JohnTem82387976

22 January 2015

High Broom - Dancing In The Moonlight/ Percy's On The Run



Label: Island
Year of Release: 1970

If at first you don't succeed, try again… and again… 

"Dancing In The Moonlight" really is a song which took years, arguably decades, to reach its full "classic" potential. A minor cult hit for the American band Boffalongo, whose member Sherman Kelly penned it, it slept soundly for another couple of years until Sherman's brother Wells, who drummed for King Harvest, introduced it to the band in 1970. Smelling a top tune immediately, they covered it and watched happily as it climbed to Number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Before King Harvest got their mitts on it, though, the remnants of the Tonbridge, Kent based group Jason Crest recorded it for British release. Consisting originally of Terry Clarke on lead vocals, Terry Dobson on lead guitar, Derek Smallcombe on rhythm guitar, Ron Fowler on bass, and Roger Siggery on drums, they had a long and chequered history. Formed in 1964 as The Spurlyweeves, changing their name to the Good Time Brigade in 1967, then finally Jason Crest upon earning a contract with Philips, the cult popsike legends had cut many fantastic sides by the end of the sixties, not least the semi-legendary, psychedelic doomy screamer "Black Mass" - once heard, never forgotten. Sales had not been on their side, however, and after five years of loyal but presumably skint service the lead singer Terry Clarke quit in 1969. Shortly prior to this, bassist Ron Fowler had left to be replaced by John Selley.

Rather than giving up entirely, the group quickly recruited Brian Prebble from the Riot Squad, and drafted in Brian Bennett from Leviathan to add an additional guitar to the mix. Philips gave them the heave-ho, the new moniker High Broom was adopted, and a contract to produce one LP for Island Records was signed. However, aside from this version of "Dancing In The Moonlight" and its flip, nothing else emerged from the agreement. Stylistically it is impressive to hear how the band had managed to jump from their slightly woozy, small-town back-street alley popsike into a harder, rougher country rock sound. This sounds so damn North American that you'd never guess any member of Jason Crest had anything to do with it, and it possibly could have been a hit under the right circumstances. The flip "Percy's On The Run" also rocks out, being about as psychedelic as a bottle of sour mash bourbon.

Presumably the under-whelming performance of this single lead to Island executives wondering whether they'd actually signed a lame duck, and nothing more was heard from the act. A pity, because Jason Crest at their best were a proposition to be reckoned with - but having undergone such an extreme series of line-up changes, it's arguable that what we're listening to here is effectively an entirely different act, and one which may never have scaled the same creative heights.

As for "Dancing In The Moonlight", it's deathless. Toploader's chirpy cover of it stormed the British charts in 1999, and it wound up as a prominent feature to the soundtrack of Chris Morris's satire on home-grown Islamic terrorism, "Four Lions". Whether you're celebrating the fact that you're about to bomb the London Marathon, or just partying in general, it's become an uptempo summer fun record for all ages. Whether that's what Sherman Kelly ever envisaged is besides the point, but I'm sure the royalties must keep him relatively content - and what is fascinating (to me, if no-one else) is the way each cover version of it seemed to add extra elements to the previous attempt, gradually shunting the track away from its rugged beginnings into a lighter, more frivolous sound.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This was played to death on Radio Luxembourg in 1970. As I recall they had it as a "Power Play" which meant it was played every hour for a week.
I still have my copy.

23 Daves said...

Thanks for letting me know about that! That probably partly explains why copies of this aren't as scarce as I'd expect them to be. I wonder how close this came to charting...

CL said...

Great!!

Graham Clayton said...

When I first saw this entry, I thought it was the same song as later recorded by Thin Lizzy!

Unknown said...

I also have a copy plus King Harvest's version, I rate them equally as good but the version that sounds totally different to these and / or Boffalongo's original is the one by The Young Generation. There are probably many other versions too but check that one out for a different feel.

Unknown said...

I purchased a copy of the High Broom cover version after hearing it on Luxemburg. Still love their version.

Neil Houlton said...

I remember Highbroom playing as support to a headline band at Tunbridge Wells Assembly Rooms some time in the early 70's. The headliners didn't show up for some reason and we were all offered our money back. However Highbroom offered to play their act if we wanted to stay, well, they played a blinder that night and raised the roof. Three cheers to the band for a fantastic night, pity they couldn't take their career into the top flight of English rock bands.

Matt Young said...

Thanks. This is the only place where I could find their version of it.

Matt Young said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LuGer Wolf said...

THANKS A LOT FOR THIS SHARING.A LOT OF TIME LOOKING FOR THIS RECORD AND AT THE END I FOUND IT HERE.GREETINGS FROM PUEBLA,MÉXICO.

Unknown said...

As many have mentioned here, this version which I first heard through a tinny little transistor radio on '208 in the Medium Wave' :) is the only one worth talking about. As a callow youth of 16 years back in the day, I thought this was a sophisticated choon:)

An interesting read on High Broom's backstory

Alexandre said...

Thanks a lot for sharing this.