Biography
Second Hand emerged as a little-known British psychedelic outfit toward the end of the 1960s, yet their 1968 debut already incorporated progressive elements well before most contemporaries explored them. Ken Elliott guided the ensemble, which had formed in the mid-1960s under the name the Next Collection and later became Moving Finger. A Polydor contract arrived in 1968, but an existing act sharing that name prompted the final change to Second Hand, selected because every instrument and piece of equipment had been acquired secondhand. The core lineup at that stage placed Elliott on keyboards and vocals, Bob Gibbons on lead guitar, Kieran O’Connor on drums, and Nick South on bass, while Chris Williams appeared as a guest musician on cello, flute, and saxophone. Polydor issued the resulting album Reality later the same year; observers have long regarded it as several years ahead of its era, even though the vocals remain somewhat fragile. The opening track “A Fairy Tail” surfaced as a single in 1969.
In 1970 producer Vic Keary, a close associate of Elliott’s, established Mushroom Records to issue records by Second Hand and a handful of other acts, among them folk singer Simon Finn. Gibbons and South had already exited, so George Hart took over on bass while Elliott’s brother Rob joined on vocals, though securing a permanent guitarist remained an ongoing challenge. Moggy Mead handled guitar during a French tour and also participated in the next album’s sessions. During the early 1970s the band found steadier engagements on the European continent and enjoyed particular success in France, Spain, Germany, and Holland.
Their second album, Death May Be Your Santa Claus, was tracked during off-hours at Chalk Farm Studios, where Keary worked as an engineer. Mushroom released the LP on April 1, 1971, at the same moment Second Hand appeared as a rock band in the underground film of identical title, a controversial production completed a couple of years earlier. Rob Elliott soon departed, after which Tony McGill became the regular guitarist and also assumed the band’s accounting duties. Recording began in 1971 on material planned as a third album, yet the group had adopted the name Chillum by the time the project finished, prompting Mushroom to issue the self-titled Chillum record near the end of that year. Hart had already left without notice, and by the middle of 1972 both the Mushroom label and Chillum had folded.
Elliott and O’Connor then continued as the electronic rock duo Seventh Wave, releasing two albums in the mid-1970s before O’Connor departed. Elliott subsequently concentrated on composing jingles and television themes, work that proved more lucrative though less inventive. O’Connor eventually died of alcoholism in the mid-1980s.
In 1970 producer Vic Keary, a close associate of Elliott’s, established Mushroom Records to issue records by Second Hand and a handful of other acts, among them folk singer Simon Finn. Gibbons and South had already exited, so George Hart took over on bass while Elliott’s brother Rob joined on vocals, though securing a permanent guitarist remained an ongoing challenge. Moggy Mead handled guitar during a French tour and also participated in the next album’s sessions. During the early 1970s the band found steadier engagements on the European continent and enjoyed particular success in France, Spain, Germany, and Holland.
Their second album, Death May Be Your Santa Claus, was tracked during off-hours at Chalk Farm Studios, where Keary worked as an engineer. Mushroom released the LP on April 1, 1971, at the same moment Second Hand appeared as a rock band in the underground film of identical title, a controversial production completed a couple of years earlier. Rob Elliott soon departed, after which Tony McGill became the regular guitarist and also assumed the band’s accounting duties. Recording began in 1971 on material planned as a third album, yet the group had adopted the name Chillum by the time the project finished, prompting Mushroom to issue the self-titled Chillum record near the end of that year. Hart had already left without notice, and by the middle of 1972 both the Mushroom label and Chillum had folded.
Elliott and O’Connor then continued as the electronic rock duo Seventh Wave, releasing two albums in the mid-1970s before O’Connor departed. Elliott subsequently concentrated on composing jingles and television themes, work that proved more lucrative though less inventive. O’Connor eventually died of alcoholism in the mid-1980s.
Albums
