Frumious Bandersnatch
Personnel:
DAVID DENNY ld gtr, vcls A C D E F
BRIAN HOUGH bs A B
JACK KING drms, vcls A B C D E F
GEORGE TICKNER gtr A B
KAJA DORIA vcls B
BRET WILMOT ld gtr B
ROSS VALORY bs, vcls C
JIMMY WARNER ld gtr, vcls C D
BOB WINKELMAN gtr, vcls, (bs) C D E F
JACK NOTESTEIN bs, vcls D E
CD:
1 A YOUNG MAN'S SONG (Big Beat CDWIKD 169) 1996
EP:
1(C) FRUMIOUS BANDERSNATCH (Muggles Gramophone Works FB-A/B) 1968
NB: (1) originals are either on red or purple vinyl in hard cardboard PS. Counterfeited in the early eighties on black vinyl in paper PS.
From Lafayette, California, Frumious Bandersnatch came into existence when All Night Flight (line-up 'A' above) decided to change their name, and chose Frumious Bandersnatch from Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" poem. The bands lynchpin, Jack King, had previously played with Shades Blue Ltd. and Denny had also been a surf act called The Breakers.
Lineup 'B' recorded just two tracks, Now That You're Gone plus an early version of Cheshire in October 1967. Neither was released at the time, but both have subsequently been included on A Young Man's Song CD retrospective. The band broke up at the end of the year when all their equipment was stolen; but after a short hiatus the band reformed as lineup 'C', with Bob Winkelman joining from The Epics while Warner and Valory were recruited from The Good Timers.
This line-up recorded their classic EP which looked all set to make it big by the Summer of 1968. This contained three tracks: Heart To Cry, Misty Cloudy and Cheshire. On the first of these, Warner, Winkelman and Denny put together some of the finest acid guitar playing to come out of San Francisco, but the bands' drug and alcohol-fueled manager Jim Nixon effectively killed their chances of getting a major label deal with his obnoxious behaviour (the group apparently had plenty of offers).
After Valory left to join Faun in late 1968, the band gradually lost impetus and finally broke up in late 1969; Tickner later joined Valory in Faun and both were later founder-members of Journey. Winkelman, Denny, King and Valory all later played at some time in The Steve Miller Band.
In 1995 Big Beat reissued their seminal EP as part of the CD, The Berkeley EPs, along with the June 1966 effort by Country Joe and The Fish, The Mad River and Notes From The Underground EPs. The following year they put together a passionate but unpolished collection of Frumious Bandersnatch rarities including live recordings, studio-outtakes etc, which with it's 73 minute running time is definitely worth investigating.
Hearts To Cry from their EP can also be heard on Endless Journey - Phase Three (LP) and Endless Journey - Phase I & II (Dble CD).
For more information check the following website:
http://www.daviddenny.com/
(Vernon Joynson / Lloyd Peasley)
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