Week of June 29, 1997
Armed with a powerful, soulful voice and a commanding guitar style, Miller Anderson was much in demand during the heyday of his career, The Scots born singer, guitarist and songwriter first came to fame with the Keef Hartley Band, which established him as a well-respected frontman. He joined the band in 1968 and stayed with Hartley for some three years, during which time they toured hard, became a top festival and club attraction and made some excellent albums.
Keef, a hard-hitting drummer from Lancashire, (ex-Artwoods and
John
Mayall), had put
together
a jazz rock band -that compared favourably with America's Blood, Sweat
& Tears. He found an ally in Miller Anderson, who not only sang lead
and played guitar for his band, but contributed the majority of the material.
Their first album together was the well-received 'Half Breed', (1968),
followed by 'The Battle Of NW6' (1969) and 'The Time Is Near'
(1970), all on the Deram label. One of their best LPs was 'Overdog'
released in 1971, on which Miller contributed seven of the songs, including
the title track and powerful numbers like 'You Can Choose', and
'Plain Talkin', which showcased Anderson's driving guitar solos. Keef
Hartley went on to form a much bigger outfit with brass players and they
recorded the 'Little Big Band' album at London's Marquee Club in 1971.
However it seems that Miller and Keef didn't always get on too well, and
Anderson left the band soon afterwards. It was a good opportunity to record
his own solo album and the result was 'Bright City', now heard for
the first time on CD.
Miller
wrote all the material for his project which was first released on Deram
in 1971. The songs, including 'Alice Mercy (To Whom It May Concern)',
'The Age Of Progress', 'Nothing In This World', and 'Bright
City', remind us what a fine singer has been missing from mainstream
rock these past few years. Among those helping him out were Neil Hubbard
(guitar), the late Gary Thain (bass), who later joined
Uriah Heep, Mick Weaver, (sometimes
known as Wynder K. Frogg), and Peter Dines, on keyboards. Session man Lynn
Dobson from the Manfred Mann
band played -flute, while Eric Dillon was on drums. Producer Neil Slaven
sat in on percussion.
Adding backing vocals were Madeline Bell, Tracey Miller
and Lisa Strike. Thain,
Dines
and Weaver all played on Keef Hartley's albums, so
Miller was using mostly familiar faces to present his own music to the world.
But getting a "name" in the music biz is harder than it looks, and back in
the early Seventies at least, Keef Hartley still had
the pulling power that Miller Anderson lacked on his own.
For
a while Miller had his own band called Hemlock with James Leverton
(bass) and Eric Dillon (drums). It was a struggle to establish themselves
and they joined forces with Kim Simmonds and Stan Webb (ex-Chicken
Shack), to form a new version of the Savoy Brown
blues band which went on a brief tour of America in the Spring of 1974. However
the band which had been bashing round the circuit for years with different
personnel, finally fell apart in confusion. In 1974 Miller rejoined his old
mate Keef Hartley. They formed a new Dog Soldier
and released one album of the same name for United Artists. It proved
a failure and the normally cheerful 'Lancashire Hustler', Keef
Hartley
announced his intention of quitting his role as a band leader. The music
scene was changing and brass oriented jazz-rock was under attack from Glam
Rock. Anderson decided that if he couldn't beat ‘em, he'd join 'em,
and in 1976 he teamed up with Marc Bolan in what proved to be the last version
of T.Rex. He worked alongside
Dino Dines (keyboards), Herbie Flowers (bass), and Tony Newman (drums).
T.Rex hit the road with punk
group The Damned on the Dandy In The Underworld Tour in 1977.
Miller's presence on guitar gave Marc more freedom on stage and Bolan was
very proud of this highly professional outfit which he called 'the best
rock'n'roll band in the world".
Sadly
Marc Bolan was killed in a car accident on September 16, 1977 and the band
broke up. Miller Anderson carried on working, but never achieved the fame
and fortune of his contemporaries. However he earned the respect of a great
many fellow musicians. Today he continues to write and perform and in late
1994 he reminds us of a rewarding aspect of the thriving Seventies music
scene that now seems like a bygone age.
Chris Welch, London, England 1995
(Taken from the CD reissue of "Bright City",
Repertoire, REP 4524 WP)
Bright city (1971, Deram; CD reissue: 1995 - Repertoire REP 4524-WP)
Celtic moon (1998, Inakustik INAK 9046)
Bluesheart (2004, Delicious Del118)
Miller Anderson's Official Web Site
To Miguel Terol's Excellent Miller Anderson page at Musicians' Olympus