Mighty Baby

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For the 2002 Hong Kong film, see Mighty Baby (film).

Mighty Baby were a band formed in January 1969 from the ashes of The Action.^[1] They released two albums, Mighty Baby (which appeared in December 1969, but had been recorded almost a year earlier) and A Jug of Love (October 1971).

History[]

Their debut, a collection of psychedelic rock songs, appeared on the small independent 'Head' record label in the UK, and on Chess in the United States. Over the course of 1970 several members of the band became Muslims (adherents of the Sufi order), and their second album reflected the spiritual journey they had embarked on, sounding little like its predecessor. They were the closing act on the first day of the Isle of Wight Festival 1970. It has been said that it was a meeting between Richard Thompson and the band that introduced Richard and Linda Thompson to the Sufi order.^[2] It has notable guitar parts from Martin Stone.

As well as gigging regularly, the band also played many sessions for others, including Robin Scott (Woman From the Warm Grass), Andy Roberts, Keith Christmas (Stimulus and Fable Of The Wings), Shelagh McDonald, Sandy Denny, Gary Farr (Take Something with You, Strange Fruit).

A live concert, recorded at Malvern Winter Gardens in 1970, was released on the Sunbeam label during early 2010. These are from tapes held by Ian Whiteman given to him after the concert. A hitherto unreleased recording from the Glastonbury Fayre 1971 has been included in this document. It has been retrieved from the Radio Geronimo archive.

In 2019 the complete recordings of the band were released as 'At A Point Between Fate And Destiny': a 6cd-boxed set, including their first album, with, as bonus tracks, a previously unissued alternate acetate version of the album; 'A Jug Of Love', with as bonus tracks, the Blue Horizon-single and the 'Action Speak Louder ...'-tracks; 'A Jug Of Love Rehearsals', which were previously issued on 'Slipstreams'(Flashback, 2015) and, as bonus tracks, a 1969 jam and the French Philips-single; 'Day Of The Soup', a set of mainly instrumental demos for a 'potential', unissued second album and, as bonus tracks, 1970 live recordings; 'Live At Malvern' (same tracks as 'Tasting The Life - Live 1971); and 'Live At Glastonbury', a more complete, cassette recording by Radio Geronimo-dj's ^[3] of their 1971 Glastonbury set. A 40-page booklet with an extensive band history, based on contemporary documents and interviews with all members of the band, is included.^{[4] [5]}.

Mike 'Ace' Evans died on 15 January 2010 in London. He was buried at Woodland Burial Park near Beaconsfield.

Discography[]

• Action Speak Louder Than ... (1968 recordings of The Action already in Mighty Baby line-up, released in 1985)
• Mighty Baby (album, Head Records, 1969)
• Egyptian tomb / I'm from the country (Single Philips France 1969)
• "Devil's Whisper" b/w "Virgin Spring" (single, Blue Horizon 2096-003, October 1971)
• A Jug of Love (album, Blue Horizon 2931-001, October 1971)
• Glastonbury Fayre - various artists: one song: "A Blanket In My Muesli" (Revelation 1/2/3, triple album, April 1972, live recordings from Glastonbury 1971)
• Live In The Attic (Rolled Gold Productions, December 2000)
• Tasting The Life - Live 1971 (double album, Sunbeam Records, 2010)
• At A Point Between Fate And Destiny - The Complete Recordings (Grapefruit Records, 2019).

With Reg King

• Reg King (album, United Artists Records 29157, 1971)

Band members[]

• Alan 'Bam' King - vocals, guitar (born 18 September 1945, Muswell Hill, North London).
• Martin Stone - guitar (born 11 December 1946, Woking, Surrey).
• - piano, flute (born 18 May 1945, Saffron Walden, Essex).
• Mike 'Ace' Evans - bass guitar (born Michael Evans, 10 July 1945, Henley, Berkshire).
• Roger Powell - drums (born 4 July 1944, Camden Town, North West London).

References[]

External links[]

• Official website