Moon

Moon - Turning The Tides - 1977 - Epic

Moon was an early to mid-70's UK R&B/soul/funk/jazz rock band formed by Noel McCalla (ex-Manfred Mann's Earth Band). Between 1975 and 1977 the band recorded two albums, and were quite popular, especially on the London pub scene. The band also toured extensively, supporting artists like Joan Armatrading, and the Average White Band. Most of the band's material was written by session guitarist Loz Netto, but the band covered many songs including Van Morrison's "Moondance" and Steely Dan's "Night By Night". Moon played some of Britain's biggest concert venues including The Hammersmith Odeon, The Rainbow, The Fairfield Halls etc. The band recorded 4 sessions for the late, great John Peel's BBC Radio One programme at BBC's Maida Vale studios. "Turning The Tides" was produced by Barry Blue ("Dancin' On A Saturday Night"), but the less said about that, the better!. "Turning The Tides" is quite a good album, with excellent musicianship, and good vocal harmonics, and contains plenty of catchy AWB type soul grooves, although the album is probably more jazz rock than soul. The album here is a vinyl rip, so please make allowances for sound quality. Check out Moon's "Too Close for Comfort" album, and read Loz Netto's bio @ http://www.loznetto.co.uk/HTML_files/biog.html [All tracks @ 192 Kbps: File size = 57.4 Mb]

TRACKS

A1 The Name Of The Game 5:10
A2 Broken Hearts (At High School) 3:51
A3 I'm Leaving You 6:00
A4 This Is Your Life 5:50

B1 All Night 5:17
B2 Back Rooms 3:59
B3 White Paper Time 4:12
B4 Sweet Virginia 3:00
B5 Cruisin' 5:46

All tracks composed by Loz Netto except "White Paper Time" by Loz Netto, Ron Lawrence, Nicky Payn, Moon and "Sweet Virginia" by Graham Collyer, Nicky Payn

BAND

Lead, Slide, Acoustic Guitar - Loz Netto
Rhythm Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Whistle - Graham Collyer
Bass - Ron Lawrence
Keyboards, Lead Vocals - Noel McCalla
Drums, Percussion - John Shearer
Alto Saxophone, Flute, Congas, Percussion - Doug Bainbridge
Saxophone, Flute, Harmonica - Nicky Payn

ABOUT NOEL MCALLA

Noel McCalla (born 4 November 1956 in London, England) is a British rock singer. He was the lead vocalist for the rock group Manfred Mann's Earth Band from 1991 until September 2009, when his mutually accepted departure was announced. He was replaced as the band's vocalist by Peter Cox (musician), best known for his work as lead singer of Go West (band). McCalla first became involved with the band in 1990, featuring on the Plains Music album, and thereafter toured extensively with them, also featuring on the studio albums Soft Vengeance and 2006, and the live album Mann Alive. He was previously a member of the band Moon. He sang on Mike Rutherford's solo album Smallcreep's Day and on Morrissey-Mullen's 1985 This Must Be the Place. His fifteen-year-old son Mali Michael-McCalla competed for a place in Britain's fifth series of the talent competition X-Factor in 2008, but did not progress to the Live Final stages. Noel Lincoln McCalla was born on 4th November 1956, to Hubert Sylvester McCalla, a minister in a gospel church, and Elizabeth Victoria McCalla, in North London, England. Including himself, there were eight children in the family.McCalla attended Alexandra Park infant school in London, but was withdrawn at the age of nine, as the family moved to Coventry, where he finished his primary school tuition at Hillfarm Junior School. Studying at Barkers Butts Secondary School, Noel McCalla began to realise he had musical potential, and dropped out of school at fifteen to work with a band known as Black and White Notes - gigging, and eventually supporting The Shadows. Later, he joined a band called Moon, who were signed to record label Epic Records. After splitting from the band, he stayed with Epic Records, releasing an album. In 1972, McCalla left his family in Coventry to move back to London. From 1977, he worked for a while with Sniff And The Tears as a backing vocalist. During this time, he worked as a freelance musician, and, by 1981, he had decided to form his own band, which he had named Contact. They played to the public and produced a cassette, which was sold at gigs. In 1993, the band's name changed to McCalla, and they released “Push and Pull”, followed by “Hot From The Smoke" in 1995. Throughout these years, he had much interest from Manfred Mann, and, in 1990, he became the Earthband's lead singer, and began touring both nationally and overseas. With this, came a lot of success, and one of their highest achievements was performing at Wembley Arena, where they supported headliners Status Quo in December of 2008. From mid 2006, whilst being the lead singer for Manfred Mann's Earth Band, he started to collaborate with jazz band Dave Lewis 1Up. He continues to work with them on some accounts, but most of his work is with Manfred Mann touring in Europe.