Gracious!

Gracious was a British progressive rock band which existed from 1967 to 1971, and released three studio albums, Gracious! (1970, Vertigo/Capitol), This Is... (1972, Philips) and Echo (1996).

Singer Paul 'Sandy' Davis and guitarist Alan Cowderoy formed a band, the Disciples, while at school in Esher, Surrey. Davis was the drummer and vocalist, and Cowderoy played lead; two other school friends played bass and rhythm (Keith Ireland). In 1968, Martin Kitcat and Mark Laird joined on Hohner electric piano and bass respectively. Davis was still drumming as well as singing, but Robert Lipson, who played in a rival Esher band, agreed to join, allowing Davis to take the front of stage.

The band's early sound was influenced by Cream and the British blues movement, and one of their first professional recordings was a cover of a John Mayall song. They supported The Who on a tour in 1968, by which time they had moved away from their blues roots and developed a more "pop" flavoured identity, landing a deal to record an album under the direction of producer Norrie Paramor. Actual production duties were assigned to Tim Rice, who then worked for Paramor. Sessions at a Denmark Street studio produced ten tracks, an eclectic mix of Vanilla Fudge-influenced covers and Moody Blues-meets-The Beatles styled originals penned by Davis and Kitcat. Two tracks were released on the Polydor single "Beautiful" b/w "Oh What A Lovely Rain", but nothing else from the sessions was heard until 1994 when four more songs appeared on the Renaissance Buried Treasures compilation. They changed their name to Gracious, coined by their first manager David Booth. The exclamation mark was added when the first album's sleeve was prepared. Their third gig under the new name saw them sharing the bill with King Crimson, on 11 July 1969 at Beckenham's Mistrale Club. Lipson would comment later, "that changed our lives. Martin got a Mellotron and we were off!"

In 1969, Gracious toured Germany for six weeks, during which roadie and driver Tim Wheatley replaced Laird. On their return from Germany, Gracious played the gig circuit in the UK and Brian Shepherd, then head of Vertigo Records, came to see them and offered them a record deal. The first album was recorded at Philips Records' London studios near Marble Arch. Cowderoy recalled, "When we first went into the studio to record 'The Dream', we genuinely expected to record it in small segments. However our producer Hugh Murphy insisted we play it in one take in the studio, and do any overdubs afterwards... The first album, although less mature than the second, had more direction and was more focused - although 'Fugue In D Minor' was always an oddity".

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