Description

Formed in 1967 in Stafford (between Birmingham
and Manchester in central England), The Climax
Blues Band was blues rock with a difference, since
jazz, and later funk, were also key parts of their
sound. Lead singer/saxophonist/harmonica player
Colin Cooper had been in garage group The Hipster
Image with guitarist Eric Leese (who later backed
Donovan), forming Climax with guitarist Pete
Haycock, keyboardist Arthur Wood, drummer
George Newsome, rhythm guitarist Derek Holt and
bassist Richard Jones. Their self-titled debut was a
straight-up blues album that was far less rockoriented
than later releases, and by the time followup
Plays On was released, Jones had quit, so
Holt took over bass duties. Along with
unusual adaptations of Graham Bond’s “Little Girl,”
Ray Bryant’s “Cubano Chant” and the classic
ragtime, “Temptation Rag,” the album drifted
between genres, with “Flight” showing the band at
their most jazzy and “Mum’s The Word” a 2001-
influenced interlude of Moog-driven space-rock,
contrasting the heavy blues of Marshall Paul’s “So
Many Roads, So Many Trains.”