A very obscure British band who cut a rare, lone 45 “The Maze of Yesterday” c/w “Freewheel Uphill” in 1969/1970. The recordings were issued only in West Germany (Ariola), Spain (Vergara) and Sweden (Polydor). The picture sleeves depict a five-piece in the German release and a four-piece in the Spanish release, suggesting they started life as a quintet.
Judging by the song-writing credits, the group featured Gordon Neville, Michael Halpin and George J Watt.
Singer Gordon Neville subsequently sang with Alan Bown among others and was also in Scottish group Beggars Opera who recorded the song “Now You’re Gone” composed by Neville with Sellar and Watt, who I presume is the same George Watt associated with The Projection.
George Watt has confirmed that he is not the same musician who played Hammond organ briefly in The Attack in mid-1967.
We would welcome any more information on this rare band.
Good to see something on the web about this band, I was one of the first to re-discover this about 15 years ago maybe, putting The Maze on a private compilation that circulated among the old RZ forum. Not dicovere much so far, anyway:
– Their publishers/producers Bill Shepherd and Graham Sacher were also responsible for the Crew single
– Neville and Watt composed two songs on Beggars “Lifeline” (1980)
About Neville, I found this on an old website (no more available):
Gordon was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland and educated at Kilmarnock Academy, where he formed his first band, The Spectre, and Langside College, Glasgow. The Spectre developed into Projection who recorded one single called Freewheel Uphill on Polydor/RSO. He then moved to London to join Gulliver’s People and turned professional. His next stop was to The Alan Bown! who recorded two albums for Island Records, Listen and Stretching Out and then formed his own band, DRAGONFLY, recording one album called Almost Abandoned for EMI
Between Spectre and Projection there could have been another band: http://www.rockingscots.co.uk/Pakk.htm
Hi Chris – this popped up on my computer yesterday – and it didn’t half trigger a lot of memories about Projection.
Projection were based in Ayrshire Scotland and were originally a 4 piece – Mike Halpin on drums, Norman Brown on keyboards, Andy Currie on guitar an lead vocals and myself George Watt on bass – we were later joined by Gordon Neville as vocalist – and he and Norman had been members of Spectre, whilst I was the road manager!
Spectre were actually pretty good, Bay City Rollers were a support band, but our drummer, bass player and guitarist all had jobs which paid real money, so it came to an amicable end!
Projection did quite well in the local area, Norman left to become teacher and Andy moved down to London to join Gulliver’s people – the resident band at a central London night club, they were replaced by Graham Thompson (aka Supertam!) – a wildly eccentric guitarist who had a very sensible girl friend, so he was soon off to Uni to be replaced by Gordon Sellar – who sadly passed away a week or so ago!
As your article suggests, we came to London (completely out of our depth) and cut a couple of songs, but that soon fizzled out – Mike Halpin, a fantastic drummer and musician, vanished – Gordon Neville and Gordon Sellar both joined Gulliver’s people and I worked for Biba – the fashion house as, in truth, I was never good enough to be a professional, but I could cook, so my position in the band was always secure!
The two Gordons did well, Gordon Neville sang for
‘The Alan Bown Project’ was backing singer for Elton John and Sheena Easton as well as fronting the ‘Noel Redding Band’ (ex Jimi Hendrix) and his own band ‘Dragonfly’ (some of whom went on to be mainstays of Supertramp) – plus of course session work aplenty.
Gordon Sellar played guitar and bass for ‘The Alex Harvey Band’, ‘ Mad Jocks’, ‘Beggars Opera’ and later for the madcap Freddie Starr. He was always in demand as a dep, helping out the ‘Nashville Teens’, ‘The Retro’s, Jackie Lynton and others when called.
I eventually became a top persons Tour Operator specialising in luxury villas in Portugal and best of all – wine tours to the Grand Cru Chateaux of Bordeaux and Burgundy – happy days Chris!!
However, Gordon, Gordon and I kept on writing and In the early ’80’s, having been blown away by ‘War of the Worlds’ I thought ‘we could do something like that’ so I started on ‘In the Hands of the Gods’ – a 24 original song re-telling of Homer’s Iliad – updated into today’s world.
More on that if you’re interested!
So thank you for stirring up those memories of a happier time – a million laughs, crazy friends and not too many responsibilities – Jeez Chris, you could even park your van on Piccadilly Circus and not get towed away!!!
Is that you, George, our faithful old roadie? Googled the Maze of Yesterday and up came a post from you-from God knows how long ago! Hope you’re well , as well as this old guy who turned 80 last October! Still golfing with the Glennie and Robins is still going strong in Fife. Happy days!
Hi George. Mike Halpin didn’t disappear. He was friends with my parents initially in the early 70s when my dad was in the Irvine band Strings & Things (originally Strings & Own Things) who were based at the Harbour Arts Centre. They were a covers band at first doing stuff by the likes of the Eagles, CSN&Y, Joni Mitchell, etc, but when Mike rejoined in about 1976 he persuaded them to start writing original material, with him writing the music and my mum writing the lyrics.
They recorded a lot of demos at our house in Sillars Meadow as well as playing gigs (Mike played drums) and also played on the Scottish Radio Orchestra Roadshow live performance on BBC Radio Scotland from the Magnum Centre in 1977.
Nothing came of the demos, but more were recorded into the early 80s with various members of Strings & Things, including my first recordings on piano as a 13 and 14 year old. Many of these recordings still exist.
Mike left Irvine to go back to his native Dundalk in 1981 or 1982. We lost touch, but he reconnected briefly with my dad in the early 90s. He was working as an insurance salesman. He died in March 2014 in Dundalk.
Mike was quite a character and a musical mentor to me. I’ve just listened to The Maze Of Yesterday on YouTube and the chorus has Halpin’s arranging touch all over it! It made me smile.