Locomotive

Birmingham served as home base for Locomotive, a band whose sound underwent marked transformation across the final years of the 1960s. During a three-year run the group issued a steady stream of strong recordings that spanned several styles. Chris Wood, later Traffic’s flautist, belonged to the original lineup.

Unlike other local outfits such as Mike Sheridan & the Nightriders, the Moody Blues, the Move, and the Idle Race—acts that pursued mainstream paths through British beat, R&B, or mod-punk—Locomotive opened with ska. Norman Haines, previously of the Brumbeats, supplied the songwriting as the band adopted Bluebeat in 1967. Rather than advancing into reggae, they executed an abrupt shift toward psychedelia.

Late in 1967 they debuted on the Direction label with the single “Broken Heart” backed by “Rudy a Message to You.” The following year they joined EMI’s Parlophone roster and reached the Top 30 with their first release there, the reflective and understated “Rudi’s in Love.”

In 1969 the group issued “Mr. Armageddon,” a concise exercise in big-band psychedelia whose doomsday rock texture featured prominent brass; despite its distinctive character the single failed to chart. That same year Parlophone released their only album, We Are Everything You See. Dick Heckstall-Smith added saxophone while Chris Wood, already a Traffic member, contributed flute. Although the record attracted little public attention, it included two songs previously written for and recorded by the United States of America as well as “Mr. Armageddon.” Locomotive also cut a single for Transatlantic under the alias Steam Shovel; the track later surfaced on the 1990s CD reissue of the Parlophone LP. The band might have moved easily to the newly established Harvest imprint, yet it dissolved just as EMI began to focus methodically on psychedelia and progressive rock. Norman Haines went on to front a group under his own name, and Lamb later played drums with Steve Gibbons in the mid-1970s.