BOZ PEOPLE

LVox, Gtr: Raymond Boz Burrell

Gtr: Bernard Rudd

Keys: Ian McLagan Jul65-Nov65

Bs: Bernard Barton ??64-Sept65 (2)Barry Fats Dean Sept65-Nov65

Drums: Brian Rocky Brown

 

[Boz & The Boz People] Raymond Boz Burrell was born in Holbeach, Lincolnshire on 1 August 1946 [1]. He became interested in jazz while at the George Farmer Secondary Modern School, Holbeach along with his friend and budding guitarist Bernie Rudd. Practice bands aside, Rudd and Boz put together The Tea Time Four in 1963 and management was taken on by Atkinson-Barrie Entertainments (appx3). The quick departure of the group’s second lead singer Mike Prior pushed Boz to take on the main vocal role and in May 1964 the band announced that they were turning professional. An early swap out in personnel occurred when Dean left The Tea Time Four in late 1964 to join the Norwich Bluebottles and was replaced by Barton, who had escaped Norwich to join the King’s Lynn Escorts, from where he was recruited; Dean later returned in September 1965.

Meanwhile: Jack Barrie one half of their management team had relocated to London earlier in the year and was now the catering Manager at The Marquee music venue [2]. Still keeping an eye on the band's interests, he encouraged them to join him, and the group moved to London around August the same year. By 1965, Barrie was the venue’s assistant manager and worked hard to break the band onto the national circuit and secure a recording contract into the bargain. It was at this point the group felt they had outgrown their name saying it was - too Victorian, and no longer representative of their act and in June 1965 renamed themselves Boz People.

The new name was officially unveiled to Norfolk fans after they had returned from a short trip to Paris and were booked to support The Applejacks at The Gala BR, Nch on 22 June 1965. Back in London, Barrie had set-up a residency at The Marquee but on the label front, Columbia had only shown an interest in Boz but were not in the market to sign another R&B band.

On 1 July 1965, Hounslow born Ian McLagan joined The Boz People on Hammond Organ and they toured the UK with Donavan and The Byrds in early August 1965. McLagan had previously been with The Muleskinners [3], a London R&B outfit, who had released through Philips in January 1965. Keen to move up the pop ladder McLagan felt The Muleskinners were not very professional and had walked out on the band in June 1965. Although later reports and his book appear to confirm that the Boz offer came first and that The Muleskinners were imminently looking to quit the business. In his autobiography All The Rage he explains joining the band: “Jack Barrie who worked at Marquee Artists asked me if I’d be interested in joining a group he was managing called Boz & The Boz People. My first feeling was that it was a rotten name for a band. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a Boz Person! But I was absolutely determined to make a go of being a musician. I jumped ship without a second thought.” McLagan made his Norwich debut when the group supported The Pretty Things at The Gala BR, Nch on 10 August 1965.

The London scene was hard to crack but in an interview with EEN journalist Steve James in early August 1965, Boz said the band had been getting far more attention with the new name and added they had played on an advertising commercial for designer Mary Quant, to be shown in America. In Andy Neill’s biography Faces, McLagan talks further about Boz People; “Boz wanted to sing jazz, so I had to learn jazz chords and I wasn’t happy with it. We were playing all these kinds of jazzy R&B things. One night we played a US army base and we had to do three of these hour-long sets. After the first, the bass player came over to me in the dressing room and said, ‘Do you fancy a smoke?’ I’d smelt dope before but never actually smoked it… the next set was just another world and I was so deep into it, I was turned right on, the sound was bigger, deeper and wider and the songs went on forever.” Although the piece did go on to say McLagan was alarmed to discover that The Boz People displayed even less professionalism than The Muleskinners. McLagan left the band on the weekend of 30/31 October 1965 after a trip to Scotland, where the van kept breaking down on the return trip. Andy Neill’s version of this event is that McLagan departed, but on the outbound leg of the trip, for the same reason. Either way, quite literally! McLagan gets out of the van on the North Circular and quits the band. However, his unemployment was brief as he says he received a call on 1 November from Don Arden, The Small Faces manager, to join the band and played with them for the first time on 3 November 1965. Generalising about his time with the band, McLagan said that the group were a nice bunch of hard-working lads but clashed with Boz’s laid back attitude. Although off-topic, it was this same laid back, easy-going attitude, that impressed Simon Kirke at the would-be Bad Company audition. In an interview for Loudersound.com in 2014 Kirke said, “He was playing a fretless bass, but I doubt if he’d been playing it more than a year; Robert Fripp had just shown him the basics. But he came in and he looked great, good-looking guy, beard, fringe jacket. Mick said: ‘We’re gonna do Little Miss Fortune, it starts in G...’. Boz said: ‘Just give me the key, I’ll figure it out.’ And he played it bloody well! We said: ‘Do you want the job?’ He said: ‘Yeah, all right’.”

In contrast, Rudd recalls a more gradual build-up to McLagan's departure, "Mac had been hanging about the Marquee looking for a gig and Jack knowing we needed an organist offered him the job. We drove down to a gig he was doing with The Muleskinners, somewhere in the South of England to check him out. I never really wanted Mac in the band but thought I might be able to teach him. I spent a lot of time going through our material and showing him cool chord progressions, but he didn't really like what we played. Whenever we came back from London, he would unload his Hammond and stay at my parent's house, where I had a music room. Unbeknownst to us, McLagan had already approached Don Arden and he got a phone call at the Maids Head, Kings Lynn offering him the gig with the Small Faces, while we were playing there. Rocky seemed to have been aware of what was going on and his voice boomed through the PA 'Who is it, the fking Small Faces?' [4] I think the van incident was just the final straw. Jack Barrie was running short of money, and we were having trouble with the van, we were all fed up with that. I don’t think we ever played Scotland! I believe it was on the way to, or from, one of the Debutant functions. We had taken over this circuit from The Kinks, who were then having hit records."

In early November 1965 Steve James of the EEN called Boz for an update on the band. “The Boz People have split and I’m now going solo,” he said. His solo career kicked off a week later when he performed on About Anglia.

Failure to get the group onto vinyl had taken its toll. “There was no animosity, it just came to a natural end. We had basically run out of money. I think I was the first to go and that the band might have done a gig without me, I seem to recall Ritchie Blackmore might have stood in!” said guitarist Rudd. At the point of the band’s split, Burrell had been linked by the media to joining The Who, a completely unfounded rumour. Big-name bands were also thrown about for other members of the group; drummer Brown was linked to The Pretty Things but said, “After Boz People I first auditioned for The Artwoods but it didn’t feel right so I turned it down. I then joined The Summer Set, and we immediately went out on tour to Holland and Germany. I was with the band until they split in November 1968. We recorded many tracks at The Top Ten Club in Germany which were released as The Top Ten All-Stars.” [5] Brown was later seen playing with local band BBC Gas Quintet. Dean was linked to Manfred Mann, another completely unfounded rumour according to Dean, who appears to have ended up in Norwich with The Contours before he headed back to London, to do turns with both Mike Patto and Boz. He later spent time in France with Arthur Brown, who Dean said was at the time perfecting his ‘Crazy World of Arthur Brown Show’. He finally ended up in Brian Auger’s post-Trinity outfit, Oblivion. Guitarist Rudd returned to King’s Lynn but continued in bands such as Smile and The Sacramento Bee and was also seen playing with The Electric Jacquards in 1968. Barton had returned to Norwich pre-break-up and set up Bernard Barton Management (appx3) and took on The Mode from King’s Lynn. It does not look like he returned to the stage again until forming Bus Stop in 1968.

The next chapter in Boz’s career was complicated by the fact that the many varying line-ups, and projects he was involved with between 1965 and 1968, have all been consolidated under The Boz People banner, even though this title was very rarely used after the original band split in November 1965, and all the singles being credited solely to Boz. We have attempted to unravel some of this confusion in our band timeline.

In early 1966 Boz was taken under the wing of Basil Charles Dean alias the Bowler Hat backer. Little is known about Dean other than he was a successful sales and export consultant, who is said to have funded the deal brokered with Columbia, when Boz signs in February 1966; publicity material says the meeting between Boz and Dean was in May 1966, although there is evidence that they met as early as December 1965. Dean admittedly knew absolutely nothing about ‘pop’ music but a great deal about product investment. He signed Boz on a five-year deal and brought in a publicist, choreographer, wardrobe consultant and voice coach and together with Boz listened to over 200 tracks from publishers in Tin Pan Alley. Despite all being well at first, Burrell was later to regret this association. From here Boz put together various incarnations of the band, some using his East Anglian connections and others using the session musicians that played on his records or he would simply front an already established band; regardless, they all seem to be referred to at some point as Boz People. One article claimed The Sidewinders were put together by Boz after the split of the original band but in truth, the group had been put together to back singer Dickie Pride - see below. Boz released his first single on Columbia in February 1966 with a second and third in April and June respectively; all failed to make an impact on the national chart despite good airplay and media coverage. Vernon Joynson’s Tapestry of Delights has Ian McLagan playing on the early Boz singles, although this is unlikely, unless the tracks had been recorded before his departure, a possibility, but doubtful, as the demos found to date are noted to be from 1966 [6]. The vociferous McLagan also said he could not remember recording with the band.

In July 1966 Boz was asked to record the theme tune for the up-and-coming movie Carry on Screaming (UK release 16 August 1966). It appears his version of the tune became the commercially available single but the actual vocals on the movie soundtrack (which appeared as Anon in the credits), are often attributed to Jim Dale, a star of the movie but were provided by well-known Embassy Records session vocalist Ray Pilgrim. “I had been retired almost a year when I got the call around April 1966. I ended up doing the vocals in front of a big screen showing the movie at Denham studio sound stage,” said Pilgrim. Oddly, the A-side to the single was The Baby Song written by ex-Jaywalker and Norwich man Pete Miller. Despite his lack of chart success, Boz remained in demand on the live circuit.

 

Raymond Boz Burrell - 60s band timeline:

This timeline represents Boz’s movements between 1963 and 1969. Research is ongoing, and details are subject to change. Headings in bold have a separate biography section within this book.

 

The Tea Time Four c63-Jun65 -

 

The Boz People #1 Jun-Nov65 - as above.

 

The Sidewinders Dec65-Jan66

LVox: Dickie Pride LVox: Boz Burrell am

Gtr: Len Neldrett / Crt: Marc Charig

BSax: Johnny Marshall / Keys: Matthew Hutchinson

Bs: Tex Makins / Cga: Jimmy Scott

Drums: Malcolm Penn

Guitarist Neldrett talks about Boz & The Sidewinders, “The original Sidewinders had started in early 1965 and served to accompany Dickie Pride's swinging vocalese offerings (he was recognised as one of the best in the field at that time), as well as a selection of instrumentals which ranged from be-bop to soul. Boz Burrell joined later basically to fill in for Dickie after an accident put him temporarily out of action. Boz coped so well that he stayed on after Dickie's return and the band enjoyed the luxury of two fine vocalists. We also appeared on George Melly's BBC Jazz Beat radio show.” 

 

Boz & His New Group Mar 66

Advertised on the Marquee billboard as Boz & His New Group, no line-up is known.

 

Ian Whiteman, Boz & The Tea Time 4 May 66.

Putting a spanner in the works is guitarist Ian Whiteman, who in an interview with Psychedelicbabymag.com. 07/05/2021 says, “My first band was my own scratch group put together for a May Ball at Queen’s College Oxford in 1966 alongside The Hollies and the Yardbirds. The band had no name, but the singer was Boz Burrell, who became part of Bad Company much later. The band was really his group The Tea Time 4, whom I borrowed for the gig.” This makes little sense with regards to The Tea Time Four but certainly brings Whiteman into Boz’s orbit, as Vernon Joynson’s Tapestry of Delights notes that Whiteman plays on Boz’s early singles.

 

Boz & His Boys Sept 66-

LVox: Boz Burrell / Gtr: Tony McPhee

Gtr: Ivan Zagni / Keys: Tom Parker

Bs: Barry Fats Dean / Drums: ??

A snippet in the EEN 05/09/66 reports that Boz is now working with ex-Groundhog Tom Parker as general musical mentor. Additionally, a snippet in the EEN 17/10/66 said Norwich guitarist had also joined Boz for the Dusty Springfield tour.

 

Other titles for the band around this time are Boz & The Boz Big Band (Dec66) Boz & His Band (Mar67). Tony McPhee of The Groundhogs was a part of the band at this point and talked to Psychedelic Baby in 2011, “I went on to join the Dollar Bills. We played the Marquee Club and that’s when I first heard of Boz & the Boz People. The first Groundhogs split up in 1966 and Tom Parker, who was our pianist, told me about a situation where we would be paid for rehearsing!!! A 'City Gent' named Basil Charles-Dean, whose business was importing and exporting all sorts of stuff had heard Boz singing Pinnochio, (he had a voice like Scott Walker), so Basil decided he would manage him, put a band together to back him and 'sell' him like a 'can of peas' (Basil's own words!) We put a set together and played on the Dusty Springfield tour plus some one-nighters.”

 

Feel For Soul May-Oct67

 

Boz Mar68-

LVox: Raymond Boz Burrell / Keys: Jon Lord

Gtr: Ritchie Blackmore

Bs: Chas Hodges or Nick Semper

Drums: Ian Paice

Various internet sources give credit to keyboard player Jon Lord as having had ‘a lot to do’ with putting together Boz People although, in context, it should only refer to the session band that played on his later recordings. The line-up was an intermission between the band Roundabout and the start of Deep Purple. However, the producer of the sessions, the late Derek Lawrence blurs the lines further and recalls it was Blackmore who brought Boz along to the sessions and believed the recordings were made while contemplating Boz as a possible singer for the band. It is not confirmed if this line-up ever played live with Boz. 

 

The Alan Price Set Oct-Dec67

Boz temporarily fronted The Alan Price Set after meeting him while on tour with Dusty Springfield and hitting it off.

 

Panorama Dec67-Feb68

 

Ray Morris May68-

Boz returned to Norwich shortly after the release of I Shall Be Released, recorded with Boz People #3 in May 1968, and joined up with The Ray Morris Set for some live performances.

 

Boz’s next noted project was in early 1970 when he appeared on Keith Tippett’s recording venture, Centipede. During this project, he met Robert Fripp of King Crimson. In 1971 Fripp talked Boz into fronting a new line-up of his band. Failure to acquire a bass player saw Fripp teach Boz the basic rudiments for him to become the group’s singing bass player and emerge as a musician in his own right. Bernie Rudd challenges the idea that Boz ever needed to be taught how to play. “It has been frustrating over the years to say the least, to read or hear that Boz had to be taught how to play. The reason The Tea Time Four were one of the few regional bands to get anywhere, is because they had natural ability and Boz was no exception, he could already play, he had great pitch and a good ear. Playing bass and singing would not have been a stretch for him. During our last recordings together, just before he passed, you could only admire what a great fretless bass player he had become.” Bernie’s thoughts are also echoed in Brian Russell’s autobiography In Case I Should Forget. Brian at the time was playing on the Norwich scene with The Influence but went on to run the Norwich Artistes (appx3) booking agency. He recalls Boz’s Feel For Soul days in Norwich, “Boz became an instant hit with Feel For Soul and had the ability of getting a tune out of almost any instrument he picked up. He once bought a penny whistle from the local market and, that night on stage improvised a solo on it in the middle of Harlem Shuffle. There was an occasion when Influence was due to play at USAF Lakenheath and Mick our bass player could not make it. Boz offered to stand in. ‘But you don’t play the bass,’ I said. ‘It will be Okay,’ replied Boz. ‘Just get me a guitar.’ On reflection nothing about that night springs to mind and that it must indeed have been okay, just as Boz had said it would be.” 

 

Boz passed away at his Marbella home in Spain on 21 September 2006, aged 60.

 

Discography:

7Act Make love b/w Talk to me

Emidisc promo c66 (untraced)

7Act S/S Talk to me

Emidisc promo c66 (untraced)

7” You’re just the kind of girl i want b/w Isn’t that so

Columbia Records DB7832 released 11/02/66

7” Meeting time b/w No (ah) body knows blues

Columbia Records DB7889 released 07/04/66

7” Pinnochio b/w Stay as You Are

Columbia Records DB7941 released 10/06/66

7” The Baby Song b/w Carry on Screaming

Columbia Records DB7972 released 29/07/66

7P/S Pinocchio b/w The Baby Song

Epic Records 5-10097 released on 11/11/66 (USA)

7” I Shall Be Released b/w Down in The Flood

Columbia Records DB8406 released 03/05/68

7” Light My Fire b/w Back Against the Wall

Columbia Records DB8468 released 16/08/68

In 1991 Line Records releases The Derek Lawrence Sessions over 3 volumes. The first two contain the Dylan double bill from Boz’s fifth single while volume three sees a previously unreleased track emerge.

CD Ct Derek Lawrence Sess Take1 ~ I Shall Be Released 

Line Records LICD901118 released ??/??/91

CD Ct Derek Lawrence Sess Take2 ~ Down in The Flood

Line Records LICD901119 released ??/??/91

CD Ct Derek Lawrence Sess Take3 ~ Creators of Rain

Line Records LICD901120 released ??/??/91             

Selected advertised supports for Boz People:

22/06/65 Gala BR, Nch - The Applejacks

26/06/65 King’s Lynn Corn Ex - PJ Proby

10/08/65 Gala BR, Nch - The Pretty Things

26/08/65 Marquee, Ldn - The Graham Bond Organisation

02/09/65 Marquee, Ldn - Steam Packet

14/09/65 Gala BR, Nch - Radio London’s, Kenny & Cash Show

04/10/65 Marquee, Ldn - Jimmy James & The Vagabonds

Tours:

Donavan / The Byrds UK Tour 65 (05/08/65-17/08/65)

Donavan, The Byrds, Them, Elkie Brooks, Kenny Lynch

Johnny B Great & The Quotations, Charles Dickens, The Silkie

Sandra Barry, The Deputies, Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers

The Four Pennies, Unit Four + 2, Tommy Quickly

Ray Cameron (compare)

Dusty Springfield Tour UK 66 (27/09/66-08/10/66)

Dusty Springfield with The Echoes, The Settlers

Dave Berry, The Mindbenders, Episode Six, The Alan Price Set

Los Bravos, Johnathan & David, Jeff Lenner (compare)

Mediograpy: 

Local groups become Poor Souls & Boz People in London

EEN 19/06/65 (P)

New name for group UP 26/06/64

Boz gets breaks SJ EEN 07/08/65 (P)

Boz People break up EEN 19/11/65

Record out soon for Boz of Lynn UP 02/02/66

Boz pin hope on Pinnochio H&N EEN 31/05/66

Boz back in the news UP 12/07/66

Boz joins F.F.S. H&N EEN 05/06/67 (P)        

Boz records Dylan songs for new disc H&N EEN 22/04/68 (P)

Boz held up on city trip H&N EEN 13/05/68

TV:

Anglia TV: About Anglia ~ unk trks aired ??/11/65

??: Here Come the Pops ~ unk trks aired c65

??: Action ~ Pinnochio aired ??/07/66

Residencies:

The Marquee, 90 Wardour St, Ldn Aug65-Oct65

Bibliography:

Quite Naturally The Small Faces KB & TR / All The Rage IM / In Case I Should Forget BR

Related titles:

Boz & The Band / Buz & The Buz People (misspelling)

 

NB: 1. Spencer Leigh’s Boz obituary for The Independent 22/09/2011 has his birth date as 1 January 1946. We have gone with the most consistently published date of 1 August 1946. 2. Jack Barrie first became involved with The Marquee when working for the National Jazz & Blues Festival in 1964, put together by Marquee owner Harold Pendleton and became catering manager at the club the same year. He later became the club’s assistant manager and finally manager. In May 1967, the lack of a liqueur licence at the club saw Barrie open La Chasse, a small club around the corner from the Marquee, on the first floor at 100 Wardour Street. This became the Marquee’s Greenroom and the most popular drinking club on the music scene at the time. 3. Ian McLagan played the guitar while a member of The Muleskinners but switched to Hammond Organ when joining Boz People 4. When the Small Faces played their debut with McLagan at The Marquee on 22/03/1966, The Summer Set, Rocky’s new band were the support act. 5. Many bands played and released under the Top Ten Allstars, a name that was owned by the club and used to represent their house band and often made up of those playing in residence at the club, at the time. [6] The Guardian’s obituary for Ian McLagan 04/12/2014 notes that he had left Boz People after four unsuccessful singles, but McLagan left the band before Boz commercially released any singles at all. McLagan left the band on 31/10/1965, the first single from Boz was release on 11/02/66.   

 

The Tea Time Four <> Boz (Barton - Bus Stop) (Rudd - ??) (Browne - The Summer Set) (Dean - ??)