Splinter

Splinter - Streets At Night - 1979 - Columbia (Japan)

Not to be confused with Peter Green's Splinter group, Splinter was an English pop rock duo with folk touches who were together from 1974 to 1984. In the same mould as Gallagher & Lyle, and the early Gerry Rafferty, the band's nucleus of Bill Elliott, and Bobby Purvis were excellent musicians and songwriters, and are probably best remembered for their great "Costafine Town" and "China Light" songs. However, the band should be remembered for more than those two songs, as they released a few albums, all with some beautifully written, melodic pop rock songs. Splinter had strong Beatle connections, especially with John Lennon, and Badfinger, and it was George Harrison who saw the duo's potential, and contributed to Splinter's musical output. "Streets At Night", was a Japanese only release, and Elliott and Purvis arranged, and produced the album themselves. Some say the album sounds more "natural" than the duo's underrated "Two Man Band" album which was criticised for it's "overproduction". That's a matter of opinion. This album also includes the future Dire Straits member, Alan Clark, playing clavinette, synthesizers, and keyboards. "Streets At Night" will inevitably be compared with Splinter's 70's "Folk Rock" sound, but by 1979 Splinter had deviated from that sound. SAN is more balladic, than most of Splinter's other albums, but most of these ballads are well written and tuneful. "Stateside Girl" is the one track sounding like Splinter's earlier Dark Horse work, and the guitar work on the track is very reminiscent of George Harrison, who had very strong connections with Splinter's earlier musical career. "Evergreen" is a good tune in the bluegrass mould. "Where Do I Go From Here?" is good, light "rock 'n' roll. At least eight of these tracks are good Splinter songs, and reminiscent of the great early mellow "folkish" sound of the duo. It has to be said that tracks 9, and 10 are on the bland side, and are a bit of the "maudlin sentimental" type. Arguably, these songs reduce the album's listenability. However, there are still eight above average tracks on the album. There is nothing to match "China Light" or "Costafine Town" on the album, but these were exceptional songs, and hard to better."Streets At Night" should not be ignored, and was worthy of global distribution. Bands like Splinter don't go bad overnight. Even in the late 70's, their music was well above average. Listen to Splinter's "The Place I Love", and "Two Man Band" albums. "The Place I Love" is a classy album, full of brilliant pop rock songs. The late George Harrison produced the album, and played on all tracks. Splinter's "Dark Horse Demos 1972 - 1975" album can be found @ SPLINTER/DHDS72-75

N.B: Another Steely Dan connection....Who yawned?!! - Did you know that Splinter wrote a song called "Black Friday"? It's on the duo's "Two Man Band" album

TRACKS

1. Streets At Night
2. I Can't Turn You On
3. Is It For Life
4. Stateside Girl
5. Evergreen
6. Danger Zone
7. When Will You Let Go
8. Where Do I Go From Here
9. Took My Breath Away
10. Flyin' Blind
Splinter's "The Place I Love"
All songs composed by Bill Elliott, and/or Bob Purvis

MUSICIANS [Incomplete list]

Bill Elliott & Bob Purvis (Guitars & Vocals)
Alan Clark (Clavinette, Synthesizers, Keyboards)

BIO (WIKI)

Splinter was a two-man vocal group from South Shields, England, consisting of Bill Elliott (William Elliott) and Bobby Purvis (Robert J Purvis), who formed in 1974. They were connected with George Harrison, of The Beatles and had groups of instrumentalists to back them on each album. One of those musicians was a guitarist known as Hari Georgeson (Harrison's pseudonym). Splinter was the first artist signed to Harrison's Dark Horse Record label, when it was still partnered with A&M Records. All of Splinter's albums are out of print. Splinter, who had worked together at various times in the Newcastle and London music scenes, first came to the attention of Harrison through Mal Evans who was involved with both groups. Harrison was impressed with one of their songs which he felt would be ideal for an Apple film, Little Malcolm and his Struggle with The Eunuchs. Harrison initially wanted to sign Splinter to Apple Records and arranged sessions at Apple Studios to work on the song - he brought in Pete Ham from Badfinger to participate. Entitled "Lonely Man" plans were made for the song to be released as an Apple single and Splinter were shown performing the piece in the film. However, as Apple fell apart Harrison decided to establish his own record label, and once he heard more Splinter material he invited them to record an album. Work on this spanned 18 months. Also in this period Purvis and Elliot co-wrote the song "Kyle" with Gary Wright - it appeared on the 1974 Spooky Tooth album, The Mirror. On their debut album The Place I Love, Harrison produced and played guitar on all the songs. Other musicians included Alvin Lee, Billy Preston, Gary Wright, Jim Keltner, and Klaus Voorman. Most of the songs were written by Purvis, with Elliott co-writing lyrics on "China Light" and "Costafine Town". "Costafine Town" was an international hit single, reaching the Top 10 in Australia and South Africa and the Top 20 in the United Kingdom. Both this single and album also appeared on the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart. The follow-up single, "Drink All Day", was banned in the UK by the BBC for the inclusion of the word "bloody". In preparing for a second Splinter album in 1975 Harrison recorded them at his Friar Park studio. Harrison pressed this as a private album on Dark Horse Records. On Harder To Live, Splinter's second album, Harrison only participated on one track. "Lonely Man" was co-produced by Harrison and Tom Scott, and Harrison played guitar. It was used in the 1974 movie Little Malcolm And His Struggle Against The Eunuchs, which was Harrison's first foray into film production. "Lonely Man" was a hit in Japan, and in recording a version of the song in Japanese, Splinter became the first western artists to sing in Japanese. They were helped to achieve this by the Japanese actor and singer, Masatoshi Nakamura. Another set of musicians provide backing (Chris Spedding, Waddy Wachtel and John Taylor). Also in this period Splinter won the Outstanding Song Award at the 1976 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival at the Budokan in Tokyo with the song "Love Is Not Enough". This performance was released on an album that documented this annual song festival. As a result of this success, "Love Is Not Enough" was released as a single in Japan. This first version was produced by Tom Scott, and is a different arrangement from the one that subsequently appeared on Two Man Band. Although the duo of Purvis and Elliott continued to perform together until 1984, the 1977 release Two Man Band was the last Splinter album released in most countries, including the United States. Harrison is credited as co-executive producer, and played some of the guitar. The main production duties were entrusted to Norbert Putnam. Although Two Man Band was Splinter's last release in the U.S. and most other parts of the world, the duo did record two more albums that were each released in no more than two countries. Both albums were done without Harrison. The first of these, titled Streets At Night, was released only in Japan in 1979. Purvis and Elliott produced and arranged this album themselves. This album had Alan Clark who played keyboards, synthesizers, and clavinet. In this period Splinter were associated with the Japanese music TV station, NTVM, and worked with the Japanese rock band, Godiego. A single of Splinter singing the Godiego song "Ghandara" (associated with the TV show Monkey) was released, and they also appeared on a compilation album, Our Favourite Songs, a set led by members of Godiego. The final Splinter album was Splinter, which was released in the UK in 1980 on the Bellaphon label. (The album was also issued in Japan the following year under the title Sail Away, with a song called "Pigalle" used in place of "All That Love". They finally split in 1984. In recent years, Purvis has re-emerged as a performer and composer, working for a British cancer research charity.

MORE ABOUT SPLINTER

Not too many people remember Splinter, which is a shame on a number of counts. For starters, their sound — an amalgam of mainstream electric rock with pop and folk elements, surprisingly similar to Badfinger — was intrinsically satisfying and made them one of the more pleasing and promising groups of the mid-'70s. For another, they were one of the few genuinely bright discoveries to come out of the Beatles' orbit in the period after the breakup of Apple. And they cut one great album featuring some superb work by George Harrison as a producer and musician. Co-founder Bill Elliott had already worked on the periphery of the Beatles' orbit in 1970 when, as part of the Elastic Oz Band (sometimes billed as "Bill Elliott & the Elastic Oz Band"), he'd worked with John Lennon on the single "Do the Oz," recorded to raise money and enlist support for the underground Oz magazine, which was being suppressed in England. The two singers, who harmonized very attractively together, hooked up with George Harrison just as the latter was setting up his own Dark Horse Records label. That ill-starred venture coincided with Harrison's disastrous 1974 tour of the United States and the release of his own Dark Horse album — ironically enough, Splinter's debut LP and single were better received by those who heard them than Harrison's own album, which was doubly funny since the ex-Beatle guitarist lavished more attention on their LP The Place I Love than he evidently did on his own album. The duo sang beautifully — Elliott's vocalizing recalled John Lennon, and their harmonizing brought to mind not only the group Badfinger at their best, but also memories of the finer massed vocal sections of All Things Must Pass. Moreover, Harrison's guitars (many of them, overdubbed many times), percussion, and keyboards were all over the album, along with Klaus Voormann's bass and some piano and organ by Billy Preston, thus establishing an even closer connection with the late Apple organization and its sound. Harrison's appearances throughout the album were under various guises: "Hari Georgeson," "P. Roducer," and "Jai Raj Harisein." The Splinter debut album and the accompanying single "Costafine Town" made the lower reaches of the American Top 100, but this was their only brush with success. They cut two more albums over the next three years, Harder to Live and Two Man Band, under the aegis of Dark Horse Records, and, after touring for a few more years, they finally split up in 1984. In recent years, Bob Purvis has re-emerged as a performer and composer, doing charity work for a British cancer research charity. © Bruce Eder, allmusic.com, http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0pfixq95ldse~T1