Headband "Happen Out" 1971

Headband was formed in 1971 by Tommy Adderley, who at that stage was a huge fan of British rhythm and blues performer John Mayall. His original idea for Headband was to go without drums (as Mayall had done on 1969’s Turning Point) and to include electric violin. In rehearsals, having no drummer worked but Adderley said it didn’t work live because, “It wasn’t bright enough.”
Birmingham-born Tommy Adderley had lived in New Zealand since 1959. His great passion was jazz but he had worked across genres and in multiple venues prior to the formation of Headband. To get the sound he wanted, he added Jimmy Hill, formerly of Ray Columbus and the Invaders and Max Merritt and the Meteors, to the line-up…

..Although early publicity shots show Allan Quennell in the band, essentially, lead guitar for the original Headband was handled by Ron Craig (The Keil Isles).
The band was Adderley (harmonica, vocals), Ron Craig (lead guitar), Dick Hopp (flute, electric violin), Jack Stradwick (ex The Action, bass guitar) and Jimmy Hill (drums). Except for Stradwick, they were a bunch of seasoned musicians who were older than others in bands of the day.
In the very early days of their existence they played at Hatchets. But by mid-1971, Adderley was in partnership with Dave Henderson, who leased the Brown’s Lane, Auckland building that had in the past housed the Top 20, then Bo Peep. Headband moved there and with the new partnership the venue was renamed Granny’s.
It was one of those long, narrow places where the stage was in the narrow section beside the dance floor, leaving the band the sense they were out among the dancers. “When you were down on the dance floor,” said Ron Craig, “you were just about dancing with the band because it wasn’t a high stage.”
Granny’s was all about music. “I played there with Headband for two years, packing the place,” said Adderley. It was the starting place for a lot of bands: Mandrake, Dragon, Ragnarok, Karma, Rockinghorse. The support band played early in the evening then Headband came on.
Jack Stradwick wasn’t comfortable with all the booze and drugs so left after a short stint and was replaced by Billy Kristian (Keil Isles, Ray Columbus and The Invaders, Max Merritt and The Meteors). Kristian: “I came in from the Far East and straight into a blues band.”
This move re-established the tried and tested combination of Billy Kristian and Jimmy Hill, which had made its mark in bands previously.
Headband was different from other New Zealand bands of those years, says Craig: “There was a definite jazz influence ... and a rock and roll influence and a blues influence. We weren’t a bunch of copyists. There was a lot more improvisation in Headband. I guess there was rock and roll but there were lots of spaces in the music for people to do their own thing. Dick was a very strong influence in Headband. He got in and he played with a lot of fire.”
Adderley: “Dick hated playing rock and roll. We used to fool him. With ‘Good Morning Mr Rock And Roll’ we’d just tell him to play his jazz thing. We’d play under him so he’d happily go along the top.”
Tiny Thompson (ex-Velvet Morning) who worked on the door in the Granny’s days, commented: “One of the things Tommy was best at, and didn’t receive many accolades for, was his harmonica playing. There were times he was as spectacular as Dick Hopp was on flute. When [Tommy] was playing harmonica he had a lot of energy and it was well directed.”
Kristian: “It was a very good blues band with a happy-go-lucky sort of manner. Not your serious blues band. It was ... a have-fun type blues band.”
Very soon after they released its first single, ‘Granny’ (featuring the Auckland National Pop Orchestra) b/w Mayall’s ‘Deep Blue Sea’, Headband began work on its first album, Happen Out.
The band’s best-known song, ‘Good Morning Mr Rock And Roll’, was a single and was included on the album. Adderley’s partner Pam wrote most of the words, but as noted by Craig, “we all put quite a bit into the music. Really, it was Billy’s idea for the riff and chord progression.”
They travelled to Wellington to HMV to do the recording with Peter Dawkins. The album was recorded quickly, live in front of a group of about 30 friends. It needed very little tidying: a few guitar overdubs and a piano overdub by Kristian on ‘Good Morning Mr Rock And Roll’… - to be continued… - audioculture

trax:
1. Mood One / Time To Kill 2. Lisa, Listen To Me 3. Dip Tank 4. Ballad Of Jacques Le Mere 5. Headband Grooving 6. Good Morning Mr. Rock 'n' Roll 7. Love Is Bigger Than The Whole Wide World 8. Mood Two / The Laws Must Change
…served by Gaius…