Nirvana's Patrick Campbell-Lyons pens kids TV theme for 70s hit-makers, and everyone wins
Label: Pye
Year of Release: 1978
Wigan's Rainbow Cottage were a rum bunch of coves - formed as a band consisting
entirely of left-handed members (presumably for the novelty factor rather than as an act of protest) they were a club act who
toured the UK relentlessly and made most of their money as a covers
band. However, they did occasionally pop into recording studios to put
out original material. Their most successful effort, "Seagull", reached number 33 in 1976, and was penned by Brian Gibbs of popsike wonders The Answers.
It's possibly due to Gibbs' involvement that "Seagull" sounds uncannily
like a late sixties group ballad which has somehow found itself in the
charts in 1976. It's whimsical, gentle, contemplative and actually quite
sweet, and wouldn't have been completely out of place on a "Circus
Days" compilation LP.
The group tried to build on the track's unlikely but modest success and
failed, and continued to make most of their money from the live circuit.
However, another opportunity for fame and fortune arose in 1978, namely
the chance to record the theme tune for the stop motion animated
children's series "Cloppa Castle", based on warring tribes in some
peculiar fictional alternate reality battling over the rights to oil.
The theme tune is a busy but datedly analogue synth driven beast,
beginning with psychedelic phasing and steadily building into something
both strident and ridiculous. "Everyday at three o'clock/ they all sit down for tea!"
we are informed forcefully, as the group summarise the general
activities of the puppets in the programme with passion and gusto.
Is this intended for adult consumption? Probably not. Nonetheless, there
are elements of the single which do, once again, echo the late sixties,
and that's possibly not too surprising when you consider that Patrick
Campbell-Lyons of the UK group Nirvana was involved with the songwriting
(it would seem that Rainbow Cottage had a filofax filled with the
contact details of everyone who was almost someone in the late sixties).
With a slight, only passing similarity to the Crocheted Doughnut Ring's
flop psych single "Happy Castle",
it's a piece of dayglo silliness only a complete grump would hate. It
wasn't a hit, obviously - and nor really was the programme it came from -
but this is a perfectly nice burst of sunshine.
Rainbow Cottage ploughed on through numerous line-up changes until 1987, when they decided to call it a day.
1 comment:
Thank you for this upload. I'm a fervent collector of the work of Patrick Campbell-Lyons and this seems to be one of his harder to locate items. Have a great week!
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