(c’61-’80) Phillip Goodhand-Tait (piano / keyboards / vocals)
Singer-songwriter Goodhand-Tait was known as just Phil Tait in his years at Pewley, then George Abbot schools in Guildford when he lived on Bushy Hill Estate. While he’d dabbled with piano, playing by ear, he progressed to taking lessons from Guildfordian Frank J. Winslade. His first band was Phill Tone and the Vibrants, which became Phil Tone & the Midnighters, with Paul Demers (drums), Ivor Shackleton (guitar), and Michael Francis ‘Kirk’ Riddle (bass). They played their first gig at Eastleigh Town Hall, Hampshire on the 2 Sep ’61. The band went on to be called The Stormsville Shakers.
It was while gigging with The Stormsville Shakers in ’66 that Goodhand-Tait signed a songwriting agreement with Dick James Music – he had become a songwriter for others including Love Affair. Also in ’66 he recorded the solo demo single “You Can’t Take Love”, b-sided by “J.C. Greasburger” – co-written by Stormsville members Riddle and David Sherrington – on Parlophone’s Demo “A” label [R 5547]. In ’67, with no further forward momentum for the Stormsville Shakers they reinvented themselves as Circus.
Goodhand-Tait left Circus on 1 Jan ’69 to start his solo career which was officially launched at the Cafe Royal later that month – This move owed a lot to his songs successes for other outfits. The self penned single, “Love Has Got Hold of Me”, backed by “Too Pleased to Help” on the Decca label [F12868] arrived the very next month. “Jeannie” followed the next year on DJM Records [DJS.230] taken from the “Rehearsal” album.
In early ’71 The Brew auditioned to be Goodhand-Tait’s backing band with one of their first duties being to back Goodhand-Tait for the broadcast of a Farnham gig in March ’71 on the long-running BBC Radio 2 overnight radio program “Night Ride”. 1971 also saw The Brew play on his “I Think I’ll Write A Song” album, but it failed to take off despite being named Kid Jensen’s “Hardrock Heavyweight” on Radio Luxembourg; and the trio, but not Goodhand-Tait, were dropped by the label.
The Brew had been busy with Goodhand-Tait those few months in ’71, before they were replaced in September, with rehearsals, gigs at Hampstead Country Club, Southampton Guildhall supporting Edgar Broughton Band, the Assembly Hall, Aylesbury supporting the Groundhogs on 17 April ’71, and The Temple, London supporting Skin Alley and UFO on 23 April. This is only a sampling from April ’71, Goodhand-Tait was also recording at DJM Studios amongst the gigging. On 6 May ’71 he supported The Faces at Watford Town Hall; three nights later the group were at The Lyceum, London supporting Strawbs and Renaissance. That same year he wrote the soundtrack for the film “Universal Soldier” which stared George Lazenby and released three singles on DJM: “Oh,Rosanna” [DJS.236]; “Everyday” [DJS.261], and the Germany only released double a-side “Medicine Man” / “Sunrise Sunset” [10 967]. The first and last being taken from the “I Think I’ll Write A Song” album. On 6 Sept ’71 supporting East of Eden at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London; and he supported Stoneground at Friars, Aylesbury on 30 October 1971. Goodhand-Tate’s last excursion in ’71 was a supporting role to the Keef Hartley Band at Brunel University on 10 December. While ’71 was busy, it was rarely as the headliner.
The gigging, recording and rehearsing continued at a similar pace in ’72, but now with a new two piece backing ‘band’ comprised of Chas Cronk (bass) and Ernie Hayes (guitar). In March they supported Deep Purple for three nights in Denmark, then dates in Germany and the Netherlands with Elton John across March and into April (Elton cancelled the dates in Italy). The “Songfall” LP [DJLPS 425] landed in ’72, again on the DJM label. “City Streets” [DJS.268] was released early in ’72, followed by double a-sided “Leon” / “Everyday” from “Songfall”. “Leon” was later covered by Roger Daltry and Euson. In late September and throughout October ’72 he supported Lou Reed on most of the UK leg of the Transformer tour, visiting mostly universities and polytechnics: Manchester Polytechnic on 27 September, skipping St. Andrews, then Glasgow, Cambridge and Leicester on the 7, 13, and 14 October respectively; missing Oxford on 17 October; but back for The Stadium at Liverpool (19 October), Essex University (20 October), and Imperial College (21 October); there was an unlisted gig in Manchester, at Hard Rock Concert Theatre on 22 Oct. Goodhand-Tait then took a few days out to record a John Peel show on 24 October, returning to the tour in Oxford for another unlisted gig at the Polytechnic on 25 October. The tour closed out October with the Alhambra Rock Theatre, Birmingham (26 October), Leeds Polytechnic (27 October), Kingston Polytechnic (28 October), University of Southampton (29 October), and the Civic Hall, Dunstable (30 October). Notably the tour went into the following month with Goodhand-Tait joining Reed on stage at the Mile End Sundown Club with his band for “Sister Ray”, which was apparently used as the source for the “Some Kinda Love” LP, on the 1 November and the Pheasantry Club, London the following night. A quick trip to the US occurred in mid Nov ’72 to visit Columbia C.B.S. and Metro Media. The Peel Session he recorded while touring with Reed aired on 21 November ’72. A few days later, on 28 November, whispering Bob Harris introduced him on the Old Grey Whistle Test Episode #2.12.
His forth album in four years, and last on the DJM label, was the eponymous “Phillip Goodhand-Tait” [DJLPS 432]. DJM also put out two singles from the album, “You Are” [DJS 278] – later recorded by Gene Pitney – and “Warm Summer Rain” [6102 325] in the Netherlands. There was a third single, “Sugar Train” on the 20th Century Records label [TC-2059]; initially only available as promo, late in ’73 it was officially released. In September ’73 he also supported Family on their Farewell Tour, notably at The Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park on 22 September. This was followed by a seven city US tour in October ’73, with a new backing band consisting of Mick Underwood (drums) – who was replaced by Chico Greenwood in early ’74; De Lisle Harper (bass), and Ronnie Leahy (keyboards), including gigs with Jackson Brown and Bob Marley.
Fans had to wait until ’76 for the next album; “Oceans Away” [CHR 1113] on Chrysalis. The title track of which was picked up and released by both Daltry and Pitney. In the meantime DJM put out the singles “Almost Killed A Man” [DJS.295] in March ’74 and “Sweet Emotion” [DJS.601] in ’75 along with a best of album titled “Jingle Jangle Man” [DJLPS 453]. On 1 June ’74, thanks to Cherry Red, Goodhand-Tait headlined at Malvern Festival Theatre with Sheerwater supporting.
The next year the “Ocean’s Away” LP was released, and Chrysalis put out the “Oceans Away” [CHS 2100] and “Jewel” [CHS 2134] singles too. Within 12 months a second album on the Chrysalis label was released, “Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks” [CHR 1146], with the Muff Winwood – who’d also worked with Unicorn – produced 7″ singles “Angeltown” [CHS 2183] and “Don’t Treat Your Lover Like A Thief” [CHS 2169] coming in quick succession. But earlier in the year Goodhand-Tait had supported Chris de Burgh on the UK leg of his tour.
Another three year hiatus saw Goodhand-Tait dropped by Chrysalis and he created of his own, Ringwood, Hampshire based, Gundog Records. He released the “Good Old Phil’s” LP, on Gundog in ’80, as well as the single “Fly Me To The Sun”. He created no more albums, but did license, via Gundog, the release in ’83 of the 7″ “Heartbeat” on RCA in Germany; “He’ll Have To Go” on Instant Records [IS 1506] in ’84; and “Everyday” [AIRPROMO-034] as a promo on AIRAC in 2003 in Japan.
In addition to the tracks covered by other artists mentioned above: Daltrey also covered “Parade”; Zoot Money recorded “No One But You”; and Love Affair did their best with “Bringing on Back the Good Times”, “A Day Without Love”, “One Road” and “Baby I Know”. The Span TV label put out a compilation of the two Chrysalis LPs, imaginatively titled “Oceans Away & Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks” [PGT 003] in ’98. Three further compilations pulled on his time with The Stormsville Shakers and a Shakers reunion gig (which was followed by other bookings) with original members in 2003 marked the closing of the Civic Hall, Guildford. The first compilation was Angel Air Records’ “Phillip Goodhand-Tait & The Stormsville Shakers: 1965 & 1966 / Ricky-Tick…40 Years On” [SJPCD256] in 2008. The second, “Phillip Goodhand-Tait And The Stormsville Shakers – 1965-1967 [AIRAC-1652] on the Air Mail Archive label was released in 2012. Finally RPM Records’ “The Stormsville Shakers And Circus With Phillip Goodhand-Tait – One And One Is Two – Complete Recordings 1965-1967” [RETRO967] appeared in 2015.
Gallery:
Our Soundscene 