Kaleidoscope

The English band Kaleidoscope (not to be confused with American band Kaleidoscope which existed at the same time and played basically psychedelic rock too) is a much respected band from the late sixties and early seventies. The band started its recording activities in 1967 as Kaleidoscope, but the band was formed back in 1963 with the name The Sidekicks and changed to The Key later. In the beginning, the line-up was Eddie Pumer on guitar, Steve Clark on bass and Danny Bridgman on drums, but they later needed a new vocalist and Peter Daltrey joined (he played keyboards too). They played local venues and released singles, but when they signed a contract with Phillips, they changed the name of the band and started playing their own psychedelic rock compositions instead of the covers they used to play before. The combination of Pumer's musical arrangements and Daltrey's lyrics was the main power of the group. In 1967 was released their first album, 'Tangerine Dream'. The album comprises fine psychedelic songs with experimentations and arrangements like many of the top psychedelic and early progressive bands from that age (The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues). They got lots of airplay and recorded many BBC sessions, but didn´t sell well. They eventually released more singles, like 'Jenny Artichoke', which was a success, but sold poorly, and another album, 'Faintly Blowing'. It was released in 1969, showing a progression of it's predecessor in terms of sound. Although still psychedelic, the compositions were getting more progressive. The album unfortunately failed to chart. They released a final single, 'Balloon', before changing the name to Fairfield Parlour and becoming totally progressive oriented. The band didn't achieve success and they were unlucky at the time, failing to chart and having problems (including some sabotage) in all great gigs they had, including the famous Isle of Wight, which they were the responsibles for the 'Theme Song' of the festival (released under the name of I Luv Wight). White Faced Lady was their last album, recorded in 1971 partly with the help of Mike Pinder, from The Moody Blues. The album was a conceptual double-album with many orchestral arrangements. The band had a deal with Vertigo at that time, but the responsible quit Vertigo and moved to CBS. So they were to release it on CBS, but CBS refused to release their album and it stayed shelved for twenty years, being released in 1991 by a label they created just to release the album, Kaleidoscope Records, under the name of Kaleidoscope, although recorded under the Fairfield Parlour encarnation of the band. The band split in 1972 due to the lack of results and luck (they were offered less than 20 dollars to play the last gigs). So this was the end of this great psychedelic and progressive rock band which had talent to be one of the major progressive rock acts of their age but died prematurely due to bad luck in the crucial moments. It is highly recommended because they were one of the first progressive rock bands that evolved with the genre and made a fantastic work, mainly their excellent conceptual album 'White Faced Lady'.