Mandrake Memorial

Mandrake Memorial
Origin	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Genres	Psychedelic rock, progressive rock
Years active	1967–1970
Labels	Poppy Records

Mandrake Memorial was an American psych/progressive rock band active 1967-1970, known for their Baroque sound and unique songwriting.

The Mandrake Memorial formed in late 1967 when producer/promoter Larry Schreiber was asked to put together a house band for Manny Rubin's downtown Philadelphia club, The Trauma. Schreiber started with Michael Kac (pronounced "Katz"), a folksinger/guitarist/banjoist/keyboardist who was already a regular performer at both The Trauma and Rubin's other club, The Second Fret. Kac had been in a band called The Candymen, later known as Cat's Cradle, recently broken up (Schreiber had been their manager). Guitarist Kim King (of Lothar and the Hand People, another Trauma Club regular) told Schreiber about a drummer he knew in a similar situation. J. (John) Kevin Lally was from a band called The Novae Police, a fixture at the Night Owl Club and The Bitter End in Greenwich Village, playing with bands like The Flying Machine (with James Taylor) and The Ragamuffins (from Canada). Schreiber visited Lally in the basement of New York's Albert Hotel, where Kevin kept his drums in Lothar's practice room. Suitably impressed, he brought Lally back to Philadelphia to meet Michael, and the two musicians hit it off immediately. Kac then recruited a young guitarist he'd seen, Craig Anderton from a University of Pennsylvania college band called The Flowers of Evil, who'd been opening for Todd Rundgren's first band Woody's Truck Stop. Last, Lally convinced his friend Randy Monaco, bassist/vocalist from The Novae Police, to relocate to Philly and join them. Although everyone was already working musicians, they jumped at the chance to be a house band, with a guaranteed gig every weekend and the chance to open for all the big-name bands brought in by Manny.

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