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Abrahams,
Mick Marmalade |
In 1967 they had signed to CBS and changed their name to Marmalade. Despite being little more than a mainstream pop outfit at this time they managed to get gigs at 'underground' venues like the Marquee and were a regular attraction at jazz and blues festivals. Various publicity stunts were used to put them in the public eye, including a promotional film and the distribution of jars of marmalade to various radio stations. By now the group had relocated to London and set up a communal home in Archway. After four single releases, none of them breaking into the charts, their breakthrough finally came with a cover of US band The Grassroots' Lovin' Things, a commercial, bubblegum-style song, which CBS pretty much forced upon them, as time was running out for the band. On the flip side they did a cover of Hey Joe - they'd earlier been on a tour with Hendrix. Having achieved a hit formula they stuck to it with Wait For Me Mary-Anne and a cover of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da from The Beatles' White Album, which took them to No 1. Both songs were extremely commercial and destroyed any 'underground' credentials which some of their earlier recording had nurtured. They were a classic case of a band who had to compromise to achieve success. Baby Make It Soon gave them another Top 10 hit, though Butterfly, one of their more creative songs and their final release for CBS sadly flopped, as did their album, There's A Lot Of It About. In November 1969 they signed a new contract with Decca, which gave them complete freedom to write, arrange, produce and record whatever material they wanted free from record company interference - something they'd never enjoyed with CBS. The first result of this new arrangement was Reflections Of My Life, a ballad penned by Campbell and McAleese. It went down well climbing to No 3 in the UK and No 10 in the US. A new album inevitably followed, but Reflections Of The Marmalade failed to make much impact here in the UK, though it got to No 71 in the US. Rainbow and My Little One gave them further UK hits and their next album, Songs, had its moments. Rainbow also made it to No 51 in the US. By now though Junior Campbell felt the band had gone as far as it could and departed (forming a new band Hallelujah Freedom the following year), to be replaced by Hughie Nicholson, who'd earlier played for another Scottish group, The Poets. Alan Whitehead also left and was replaced by another ex-Poet, Dougie Henderson. These changes gave the group a new injection of life in the short-term. A Nicholson composition,
Cousin Norman,
Back On The Road and
Radancer were all pretty lively songs which made the charts and kept the band in the public eye. Though, after the first of these hits Pat Fairley 'retired' from the group. The band received some adverse publicity, though, in 1972, when a popular Sunday newspaper accused the band of sexual debauchery in a typical tabloid-style groupie exposé and the promising
Radancer became the revitalised line-ups final 45 and their final 45 for Decca.
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