Don Smith, Tintern Abbeys' original guitarist who featured on their sole single, began his relatively short musical career with a band called the "Turnkeys" In Richmond in the mid 60s. After he had been playing guitar for less than two years, by chance they scored a part (2 music tracks) in a black & white film (The Little Ones/1965) when they were overheard rehearsing by the daughter of Director Jim Connolly.
It was During 1966/7, at the height of the Kings Road scene during many visits to clubs in the area, that the original line up of Tintern Abbey was formed by Don Smith after meeting David MacTavish at the Overseas Visitors Club in EarlsCourt London. Smith brought John Dalton into the band after a meeting in the Cromwellian Club in South Kensington and Mactavish brought Stuart Mackay into the band after a meeting at the dole office, and it was this grouping of musicians who formed the quintessentially psychedelic Tintern Abbey.
With the help of a girlfriend of David Mactavish, the band gained financing and much promotion courtesy of Nigel Samuels (International Times), and an acetate demo was cut on the 29th July 1967 (Paid for by a friend of Mactavish,not Samuels) at R.G.Jones OAK studios, featuring Busy Bee/Bumblebee (Beeside) and Black Jack, which was turned down in favour of Vacuum Cleaner for the Deram release. After their single release, the band began work (with John Pantry engineering), on 'Snowman'. Demo acetates were cut, but the John Pantry-engineered IBC master-tape still survives (presently with bassist Stuart MacKay). It was during this time that Don believes the balance within the group went adrift, with him taking uppers, time keeping (Late arrivals to rehearsals etc) lead to disputes and Don was effectively "invited" to leave the band, and so it was that the classic Tintern Abbey came to an end. The bands history here onwards is well documented elsewhere. Don moved to Turkey for a year where he played with a popular Turkish group. Upon returning to England, he gained employment with ITV as a sound engineer for three years and then as a freelance boom operator in the film business and ceased to play guitar professionally
Interestingly, apart from one promo gig in Holland, this Tintern Abbey played no UK gigs.
Original Tintern Abbey demo, 29th July 1967 featuring
Black Jack / Busy Bee
Snowman
Tanya
This particular track was about a Chinese girl who liked to hang out in Trafalgar Square(Nelson/the tall man) chatting up tourists.
IBC acetate: Vacuum Cleaner / Busy Bee (Uncompressed)
Prerelease 33.3 rpm acetate recording dated 4th November 1967.
Vacuum Cleaner:
Beeside
Page Full of Hits one sided acetate - Busy Bee (33.3 rpm)
Page Full of Hits one sided acetate - Busy Bee (33.3 rpm)
19 comments:
Unbelievable finds.... never heard 'Black Jack' before...
AMAZING FIND!
Thanks so much, you rock!
My God...this is amazing. So cool to hear the demo of Beeside
Should I be able to see a link to Snowman? Is it a fully finished, pro studio follow up to the Deram 45?
I know some of us don't post our thanks often enough,Sir Henry, but your wonderful blog is an oasis in the desert for us psych fans. Thank you so much for your dedication to finding the rarest of the rare of UK psych and posting it for our pleasure. You are a treasure,sir!
Major find - these tracks as well as Tintern's original guitarist. Perhaps he'd be willing to tell his side of the story?
I bow before you.
Thank you so much for all you are sharing on this blog!
Thank you all for you interest and support.
Scott, I will put up a some notes made from a conversation with Don about his time before, during and after Tintern Abbey.
Such a wonderful way to ring in the new year. Thanks so much.
Tho please note that under "Prerelease 33.3 rpm acetate recording dated 4th November 1967" the version of Vacuum Cleaner is actually the same as Beeside. Not that I have any objection to hearing it twice or a hundred times, mind you...
Thank you Popville - I have now rectified matters.
Life changing, thank you so much Sir!!
One more Tintern Abbey fan here, saying Far out! May the new Gregorian year be kind to you and Donald.
~C.A.~ Σ:+)
I have 2 Oak acetates with Tintern Abbey cited as the performers too!
One record (quite crackly) has a slowed down cover of CWOAB'S FIRE and an unnamed instrumental on the other side. Instrumental is 2.58 minutes long.
The other record is two more covers and both a fairly similar to the originals but less instrumentation. A HOUSE IS NOT A MOTEL and YOU SET THE SCENE both originally recorded by LOVE.
It is hard to read the date as it is smudged and faded over time but think it is January 1968.
I may get a friend to scan them
regards, Dave P
Dave,
This sounds very interesting indeed. If you could manage scans and sound clips, contact me at sirhenryrawlinson@inbox.com
it would be interesting to see if Don has any recollection of this, although I think he'd left the band by Jan 1968.
Sir Henry
Wow! What a wonderful surprise, can't wait to listen, thanks for sharing these treasures. Happy new year!
This is a generous upload. You not only give this to us, but you do in one meal size portion. I’m sure you could have driven us mad by making an announcement than one by one, over the course of many months, put out the tracks. We owe you thanks for tracking down Don Smith and look forward to any other information on this group.
What a find. Thanks Sir Henry for your willingness to share this sort of thing with people.Keep up the great work.
Wow, this is truly amazing stuff. Thank you so much for sharing.
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