Around the middle of 1972 they signed with Jerry Lordan’s new publishing company, Vineyard (Jerry was of a wine connoisseur). Bob Potter would continue to secure gigs and his contacts would ensure the band still regularly featured on the BBC.
The band were now moving in an increasingly progressive direction, however Bob was adamant the band move more into the lucrative cabaret circuit (they scored one of their biggest gigs on a bill with the Syd Lawrence Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall). Jerry allowed the band creative freedom in the studio, becoming like a 6th member of the band, which was at total odds with Bob’s old school approach. This started to grate with the band, as both parties were clearly moving in different directions.
The band continued for several months with Bob until one day they decided enough was enough and they did a runner, quite literately in the dead of night, leaving their digs at Bob’s Lakeside to crash at Jerry’s flat at 2 in the morning. The band made the decision to move lock, stock and barrel to Jerry and Vineyard Publishing. Jerry swiftly hired a QC to see what contractual problems there may be.
The band’s contract with Bob had just expired and he had an option for another 5 years. The thought of which filled the band with dread. Thankfully he hadn’t taken this up, either he chose not to continue with the band or he’d just forgotten about it (Bob had his fingers in a lot of pies at the time). This didn’t stop him sending out the search party. Some gigs in Hamburg were due to take place and Bob had customs out looking for the band. Unfortunately for him, he tried to stop the band leaving Dover when in fact they had already set sail from Harwich. Unsurprisingly Bob probably, mistakenly, assumed that Bernie was instrumental in the split. Later in their careers Roger, Steve, Dick and Bernie were backing the Flirtations at Lakeside and Bernie received the cold shoulder.
The Onyx took this opportunity to move into a much more creative direction. While Alan’s talents played such a huge part of The Onyx it also proved to be somewhat restrictive in terms of allowing other band members the space for their own creative development. Alan was by no means domineering, his talents simply allowed him to work a song out while the rest of the band were still getting warmed up.
With Bernie on board and Bob Potter behind them the band would become reborn as Vineyard. Jerry would now handle the bands management, publishing and production, with Vineyard Publishing solely handling the band.
The newly launched Vineyard were keen to move away from both the Bob Potter and Onyx associations. Onyx had become intrinsically linked with daytime radio and the cabaret circuit, which was far from where the band members were now at. The new group soon got focused and started writing new material, spurred on by the new creative freedom allowed to them. They were also experimenting with soft drugs and listing to progressive bands such Spirit, Iron Butterfly, Vanilla Fudge, Led Zeppelin, Gnidrolog and Man. Jerry would often hire the band cottages in the country to allow the band the freedom to develop their songwriting.
Towards the end of The Onyx the band were moving further away from their roots in Cornwall. While they returned home when not on the road they visited the county much less, especially as they had now taken up permanent residency in London. Vineyard were living collectively in Leytonstone East, but (with the exception of Bernie) still considered themselves as a Cornish Band and would still perform regularly in the county. Onyx fans would travel from all around Cornwall to catch the band when they returned and many of these fans would continue to follow them as Vineyard, however less work was available in Cornwall, a county which was only a few years earlier so popular on the ballroom circuit.
With cabaret behind them the band scored a lot of gigs on the increasingly lucrative university circuit. Bookings were coming in through Tom Mould, who had sung and played guitar for Sandy Shore. He had a network of contacts at various venues and hooked the band up with a plenty of gigs throughout the UK and Europe. Vineyard were popular in Germany and Holland, where they played quite a lot, including Amsterdam’s famous Paradiso. The band also played key hip venues such as The Roundhouse and The Marquee Club.
Vineyard also featured on the bill at the infamous Windsor Free Festival’s in both ‘73 & ’74, where Tony had the pleasure of spending the weekend incarcerated with 130 other poor souls at a nearby army base thanks to the police’s heavy handed presence.
The band once again entered Air Studios with the resulting single “Ghost Train (Here It Come Again)/ Unicorns And Minotaurs” (Decca F 13518), released in May 1974. This was the first to feature band compositions on both sides. The band had always been something of a collective, with all band members throwing in ideas, lines, etc. All Onyx band penned numbers had been credited to ‘Cotton-Priest-Dell-Hodge-Bland’, however with Vineyard Jerry would insist whoever wrote the lyrics and chords should get the credit. “Ghost Train” would be credited to Priest-Lee while Steve Cotton also received a credit alongside Tony and Bernie on the B-Side. This new approach would ruffle a few feathers amongst some band members.
Despite the first release stalling at the starting line, the second and final Vineyard release followed fairly swiftly. “Charlemaine/Myla” (Deram DM 420) was released in September 1974. Once again it was the now familiar story, and the single didn’t sell. The band were playing fairly high profile gigs, sharing the bill with Queen and Thin Lizzy, with whom they were friends, but this didn’t translate into the all important record sales.
Around this time drummer Roger Dell was the second member to leave the band. Roger and the band were moving in different directions. Roger’s lack of engagement with Vineyard resulting in the band making the tough decision to oust him and bring in some fresh blood. Roger had been singled out by Jerry as potential solo artist material and under Dick Rowe at Decca recorded four solo tracks. However legal bickering between Dick and Jerry resulted in the songs remaining deep in the Decca vaults.
Dick was replaced by Herman ‘Ze German’ Rarebell, who lasted for the last 18 months of the band. Herman played on some of the bands later demos and added a new dimension to the band, giving them a much needed boost. Despite the lack of success of the singles the band continued recording, with the hope of a release of an album.
Bookings still continued to come in and there was nearly an albums worth of material in the can, however with the lack of success of the two singles Vineyard the company was struggling to keep afloat and was having some solvency issues. With the lack of single success there would be very little likelihood of anybody picking up an album for release. While Onyx had been known as a ‘BBC band’, Vineyard made no radio appearances. Without Bob Potter they had lost their ‘link’ into the station, and while they didn’t wish to go down the same route of overexposure as The Onyx, some sessions certainly would have helped gain some much needed publicity. The band also received very little, if any radio play of the singles.
By early ’75 there was little happening and the band was starting to fizzle out. Vineyard had reached the end of the road and everybody knew it was effectively over. In reality, despite the bands best efforts it had never really taken off. |
