I remember you guys were slated to play at Wiggen's Park in Camden, NJ on July 2nd, 1993 with Iron Butterfly, Mitch Ryder and The Soul Survivors. I attended the show and took a detour to a local liquor store. When I came back, my girlfriend(at the time) told me that Rare Earth had canceled out due to an illness of one of the members. When I heard of Eddie's passing three and a half weeks later, I figured it had been he. Do you have any memory of this show being canceled?
OVER THE YEARS FROM 1971 ALL THE WAY UP TO THE PRESENT,WE HAD VERY FEW CANCELLATIONS.I COULD COUNT THEM ON ONE HAND,EVEN COUNTING RAIN-OUTS.IT'S EASY TO SEE WHY YOU WOULD HAVE THOUGHT IT WAS BECAUSE OF EDDIE,BUT I DON'T BELIEVE IT WAS.
WE HAD TO CANCEL A DATE IN DETROIT BECAUSE OUR GEAR DIDN'T SHOW UP.THEY PRINTED IN THE PAPER THAT I HAD FALLEN IN THE SHOWER. THE ONE IN NEW JERSEY WAS BECAUSE GIL WAS ILL. I'M SURE WE GAVE THE PROMOTOR SOME ADVANCE NOTICE,BUT IN THOSE SITUATIONS,THEY USUALLY DON'T ANNOUNCE IT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE,FOR OBVIOUS REASONS.
Another interesting gig should have happenened for England in 1971. The ads were placed in the music press.
One was for a concert with the band CCS at the Royal Albert Hall and the other was a gig I read about in the pages of New Musical Express for Earth to do the Manchester Apollo.
Wow, we had no luck in the UK when it came to Rare Earth concerts then. I bet that was a lot to do with being signed to Motown. It would cost a fair bit to fly all that equipment over and, with no hit singles to their name, a financial gamble? I expect most Motown artists were singers so I presume it was cost effective to use a backing band made up of UK musicians.
Its a shame a UK tour wasn't arranged with Rare Earth supporting the Doobies, Chicago or the Average White Band. I think Rare Earth would have raised their profile considerably. I don't think the UK disliked Rare Earth, it was a just a case of very few people were aware of them.
Pity the CCS gig didn't happen. I liked CCS a lot and I picked up their greatest hits CD a few years back.
What a coincidence 2 concerts cancelled and both at places called Camden. Camden NJ in 1993 and at a venue called Dingwalls in Camden Town in North London on 12th February 1989.
I think that did not too bad for exposure in the UK and I think it would have sealed a bigger european audience if they had come over dring the peak period.
When I first heard the band it was because I Just Want To Celebrate was being played every hour on the hour on Radio Luxembourg as the 208 powerplay. This was played for a whole week and Radio Lux had an audience of around 8 million throughout Europe. Because of this the band became the one I needed to hear more from.
Emporer Rosko on Radio One which for everyone not in the UK was the most listened to radio station with around 15 million listeners quite often played the band. Indeed this was the first time I heard Hey Big Brother and was blown away with the power. That rocked.
I recall hearing most Earth singles on Radio One, they even used the start of Celebrate for a jingle mix.
Simon Bates had Warm Ride as a record of the week so once again it got heard by millions.
Radio Caroline from the North Sea played Rare Earth all the time and I remember the 77 Rarearth getting the record of the week treatment.
So I guess people just could not put faces to the music, if they had come over to the UK and Europe they would have had good tv exposure without a doubt and the majority could have identified with them more just as they did in the States.
They must have sold pretty good though because you could get their records almost everywhere in the UK. I bought my copy of Rareearth from Boots the chemist, something for the weekend sir!
I hadn't realised RE were played so often on Radio 1. I remember Warm Ride got some coverage. I think the Bee Gees connection helped. It could easily have scraped the Top 40 with a bit more luck, as I think it was hovering about No70 at one point. I used to listen to Tony Blackburn (and his awful jokes) because he was a big ambassador for Motown. I don't recall him playing any Rare Earth though.
Emperor Rosko, that brings back memories. Jimmy Young with his recipies, Stuart Henry, Johny Walker, DLT, Alan Freeman, Jimmy Saville (now then, now then) and even...Terry Wogan. Those were the days!
As for RE records, I got Ecology from the co-op LOL. (I still remember my parents' divi number!!) Yes, you could pick up their early albums most places. After Ma it became a bit more tricky. I don't think Back to Earth was even issued in the UK? I got my copy on import from the States.
As for coverage in the music papers, there was usually an advert for their releases. I certainly recall a big advert for Willie Remembers. But I never found any feature articles on the band. Incidentally, if anyone has any write ups on the band (from anywhere, providing its written in English) I'd love to see them.
Motown had a UK fan club and one of my friends was a member. They had a typed monthly magazine called Motown Ad astra. I used to love reading this in the hope of seeing a brief mention of Rare Earth. It was run by Sharon Davis (not the swimmer) who went on to write a couple of Motown related books / biographies.
I had a independant radio station playlist guide at the time of Warm Ride and it featured on 90% of station playlists. Tony Blackburn played Warm Ride as he again featured it as a record of the week. In the case of Simon Bates he also played Dreamer and reckoned Pete sounded like Solomon Burke
Oh and on a different note as UK Dave is a big fan too, John Verity also featured as a Simon Bates record of the week with the great "I Want You"
I never knew Simon Bates had JV as his record of the week. Wow. I have that single, along with most of his stuff. I always thought his version of "Stay With Me Baby" deserved recognition.
On the subject of John Verity, nice to see all surviving ex Argent members are actively touring at present. Ballard and Henrit in Germany this month, Henrit also playing in the UK with John Verity, and finally Rod Argent and Jim Rodford touring the UK this month with The Zombies featuring Colin Blunstone.
Oh no, I've drifted onto Argent again. I'll bring it back to Rare Earth by asking Ray if he can recall the titles of the two Russ Ballard songs that he mentioned he recorded a few years ago?
Thanks for your info & recall, Ray. That night was cloudy and started out okay. Soull Survivors were great! Then the rain started and Mitch Ryder was alright(though I'd seen him do better shows). Iron Butterfly were using a temp guy on vocals & guitar who wasn't really a suitable singer for them. That & the rain really made for a sort of bummer end to the show. Plus, I was really disappointed when you guys weren't able to make it. R.E. got to our area so rarely as it was....
As John rightly said both Tony Blackburn and Simon Bates had Warm Ride as their records of the week, two DJ's who had the highest audience figures for a radio programme in the UK at the time. Record companies would kill for Blackburn and Bates to have their latest 45 as a record of the week as it was so prestigious, it allways amazed me that Motown UK seemed to do nothing to capitalize on this.
Yet despite being Record of the Week for both Tony Blackburn AND Simon Bates Warm Ride didn't reach the Top 40. Was it because the record buyers didn't like it, or was it because music trends in the UK were going through rapid changes at that time? I remember being excited that Rare Earth were back together with the added bonus of a potential hit on their hands. At the same time, I remember thinking that it didn't quite fit in with what was happening in the UK at that time.
I thought Tony Blackburn had moved on by the time Warm Ride was released? Obviously I must be wrong. As for the record company, it was Prodigal under the Motown umbrella. They put out a 12" promo version and pushed that hard around DJs and local radio stations. There were some ads in the music papers. I'm not an expert so I don't know how much more they could have done. Maybe that was an ideal time to bring the band to Europe for a tour to promote the single?
At the end of the day it turned out to be a shortlived re-union. The old disagreements re-surfaced according to Peter's book. If Warm Ride had charted in the UK would things have turned out differently? Would that line-up have continue to work together beyond Grand Slam?
Dave That line up continued past Grand Slam through to 1983 and they did the Tight And Hot album on RCA which as we know did not turn out as planned.
Warm Ride got great coverage and reached the US top 40, as for Europe.... once again maybe seeing what the band looked like may have helped. There was no idenity unless you were already a fan. Most top 40 hits are seen via tv.
