Description
Out Of Darkness was formed in London in 1969 and was one of the first multi-cultural groups. In 1970 the band released it’s self-titled debut and sole studio album on Key Records. In 1993 a live album featuring six tracks was released on CD by Plankton Records. It was recorded in 1972 at The Celebration Club, Gillingham, UK, on a four-track portable by the BBC engineer Peter Cornelius. The same year the band was described by music industry insiders as the best band in Britain without a major recording deal. Lead singer Tony Goodman had left the band in 1971 and Wray Powell took over. Bruce Duncan joined in 1972 when the band moved towards afro rock and is the lead singer on The Celebration Club Session. Fun trivia: One evening in 1971 Out Of Darkness played as a five piece with Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green.
Zowee!! This thing is one aural swift kickaroo to the buttocks! Sometime after their Key album had risen to legendary big-buck status among collectors, the quest for unreleased Out Of Darkness material began. In 1993 we were finally rewarded with the fruits of that search via this excellent high-quality 1972 4-track recording from the Celebration Club in Gillingham, England. By this time lead singer Tony Goodman had moved on, leaving Wray Powell as chief vocalist. Powell is also the songwriter for all of the six tracks included here. Only six tracks you say? Well don’t worry – the CD still clocks in at a good 48 minutes, meaning there are some seriously long songs here. As much as I respect the band’s debut I’d have to say Celebration Club Session has a more authentic and professional feel that pushes even further in a heavy Band Of Gypsys Afro-rock direction. Lyrically broader in scope, too, touching on topics like drug addiction («Cocaine») and racism (the 10-minute «Worldpool» where Tim Anderson’s drums smoke). Still singing boldly about Jesus on «Walk On The Water», «Love To Love» and «Valley (I Gotta Follow)». Closes with the 13-minute «Child Of The Universe» in spell-binding 5/4 time. Definitely a guitar album with Powell’s Hendrix-inspired leads all over the place – from scratchy funk to moody psychedelia to jamming blues to searing hard rock – it’s ‘all here. Powerful from start to finish. 48:18 [Ken Scott, The Archivist, 4th edition]
Out Of Darkness were The, no I mean THE Christian band in the early 70s. At a time when serious Christian music was unheard of and most sandal-toting Jesus hippies were content to bash out a three chord Psalm 23 on a nylon-strung acoustic from Woolworths. Wray Powell and Out Of Darkness stood out like a shining beacon in a fog of mediocrity. Their sound was unmistakably Hendrixy, Wray tweaked his fuzzy Strat with a Crybaby and cranked up his Marshall mercilessly. This six-song set was recorded in one afternoon on a four-track portable studio ‘live’ in an empty club. Nigel Palmer has given it some 1993 post-production work which does improve the quality. Songs of discipleship and drug abstention were rare in those times. The two outstanding tracks are «Worldpool», a creation hymn of varying moods, with a beautiful lyric expounding the harmony of creation and «Child Of The Universe», which closes the album in 13 minutes of wonderful improvisational soloing, including several time-signature changes. Okay, maybe the lead breaks are not perfect, and maybe Wray’s pitching is a bit dodgy, but these elements don’t even matter, the historical value of the album makes it one of this year’s most exciting releases, and there are only 1,000 of them so you’d better hurry up! [Andy Long, Cross Rhythms, October 1993]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-celebration-club-session/267240307)
CD tracklist:
01. Walk On The Water – 4:56
02. Love To Love – 8:12
03. Worldpool – 10:40
04. Cocaine – 5:28
05. Valley (I’m Gonna Follow) – 5:32
06. Child Of The Universe – 13:18
From 1968 to 1974 South East London band OUT OF DARKNESS forged a dynamic and energy packed new form of multi-cultural gospel rock music and are now seen as forerunners to spiritually influenced artists such as U2, the Alarm and Ben Harper. They were a UK ‘Gospel Blues Super Group’ with musicians selected at audition. Their first manager Ian Wilkie created the band around guitarist Wray Powell who with bass, keyboards & percussion player Carl Grant were from the black Gospel group the ‘Soul Seekers’. Drummer Tim Anderson, came from the progressive gospel blues band ‘Insight’, as did bassist Bruce Duncan, who joined ‘Out of Darkness’ in 1972. The vocalist and guitarist Tony Goodman came from the band ‘The Pilgrims’.
They started their career playing London rock club venues and regional theatre concerts then toured England and Scotland several times and performed at the National Jazz and Blues Festival. Rock festivals followed with BBC and international radio and TV coverage. They also appeared with Cliff Richard, Marsha Hunt, Quiver, Gravy Train, Terry Dene, Bill Nelson, Gordon Gilltrap, Graham Kendrick, Judy McKenzie and Van Der Graaf Generator.
Originally signed to Key Records in 1969 the band recorded one studio LP Out of Darkness and a live set on the ATV Mobile in Manchester, during the 1970 UK ‘Sound Vision’ tour. Their self titled debut LP is (quite rightly) regarded as an outstanding example of late 60s/early 70s rock music and is, at a (very high) price, highly collectable. After completing a tour of Scotland in 1972 the band returned home and recorded their tour set at the Celebration Cub in Gillingham. The session was arranged by Graham Cray and supervised by BBC engineer Peter Cornelius and it would have been the band’s second album but remained unreleased until Plankton’s Simon Law, who as a fan knew that the band’s records had become very collectable, prompted a search for new material which resulted in the tapes being unearthed by the group’s drummer Tim Anderson. Tim knew Simon and Keith at Plankton from their mutual on-site work at the Greenbelt Arts Festival and in 1993, 21 years after the recording took place, The Celebration Club Session CD was at last released. The Plankton CD features historically important material stretching out from Hendrix style heavy riffs to Afro rock percussion. It is lyrically diverse, not many bands lamented the pain caused by drug addition, celebrated creation and dealt with racism in the early 1970s!
In their six-year history OUT OF DARKNESS performed with seven different line-ups. The first LP was recorded by line-up version four and the Celebration Club Session features line-ups five and six, but for many fans of the band, the Celebration Club Band is the favourite. [Plankton Records]
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