Fact #117096
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Barry Murray (record producer) : Pye Records had set up the Dawn label, but really had no idea what to do with it. When Tony Macaulay left Pye, I was offered the job of in-house producer. At this time, I formed the Red Bus Company as well with Eliot Cohen and Ellis Elias, me working on the production side and they on the agency. I got the idea for the name, Red Bus, when I saw a red bus bombing down the Great Cambridge Road at about 80 m.p.h. I saw The Good Earth (who became Mungo Jerry soon afterwards) at The Middle Earth Club and wanted to sign them to Dawn with Donovan and John McLaughlin - I still had some old demos from Ray Dorset from earlier days. We cut some demos at Pye, I could see the potential straight away. Pye weren't too keen, but as I was the new man brought in, they let me have my way.
Our Red Bus offices had The Temple, (formerly The Flamingo) in the basement. They weren't going too well at the time, so I persuaded them to hold some all-nighters to promote some of our artists, a sort of underground scene. The Good Earth used to come on stage at about 3.30 a.m when it was getting really mellow and they would tear the place apart - it was infectious, real energy! We offered the band a complete package at Red Bus, management, publishing, agency and got the Pye deal signed.
(Source : http://www.mungomania.com/murray.htm)
Ray Dorset (leader of Mungo Jerry) : In The Summertime came from me playing around on my guitar, my first Fender Stratocaster, which I had recently bought second hand for £75. Joe Rush lent me the money, a colleague at Timex, who along with me invented the original Mungo Jerry Sound - a mix of jug band and skiffle music. I had listened to John Mayall, I played a melody on my guitar and sang along. It was in D major. I couldn't get it out of my head. The next day at work I had the idea for the lyrics, 'In the summertime when the weather was high..." I had the lyrics in ten minutes.
(Source : Sleeve Notes on Mungo Jerry Rewind CD, 2016)
Barry Murray (record producer) : I wanted to issue In The Summertime as the first single. The band and record company weren't too keen at first, agreeing only afterwards when I told them that if they didn't issue it, I would get someone else to cover it. I remixed it after hearing the acetate and could see it wasn't quite there yet after playing it to several people, including John Peel. I knew I was right!
Just before its release, we added Mungo to the bill of the Hollywood Music Festival in May 1970, that we were organising to promote our acts. We brought the Grateful Dead in from the U.S. - that cost us £10,000 and several others as well – Free, Jose Feliciano, Black Sabbath, Ginger Baker’s Airforce and Traffic. Well Mungo just blew everybody else away, it was amazing!
We issued the maxi-single, calling them maxis because we getting the maximum amount of music that we could, and it went crazy! I got a call from Pye Records head Louis Benjamin to say that he had a telex from the distribution centre - they had taken orders for 71,000 copies over the weekend. Gloating a bit, remembering that they weren't too keen to sign the band, I said, "What does that mean?" "We've got a smash!", he shouted!
(Source : http://www.mungomania.com/murray.htm)
I was in the car with the guys from the band, we were on our way to a gig in a pub. A girl we knew flagged us down. 'Hey, they're playing your song on the radio!' It was one of those pirate radio stations, Radio London.
My mum found something about it in the Daily Mirror newspaper. Because it was the first maxi single worldwide, the Daily Mirror, which was the UK's biggest tabloid at the time, ran a little story about it. The heading was 'A Maxi Hit'. But it was sobering when I bought the Melody Maker and Chris Welch wrote that it sounded amateurish.
(Source : Sleeve Notes on Mungo Jerry Rewind CD, 2016)
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Our Red Bus offices had The Temple, (formerly The Flamingo) in the basement. They weren't going too well at the time, so I persuaded them to hold some all-nighters to promote some of our artists, a sort of underground scene. The Good Earth used to come on stage at about 3.30 a.m when it was getting really mellow and they would tear the place apart - it was infectious, real energy! We offered the band a complete package at Red Bus, management, publishing, agency and got the Pye deal signed.
(Source : http://www.mungomania.com/murray.htm)
Ray Dorset (leader of Mungo Jerry) : In The Summertime came from me playing around on my guitar, my first Fender Stratocaster, which I had recently bought second hand for £75. Joe Rush lent me the money, a colleague at Timex, who along with me invented the original Mungo Jerry Sound - a mix of jug band and skiffle music. I had listened to John Mayall, I played a melody on my guitar and sang along. It was in D major. I couldn't get it out of my head. The next day at work I had the idea for the lyrics, 'In the summertime when the weather was high..." I had the lyrics in ten minutes.
(Source : Sleeve Notes on Mungo Jerry Rewind CD, 2016)
Barry Murray (record producer) : I wanted to issue In The Summertime as the first single. The band and record company weren't too keen at first, agreeing only afterwards when I told them that if they didn't issue it, I would get someone else to cover it. I remixed it after hearing the acetate and could see it wasn't quite there yet after playing it to several people, including John Peel. I knew I was right!
Just before its release, we added Mungo to the bill of the Hollywood Music Festival in May 1970, that we were organising to promote our acts. We brought the Grateful Dead in from the U.S. - that cost us £10,000 and several others as well – Free, Jose Feliciano, Black Sabbath, Ginger Baker’s Airforce and Traffic. Well Mungo just blew everybody else away, it was amazing!
We issued the maxi-single, calling them maxis because we getting the maximum amount of music that we could, and it went crazy! I got a call from Pye Records head Louis Benjamin to say that he had a telex from the distribution centre - they had taken orders for 71,000 copies over the weekend. Gloating a bit, remembering that they weren't too keen to sign the band, I said, "What does that mean?" "We've got a smash!", he shouted!
(Source : http://www.mungomania.com/murray.htm)
I was in the car with the guys from the band, we were on our way to a gig in a pub. A girl we knew flagged us down. 'Hey, they're playing your song on the radio!' It was one of those pirate radio stations, Radio London.
My mum found something about it in the Daily Mirror newspaper. Because it was the first maxi single worldwide, the Daily Mirror, which was the UK's biggest tabloid at the time, ran a little story about it. The heading was 'A Maxi Hit'. But it was sobering when I bought the Melody Maker and Chris Welch wrote that it sounded amateurish.
(Source : Sleeve Notes on Mungo Jerry Rewind CD, 2016)