One of the legendary bands to come out of the mid-60's UK. Considered by many to be the "first Supergroup", The Steampacket boasted a roster that would eventually become a who's who in UK Rock. Rod Stewart, Julie Driscoll and Long John Baldry all contributed vocals, while Brian Auger, Mick Waller. Vic Briggs and Rick Brown provided the instrumentals.

But their fame and legend was more connected with live appearances, as they never actually got in the studio to really record anything. Contractual problems not permitting that to happen. Nonetheless, Manager/Impresario Giorgio Gomelsky (think: Yardbirds), regularly recorded rehearsal sessions. So what there is, comprises a lot of recordings that give "some idea" of how potentially great the band were, but sadly leaving you with that feeling you may have missed out on the truly memorable stuff.

Tonight it's a track recorded during rehearsal at The Marquee Club in December 1965, featuring Brian Auger on Organ. It's Jimmy Smith's Back At The Chicken Shack and gives some idea of how far reaching this band were with regards to material.

Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll would eventually leave and form The Trinity. While Rod Stewart would join The Jeff Beck Group before hitting the jackpot with The Faces. Long John Baldry would continue on as a solo artist, releasing one album on Warner Bros in the early 1970's. Everyone landed somewhere and made huge contributions to music in the meantime. But it's these early recordings that offer some glimpse into just how great a unit like The Steampacket were.

(Blossom Toes - destined to morph into several other things)

In September last year I played a track off the first Blossom Toes album "We Are Ever So Clean", something of a cult classic even in 1967. Blossom Toes didn't venture too much outside of the UK and the rest of Europe and certainly neither of their two albums (this one and the second one, If Only For A Moment from 1969) were issued in the U.S. - No, that was for us import freaks to discover, and Blossom Toes were a great discovery. Produced by Giorgio Gomelsky and released on his own Marmalade Records label, they were a remarkably talented band who eventually found their way into a number of other bands when they finally split in 1970 and morphed into the neo-prog B.B. Blunder (who were issued briefly in the U.S. on Polydor) in 1972 while Guitarist Jim Cregan formed Stud and later joined Family before settling into Cockney Rebel and finally Rod Stewart.

Tonight's track is also off "We Are Ever So Clean". Telegram Tuesday is the fourth track off side one.

Honest, the fact that the song has Tuesday in the title never occurred to me.