Atlas - Rock and Roll Wizards/ Military Rag

 

Hard rock and boogie from scene veterans

Label: Reprise

Year of Release: 1973

Besides prog and demonic hard rock in the early seventies, there was no shortage of boogie on the circuit. Status Quo are an obvious example, of course, but then Chas Hodge's deeply underrated outfit Heads Hands And Feet and a vast array of other Old Grey Whistle Test feature acts had a sound which owed an historic debt to Little Richard and Fats Domino as much as it did the underground rock scene.

Atlas are a strangely neglected case in point. Formed by the singer Ronnie Charles from the Australian group The Groop (whose "Woman You're Breaking Me" single is well worth a spin in itself) with ex-members of other British bands such as Les Gough on bass (Somebody's Image), Terry Slade on drums (Sunshine) and Glen Turner on guitar (Wishbone Ash), they often sounded as much like a good-time party band as a rock outfit. 

Both sides here prove that point. "Rock and Roll Wizards" is spiritually swamped in the deep south, but has a clear fussiness to it with bags of solos and frilly drum patterns. This is boogie on its own very clear, hairy terms rather than straight-down, legs-apart Status Quo rock. While hooks do exist on both sides, they're not especially pronounced and take a secondary position to the barnstorming instrumentation. 

"Rock and Roll Wizards" and "Military Rag" were also featured on an "eponymous" LP which was released by Reprise in 1973 and is now in demand enough that you shouldn't expect to pay less than £100 for a copy. Back then, though, it was more or less disregarded and while the group continued playing live until the end of 1974, there's nothing else out there on vinyl or indeed any other format.

Ronnie Charles embarked on a solo career afterwards, Terry Slade did some work for Kevin Coyne and joined the George Hatcher Band, and Glen Turner joined forces with Joe Cocker band member Chris Stainton to release the LP "Tundra" in 1975. In the broader terms of the music careers of most of the members, though, Atlas were something of a blip - an idea that made the best use of everyone's talents and felt of the moment, but ultimately didn't fly.

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