Equals, The
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Contents |
Information
Genres: Rock
Styles: Psychedelic Soul, Freakbeat, British Invasion, Bubblegum
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UK Charts (Updated Until December 31 2005)
Highest Place In Charts (Albums): 10
Total Weeks In Charts (Albums): 10
Highest Place In Charts (Singles): 1
Total Weeks In Charts (Singles): 69
Members (Alphabetical Order)
Discography
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Lyrics And Music Videos
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Sheet Music
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Posters
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Buy Music Online
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Equals, The Biography
The Equals, if they're remembered by American audiences at all, are noted for the fact that Eddy Grant, the rock/soca/reggae synthesizer who sang "Electric Avenue" (1983), was a member. Pop historians like to add the Equals to that list of overseas artists with limited US success that also includes the Pretty Things, the Move, Shocking Blue, Gary Glitter and the Shadows. In the Equals' case, their jarring mix of bubblegum, soul, "mod" (Small Faces, the Who) plus whatever else crossed Eddy Grant's mind, was only good for one American hit, 1968's "Baby Come Back" (#32 on Billboard's pop charts). The band never toured Stateside to keep the momentum up. Their songbook grew more influential in time: Bonnie Raitt covered "Baby Come Back", the Clash did "Police On My Back", and Brownsville Station remade "I Get So Excited," but at the time American success eluded them. Eddy Grant reminisced in Trouser Press in '83, "if we had broken (in America), a band like Sly & the Family Stone would never have existed." They were both interracial rock-soul bands, but the Equals had more of a commercial pop bent. Imagine Sly Stone fronting the 1910 Fruitgum Co. and you've just described the Equals.
Hearing "Baby Come Back" (not the schlocky 70's ballad!) on an oldies radio show in the eighties, not knowing who they were or where they came from (Eddy Grant wasn't famous yet), I figured they had to be some black harmony group along the lines of the Drifters or Little Anthony & the Imperials, doing R&B songs with pop production. "Baby" had that kind of feel, like some black group trying vainly to get a white audience. About a year later, "Electric Avenue" became a massive summer hit, and I see the "Baby Come Back" album (on RCA) in a used store with a high price tag. This is when I made the Eddy Grant connection, and I also found out that the Equals weren't black doo-woppers doing the frat-party circuit, but rather a self-contained band from England (two whites, three blacks).
The Equals started in England in 1966, when eighteen-year-old Eddy built a guitar in shop class, and after his dad bought an amp (and showed the younger Grant a few chords), Eddy went looking for musicians. As he told Trouser Press, "I'd just finished my exams and there was nothing much to do." In short order, he met John Hall (drums), Pat Lloyd (rhythm guitar), and the Gordon brothers, Lincoln (rhythm guitar), and Derv (lead vocals). Although none of the instrumentalists in the band (save for Eddy) knew how to play, it didn't take them long to learn. Whenever touring soul singers like Sugar Pie Desanto, Solomon Burke, and Wilson Pickett came to England, the Equals were more often than not the opening band. This is where they learned stage presence, which later on would help them steal the stage from the more "progressive" artists like Cream and Procol Harum. The fact that there was no bass in the group is surprising---their style sometimes bordered on reggae, and their records were mixed like it, with the bass way up front. After the three guitars chimed in, with Eddy playing delicate riffs over Pat and Lincoln's proto-Ramones strumming, it sounded incredibly brittle, dense, and distinctive.
Even though they were considered a visual act to be reckoned with, it was slow-going on vinyl. They were signed to President Records in the U.K., where they released "Hold Me Closer" c/w "Baby, Come Back", their second seven-inch. Some deejay in Germany started playing "Baby", slowly spreading through the Netherlands, England, and crossing over to the US, where the single was licensed to RCA Victor for further chart and airwave action. This was the first and last time they'd make a small dent in the American psyche---strangely, "Baby" never cracked the soul charts at all---but they were hotter than a stick of rolling dynamite across the globe, particularly in Europe, Africa, and South America. Part of their appeal is that they were diverse without making a big stink out of it. After Eddy Grant hit it big as a solo, the German label Astan released an Equals compilation; the cassette version somehow made the bargain-bin rounds a while back. There were no dates or liner notes, so I assumed their career went the same route as other bands of the period. I figured the hard-rocking garage-punker, "I Can See But You Don't Know" was probably real early in their career, about '66; the silly novelty numbers like "Viva Bobby Joe", probably after they started getting successful, recording more radio-friendly material; and the psychedelic funk of "Black-Skinned Blue-Eyed Boys", probably their "progressive" period. The Equals, unlike most bands, never really had "phases". The damnedest influences could crop up at any given time. "I Can See" is actually from 1970, radically late for a sound that intense. Fuzzed-out songs like "I'm A Poor Man" would be followed, sooner or later, by kiddie-playhouse material like "Michael & His Slipper Tree." Pop-soul songs like, "Just Me & You" were right around the corner from tunes like "Be My Baby Tonight," a shameless Troggs imitation. When "Black-Skinned Blue-Eyed Boys" was released in America (on the Shout label, the R&B wing of Bang Records, responsible for 90% of Neil Diamond's best stuff), the flip side was "Ain't Got Nothing To Give You," a tender love ballad using the "Louie Louie" chord sequence. "Lonely Rita" steals its hook directly from the Beatles' "Lovely Rita" and actually is the better song of the two. "Soul Brother Clifford," back in the bubblegum vein, is a surreal tribute to an organ player in a Baptist church, and the version on the Astan best-of has Derv Gordon blurting out "EVERYBODY NOW! Soul, soul, soul brother Clifford.....EVEN WHITE PEOPLE!" And how about that Derv? Sixties soul purists can't stand it when singers confuse soul with screaming and start playing up to the white rock audience's idea of R&B (exaggerated screeching, like a constipated Wilson Pickett, instead of subtle Jerry Butler intonations). That's exactly what Derv does on "Soul Groovin'," but here it's practically humorous, almost tongue-in-cheek. Derv wasn't the most dynamic singer in the world, always double-tracking his rough-edged vocals, but he does pretty good as a stylist.
"Black-Skinned Blue-Eyed Boys" was their last single, in England, on the President label prior to a stint with CBS. This number is on a par with "The World Is A Ghetto" by War, "Time Has Come Today" by the Chambers Brothers, "Funky Nassau" by the Beginning Of The End, "Fight The Power" by the Isley Brothers, and any other black-power song with an angry acid-rock edge. Congas, fuzztone, a clavinet keyboard (like Stevie Wonder played on "Superstition")---they could not go wrong. (I think this is the period where Eddy started wearing a blonde wig in their promo pictures.) The title track of the CBS album (Stand Up & Be Counted, never released in the U.S.) featured more "soul-brother/power-to-the-people" lyrics, and musically sounded like the missing link between War and Slade. During this time, President filed suit, claiming that one more album was owed them. Eddy left during this period, looking to establish his well-known solo career, but continued to write and produce as the band limped to a the finish line. The final President LP, The Equals Rock Around The Clock (1974), was one of those back-to-the-roots albums of old rock standards that 70's artists like John Lennon and David Bowie would do when they ran out of ideas. According to Grant, this was totally the label's idea, not the band's. After a final album in '78 on Ice, Grant's label, this is seemingly where their recording history ends.
There were scattered attempts to break them in the U.S., apart from the one hit and the RCA album named after it. President Records was briefly distributed by Laurie, mainly known for white vocal groups like the Mystics ("Hushabye"), Randy & the Rainbows ("Denise"), and Dion & the Belmonts. From that association came two more U.S. releases, "Equals Supreme" and "Unequalled." In '93, The Very Best Of The Equals appeared on See For Miles, a subsidiary of Charly, the English reissue label. And the Equals themselves? Well, in 1985, a new version of the band (only Derv Gordon and Pat Lloyd remain from the originals) played an oldies revue in England at Hammersmith Odeon, and still continue to play the circuit in one form or another. A videotape I recently saw of the new Equals showed Derv looking pretty much the same as he did in the sixties, hopping around the large stage like he'd just won the lottery, and screaming with as much passion as the old President hits. The band is often cited as an influential band in the 2-Tone ska movement, both for their racial composition and the vague reggae/ska leanings, but you don't need a porkpie hat to dig their greatness. The Equals' manic brand of rock 'n' soul, after all this time, still stands on its own---unequalled.
roctober.com
The Equals were a pop/reggae/rock group that formed in North London, England in 1965. They are known mostly for the fact that Eddy Grant was in the group. But also in the original line-up were the twin brothers, Derv and Lincoln Gordon, John Hall and Pat Lloyd.
History
In 1966 the group released the "Hold Me Closer" / "Baby Come Back" single, which did not capture much attention in the United Kingdom. However, in Germany and The Netherlands it went to #1 - a position its re-issue would later reach in the UK. The year 1968 saw the release of "I Get So Excited" which appeared in the Top 50 of the UK singles chart. A string of single releases followed up to 1970, all of which charted in the UK.
In 1971, Grant left The Equals to pursue his solo career. He would have eventually release several Top 40 singles in the early 1980s; among them, "Electric Avenue" and "Romancing the Stone". Though the band never charted again after Grant's departure, they remained a popular live act, performing into the late 1970s.
In the late 1970s, The Clash recorded a successful cover of The Equals' song "Police On My Back".
The Equals' track "Baby Come Back" returned in 1994, when Pato Banton scored an unexpected UK Number One with his cover version of the track.
| Artist | Equals, The + |
| Artist Type | Band + |
| Genre | Rock + |
| Page Type | Main Info Page + |
| RID | 1,795,196 + |
| Style | Psychedelic Soul +, Freakbeat +, British Invasion +, and Bubblegum + |
