Deep Feeling

Deep Feeling surfaced as a modestly documented British group from the mid-1960s whose alumni later supplied personnel to several leading psychedelic acts, both commercially prominent and cult favorites, of the late 1960s, among them Traffic, Spooky Tooth, Family, and the Blossom Toes. The band grew out of an earlier unit known as the Hellions that already included the musicians who would join Traffic, Jim Capaldi and Dave Mason. Following Mason’s exit from Deep Feeling, guitarist Luther Grosvenor, later of Spooky Tooth, entered the lineup. The resulting roster also featured vibraphonist and flute player Poli Palmer, who subsequently worked with Family and the Blossom Toes, guitarist Gordon Jackson, and bassist Dave Meredith; together they cut unreleased sides for the influential U.K. manager, producer, and impresario Giorgio Gomelsky, best known for his earlier work with the Yardbirds. One 1966 recording, “Pretty Colours,” later appeared on the Luther Grosvenor compilation Floodgates Anthology, where it stands as an engaging early psychedelic effort built around flute, vibes, distorted vocals, and a pop-friendly yet Asiatic-Middle Eastern melody reminiscent of the Yardbirds’ explorations. No Deep Feeling material reached the public at the time, although the group did track at least one additional Gomelsky production, “Poltergeist of Alice,” according to the liner notes of Floodgates Anthology. Gomelsky later noted that the sessions yielded enough material for an album and that certain elements, notably African percussion and vibraphone, were subsequently absorbed by Traffic once Capaldi joined that band and Deep Feeling dissolved. Gordon Jackson also issued a solo album on Gomelsky’s Marmalade label in the late 1960s.