Week of September 4, 2005

Formerly Fat Harry

Personnel:
Laurie Allen – Drums
Bruce Barthol – Bass
Phil Greenberg Vocals, Guitar
George Khan – Sax
Gary Peterson - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion

Album:
Formerly Fat Harry (Harvest SHSP 4016) 1971
(issued on Capitol in the US)

CD: Muskrat, RATCD-4222, 2003 (Japan)

A rather dull good-time country-rock band notable for including former Battered Ornaments' saxophonist George Khan and former Country Joe And The Fish bassist Bruce Barthol. The album was eminently forgettable and the band were soon forgotten too. They split up soon after its release.

Taken from The Tapestry of Delights - The Comprehensive Guide to British Music of the Beat, R&B, Psychedelic and Progressive Eras 1963-1976, Vernon Joynson   ISBN 1 899855 04 1

Alongside fellow Americans Eggs Over Easy, this Anglo-American band, having recorded their sole album on the British soil, have been named as the first-ever exponent of “pub rock”, a genre that was still three years away from bursting onto the London scene via the likes of Brinsley Schwarz, Dr. Feelgood, Brewers Droop, Kursaal Flyers, Ducks Deluxe, Chilli Willi & The Red Hot Peppers, Kokomo, etc. Stylistically, they weren’t a million miles away from Daddy Longlegs, yet another US band that was operating in the UK around that same time frame (they recorded four albums before calling it a day and moving back to the States).

Alex Gitlin
September 2005


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