Sunny Jim Band
Encyclopedia
Sunny Jim Band was a British
rock band
in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They remained a performing band for almost a decade, and released two singles and a couple of albums between 1978 and 1981. Most of their work was done outside of the UK
, largely in Continental Europe
.
, England
in 1975. The guitarist and singer, Martin Allen and bass guitar
ist John C. Barry had met while studying for A levels at Norwich City College
. The drummer and singer Jack Hazebroek, originally from the Netherlands
but then living and working in Norwich, joined the duo from an advertisement in the Norwich Evening News
.
The Sunny Jim Band were originally playing heavy 1970s funk a cross between The Meters
, Creedence Clearwater Revival
and Grand Funk Railroad
. A self financed single
"Memories" / "Pretty Little Girl" was recorded at Nest Studios in Birmingham
. Copies made their way to the Netherlands and resulted in the band leaving England for a Dutch tour in 1976.
The band soon based themselves in Amsterdam
living at the H88 (Herengracht 88) bar and hotel. Didier Laget (discovered during the band's visit to Tours
, France
) joined to fill the missing lead guitar role in 1977. During 1976 and 1977 the band played regularly at Paradiso
and Melkweg
("The Milky Way") Amsterdam, supporting Tom Robinson
, and The Pixies.
The Sunny Jim Band signed to the American impresario, Russ Carney's Tumasi Productions.
Groningen situated in the north of the Netherlands was a regular haunt for the band live during 1977, where they were approached by Herman Brood
(who was often at their live shows), and who was also looking for a backing band at the time.
The band's first single "Thanks For The Music" / "Pretty Little Girl", was produced by Piet Souer
and released by Phillips Holland in 1978.
Jack Hazebroek left the band in 1978, and was replaced by drummer Jaap Vreenegoor. Sunny Jim Band started touring in West Germany
and built up a reputation on the West-German live circuit. The band were becoming influenced by the wave of punk
bands coming out of England. They were particularly influenced by The Police
, Elvis Costello
and by Herman Brood.
In 1979, Sierk Janszen replaced Jaap Vrenegoor on drums, joining in time to tour Hungary
with the popular Hungarian band P.Mobil. They were the first Western band to play in Hungary since the Spencer Davis Group
toured in the 1960s. Frank Henneke, the drummer of the Dutch band Turf, replaced Sierk Janszen who remained as part of the road crew.
Discovered in Hamburg at The Logo club by Ulf Krüger, the band were signed to Phonogram Germany in 1980, and recorded their first album, Maximum Pain, with Ulf Kruger as producer and Geoffrey Peacey as co-producer. The album was produced live in the studio in ten days in an effort to capture their live power. Frank Henneke was replaced on drums by a return to the band of Jaap Vrenegoor.
The single, "Mixed-Up" / "I Tried" was recorded in Germany, and released on the Vertigo label with Robert Jan Stipps producing. The band were looking for a more polished sound for their records, after being disappointed by the lack of positive reviews for Maximum Pain, and finally this led to Steve Nye
being approached to produce their second LP, Jay.
German tours continued supporting Whitesnake
, Joe Cocker
and Stray Cats
, and the band were recorded live in WDR Cologne
TV studios and broadcast on the German television show Rockpalast
.
The band returned to the UK to record their second album Jay in January, February and March 1981. This album was produced by Steve Nye at Air Studios in London, the recording engineers being Colin Fairley, and Steve Churchyard
. Side two of the album opened with a reggae
/glam rock
fusion cover version
of Bob Dylan
's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door
".
Sunny Jim Band supported The Boomtown Rats
on a German tour in 1982, and the band continued in various versions including Lutz Oldemeier on drums until 1985.
John C. Barry and Martin Allen continued writing songs in the early 1980s, and briefly worked with Bruce Woolley
. They were signed by EMI
Cologne as The Graduates. Jack Hazebroek joined The Graduates sessions under guidance of Wolf Maahn. Icebox, Technological Revolution and The Good Things were recorded on the then new Mitsubishi digital tape system in Cologne.
John C. Barry left to pursue a career as an artist, lyricist and bassist in Berlin
in 1986.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They remained a performing band for almost a decade, and released two singles and a couple of albums between 1978 and 1981. Most of their work was done outside of the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, largely in Continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
.
History
The band was formed in NorwichNorwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1975. The guitarist and singer, Martin Allen and bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
ist John C. Barry had met while studying for A levels at Norwich City College
City College Norwich
City College Norwich is a college of further and higher education which is located on Ipswich Road, in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The college has a second site at St Andrews House in Norwich city centre, which is also home to the National Skills Academy for Financial Services. Founded in 1891,...
. The drummer and singer Jack Hazebroek, originally from the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
but then living and working in Norwich, joined the duo from an advertisement in the Norwich Evening News
Norwich Evening News
The Norwich Evening News is a daily local newspaper published in Norwich, Norfolk, England. It covers the city and the surrounding suburbs, and is published by Archant. It is the best-selling newspaper in Norwich. As of 28 February 2011 this paper will be out for 6 am, as the stories are written...
.
The Sunny Jim Band were originally playing heavy 1970s funk a cross between The Meters
The Meters
The Meters are an American funk band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Meters performed and recorded their own music from the late 1960s until 1977...
, Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
and Grand Funk Railroad
Grand Funk Railroad
Grand Funk Railroad is an American rock band that was highly popular during the 1970s. Grand Funk Railroad toured constantly to packed arenas worldwide. A popular take on the band during its heyday was that, although the critics hated them, audiences loved them...
. A self financed single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
"Memories" / "Pretty Little Girl" was recorded at Nest Studios in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. Copies made their way to the Netherlands and resulted in the band leaving England for a Dutch tour in 1976.
The band soon based themselves in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
living at the H88 (Herengracht 88) bar and hotel. Didier Laget (discovered during the band's visit to Tours
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) joined to fill the missing lead guitar role in 1977. During 1976 and 1977 the band played regularly at Paradiso
Paradiso (Amsterdam)
Paradiso is an iconic rock music venue and cultural center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.-History:It is housed in a converted former church building that dates from the nineteenth century and that was used until 1965 as the meeting hall for a liberal Dutch religious group known as the "Vrije...
and Melkweg
Melkweg
The Melkweg is a popular music venue and cultural center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It is located on the Lijnbaansgracht, near the Leidseplein, a prime nightlife center of Amsterdam. It is housed in a former warehouse and is divided into a number of spaces of varying sizes...
("The Milky Way") Amsterdam, supporting Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson is an English singer-songwriter, bassist and radio presenter, better known for the hits "Glad to Be Gay", "2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with his Tom Robinson Band...
, and The Pixies.
The Sunny Jim Band signed to the American impresario, Russ Carney's Tumasi Productions.
Groningen situated in the north of the Netherlands was a regular haunt for the band live during 1977, where they were approached by Herman Brood
Herman Brood
Hermanus "Herman" Brood was a Dutch musician, painter and media personality. Initially a musician who achieved artistic and commercial success in the 1970s and 1980s, and called "the Netherlands' greatest and only rock 'n' roll star," later in life he became a well-known painter.Known for his...
(who was often at their live shows), and who was also looking for a backing band at the time.
The band's first single "Thanks For The Music" / "Pretty Little Girl", was produced by Piet Souer
Piet Souer
Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Souer is a Dutch music producer, songwriter and arranger. His collaboration with famous pop acts made him gain twenty two gold and platinum records, one Conamus Export Prize and one Outstanding Song Award thanks to his...
and released by Phillips Holland in 1978.
Jack Hazebroek left the band in 1978, and was replaced by drummer Jaap Vreenegoor. Sunny Jim Band started touring in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
and built up a reputation on the West-German live circuit. The band were becoming influenced by the wave of punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
bands coming out of England. They were particularly influenced by The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
and by Herman Brood.
In 1979, Sierk Janszen replaced Jaap Vrenegoor on drums, joining in time to tour Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
with the popular Hungarian band P.Mobil. They were the first Western band to play in Hungary since the Spencer Davis Group
Spencer Davis Group
The Spencer Davis Group was a mid-1960s British beat group from Birmingham, England, formed by Spencer Davis with Steve Winwood and his brother Muff Winwood...
toured in the 1960s. Frank Henneke, the drummer of the Dutch band Turf, replaced Sierk Janszen who remained as part of the road crew.
Discovered in Hamburg at The Logo club by Ulf Krüger, the band were signed to Phonogram Germany in 1980, and recorded their first album, Maximum Pain, with Ulf Kruger as producer and Geoffrey Peacey as co-producer. The album was produced live in the studio in ten days in an effort to capture their live power. Frank Henneke was replaced on drums by a return to the band of Jaap Vrenegoor.
The single, "Mixed-Up" / "I Tried" was recorded in Germany, and released on the Vertigo label with Robert Jan Stipps producing. The band were looking for a more polished sound for their records, after being disappointed by the lack of positive reviews for Maximum Pain, and finally this led to Steve Nye
Steve Nye
Steve Nye is a music producer for several artists. Some of his better known artists include Bryan Ferry , Penguin Cafe Orchestra, XTC , Japan , David Sylvian , Clannad, TM Network, Scary Thieves , as...
being approached to produce their second LP, Jay.
German tours continued supporting Whitesnake
Whitesnake
Whitesnake are an English rock band, founded in 1978 by David Coverdale after his departure from his previous band, Deep Purple. The band's early material has been compared by critics to Deep Purple, but by the mid 1980s they had moved to a more commercial hard rock style...
, Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
and Stray Cats
Stray Cats
Stray Cats are an American Rockabilly band formed in 1980 by guitarist/vocalist Brian Setzer , upright bassist Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in the UK, Australia and the U.S...
, and the band were recorded live in WDR Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
TV studios and broadcast on the German television show Rockpalast
Rockpalast
Rockpalast is a German music television show that broadcasts live on German television station Westdeutscher Rundfunk . Rockpalast started in 1974 and continues to this day. Hundreds of rock and jazz bands have performed on Rockpalast...
.
The band returned to the UK to record their second album Jay in January, February and March 1981. This album was produced by Steve Nye at Air Studios in London, the recording engineers being Colin Fairley, and Steve Churchyard
Steve Churchyard
Steve Churchyard is a British born record producer, engineer and mixer who began his career at Sir George Martin’s AIR Studios in London. He currently resides in the United States. He has been nominated for 4 Grammy awards. In 2008 he won a Latin Grammy for Juanes’ album “La Vida.....
. Side two of the album opened with a reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
/glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
fusion cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Knockin' on Heaven's Door
"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan for the soundtrack of the 1973 film Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. It reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.-Story line and song structure:...
".
Sunny Jim Band supported The Boomtown Rats
The Boomtown Rats
The Boomtown Rats were an Irish punk rock band that had a series of Irish and UK hits between 1977 and 1985. They were led by vocalist Bob Geldof.-Biography:All six members were originally from Dún Laoghaire, Ireland...
on a German tour in 1982, and the band continued in various versions including Lutz Oldemeier on drums until 1985.
John C. Barry and Martin Allen continued writing songs in the early 1980s, and briefly worked with Bruce Woolley
Bruce Woolley
Bruce Woolley is an English writer, performer, record producer and composer.- Early years :Bruce Woolley was born in Loughborough, England on 11 November 1953 and was educated at Loughborough Grammar School where he learned electric guitar, began to write songs and where he met his future wife,...
. They were signed by EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
Cologne as The Graduates. Jack Hazebroek joined The Graduates sessions under guidance of Wolf Maahn. Icebox, Technological Revolution and The Good Things were recorded on the then new Mitsubishi digital tape system in Cologne.
John C. Barry left to pursue a career as an artist, lyricist and bassist in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in 1986.
Singles
- "Thanks For The Music" / "Pretty Little Girl" (1978) (Produced by Piet Souer for PhilipsPhilips RecordsPhilips Records is a record label that was founded by Dutch electronics company Philips. It was started by "Philips Phonographische Industrie" in 1950. Recordings were made with popular artists of various nationalities and also with classical artists from Germany, France and Holland. Philips also...
) - "Mixed Up" / "I Tried" (1980) (Produced by Robert Jan Stipps for VertigoVertigo RecordsVertigo Records today is a UK-based record label operated by Universal Music UK.-History:Vertigo Records was the name Philips Records chose in the late 1960s for its record sub-label to counter the progressive labels of its rivals EMI with Harvest Records and Decca Records with Deram...
)
Albums
- Maximum Pain (1980) (Produced by Geoffrey Peacey and Ulf Krüger for Vertigo; Phonogram/Vertigo Germany 6435052)
- Jay (1981) (Produced by Steve Nye for Vertigo; Phonogram/Vertigo Germany 6435100)