UK prog-rockers Gracious! acquired their exclamation mark when their first album was released in July 1970. Up to this point, they were Gracious. Barney Bubbles, who designed their LP’s sleeve, added the symbol without asking or telling anyone.
The sleight typifies the story of Gracious! The band had breaks, but their path through the music business was bumpy. They recorded a second album between January and March 1971, but split in August that year before it was scheduled for release. When the LP was issued in April 1972 the band were not informed. The label “just flopped it out there with no effort, communication, commitment or marketing,” says the band’s Alan Cowderoy in the booklet coming with the neat clamshell box set The Recordings 1970-1971.
Both albums are included in the box set, as is a recording of the band’s 27 August 1970 Isle of Wight Festival appearance. The latter was filmed, and is also included on a DVD. Bar their June 1969 “Beautiful” / “What a Lovely Rain” single, everything Gracious! recorded is here – it is surprising the single isn’t included, as the rights holder from whom it could licensed for reissue is the same as that of their two albums.
The band which recorded both albums was Alan Cowderoy (guitar, vocals), Paul Davis (12-string guitar, timpani, vocals), Martin Kitcat (electric piano, harpsichord, Mellotron, vocals) Robert Lipson (drums), Tim Wheatley (bass guitar). Apart from one case on their second album, the songs were written by Davis and Kitcat.
Despite their first album appearing on the high-profile Vertigo label, Gracious! were largely forgotten until the mid Eighties, when both albums began attracting the attention of collectors. The hunt was on for prog-rock rarities. The first reissue of debut album Gracious! arrived in 1988. A bootleg repro of follow-up This Is…Gracious!! had surfaced in 1987. Nowadays, decent-shape UK first pressings of each album fetch anywhere between £250 and £500. Some hopeful sellers of This Is…Gracious!! ask for more than £1000.
So why the interest? A listen to either of the albums answers the question.
Gracious! melds a Moody Blues flavour with a hard-rock edge. There are also intimations of the first Yes album. Songs are long: at least five-minutes apiece on Side One. Side Two of the album is taken up by the close-to 17-minute song suite “The Dream” which, at one point, quotes The Beatles “Hey Jude.” Guitar solos are crisp, the drumming is jazzy yet reassuringly solid. The main keyboards used are an electric piano and a harpsichord. There is the occasional use of a Mellotron. Instrumental passages have a Procol Harum-esque solemnity. Melodies rise and fall in a hymnal manner. Lyrics are portentously meaningful. Overall, there is lightness of touch. Crucially, it all holds together.
Second album This Is...Gracious!! lays on the quasi-ecclesiastical vibe more thickly, has even more portentous lyrics and makes greater use of the Mellotron. It is a little heavier in terms of the drum and guitar attack. The portmanteau songs are fiddlier than before, and trickier time signatures are employed. It is less immediately melodic than its predecessor. Here, the side-long track is Side One’s “Super Nova,” parts of which are clearly in thrall to King Crimson. On Side Two, the spacey “Once on a Windy Day” showcases the band’s vocal harmonies. It is, so to speak, the proggier of the two albums. It is also the sound of band which had found a confidence in what it is doing and sounds totally at one with the time it was recorded. Yet, five months after it was completed Gracious! were no more. (pictured left, the US version of the Gracious! LP)
Gracious! formed in the Surrey commuter belt, south-west of London. Members were from or went to school in Claygate, Esher and Weybridge. After a spell as Satan’s Disciples and line-up changes, the band became Gracious in 1968. Initially, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers were an influence and cover versions played live included “Born to be Wild,” “Open my Eyes” (The Nazz), “Heaven is in Your Mind” (Traffic) and the soul songs “Heatwave” and “Reflections.” Hearing Vanilla Fudge had an impact. The music became heavier, less linear. They supported The Who in 1968, and later in the year played dates in Germany.
Their manager brought them to the attention of former EMI staff producer Norrie Paramor, who secured a deal with Polydor Records. The summer 1969 Tim Rice-produced “Beautiful” / “What A Lovely Rain” single duly followed. It isn’t great. Both sides were Davis/Kitcat songs. The top side has a calypso feel and a bubblegum undertone. ”What a Lovely Rain” was better; a form of harmony pop, albeit with a with weak melody. As well as the UK, the single was issued in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany and the US. It didn’t click, and their time with Polydor was over.
The next break came at a 2 December 1969 show at West Hampstead’s Klooks Kleek, where the non-exclamation-mark Gracious were supporting Keith Relf’s Renaissance. There and then they were picked up by Philips, who placed them with their progressive imprint Vertigo. By this time, the band had been influenced by King Crimson, who they played with at Beckenham's Mistrale Club on 11 July 1969. The poppiness of the Polydor days was gone.
The first album – Gracious! – was recorded in February and March 1970. As well as the UK, it was released in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and the US. There were profile-raising dates with Pink Floyd, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac and The Moody Blues. They were with latter’s booking agent – which was the route to the Isle Of Wight Festival booking, where the lengthy “Super Nova” fell apart as it was being played. “Once on a Windy Day” was quickly slotted in to the set. Nothing they performed at the festival was on their debut album – which had been in the shops for just a month. Festival goers heard material they could not buy: material destined for an album which would not be recorded until early the next year. Gracious! were not pandering to audience expectations.
Ultimately, the wilfulness inherent to not promoting a very recently issued album would not be a concern as Gracious! split a year after the Isle Of Wight appearance and the second album emerged following their demise – on a no-kudos budget label, with the ad hoc title This Is…Gracious. The words “This Is” were generic to series of low-price Philips’ albums: This Is…The Music Of Greece, This Is…Val Doonican, This Is...Scott Walker.
It was a strange post-script to the Gracious! story. Nonetheless, and despite the hiccups, the music did get out there, was rediscovered and, ultimately, was lauded. Now, The Recordings 1970-1971 – a fine entry point into these wayward prog rockers.
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