Biography
Among the British beat boom’s most promising R&B-infused rock & roll outfits that never attained commercial success stood the Stormsville Shakers. Their standing at venues such as the Ricky-Tick Club was both formidable and justified, yet they repeatedly missed releasing the decisive single at the decisive moment that might have lifted them into the charts. The group’s origins stretched back to 1960, during the third wave of British rock & roll, when pianist Philip Goodhand-Tait, already noted among pupils at his Guildford, Surrey school, teamed with two schoolmates to launch a band. The unit evolved through 1961, passing through the name Phil Tone & the Vibrants before settling on Phil & the Stormsville Shakers—an homage to Johnny & the Hurricanes and their recent album Stormsville.
Goodhand-Tait handled vocals and piano, Kirk Riddle played bass, Ivor Shackleton guitar, and Paul Demurs drums; two saxophonists were later added. Their initial style remained straightforward rock & roll, but they soon incorporated authentic American rhythm & blues into their sets. Numerous other Surrey ensembles were pursuing the same direction, the Yardbirds foremost among them. The shift intensified after the Shakers were selected to back visiting American R&B vocalist Larry Williams, accompanied by Johnny “Guitar” Watson, on a British tour. The experience introduced them to material by James Brown and other leading American soul artists; those numbers remained in the repertoire long after the tour concluded and after the group had recorded behind Williams on the albums Larry Williams and On Tour. By then the Stormsville Shakers had become a sextet featuring two reed players.
Despite growing live popularity at clubs including London’s Flamingo and Marquee, and despite sharing bills with American figures such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Rufus Thomas, Jimmy Reed, Howlin’ Wolf, and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, the band never translated its stage appeal into recording success. They also appeared on the same bills as the Paramounts (later to become Procol Harum), David Jones & the Lower Third (subsequently known as David Bowie), Zoot Money, and Cliff Bennett. One number they performed to strong audience response, “Long Live Love” by their friend Chris Andrews, reached Sandie Shaw, who took it to number one on Pye Records in 1965. The Shakers themselves did not issue a record under their own name until 1966—an EP released solely in France on EMI—which failed to register. By the time another recording chance arose, white English R&B and soul acts had fallen out of favor and psychedelia dominated the scene; moreover, ensembles with horns were no longer in demand, and the Shakers still carried two saxophonists. In 1967 the members elected to alter both image and sound, transforming into the psychedelic group Circus, which produced two singles and one album for Transatlantic. Unlike the Paramounts’ reconfiguration as Procol Harum, which proved redemptive, the Circus episode proved calamitous for the Shakers.
Following the French EP’s appearance in 1966, an outing that included four of his own compositions, Philip Goodhand-Tait secured a songwriting contract with Dick James Music, then the publisher for John Lennon and Paul McCartney among others. By 1967 his songwriting income had begun to arrive in meaningful amounts while the remaining members continued to scrape by in anticipation of their own breakthrough. The disparity did nothing to hold the unit together, and the Stormsville Shakers disbanded in 1968. Goodhand-Tait subsequently pursued an extended career as songwriter, producer, and session musician outside the R&B sphere. Roughly thirty-five years afterward, he and the other surviving members reconvened for a series of concerts that proved sufficiently well received to prompt fresh studio work. The initial outcome was the album Ricky-Tick . . . 40 Years On; five years later a CD appeared that paired that album with fourteen classic 1960s performances drawn from surviving studio demos and live tapes.
Goodhand-Tait handled vocals and piano, Kirk Riddle played bass, Ivor Shackleton guitar, and Paul Demurs drums; two saxophonists were later added. Their initial style remained straightforward rock & roll, but they soon incorporated authentic American rhythm & blues into their sets. Numerous other Surrey ensembles were pursuing the same direction, the Yardbirds foremost among them. The shift intensified after the Shakers were selected to back visiting American R&B vocalist Larry Williams, accompanied by Johnny “Guitar” Watson, on a British tour. The experience introduced them to material by James Brown and other leading American soul artists; those numbers remained in the repertoire long after the tour concluded and after the group had recorded behind Williams on the albums Larry Williams and On Tour. By then the Stormsville Shakers had become a sextet featuring two reed players.
Despite growing live popularity at clubs including London’s Flamingo and Marquee, and despite sharing bills with American figures such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Rufus Thomas, Jimmy Reed, Howlin’ Wolf, and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, the band never translated its stage appeal into recording success. They also appeared on the same bills as the Paramounts (later to become Procol Harum), David Jones & the Lower Third (subsequently known as David Bowie), Zoot Money, and Cliff Bennett. One number they performed to strong audience response, “Long Live Love” by their friend Chris Andrews, reached Sandie Shaw, who took it to number one on Pye Records in 1965. The Shakers themselves did not issue a record under their own name until 1966—an EP released solely in France on EMI—which failed to register. By the time another recording chance arose, white English R&B and soul acts had fallen out of favor and psychedelia dominated the scene; moreover, ensembles with horns were no longer in demand, and the Shakers still carried two saxophonists. In 1967 the members elected to alter both image and sound, transforming into the psychedelic group Circus, which produced two singles and one album for Transatlantic. Unlike the Paramounts’ reconfiguration as Procol Harum, which proved redemptive, the Circus episode proved calamitous for the Shakers.
Following the French EP’s appearance in 1966, an outing that included four of his own compositions, Philip Goodhand-Tait secured a songwriting contract with Dick James Music, then the publisher for John Lennon and Paul McCartney among others. By 1967 his songwriting income had begun to arrive in meaningful amounts while the remaining members continued to scrape by in anticipation of their own breakthrough. The disparity did nothing to hold the unit together, and the Stormsville Shakers disbanded in 1968. Goodhand-Tait subsequently pursued an extended career as songwriter, producer, and session musician outside the R&B sphere. Roughly thirty-five years afterward, he and the other surviving members reconvened for a series of concerts that proved sufficiently well received to prompt fresh studio work. The initial outcome was the album Ricky-Tick . . . 40 Years On; five years later a CD appeared that paired that album with fourteen classic 1960s performances drawn from surviving studio demos and live tapes.