Methuselah

Methuselah ranked among the few English rock acts that Elektra Records brought aboard during the final years of the 1960s. The New York label, enriched by earnings from the Doors and Judy Collins, was then attempting to broaden its reach across both domestic rock and international markets. The band’s origins traced back to two earlier groups, the Dimples and Gospel Garden, which schoolmates John Gladwin and Terry Wincott from Scunthorpe had launched in the mid-1960s. Drummer Mick Bradley, previously of the Sorrows, and guitarist Les Nicol entered the psychedelic/pop ensemble Gospel Garden, after which the musicians adopted the name Methuselah. Drawing on folk and gospel traditions, the five-piece unit fused those strands into a unified electric rock framework and secured a three-LP deal with Jac Holzman’s Elektra Records in New York. Only a single album appeared, and remarkably it surfaced solely in the United States; its blend of folk, gospel, and R&B elements was largely encased in a hard-rock framework. Because the group remained unknown stateside, the record attracted no attention and vanished from view almost immediately. Midway through 1969 the musicians recorded a second collection that maintained the same eclectic approach. Titled Matthew Mark Luke & John, that album never reached release and has since been lost. Internal strains also surfaced as the members’ musical tastes diverged. Acoustic guitarists John Gladwin and Terry Wincott, weary of hearing their instruments and voices submerged beneath the band’s heavy electric textures, shifted direction toward medieval-inspired folk music. They soon rebranded as the Amazing Blondel, cultivated a following on the college folk circuit, and obtained a recording agreement with Island Records. Mick Bradley joined Steamhammer, while Les Nicol and bassist/singer Craig Austin formed the psychedelic group Distant Jim; Nicol subsequently performed with Pavlov’s Dog. In the early years of the twenty-first century, Methuselah’s sole surviving album resurfaced on CD through the Collector’s Choice reissue series that encompassed much of Elektra’s late-1960s rock catalogue.