The Inquisitive People - Big White Chief/ Rhapsody Of Spring

One-off curio from Immigration Officers and would-be pop stars

Label: Decca

Year of Release: 1967

Some records sold so poorly and received so little press attention that there are virtually no facts out there about the groups that recorded them. Sometimes, and more unusually, there's a little scrap of information sitting on the Internet confirming some basic details, but not the full picture, and certainly not any verifiable sources.

So, this is where I nervously announce that's where I stand with The Inquisitive People. So far as I'm aware, two of this four man group - namely Robbie Dunlop and Colin Birt - were HM Immigration Officers with a penchant for live performance in their spare time. Beyond the apparent existence of a signed copy of the record also offering the names "Jayce" and "Colin", I've no idea who the other two members were.

"Big White Chief" is a strange little record, wherein the group perform a minimal Hammond and Hazelwood number about racial equality. "He ain't gonna buckle to the big white chief/ no, he ain't gonna buckle anymore" they gently inform us as an orchestra builds and swells around them, and some bongos tap persuasively in the background. It's a gentle statement rather than a thundering lecture and sounds a bit naive from this distance, but it was undoubtedly well-meaning, and having made its point it finishes surprisingly quickly, shuffling over the hills and out of sight.

The flipside "Rhapsody of Spring" seems to be Dunlop and Birt's own composition and feels like a slightly naive piece of orchestral folk pop. It's sweet, smooth and actually well written, but doesn't leave you gagging for more. Whatever else they had up their sleeves, Decca didn't pick up the option to release more records by them - and indeed, after this point they disappeared as suddenly as they came.

I've absolutely no idea what became of any of the members, obviously, but I can only assume that Dunlop and Birt returned to their uniforms and their dayjobs with a few interesting tales to tell their colleagues about showbiz. All the evidence suggests that they didn't record with any other groups after this point. As for Jayce and Colin, who could even begin to stab a guess?