The Bands of the Sixteen City U.K. Band Package Tour in 1967
Six bands joined together to undertake a sixteen-date tour of the U.K. As the concert poster shows, Jimi Hendrix and the Experience and The Move shared the top of the bill, followed by The Pink Floyd, Nice, Amen Corner, and Eire Apparent. On stage, Hendrix got precisely 40 minutes. The Move, who preceded Hendrix, had 30 minutes followed by Pink Floyd with only 15 to 20 minutes, which was tight for a band known for their lengthy songs. Tickets cost between 7 to 15 shillings.
Hendrix had three Top 10 singles in Britain – "Hey Joe," "Purple Haze," and "The Wind Cries Mary." The Move also had three hits "Night of Fear," "I Can Hear The Grass Grow," and "Flowers in the Rain." Pink Floyd went Top 10 with their single, "See Emily Play." The opening act, Amen Corner scored their biggest hit, "Bend Me, Shape Me." Hendrix got most of the attention in the press, but in 1967 all the groups were popular in the U.K. Many consider this band package one of the best to tour the U.K. Below is a discussion about the other groups on the tour.
Vintage Rock Posters offers a $15,000 reward for original concert posters for the 1967 Hendrix, The Move, and Pink Floyd package tour. A British printer produced the 30 x 40 quad poster for advertising the band package in all sixteen cities.
If you have an original Hendrix, The Move, Pink Floyd band package poster, please take pictures of it and send them to rareboard@aol.com.
The Move - Move
The Move
The Move was a group of Birmingham's supposedly best musicians and was the most successful band to come out of the city during the 1960s. Even though they had nine top singles in the United Kingdom, they did not find commercial success in the U.S. The band's music style ranged from pop to psychedelic, blues, progressive, and 1950s style rock 'n' roll. Original members included Trevor Burton, Ace Kefford, and Roy Wood. In 1965, while playing at the trendy Cedar Club in Birmingham, they had a chat with Davy Jones, lead vocalist for a Lower Third London band. Jones suggested to Kefford and Burton they should start a band. Jones later became known as David Bowie.
Carl Wayne joined the group and became the band's leader and lead vocalist. The band had their first big gig at the Belfry Hotel in Stourbridge on January 23, 1966, mostly covering American groups like The Byrds and Moby Grape.
Tony Secunda, known for his stuns and shenanigans, became the band's manager. He encouraged Roy Wood to start to write songs, and they had their first big hit, "Night Of Fear," which climbed to Number 2 in early 1967. When they moved their act to London, they became known for their wild stage act, including flash bombs, smoke, and using an ax to smash old T.V. sets. Next, Wood composed "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" followed by "Flowers In The Rain." Both songs were hits by summer 1967. One of Secunda's antics got them sued by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Harold Wilson, who won a case against the Move for libel. The band had to pay all Wilson's legal costs, and all royalties earned from "Flower in the Rain" went to charities of Wilson's choice. After that episode, they fired Seconda and hired Don Arden to manage the group.
One of Arden's first moves was to add the Move on a sixteen-city band tour package tour featuring Jimi Hendrix and the Experience. The other bands include Pink Floyd, The Nice, Amen Corner, and Eire Apparent.
Pink Floyd – The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Pink Floyd
““They don’t know it, but people like Pink Floyd are the mad scientists of this day and age.””
Hendrix was on to something. Pink Floyd was one of the first British psychedelic groups known for their extended compositions, sound experimentation, philosophical lyrics, and elaborate light shows. Pink Floyd band members included Syd Barrett (guitar, lead vocals), Nick Mason (drums), Roger Waters (bass guitar, vocals), and Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals).
In 1963, Waters and Mason met while studying architecture at the London Polytechnic. Richard Wright, a fellow architecture student, joined them later that year. Barret joined them in 1964. Together they formed a band called Sigma 6. Sigma 6 went through several names before settling on the Tea Set. One night, discovering that another band playing at a gig had the same name, Barrett coined Pink Floyd Sound in 1965. They dropped "sound" from their title the following year.
By a chance meeting at the Marquee Club in December 1966, they met Peter Jenner and his business partner, Andrew King, who together ended up managing Pink Floyd. Jenner and King got Pink Floyd good press coverage. The Sunday Times stated: "At the launching of the new magazine I.T. the other night a pop group called the Pink Floyd played throbbing music while a series of bizarre coloured shapes flashed on a huge screen behind them ... apparently very psychedelic."
In August 1967, the Pink Floyd recorded their first album "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn." The album peaked at number 6, spending 14 weeks on the U.K. charts. The band was attracting large crowds at London clubs and did their first U.S. tour in October. While on Dick Clark's T.V. show "American Band Stand," Barrett would not respond to questions and just gazed into space. His mental condition continued to deteriorate when they got back to the U.K. to join a package tour with Jimi Hendrix and the Experience and four other popular British bands.
The Nice - The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack
The Nice
The Nice was Keith Emerson's first commercially successful band. The group was formed in 1967 by Emerson, Lee Jackson, David O'List, and Ian Hague to back soul singer P. P. Arnold. The group's stage performances featured Emerson's organ showmanship, with compositions included rearrangements of classical music themes and Bob Dylan songs. In August, the band had its first major break at the 7th National Jazz and Blues Festival in Windsor. The group's first album was recorded during the autumn of 1967. At the end of the year, they joined a package tour with Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Move, and Amen Corner. The Nice eventuality evolved into the supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
Amen Corner - Round Amen Corner
Amen Corner
No, the Amen Corner band was not named after the storied 11th, 12th, and 13th holes of the Augusta National Golf Club, home of The Masters Tournament. Instead, the band was named after a club in Cardiff, Wales, where a disk jockey would play American soul music. The Welsh R&B pop band featured singer Andy Fairweather Low, organist Blue Weaver, guitarist Neil Jones, bassist Clive Taylor, saxophonists Allen Jones and Mike Smith, and drummer Dennis Bryon. They scored the first of their six British chart hits with "Gin House" in the summer of 1967, followed by their big hit "Bend Me, Shape Me. Amen Corner opened each show during the package tour.
Eire Apparent - Eire Apparent
Eire Apparent
Eire Apparent, originally from Northern Ireland, was the opening act for many Jimi Hendrix and the Experience concerts. The band's guitarist, Henry McCullough, backed Joe Cocker and later became a member of Paul McCartney's Wings. For more information about Eire Apparent, please check out my blog titled, "Eire Apparent- Opening Act For Jimi Hendrix 1969 German Tour."