The ‘Things To Come’ tour
Ken Elliott (keyboards, vocals) / Pete Lemer (keyboards) / Brian Gould (keyboards) / Steve Cook (bass) / Kieran O’Connor (drums, percussion)
What a night this was, and what a way to spend my seventeenth birthday! This was definitely one of my most favourite nights ever at The Penthouse.
In terms of band history, Seventh Wave had grown out of prog-psych outfit Secondhand and after that, Chillum. Each of those two previous bands had been constantly beset by internal conflict, eventually falling apart, and the same fate befell Seventh Wave after recording their second album, ‘Psi-Fi‘. Drummer O’Connor – who had temperament and alcohol-related problems – died soon afterwards whilst Elliott became more of a session musician. I once read somewhere that Gull Records (a division of Decca) felt that upon contracting Seventh Wave they were signing up the next Mike Oldfield; well, some you win, some you lose…
And, in a much older incarnation of the internet – probably MySpace or something of that ilk – there used to be a fan-created website dedicated to Seventh Wave featuring sound-clips, publicity photographs, interviews and press cuttings. The two that I include here I nabbed from there even though I used to actually have the originals stuck in my ‘Bands Book’. That website now seems to have vanished, which is a great shame.
Anyway… in the run-up to the gig I remain convinced that I had seen the band feature briefly on the BBC late night rock show, ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’ where a promo film was shown. I know that I saw it because I clearly remember it, but can I find it in any archives? And then I found these comments on YouTube; they clearly confirm that I was right! (Still haven’t found the programme details though).
The publicity photograph (below) which appeared in the Scarborough Evening News in the days leading up to the gig looks as though it was taken at the same time as the video. And if you know where that video can be found, please get in touch!
“Six hands at the synthesizer – it’s Seventh Wave who appear at the Penthouse on Friday. On their first major British tour, the band comprises Ken Elliott (pictured) who plays three synthesizers, organ, and clavinet, as well as singing; Pete Lemer, also on synths and electric piano; Brian Gould on organs and synth; and drummer Kieran O’Connor. Mixing is by Neil Richmond“.
Well, that certainly whetted my appetite and I couldn’t wait to get there!
I was not to be disappointed and neither was the SEN‘s reviewer Steve Hill writing in the newspaper in the following week. Although clearly very knowledgeable about musical style and genres, Mr. Hill was, however, incorrect in his statement about ‘Star Palace of the Sombre Warrior’ being from their first album; it’s the closing track on ‘Psi-Fi’.
“Seventh Wave set the Penthouse alight on Friday – figuratively and almost literally as well.
“They are an adrenalin-pumping, throbbing, exciting band. and it seemed quite fitting that the climax of one of their most exciting numbers should be a display of pyrotechnics. Flashes to right of them, explosions to left of them, flames in front of them, onward they surged. It was like Dublin G.P.O. on St. Patrick’s Day.
“Not a gimmick band, though, they achieve their excellence by a subtle and effective use of mixed media – and with Steve Cook on bass, Kieran O’Connor on drums, and Ken Elliott, Pete Lemer, and Brian Gould on no less than 12 keyboards and a Moog synthesiser, they had some media to mix.
“Most of the numbers were the theme-and-variations type. The first song began with a simple harmonic theme in a combination of common and triple time, which they developed and returned to several times. It was this careful juxtaposition of varied time-signatures, together with a sprinkling of throwaway melodies, that made the band for me, not forgetting the overall excitement and involvement, which was sustained throughout.
“One song, in particular, deserves special mention, and if you didn’t see them it’s on their album “Things to Come”.
“This was “Star Palace of the Sombre Warrior”, beginning with medieval churchy fourths and fifths, so bare it made you feel naked, and rising and building with all the majesty and religious mysticism of Jerusalem – a controlled emotional explosion.”
In the event the night was a testament to superb prog-rock! Everything that Steve Hill alluded to was true. Always a fan of keyboards-heavy band, this was the perfect evening for me. More upbeat than Tangerine Dream and less egotistical than ELP, wondrous landscapes were conjured up by the band, and the special effects just added to the blistering entertainment. So greatly was I impressed that the following day I rushed out and bought the first album ‘Things To Come’ using a Bernard Dean’s record token birthday gift from my then girlfriend (*sigh* 😭 She had been at the gig with me too.). I still love the album and play it very regularly. And then there was the follow-up album, ‘Psi-Fi’ which was much better received by the critics, especially the closing track ‘Star Palace of the Sombre Warrior‘. Press me, though, and I’ll always opt for their debut album as being the more enjoyable of the two.
Another hugely talented band, who knows what might have happened if only their record company had believed in them and promoted them better, and if they also hadn’t been so prone to falling out with one another? Sadly, like so many other bands who fell by the wayside, we’ll simply never know.
Setlist: unknown
I also have a tin badge of the band which was given out at the gig; there can’t be many of these out there these days…
And here are some music press adverts for that first album.
The artist information on the above adverts reads as follows:
“Ken Elliott, composer/performer, is a natural musician. He offers a new experience using synthesizers like they’ve never been used before. To give you a clue to his musical ingenuity here’s a list of instruments he plays on the album: Piano, Electric Piano, Clavinet, ARP, MOOG and EMS synthesizers, Mellotron, Glockenspiel, Chimes. And Vocals.”
“Kieran O’Connor, co-producer and the second multi-instrumentalist. His creative talent as a percussionist complements Ken’s work on the keyboards. His instruments were as follows: Ludwig Drums, Asba Drums, Orchestral Bass Drum, Congas, Bongos, Sleigh Bells, Finger Cymbals, Crash Cymbals, Castanets, Hand Claps, Claves, Xylophone and Vibraphone.”
The album information reads: “This album took a whole year to complete. Some of it pre-planned and some of it experimentation. The result is amazing – like nothing you’ve heard before. As Ken Elliott says, “The concept of the album was to use synthesizers and electronic keyboards, the newest and most advanced instruments available, and combine them with the oldest instruments, percussion, and the most natural instrument, the voice. Making it as easy to listen to as an orchestra, as spontaneous as jazz, without losing the original rock foundations.” Rarely does such an ambitious project succeed so completely. So open your ears to a unique experience.”
The band also released a number of singles worldwide. First out of the traps seems to have been 1974’s ‘Metropolis’ b/w ‘Festival’ which was available in a plain sleeve in the UK and Australia. Oddly, in France it was released in a full-colour picture sleeve. Incidentally, ‘Festival’ was used – uncredited – as the theme for BBC2’s Out of Court television programme.
This was followed later in 1974 by ‘Things To Come’ b/w ‘Fail To See’, again in a plain sleeve unless you lived in Italy where you got a picture sleeve showing the album cover.
. 
With the 1975 release of the ‘Psi-Fi’ album came a couple more singles. First up – in the UK only – was a much sought-after plain-sleeved ‘Manifestations’ b/w ‘Only The Beginning (Part 1)’, both of which were edited versions of the album tracks and were unavailable anywhere else (until CDs came around and they were included as bonus tracks). This was followed in 1976 by what appears to have been a Netherlands-only picture sleeve release of ‘Only The Beginning’ b/w ‘Loved By You’ the A-side being another edited version of the album track. Very rare indeed.
After the demise of the band, Elliott moved into the electro-soul/funk genre with his solo album ‘Body Music’. It’s not great; it has a very “disco” feel to it and, as a result, I rarely play it, but I have a vinyl copy and it’s very, very hard (and expensive) to find these days.
Thereafter Elliott concentrated on session music and writing TV and radio jingles, famously penning the theme for the ITN news programme First Report.
Footnote: In 2023 I came across a 2009 online interview with Ken Elliott which I reproduce in full here (just in case the original vanishes off the face of the earth!)
An interview with Ken Elliott (Second Hand, Seventh Wave) by Luca Pacchiarini
Did you know that Second Hand was going to become Peter Gabriel’s backing band?
Did you know what tragic event made them a keyboard-centred band?
Did you know about the film Death May Be Your Santa Claus?
This interview started casually: I knew Ken’s sister by accident, after I read a Youtube comment.
Then I asked her if it was possible to interview his brother. They were both incredibly kind and patient: they agreed, and the last part of the interview was done on the phone (I wrote the questions to Fran Elliott, who read them to her brother.)
Please note that this is a re-translation: I translated Ken’s interview in Italian… but then I lost the original file (in English) and so I had to translate it back to English! This means that the following text does not comprehend 100% the words said by Ken, but around 90%. The Italian version already appeared in the prog website Arlequins.
Please, tell us about your recent activities… Are you still involved in the musical world?
Yes, I’m still involved in the musical world, even if of course, my music is different from the one I played in the 70’s: nowadays I’m mainly working as a session man. I do not have any other occupations. During the last few years I have worked with Chris Bemand (45dip) composing for musical libraries, but also making audio effects for animations, this kind of things. I’ve also worked to for a musical project of mine and I’m now thinking of how to produce it. In 1999 I moved to Galway, in the western part of Ireland, and I stayed there for 5 years; I played in rock and Irish folk bands, playing live again after many years. It has been a great exercise. Last October I moved from London to a called place March, close to Cambridge, to concentrate more on the music, without all the distractions of a great city.
I have visited the Seventh Wave website: in the “Photo” section there is a document owned by Polydor which is about you. Under “People who have been a influence” we find names like Graham Bond, Bach, Steve Winwood, Shostakovitch and the Beatles. What or who influenced your music? Are you self-taught?
About influences, as an adolescent I went to see Graham Bond and I was impressed by his version of “Wade In The Water”, and by the way he mixed classic and Rhythm and Blues. McCoy Tyner (the pianist of John Coltrane) was another influence, and so was Arthur Brown. I visited little underground clubs in London, also jazz clubs, so I received various influences. Dave Brubeck, Brian Auger, Keith Emerson, Moody Blues and Mike Ratledge of the Soft Machine were extremely important for me. When I became a pro, the psychedelia had bloomed, so The Nice and Procol Harum were an enormous source of inspiration. I am self-taught, I do not know to read music very well and so I have not transcribed any of my compositions.
Well, we begin with the first group, Second Hand. Two albums which are truly high regarded in the Underground-Prog niches. Which was the atmosphere in the band, what were the relationships between the members like?
At the beginning, the atmosphere in the group was truly magical. We had met each other when we were little students and we got on well quickly. It was all new and fresh so creativity flowed freely. The things had started well for us: we had a good following and we had the chance to record Reality, our first LP. At the beginning, I think, we were seen more like a guitar band. But suddenly the father of our guitarist, Bob Gibbons, died tragically. Bob fell in depression and he began to miss rehearsals (in the meantime the bassist George Hart had already joined the group). Bob came with us on tour in Holland but, for his depression, he had to return home before the end of the tour, that included dates in France and Spain. This meant that the empty spot left by the guitarist had to be filled up, so I started to play solo keyboard. There was a lot of pressure and I had to learn in a hurry. So that’s how we became a keyboard-centred band, defining the sound for “Death May Be Your Santa Claus”. The relationships between us were good, but then unavoidably we became sad because we really missed Bob.
On the Internet I once read an interview in which you stated that the drummer Kieran O’Connor was a difficult person to work with, and that to collaborate with him was not a pleasant experience. If it’s not particularly personal or embarrassing, would you tell us what the problems were?
Briefly, the problem with Kieran was his alcoholism. Not to be critical towards a person who drinks, also because I myself like to drink, but Kieran’s behaviour sometimes caused plain havoc. There were various embarrassing scenes in front of club owners, promoters and other musicians: he was the cause of some brawls and he tried to smash the recording studio a couple of times. Sometimes he was too drunk to play, usually we arranged things in order to keep him away from booze and I remember some occasions when we had to recover him before recording: sometimes we had to wait until 4 in the morning before we were able to record a backing track. Despite this, Kieran was an incredible talent and he had extraordinary natural abilities. For me he’s still the most talented drummer I’ve ever known. We got on extremely well when he was sober, we loved each other, but as time passed by, we found working together increasingly difficult and we ended up not speaking to each other anymore. I think he missed one of our better opportunities (see ahead).
For those people who like labelling (I don’t) the group can be considered part of the English underground scene. Were there friendships with other similar bands?
We knew Egg very well, and indirectly Soft Machine and Hatfield And The North too. We also knew the Paraphernalia, Colosseum and the Villane: we all played in the same gig circuit. We met the great saxophonist Lol Coxhill and Peter Robinson of Quatermass, and we received influences from all this people.
We once saw Klaus Voorman near the studio and Mike Hugg ( of Manfred Mann)… in fact we used their mellotron on ‘Reality’. We once jammed with Steppenwolf and I remember Alexis Korner came to see us.
I have read somewhere that our first album, “Reality”, was one of Pete Townsend’s favourite albums, and it seems that he talked a lot about it.
Why did you release the third LP of the group under the Chillum name? Has it to do with contractual issues?
No, it was not for that reason. At that time we had a little different line-up because the guitarist Tony McGill had joined us, and he brought some changes in the musical influences. That was the reason for the change: we wanted to make it in an anonymous way. Thus, we gave ourselves fictitious names: I was “Elliott Neck”, Kieran was “Max Fish” , George Hart became “Sticky Schmultz” and Tony “Buddy Cuddy”. The album was recorded quickly, as we were making auditions for a new guitarist and Tony came. We instantly found a great musical relationship and so it became a jam. Mike Craig (the co-producer of our albums) turned on a two tracks recorder and recorded what we were playing. Our producer Vic Keary liked the sound so much that he decided that the material had to be published. We recorded some other numbers, in one of them only Kieran appears. “Land of 1000 Dreams” had a weird genesis: Kieran had fallen asleep under the piano and Vic recorded his snoring and his breaths. It was made very silently, so as not to wake him up, it was a kind of lullaby. Then, it turned out that Tony could play acoustic jazz guitar, so we made a jazz number, which was originally called “Stairway To The Skies”, but then the name was changed to “Promenade Des Anglais”.
All of this was absolutely not planned, it just happened. And then I believe that we changed our name to “Chillum” for a bit of notoriety, since the Chillum is a relative of the Cannabis plant. One of the photos which appear on the album was taken in the bathroom on the other side of the Abbey Road studios… we were smoking a joint while peeing.
Speaking about your successive creature, Seventh Wave, did you expect more in terms of sales, since the band some radio passages? And in qualitative terms, are you more satisfied of the Second Hand or of the Seventh Wave albums?
The Seventh Wave had more acknowledgments of the Second Hand, but our songs did not receive much radio air play in United Kingdom, only a little in local and pirate stations. We were better known in France and Holland, and we reached number seven in the FM charts in America. We did a promotional tour in Europe in the university circuits, then in the USA. We had good feedback from record labels… and we hoped that success would materialize, but it did not happen. For some reason the sales did not take off. It looked like we were a marginal thing and that it was not possible to find a “vehicle” that allowed us to reach success. All we did was look for new ideas, the creative flow was very impulsive, we did it for fun, without any business planning. Speaking of satisfaction, I remember listening to “Metropolis” and “Old Dog” after we recorded them and I felt extremely satisfied with the result. All we wished was to create a completely new and unheard sound, different from what it had been done before. And I think we succeeded.
Since Seventh Wave was a duo, did you choose this kind of line-up to have a greater creative freedom, without having to deal with an entire group of 4-5 musicians?
It was not for that precise reason, but in effect that’s how things turned out to be, in the end. It was only because Second Hand had broken up, and I did not have any plans to form a new group, and also I didn’t have much money. Even if, in reality, Seventh Wave was Kieran’s idea. We had not worked together for a while…I was working as a session man and jingle composer, using the same techniques that I used later in Seventh Wave, while Kieran played with several groups. Although we were not a true band we had little time available and we decided to return to record music together. The producer, Neil Richmond, was busy in other projects, so it was something done in his free time. It was a vehicle to express our creative ambitions and to experiment with the sound, something similar to an artistic project. “Things To Come”, the first album, was created just by me and Kieran, we did all the arrangements too. Moreover, Kieran figured also as producer (Neil Richmond was the co-producer). For the second album, “Psi-Fi”, we were helped by other musicians: Pete Lemer (previously with Gilgamesh and Gong, then future collaborator of Mike Oldfield) and Hugh Banton (VDGG) both keyboard players. Steve Cook of Gilgamesh played bass in some tracks. They also played with us in the promotional tour.
Both groups we have mentioned were probably too far ahead of their time: Second Hand showed psych-prog tendencies before other bands and Seventh Wave was an original synth duo. Do you think that the importance of these bands has been neglected, even by the niche progressive fans?
Yes, I think both have been underrated. Second Hand was totally ignored by the media and Seventh Wave did not have adequate promotion. It seemed that we could not fit into the two main scenes of the time, Prog and Glam. Looking back to the past, things could have gone in a very different way. I remember that Peter Gabriel, after he left the Genesis, wanted us to be his backing band, but Kieran did not go to the rehearsal, so we lost that opportunity.
Extra: ‘Death May Be Your Santa Claus’… THE FILM!
I have read somewhere that the album “Death May Be Your Santa Claus”, (1971) was composed as the soundtrack of an obscure film. Is this true? And was it released?
Yes, It is true. The film “Death May Be Your Santa Claus” was released in 1969, but it was banned shortly after the release date, because it was much too “controversial”. But not every song of the album appeared in the film, just a couple. We, the band members, briefly appear in the film, playing a chaotic jam session. The film contained the first version of the title track “Death May Be Your Santa Claus”, later re-recorded for the LP in 1971.
Fran Elliott (Ken’s sister): I tried to get hold of a copy of the film for twenty years: until recently, all I could find on the net were just a few lines, but the film was not available anywhere. It also appeared in the “most wanted banned films” list, and I have discovered that it was directed by Frankie Junior Dymon (also in “Sympathy for the Devil” by the Stones). But recently, during researches in the British Film Institute Library, while I was looking for another film in their archives, I found it! I could not believe my eyes! In the archives it’s described as “an intriguing look at politics and sex seen from the perspective of a black English”. It’s a pity that those films can’t be watched online, so some weeks ago I booked a viewing position at the BFI and I went to see it. It’s a home-made film, very strange and arty, typical of the period. Second Hand appear briefly in it, as zombies in a strange scene set in an old ruined house. The song “Death May Be Your Santa Claus” is featured in the film, and it’s was great to listen to a version sung by Ken, who has a sweeter voice, different from Rob, Ken’s brother. Rob has a harder, raucous and rockier voice; in fact he later became the vocalist of Strider. I must write to the British Institute Film to make them aware that the credits at the end of the film are wrong, Ken was not pleased when I told him. In fact it says “music performed by Second Hand, written by Mott the Hoople (?!?) Ken has always felt a bit displeased by the fact that Mott the Hoople took the name Second Hand for one of their song*s. But they have nothing to do with the film… Whoever wrote the credits for the film made a mistake!
A big THANKS to Ken Elliott for the kindness and the helpfulness.
An enormous thanks also for his sister Fran, who gave me the possibility to contact Ken, and who gave me new information. Without her, this would not have been possible.
*The Mott the Hoople reference is partly correct. They did have a song called ‘Death May Be Your Santa Claus’ on their ‘Brain Capers’ album, which is where the confusion arises.
Gigs'n'Stuff 