James Taylor Move formed in Adelaide at the start of 1967, apparently at the behest of a local disco owner. They are considered one of Australia's first psychedelic rock groups, blending influences from Hendrix, the American West Coast scene, Motown, and Chicago blues, and they boasted some of South Australia's best young musicians.
Biography[]
The original members -- Taylor, Peek, Tarney and Spencer -- were all respected local players who had close connections with Adelaide's No.1 pop group The Twilights. Peek, Tarney and Spencer had played in a couple of earlier Adelaide bands, The Hurricanes and Johnny Broome & The Handels, whose various members formed the nuclei of both The Twilights and the James Taylor Move. Peek was Adelaide's guitar hero at the time -- the young Terry Britten was reputedly Kevin's eager disciple and used carry his guitar to and from gigs.
Not surprisingly, their early gigs were as support for The Twilights. They built up a solid following in Adelaide and in the first half of '67 they followed in The Twilights' footsteps, winning the South Australian final of the Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds. They headed to Melbourne in July for the national finals, and although they were defeated by The Groop they decided to remain in the pop capital.
Probably as a result of their strong showing in the Battle, they snagged a deal with Festival and released their excellent début single"And I Hear The Fire Sing" / "Magic Eyes" in August. The Hendrix-inspired A-side -- which must be one of the first local recordings to show the impact of The Experience -- was apparently considered a bit too far-out for local radio, but the B-side was picked up, received plenty of airplay in the southern states and became a Top 40 hit for them in Melbourne. They began to attract some attention and were lauded in Go-Set by Ian Meldrum. In October Festival released their only other known commercial recording, the single, "Baby Jane", backed by the hypnotic, raga-styled "Still I Can Go On". Both "And I Hear The Fire Sing" and "Still I Can Go On" were included on the Gift Records compilation A Forest Of Gold Tops (GIFT 1001).
Kevin Peek left in May '68, and was replaced by two new members, John Pugh (ex-Roadrunners, 18th Century Quartet, Cam-Pact) and organist Lance Dixon. Lead singer Talyor left the following month, and he was replaced by a talented 18-year-old blues-soul singer called Wendy Saddington (ex Revolution). This second lineup lasted only a few more months and regrettably they made no commercial recordings before their split at the end of 1968.
Almost all the various members of the band went on to bigger and better things, either on the local or the international scene. Alan Tarney and Trevor Spencer were reunited with Kevin Peek in the Kevin Peek Trio (1968-69). They moved to the UK in 1969, where they recruited their old Adelaide buddy, former Twilights supremo Terry Britten to join the group, which they imaginatively renamed Quartet (1969-70).