Stones. I wanted songs about the blues and love and death. I liked the seriousness of that, and it was obvious Smile weren’t going to go that way.’
Tim Staffell remembered Smith being asked to leave Smile in February 1969, shortly before their gig at the Royal Albert Hall: ‘We said, “Chris, we’d rather do tomorrow night as a trio,”’ he told Record Collector magazine. Smith disputes this: ‘I saw Brian on Elsham Road and said, “I’m not coming back to the band.” I dare say the writing was already on the wall, but I don’t remember being sacked.’
On 27 February, Brian returned to the Albert Hall, minus the Queen Mother, but with a Smithless Smile. The concert was a fundraiser for the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child, compèred by DJ John Peel. As the show had been organised by Imperial College, Smile blagged their way second from the bottom of a bill, below Spooky Tooth, Joe Cocker and headliners Bonzo Dog Band, fresh from their recent hit, ‘I’m the Urban Spaceman’. Going on before Smile was Free, a new blues-rock group featuring lead singer (and future Queen collaborator) Paul Rodgers.
Smile got off to a shaky start when Tim Staffell dashed to the front of the expansive stage only to discover his bass guitar lead was too short. Having accidentally unplugged himself, it was left to Brian to play the opening chord. The trio muddled on, though, playing their own heavier, vamped-up versions of folk singer Tim Hardin’s ‘If I Were a Carpenter’, Sonny Terry’s ‘See What a Fool I’ve Been’ and Tommy James and The Shondelles’ ‘Mony Mony’.
In the meantime, Peter Abbey, a friend of Taylor’s from his dentistry course, had been appointed as the band’s manager. Abbey passed a tape on to John Anthony, then working as an A&R man at Mercury Records. Anthony had previously been the in-house DJ at the Speakeasy, a rock stars’ watering hole on London’s Margaret Street, immortalised on The Who’s Sell Out album with the lyric ‘Speakeasy, drink easy, pull easy …’ He had also compèred one of Led Zeppelin’s first tours.
‘My boss at Mercury was Lou Reizner, who was this big Chicago records mogul,’ says Anthony. ‘At the time Lou had David Bowie, Eyes of Blue, which became Man, Peter Hammill and Terry Reid. When I started working for Lou, the first person through the office door was Roger’s friend from his dental course, with a tape of Smile.’
Through March and April that year, Smile played three gigs at PJ’s in Truro, a club owned by Roger’s friend Peter Bawden. The Taylor connections had been enough to secure weekend gigs at the club and elsewhere in Cornwall; shows that were sometimes billed as ‘featuring the Legendary Drummer of Cornwall, Roger Taylor’. As Chris Smith remembers it, ‘When Smile did those gigs as a three-piece in Cornwall, I think they got used to the idea of being Cream.’
John Anthony accompanied the band to one of the gigs in Truro. ‘Unfortunately, it ended with me getting into a fight with the locals,’ he admits. ‘I was the music business guy down from London with long hair and the alien clothes, and these guys started hassling me, standing on my feet …’ A fight broke out on the dancefloor, with Anthony leaping into the back of the band’s van to escape and fending off his attackers with a mic stand. ‘After it was all over, we drove back to London. I said I’d get them some studio time.’
In April, Lou Reizner saw Smile in concert in London and offeredthem an on-the-spot one-single deal for the US only. ‘It was a toe-in-the water contract,’ recalled Tim Staffell. ‘Just Mercury putting out a small amount of dough to see what happened.’ Two months later, Smile were summoned to London’s Trident Studios to record the single, with John Anthony producing. ‘What I saw in Smile was a sort of “Led Yes”,’ he offers, ‘because they had Yes’s harmonies and Zeppelin’s big riffs. I was sure
Tim Staffell remembered Smith being asked to leave Smile in February 1969, shortly before their gig at the Royal Albert Hall: ‘We said, “Chris, we’d rather do tomorrow night as a trio,”’ he told Record Collector magazine. Smith disputes this: ‘I saw Brian on Elsham Road and said, “I’m not coming back to the band.” I dare say the writing was already on the wall, but I don’t remember being sacked.’
On 27 February, Brian returned to the Albert Hall, minus the Queen Mother, but with a Smithless Smile. The concert was a fundraiser for the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child, compèred by DJ John Peel. As the show had been organised by Imperial College, Smile blagged their way second from the bottom of a bill, below Spooky Tooth, Joe Cocker and headliners Bonzo Dog Band, fresh from their recent hit, ‘I’m the Urban Spaceman’. Going on before Smile was Free, a new blues-rock group featuring lead singer (and future Queen collaborator) Paul Rodgers.
Smile got off to a shaky start when Tim Staffell dashed to the front of the expansive stage only to discover his bass guitar lead was too short. Having accidentally unplugged himself, it was left to Brian to play the opening chord. The trio muddled on, though, playing their own heavier, vamped-up versions of folk singer Tim Hardin’s ‘If I Were a Carpenter’, Sonny Terry’s ‘See What a Fool I’ve Been’ and Tommy James and The Shondelles’ ‘Mony Mony’.
In the meantime, Peter Abbey, a friend of Taylor’s from his dentistry course, had been appointed as the band’s manager. Abbey passed a tape on to John Anthony, then working as an A&R man at Mercury Records. Anthony had previously been the in-house DJ at the Speakeasy, a rock stars’ watering hole on London’s Margaret Street, immortalised on The Who’s Sell Out album with the lyric ‘Speakeasy, drink easy, pull easy …’ He had also compèred one of Led Zeppelin’s first tours.
‘My boss at Mercury was Lou Reizner, who was this big Chicago records mogul,’ says Anthony. ‘At the time Lou had David Bowie, Eyes of Blue, which became Man, Peter Hammill and Terry Reid. When I started working for Lou, the first person through the office door was Roger’s friend from his dental course, with a tape of Smile.’
Through March and April that year, Smile played three gigs at PJ’s in Truro, a club owned by Roger’s friend Peter Bawden. The Taylor connections had been enough to secure weekend gigs at the club and elsewhere in Cornwall; shows that were sometimes billed as ‘featuring the Legendary Drummer of Cornwall, Roger Taylor’. As Chris Smith remembers it, ‘When Smile did those gigs as a three-piece in Cornwall, I think they got used to the idea of being Cream.’
John Anthony accompanied the band to one of the gigs in Truro. ‘Unfortunately, it ended with me getting into a fight with the locals,’ he admits. ‘I was the music business guy down from London with long hair and the alien clothes, and these guys started hassling me, standing on my feet …’ A fight broke out on the dancefloor, with Anthony leaping into the back of the band’s van to escape and fending off his attackers with a mic stand. ‘After it was all over, we drove back to London. I said I’d get them some studio time.’
In April, Lou Reizner saw Smile in concert in London and offeredthem an on-the-spot one-single deal for the US only. ‘It was a toe-in-the water contract,’ recalled Tim Staffell. ‘Just Mercury putting out a small amount of dough to see what happened.’ Two months later, Smile were summoned to London’s Trident Studios to record the single, with John Anthony producing. ‘What I saw in Smile was a sort of “Led Yes”,’ he offers, ‘because they had Yes’s harmonies and Zeppelin’s big riffs. I was sure
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