ZENITH

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ZENITH

Mojo (Tony Morgan) on the left playing bass and vocals. Steve Harrison on drums, and Mark Burton on guitar. The band was called Zenith. Jim Allen joined us later on sax and vocals.



Zenith was an early 1970’s Coventry band playing Rock n Roll, Blues and Standard pop.


Line Up

Tony Mojo Morgan – Bass.

Tony was also in the following bands – Orange / Krystal / The Mick Green Blues band / Concert / Railroad /  / EMF / Sammy Earthquake and the Volcanoes (with Roddy Radiation) / Travelling Riverside Blues Band / Hoochie Coochie Band)


Jim Allen – Saxophone and Vocals.

Jim also played sax in early 80’s Coventry Ska band EMF with Tony Mojo Morgan.

Steve Harrison – Drums.

Steve also played in The Mick Green Blues Band, Nack-ed-en with Loz Netto later of Sniff and the Tears.

Mark Burton – Guitar.
 

Zips

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Zips


Zips c 1973 – 76 Rock band 

Line up: Featuring Rog and Pip ex Sorrows members.

Pip Whitcher (vocals, guitar), 
Roger Lomas (guitar, bass, vocals). 
Both ex- The Sorrows. 
Paul Hooper – Drums (Ex Indian Summer)

Single: A: Bye Bye Love B: Evil Hearted Woman ( RAK ) 1975

Label: RAK ‎– 1 C 006-97 198
Released: 1975
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Hard Rock, Prog Rock Garage Rock, Glam, Psychedelic Rock



Memories from Tim James

“I must say that I remember Zips as being after The Dodgers, but who am I to argue. Zips was specifically formed to record the Everly Bros song “Bye Bye Love” and promised the payola to guarantee “hyping” as needed. I believe that they got everything they were promised, but the record sunk without trace. A shame, because I remember it as being a good single, but that’s the pop charts for you.”


Paul Hooper “A band I was part of with Roger Lomas and Pip Whitcher of Sorrows fame.. Recorded in mid 70s produced by Mickey Most using his ‘let’s cover a pop classic but beef it up‘ template which he employed to good effect with bands like Mud etc. It was released as you’d expect on his RAK label.. It was all geared up to be a hit..he told us to get toggled up for Top Of The Pops.. But then it turned out it wasn’t.. Roger And Pip wrote the B side… We did another one covering a Beach Boys classic.. But that came to nowt as well.. Rog and I moved onto The Dodgers before Rog became a Producer for Two Tone acts and more, and I ended up in The Fortunes for several decades… Funny old business.”

Roger Lomas
“When we had a pre-release meeting with Mickie Most (owner of RAK Records) he asked me what did I hope to achieve in the music industry? My answer…. I want your job. Fast forward 5 years, I was No.3 in the top 10 Record Producers charts & Mickie was No.7…. job done!!”


Bye Bye Love – The Zips 1975

Evil Hearted Woman The Zips

ZOASTRA

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ZOASTRA

Kevin Harrison early 1970’s
Zoastra was a newly created experimental synthi-band formed by Kevin Harrison in 1973- 4 which never fully got off the ground but which historically forms a bridge between the stylistics of Kevin’s early band Whistler (Avant Garde jazz rock c 1969 – 70) and the later band Urge (c 1979 / 81).

The following information is from an interview I (Trev Teasdel) did with Zoastra in June 1973 for Hobo – Coventry Music and Arts Magazine.

Zoastra consisted of the core members of Whistler, moving on from their Jazz / Rock roots into an an area more associated with Eno and Roxy Music and David Bowie, by way of influence.


Kevin Harrison went on to help form Transposed Men in the late 70’s with Neol Davies and John Bradbury, doing some of the Neol Davies songs, like On My Radio,that became associated later with The Selecter. 

Line up – 



John Westacott (Bass and Electric footware – Grunts!)
Richie (Headrock) Medlock (Drums,impressions,vocals / writer) 

Zodicoaxial (Kevin Harrison) (Guitar / 12 string / electronics / composition). 

Lynda Harrison (Synthesiser / keyboards and vocals.)

Note – there were two line ups and Kevin describes the early line up below.

About Zoastra

They were one of the early bands into experimental electronic and sythi-sounds: –


Notes from the Hobo interview –  

“In the room I witnessed all kinds of electronic boxes and synths as Kevin tried to explain the concept of the new band to me. 
Lynda Harrison – early 1970’s

Kevin gave me the following lyric / poems for Hobo (see below). The lyrics were created using Da Da / William Burroughs cut ups techniques that David Bowie was experimenting at the time.  

I don’t think this outfit ever got to the gigging stage, which is a shame as the material sounded quite amazing, long before synthi-bands became the norm in the early 80’s. Kevin Harrison and his wife Lynda were among Coventry’s most experimental musicians and as such highly underrated in the scheme of Coventry music.

In 2007, Kevin Harrison commented on Zoastra after I first posted this material on the early Hobo site.

From Kevin Harrison
“Zoastra was indeed a transitional project, it was certainly more experimental than Whistler but contained seeds of the cut-up poetry/prose that ‘Urge‘ employed to good effect in the late seventies.

Envisaged as a Science-Fiction / Faction vehicle there were 2 line-ups, the first included myself – Kevin Harrison, Charles Bullen (later a ‘This Heat‘ member and former guitarist with Al Docker‘s band Tsar)), two drummers Gary Curtain & Al Docker, Lynda Harrison and John Westacott, this formation rehearsed twice at The Nags Head, Nuneaton.

The second line-up is the one you describe and rehearsed every weekend at Packington Lodge for a month or so, we almost did a gig for a barbecue there, but they opted instead for a band playing Rolling Stones covers!”


At the interview in June 1973, Kevin Harrison provided me with a copy his cut up lyrics for Zoastra – here

THE UNVEILING CEREMONY OF ZOASTRA

Mirror image falling

Visceral plains converging

Tactile dactylites tacky on Vu-screen

Increase photo-image fall-out

Micro-sonics beaming in on all sides now

We must not reiterate

Protect isometric scanner gamma shields

Psyche in on sound and image flakes

Laser-tronics up full-sound.

Dip! – Cut!

Re-program atmosphere

Dials set zero

Now Millennium.

Lyric by Kevin Harrison

And thus I was transcended into the Kozmic Realm of ZOASTRA. ZOASTRA being the collective name of four musicians joining creative forces to produce what they call “Strictly 70’s Head Musik”.


Imagination tuned to the Big note

Got sussed in a space

Got spaced and sussed the

Angle at which all life

On this planet evolves

Like an envelope the smaller

Part of encapsulation

Bitten by my transmuted mind

Found alive two ice-frozen

Humans licked down the waste

Eaten true in haste.

Lyric by Kevin Harrison



“Zoastra are, at the time of writing, considering the possibility of visual effects to illustrate their muzik further.

If you are into spacey head muzik then watch out for Zoastra. If you are a dancer, then beware, unless you are the weirdest dancer this side of Swanswell!!

Neon strip ice-cream dripped back in time

To Formentara

Cinematic surfing girls serve it up in dreams

Venus seems so far, Lurex factor sleeps

Micrograms run down zingel, lightening

Caressing skin, time spaced abstract

Vegas!

Lyric Kevin Harrison


Below part of my notes from the Hobo interview with Zoastra.