Ed Pilling (vocals)

Brian Pilling (guitar, vocals)

Mick Hopkins (guitar, vocals)

Tony Clarkson (bass, vocals)

Jimmy Skidmore (drums)

1966

December English-born, Canadian raised brothers, singer Ed Pilling (b. 13 January 1948, Kingstanding, Birmingham, England) and guitarist Brian Pilling (b. 26 December 1949, Kingstanding, Birmingham, England) return to their place of birth to form a rock group. Having first emigrated in 1957, the Pillings have moved back and forth between Birmingham and Toronto several times as the family finds it hard to settle.

Eldest brother, Ed Pilling, who returns to Kingstanding, Birmingham on his own in 1964 and stays with an aunt, witnesses the exploding rock scene in the Midlands and decides to take up drums.

Returning to Toronto in mid-1965, he spends a year playing in high school band, The Pretty Ones with brother Brian Pilling and bass player Greg Godovitz.

Determined to make it in their country of birth, the brothers return to England but Ed is forced to leave his drums behind due to the transportation costs.

Back in Birmingham, Ed Pilling reunites with an old school friend from Kingstanding, Ted Clarkson, whose older brother is rhythm guitarist Tony Clarkson (b. 15 July 1945, Kingstanding, Birmingham, England).

Clarkson has been active on the local scene since 1962 when he started playing rhythm guitar with Guitars Incorporated (aka The GIs). The following year he joins The Wild Cherries, whose singer is the late Nicky James.

After playing in several local groups, Clarkson joins James’s new group, The Nicky James Movement in January 1965 where he meets former Diplomats guitarist Mick “Sprike” Hopkins (b. 3 January 1946, Great Barr, Birmingham, England).

Hopkins’s first notable group is Gerry Levene & The Avengers, which features future Move guitarist Roy Wood and future Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge, and is signed to Decca Records. While Hopkins is a member, the group records enough material for an album (but it is never released) although Decca does issue a lone single, Dr Feelgood, backed by It’s Driving Me Wild (featuring only Levene).

In May 1964, however, Hopkins replaces Denny Laine in his group, The Diplomats when Laine forms The Moody Blues and they record some demos. As members of The Nicky James Movement, Clarkson and Hopkins appear on a lone single for Columbia Records – Stagger Lee backed by I’m Hurtin’ Inside, released in November 1965.

Clarkson leaves to play bass guitar in several local bands, including The Hooties, but reunites with Hopkins in June 1966 when the pair form a new group, The Way of Life with brothers, singer Reg Jones and guitarist Chris Jones, former members of The Chucks.

Another Nicky James Movement member, future Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham completes the line up and The Way of Life become a popular live attraction in Birmingham.

Around December 1966 Ted Clarkson brings the Pilling brothers round to the family home and, impressed by their charisma and musical abilities, Clarkson agrees to form a new band with them called The Wages of Sin.

1967

January Clarkson recommends his The Way of Life cohort Mick Hopkins as a lead guitarist. When Ed Pilling is unable to get hire purchase to buy a drum kit and decides to concentrate on lead vocals, Clarkson and Hopkins try and entice John Bonham to join the fledgling group but he prefers to stay with The Way of Life and will subsequently join Robert Plant in The Band of Joy in 1967.

Clarkson contacts drummer Jimmy Skidmore, who has been playing in local group, The Delmore Lee Sound with keyboard player Norman Haines. Skidmore agrees to join on drums when Haines leaves to take up an offer with Locomotive, whose line up, at one point, includes future Traffic member, Chris Wood.

February The Wages of Sin sign to John Singer’s Agency and he lines the band up with a month’s worth of work in West Germany, playing at the Palleten club in Fulda, which is near an American army base. While there, the group records for the local Palleten label and cuts a version of Hey Joe (recently made famous by The Jimi Hendrix Experience) backed by a cover of Cream’s N.S.U. The single becomes a rare collector’s item and is only released in West Germany.

March Back in the West Midlands at the start of the month, The Wages of Sin begin to work around the local area, appearing regularly at top venues like the Morgue, the Carlton Club (aka Carlton Ballroom) and the Cedar Club.

(13) The group appears at the Hereford Lounge in the Bull’s Head in Yardley.

(16) The Wages of Sin perform at the Station Inn in Selly Oak.

(21) They play at the Carlton Club, Erdington.

(22) The Wages of Sin support John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with The Finders Keepers at Queen’s Ballroom, Wolverhampton

(24) The band makes an appearance at the Selly Park Tavern in Selly Park.

(27-28) The Wages of Sin play two nights at the Hereford Lounge in the Bull’s Head, Yardley.

April (1) They open for London band, The Neat Change at the Carlton Club, Erdington.

(2) Travelling to nearby Coventry, they perform at the Sportsman’s Arms, Allesley.

(3) The Wages of Sin play at the Hereford Lounge in the Bull’s Head, Yardley.

(6) The group appears at the Station Inn, Selly Oak.

(11) They open for The Montanas at the Cedar Club, Birmingham.

(14) The musicians appear at the Bolero Club, Wednesbury, West Midlands

(17) The Wages of Sin open for Lulu and The Luvvers at the Cedar Club.

(24) The band appears at the Hereford Lounge in the Bull’s Head, Yardley.

(29) The group performs at the Bulls Head, Hanford, Staffordshire.

May (1) The Wages of Sin appear at the Bull’s Head in Hay Mills.

(4) The band plays at Station Inn in Selly Oak.

(7) The musicians appear the Carnaby Club in Coventry, West Midlands.

(12) The Wages of Sin perform at the Hereford Lounge at the Bull’s Head in Yardley.

(15) The group makes an appearance at the Holly Bush pub in Quinton. The same night singer/songwriter Cat Stevens performs at Birmingham’s Cedar Club and this may be the evening that he first hears about the group with whom he works with later in the year.

(20) The band appear at the Black Horse in Kidderminster, Worcestershire.

(24) The Wages of Sin play at the Hen and Chickens in Langley, West Midlands with The Ugly’s.

(25) The next night, the band plays at the Station Inn in Selly Oak.

(27) The musicians appear at the Golden Torch, Tunstall, Staffordshire with The Powerhouse.

(30) The Wages of Sin perform at the Bolero Club, Wednesbury, West Midlands.

June (3) They return for another show at the Station Inn in Selly Oak. The group is also billed to perform at the Golden Torch, Tunstall, Staffordshire with The Powerhouse.

(5) The Wages of Sin perform at the Holly Bush pub in Quinton. Soon afterwards, The Wages of Sin return to Germany to play a second residency at the Palleten club in Fulda. The group begins to introduce more psychedelic material, including a cover of The Beatles’ Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

July (1) The band returns to the West Midlands and plays at the Station Inn in Selly Oak.

(5) The Wages of Sin appear at the Mackdown in Kitts Green with The Modernaires.

(7) They perform at the Hereford Lounge in the Bull’s Head, Yardley.

(10) The group appears at the Holly Bush pub in Quinton. Soon afterwards they start using the name Yellow Rainbow for some gigs because there is another band from Cambridge called The Wages of Sin.

(15) Billed as The Yellow Rainbow, the musicians appear at the Adelphi Ballroom, West Bromwich, West Midlands with The Uglys.

(16) Billed again as Yellow Rainbow, the band performs at the Beloro Club, Wednesbury, West Midlands.

(17) The Wages of Sin perform at the Regent Club in Langley Green with The Ugly’s and The Stax Movement.

(21) The musicians appear at the Hen and Chickens in Langley Green with The Wellington Kitch Jump Band.

(22) The Wages of Sin perform at Gotham City in the Crown and Cushion in Perry Barr with The Second Thoughts. On the same evening, they appear at the Elbow Room in Aston, West Midlands.

(25) The Wages of Sin play at the Bolero Club, Wednesbury, West Midlands.

(28) The group plays at the Bull’s Head in Yardley. Aware of the more progressive musical scene emerging and to avoid confusion with the other group called The Wages of Sin, they change their name Yellow Rainbow, which inspires Hopkins’s former Gerry Levene & The Avengers band mate, Roy Wood to write a song for The Move using the same title.

August (7) Yellow Rainbow play at the Holly Bush pub in Quinton, West Midlands.

(10) The band performs at the Queen’s Beat Club, Erdington, West Midlands.

(12) They appear at the Queen’s Beat Club in Erdington.

(14) The band plays at the Regent Club in Langley Green with The Montanas.

(18) Yellow Rainbow (still billed as The Wages of Sin) appear at the Penthouse in Birmingham with Strictly for The Birds.

(26) Billed as The Wages of Sin, they play at the the Co-op in the Rainbow Suite, Birmingham with The Age.

(28) Billed once again as Yellow Rainbow, they appear at the Boar’s Head in Perry Barr, West Midlands.

(30) Yellow Rainbow perform at the Hen and Chickens in Langley Green.

September (2) The Wages of Sin play at the Blackhorse, Kidderminster, Worcestershire (but not clear if it’s the same band).

(4) The band appears at the Holly Bush in Quinton.

(14) Yellow Rainbow make an appearance at the Queen’s Beat Club in Erdington.

(16) The group plays at the Station Inn in Selly Oak, West Midlands.

(25) Yellow Rainbow appear at the Boar’s Head in Birmingham.

(30) They play at the Bull’s Head in Yardley, West Midlands.

October (2) Yellow Rainbow play at the Holly Bush pub in Quinton. This may be the evening that Cat Stevens’s brother and manager David Gordon approaches the musicians and invites them to London to record and work as Cat Stevens’s backing band. Despite having a year’s worth of bookings in Birmingham, the group accepts and is put on a retainer. Before moving to London, Yellow Rainbow fufil a number of local bookings.

(3) The musicians perform at the Bolero in Wednesbury, West Midlands.

(7) They appear at the Swan in Yardley Green with Chances Avenue.

(8) One of the band’s final gigs in the West Midlands is at the Crown and Cushion in Perry Barr. Soon afterwards, Yellow Rainbow relocate to London where Cat Stevens renames them Zeus.

November (10) Zeus plays a solo set at Middle Earth with The Soft Machine and Sensory Armada. They spend the next few days rehearsing at the Marquee with Stevens in preparation for a forthcoming show in France.

(17-18) Backing Cat Stevens, Zeus performs at the Palais des Sports in Paris on a show that also features The Spencer Davis Group, The Soft Machine, Dantalion’s Chariot, Keith West and Tomorrow. The show is recorded and broadcast on French TV.

December Back in the UK, Stevens records and produces Zeus covering two of his compositions at Pye Studios, which are subsequently shelved.

(18) Zeus appears at the Marquee in London, opening for The Nice.

(31) Zeus sees in 1968 with a show at the New Bagatelle Club, Ettington Park Hotel, Alderminster, near Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.

1968

January (20) Cat Stevens and Zeus appear at the Winter Gardens Weston-Super-Mare.

Within weeks, Stevens contracts TB and is forced to lay low while he recuperates.

Although the band is on a retainer, there is little work and in February the Pilling brothers decide to return to Toronto where they will subsequently form Fludd with former Pretty Ones bass player Greg Godovitz. Fludd record their debut album for Warner Brothers in August 1971 and will have several notable Canadian hits in the early 1970s, including Turned 21.

The Pilling brothers’ departure scuppers the band. Skidmore subsequently joins The Norman Haines Band while Clarkson responds to an advert in NME and becomes a member of The World of Oz, whose debut single is released on 14 August 1968.

The band records three popsike singles for Deram between 1968-1969, including the catchy The Muffin Man and an eponymous lone album. A fourth single appears in the Netherlands where The World of Oz is a popular attraction. When the group breaks up, Clarkson briefly becomes a roadie for The Moody Blues, working part of their 1971 world tour.

Hopkins, meanwhile, joins Birmingham group, The Lemon Tree in June 1968 and appears on their second Parlophone single It’s So Nice To Come Home, which is produced by Andy Fairweather-Low.

He then forms Copperfield who record two singles in 1969-1970. The first, Any Old Time, is for the Instant label and is produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, while the second, I’ll Hold Out My Hand, is for Parlophone. Kenny Jones of The Small Faces plays drums on Any Old Time.

In January 1971, Hopkins replaces Jeff Lynne in The Idle Race and appears on the group’s final single for Regal Zonophone, Dancing Flower, and a lone album, Time Is.

1971

December Hopkins answers a call from the Pilling brothers to fly to Toronto and join Fludd. He appears on one single, Get Up, Get Out and Move On, which reaches #34 on the Canadian charts, before returning home to Birmingham after six months to put together Barefoot, resident band at the Rum Runner in Birmingham.

Hopkins later finds a degree of fame with heavy rock band, Quartz. Hopkins later records in his own studio in Birmingham with friends from his 1960s group, Copperfield.

Fludd, meanwhile, enjoyed further Canadian hits with Cousin Mary and What An Animal among others before Brian Pilling succumbs to cancer on 28 June 1978, aged just 29.

The group later evolves into Saga. Ed appears with a new version of Fludd in Toronto on 30 April 2009 with Foot In Cold Water.

My personal thanks go to Ed Pilling, Mick Hopkins and Tony Clarkson for helping to pull the story together.

The live dates were taken from many different sources, including Melody Maker and The Birmingham Evening Mail, the Express & Star, the Evening Sentinel, Kidderminster Times and Stourport News and Coventry Evening Telegraph.

Thank you also to Vernon Joynson and his excellent book, The Tapestry of Delights and Laurie Hornsby’s Brum Rocked On!

Copyright © Nick Warburton. All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any from or by any means, without prior permission from the author.