 2019. Despite Loney's death, the band continued to remain active, releasing a recording of "Fissure of Rolando" in 2023 and continuing to go on tour.

The Flamin' Groovies, along with the band Frumious Bandersnatch, are mentioned in Roger Hall's 1970 novel, 19, which refers to them both as one band, "Frumious Bandersnatch and the Flamin' Groovies." (First edition, page 110).