The ‘Tundra’ tour
Chris Stainton (keyboards, guitar) / Glen Turner (vocals, guitars) / Charlie Harrison (bass, vocals) / Henry Spinetti (drums, percussion)
What to call this classic rock band, eh? In America the band would be advertised as “Glen Turner’s Tundra” but here in Britain you are more likely to find them catalogued as “Chris Stainton’s Tundra” or even just “Tundra”.
Anyway, it was a band created in 1974 by Stainton who had by then worked with such luminaries as Joe Cocker and Spooky Tooth and would go on to be a well-respected musician, notably playing some keyboards on ‘5:15‘ and ‘Drowned‘ on The Who’s magnum opus ‘Quadrophenia‘ and still performing and recording well into the 2000s. Glen Turner had been a founding member of Wishbone Ash although he hadn’t hung around for too long.
Although recorded in 1975, the ‘Tundra‘ album was not actually released until 1976, but it was preceded by two singles in 1974 neither of which actually made it on to the album. Interestingly this was exactly the time when I saw the band, and both the singles clearly identified the band by name as “Chris Stainton’s Tundra” and I know that that is how they were billed by The Penthouse because Steve Toal’s diary lists them as that – good enough for me!
There are no recorded setlists for the time but we can safely assume that the band would have played both singles – ‘They Don’t Know‘ b/w ‘Love Is All You Have To Do‘ and ‘I Want To Tell You’ b/w ‘Calling Of The Wind’ – possibly with their B-sides, and then material from the upcoming album. It’s all speculation of course, but I do remember that they put on a good show at the Penthouse that night and that we all went home happy.
Setlist: unknown
Gigs'n'Stuff 