July - Temporal Anomaly 2010 uk, psych rock)

July - Temporal Anomaly 2010 uk, psych rock)


They might not be a household name, but July is a band you ought to know. The U.K. psych-rockers have garnered a cult following since the release of their self-titled 1968 record. Original mono copies sell for more than three grand online, but its not just the scarcity and desirability of the album that raises eyebrows; it's the high quality of the music. Though their singles may not have charted back in the day, the five-piece Ealing-based group is still considered by psych-rock enthusiasts to be one of the unsung heroes of the genre.



July formed from the ashes of The Dreamers, one of many smaller groups that emerged during the British Invasion. After another British band, Freddie and The Dreamers, made it big, they rechristened themselves The Tomcats. A lineup change found them joining forces with members of another rock group, Second Thoughts. That group featured Jon Field on flute, keyboards, and percussion, Tony Duhig on guitar, Patrick Cambell-Lyons on vocals, and others. When Second Thoughts split, Duhig and Field joined up with Newman, James, and Jackson to form a new iteration of The Tomcats. This would later become the first lineup of July.

The Tomcats enjoyed some success in Spain with a blend of R&B and rock, but Newman and Cook eventually made their way back to London and wrote new material that embraced the psych-rock sound. They recorded demos and found a new label in Major-Minor and a new manager in Spencer Davis. July was recorded with the label's staff producer Tommy Scott and engineer Mike Ross overseeing. The 12-song effort was released in 1968 and the rest, as they say, was history.



As David Wells points out in his liner notes, in 1967 many British bands were exploring improvisational forms. July, meanwhile, had tighter sets with constructed songs. "We played at The Roundhouse...with another up-and-coming band," reflected bassist Alan James. When they were packing up to leave, the MC implored them to return to the stage for another set. "He said, 'The audience don't like the band that's out there at the moment.' That happened to be Pink Floyd."

While their live sets alongside Jethro Tull, Spooky Tooth, and Roy Harper were well-received, some of the band members grew tired of the requirements of studio recording. "The whole recording session [for July] was an absolute nightmare," Jon Field said, quoted in the notes. "Nobody was relaxed, and the whole thing was done in such a rush. The producer, Tommy Scott, couldn't contribute to the music because he didn't understand it - there was no empathy at all." "We weren't allowed into the control room to listen to the takes," Newman stated. "It was the old Peter Sellers thing: 'Where the carpet starts, you stop.'"

Differences in artistic direction between the band and producer Scott came to a head during the recording of the Small Faces-esque "Hello, Who's There?" "They turned it into a joke recording," off