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~ Gentle Giant ~
::: A condensed history.
Derek, Ray and Phil Shulman together with drummer Martian Smith had
previously played in Simon Dupree & The Big Sound.
Derek being the nebulous character Simon Dupree.
This band disbanded at the end of 1969.
Below are some comments from Derek and Ray Shulman about the way
Simon Dupree broke up. With acknowledgments to 'ZigZaG' ( link ) magazine.
~ Derek Shulman ::: The last year was
so frustrating but we had to do it because
we were "feathering our nest" for what turned out to be Gentle Giant.
We broke up the band at the end of 1969 and had enough money to rest for a
year and find a new band ......
~ Ray
Shulman ::: Well, we knew we couldn't continue with the musicians
we'd had before.
We weren't interested in the other musicians in the band - they couldn't
contribute anything.
~ Derek Shulman ::: We started doing cabaret and that was the final crunch.
We did a
couple of weeks of that and said, 'Right, that's it, lets break the band up'.
Stockton
Fiesta clinched it, and at the next gig at Bath we told the band
'We're breaking
up tonight', which was a fair shock.
~ Ray Shulman ::: We just announced it to the band it was the last gig and they said
'What are you talking about, we're doing well'. We said we couldn't do it
any more.
It was utter crap and we had no respect for each other musically - that
was the thing.
~ Comment :::
Tony Ransley the drummer and myself ( bass guitar ) left Simon Dupree about three months
before the
band finally disbanded ...... we had enough - long before Stockton Fiesta.
~ I heard it through
the grapevine :::
At the Simon Dupree final gig at Bath University, a flower show had been
held at
the University in the afternoon.
That evening the stage was surrounded by flowers.
These flowers were just the thing for flower fight that the band had later
...
Also a great deal of drunkenness, nudity, and shenanigans were reported
on
the stage that evening.
Approximately £50 was paid to the unfortunate owners of the blooms.
Money well spent I suspect.
Was this the evening that 'Flower Power' ended ... ?
The three Shulman brothers ( Derekhanraywithphil ) and Martian Smith stayed
together
to be the core of a new experimental band which was to be named Gentle
Giant.
Derek in particular was anxious to shed the image of Simon Dupree, with
all the
connotations that went with it. This never really worked too well, everything
that is
written about Gentle Giant mentions Simon Dupree. As it does here ....!
Next to join was Kerry Minnear, then guitarist Gary Green.
Kerry had graduated from The Royal Academy Of Music.
Ray Shulman played bass guitar and the violin.
Ray Shulman was and probably still is one of the best electric bass players
in the UK.
So this is the line up that was to produce the first album, which was
predictably called Gentle Giant.
Derek Shulman would usually sing Kerry Minnear's lead vocal parts on stage
because
Kerry's voice lacked projection, this worked fine in the studio but would
have been
overwhelmed on stage.
One critic once wrote "Simon Dupree ( Derek Shulman ) that well known shouter."
Another critic wrote "Simon Dupree who
turned into the awful band Gentle Giant. "
Ah well, yer can't win em all ...!
These are two negative revues, 99% are positive .......
Observation
by Ian Anderson about ~ Gentle Giant ~ from the
Jethro Tull tour of 1971 :::
I've never heard a band scream, shout, rant and rave at each other on an
almost nightly basis as soon as they returned to their dressing room.
In
this respect they didn't give the impression of being happy bunnies.
Comment :::
This seems to be the norm when brothers are with the same band.
The Kinks, Bee Gees, The Beach Boys to name a few.
When I was with Simon Dupree the atmosphere in the dressing room after
a
gig always seemed to be the square root of how the audience had re-acted.
In early 1972 Phil Shulman and Martin Smith the drummer weren't getting
on too
well, so Martin Smith left and Malcolm Mortimore came in on drums.
Malcolm Mortimore had a motorcycle accident after the release of Three
Friends.
He was replaced on short notice by John Weathers.
Phil Shulman left the band after the fourth album. He was tired of touring
and
neglecting his family. In a recent interview he said -
Quote :-
"I left and my brothers didn't speak to me for years, but I felt I had neglected
my family for long enough."
No attempt appears to have been made to replace Phil.
Gentle Giant remained a five piece.
For more in-depth information about Gentle Giant an excellent site is :-
"Gentle Giant Tour History by Jack Skelly"
© P. O'Flaherty.
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