EARLY DAYS

The band The Majority who eventually relocated to France after their 8 Decca singles issued between 1965 to 68 failed to give them the success they trully deserved,as they where trully a quality band,just listen to many of those single sides as evidence,the problem seemed to be their over reliance on others songs,though Bert Wigley under the name Barry Graham did write 2 B sides in One Third(A side Simplified) from 66 and People(A side All our Christmases) from 68.Their close harmonies stuck out from the crowd,they covered their genre bases from RnB,Freakbeat,pop and a cello driven baroque flavoured tune like People their final song for Decca,and seemed to excell in the studio too.

Looking at their songwriting credits,you do see Gibb,Gibb,Gibb,on their final Decca 68 single All Our Christmases,i mention this as i feel they developed a sound later that is heavily influenced by The Bee Gees,and as the band wanted out from Decca,strangely it's Robert Stigwood who assisted in them getting to leave Decca,and of course Robert Stigwood was The Beegees manager.For instance that single All Our Christmases was released in January by Decca,so it's no surprise they where happy to be away.As a sidenote around this time they did a recording titled "Time Machine Man",which today only survives on an old played too much acetate,but did feature on a psych cd comp,and it sounds a top notch piece of UK psychedelia,under all the surface noise,its a real pity a better sounding source has not come to light.

UNCERTAINTY Ryan and Blackburn

With no label,meaning less live work,as no records were being issued,their where personnel changes and they landed a job supporting Barry Ryan on stage and in the studio,during August and September 1968,which also included being on Barry Ryans big hit "Eloise" in October 68,they did team up with Barry Ryan again in December 68,resulting in their final partnership and credited with Barry on the February 69 single"Love Is Love",and unbelievably played on radio 1 DJ Tony Blackburns single"Its Only Love"on March 69.

From now it was all change,including their tactics,and after having had a very succeesful tour earlier in France,the decision was made to relocate to Paris,and say cheerio to old blighty,where prospects were not as enticing as they thought it would be in France.Leaving behind a couple of band members who had no interest in moving there and wives at home.

FRANCE

A new chapter,but no new name YET,as their manager manages to get them a deal with Pink Elephant with the single "Charlotte Rose" which was written by Grapefruit member George Alexander,and is a lovely lilting number with their beautiful harmonies being used immacculately.The B side"Time Is On My Side"as far as i know has not featured on cd.They also recorded a splendid cover of The Beatles "A Hard Days Night",stamping their own identity on it,both were older recordings made just before they left the UK.

Majority becomes MAJORITY ONE.

The absolutely brilliant double sider recorded on February 1970, Glass Image/Friday Man is unleashed,the Aside is top grade Beegees like psych whimsy with treated vocals,and languid musical backing,the B side is a more jaunty number,again with great vocals,and is a piece of pop perfection.
Things are looking up,as they took up a tour with Mungo Jerry(always a downside eh?),the band wrote songs during this tour and when they finished,started recording them.

A DOUBLE LIFE?

At this juncture November 1970,the band got offered work as a studio only outfit,to basically record "others"hits from the UK charts,so they got released under the name Black Label,unbelievably they issued 3 singles,with 2 self written numbers titled "Got To Move" and "So Heavy It Hurts" a B sides.This sounds like it was purely a monetary exercise,as they were still recording as Majority One,and the titles were adding up to possibly fill an album through the Spring of 1971,this continued till the Summer,but by that time,the band had fractured,with each member losing interest with some heading back to old blighty.

HIT BUT NO BAND

Their manager still managed to license their recordings with labels in different European countries,with the single Because I Love You/Get Back Home being issued in Holland in September 1971,and then in other countries and surprisingly became a hit,with NO band to support it as Bert Wigley and the others did not want to reform.the B side"Get Back Home" is an absolutely fuzzed up psychedelic monster,and possibly their hardest rocking number,"Because I Love You"is just a sublime song the Gibb Brothers would be proud of.

CABBAGE ANYONE?
Bert Wigley,eventually returned to the UK,and with no band left to talk of, Pete Mizen the only one left in France set about releasing 2 singles,under the name Rocky Cabbage "Freedom /Take Me Back"from 71 and "Birds Must Learn To Fly/I'm Leaving from 72.
"Freedom"is in actual fact a Majority One recording,and is again a superb fuzzed up guitar driven rocker with very effective percussion and wonderful vocals,this is a killer of a song.
"Birds Must Learn To Fly"is very much in the soft mode of Majority One,another beautiful number,mellow as you like with nice sliding guitar,very much Beatle like circa 68.

As for Take Me Back and I'm Leaving....both as far as i know have never been comped in the cd age.

WHAT?......AN ALBUM?

Unbelievably with the surprise hit,a MAJORITY ONE album got released in France and Holland in late 1971 by Pink Elephant,with marvellous negative photo sleeve artwork,and in my opinion a brilliant collection of 13 tracks,and in truth listening to it,it does sound a couple of years behind in musical fashion terms, as it reeks of late 68 /69 pop and psych vibes with a clear 60s Bee gees influence permeating throughout,which for someone like me is a massive attraction.The album also got a release in Germany in 1973 on the Finger label.

This delightful album is full of selfwritten numbers.
"Feedback"getting it off to a fabulous fuzzy guitar and frothy pop start,i've saw this being called powerpop,maybe i'm thick,but i've never got that label.To me its just a delightful piece of fuzzy guitar niceness.

"Rainbow Rocking Chair"is absolutely brilliant,a gorgeous floaty acoustic picking piece of lysergic pop at its finest,one of the most beautiful pop sings you'll ever hear.

"A Cigarette A Cup Of Tea"is pure English pop whimsy,that was prevalent in 67 and 68,but 71?..i don't care as it's just good fun.

"I Nearly Died"has a darker vibe,with organ to the fore,high vocals very much like Robin Gibb and acoustic strumming,this could've fitted on the Gibb Brothers Idea album quite nicely with a fuzzed up guitar making an appearance.

"Looks Like Rain"is a smashing acoustic laced piece,with a nice echoed drum part,subdued fuzz guitar with gorgeous english fey vocals,just sublime.

"Glass Image"is a blissful dramatically orchestrated magical piece of pop/psych with some treated vocals,falling into that 68 vibe.

"Because I Love"is awash with treated vocals and some phasing and this has a definite Aphrodites Child Rain and Tears vibe to it,beautiful slow number,with ace backing vocals and sweet strings ala baroque.

"Love Came Today"is a superb jaunty commercial piece of lysergic pop,i just cant stop thinking of the Gibbs when i hear the arrangements and vocals,this realy is good and commercial enough to possibly have been a hit in 68.

"Depth Of My Mind"The acoustic guitar prominent,but with a marvellous tuned up refrain,with organ and electric guitar and Bert Wigley doing his Barry Gibb vocalising,with fuzzed guitar and disorder at the end.

"I Dont Mind The Rain"The vocals again are being manipulated or treated,with smashing backing vocals giving this song its otherwordly vibe,with beautiful harpsichord and acoustic guitar ,understated drums and percussion.Just absolutely magical stuff full of atmosphere.

"I See Her Everywhere"A lovely baroque infused pearl,with a string section,and beautiful vocals,and an additional beautiful choral like support vocal arrangements.Piece of class with its loveliness.

"Roger La Frite"A heavy rocker,giving one a glam type of vibe,this does sound pure 71,but none the worse for it,as it's still very commercial and with a heavy poppiness,and from 2 minutes its absolutely guitars all over the place,heavy licks galore,playing on top of each other with drums attempting to keep it all together.6 minutes of wildness.

"Revelation"is a good way to end with its 35 seconds filled with wind noises,chiming bell and vocals.

Obviously with NO band to promote it,and no chance of a reformation,the album unfortunately sunk,not even seeing a release in their homeland the UK.Which was a sin,as looking and hearing from 2022,its just a superb artefact of well written and well executed pieces of magnificence and loveliness.

2 cds that ARE worth checking out are :
THE MAJORITY-THE DECCA YEARS 1965-68(Revola,2009)
MAJORITY ONE-RAINBOW ROCKING CHAIR(RPM,2005)This cd is excellent,but unfortunately the whole Majority One album is NOT included,with the tracks Roger La Frite,I Nearly Died,Revelation being excluded,it DOES have a unreleased number titled"Letter From The Queen"which is excellent,lovely vocals,lovely acoustic guitar parts,and similar to Gothic Horizon i think.

Unfortunately it looks like the Majority One album has never had a legit cd reissue in its original running order,but there is a bootleg cd available on the Synton label,featuring the original album plus get back home as an extra,fortunately the sound quality on the cd is rather good,no pops ,no clicks or other ghastly surface noise to irritate,and i was pleasantly surprised at its quality.

I remember loving "Because I Love" with it's kind of phased vocal just wanted it to be a longer song. Still at school at the time and hearing such non hit records (in the UK) on Veronica, RNI etc was very exciting and gave me a kind of kudos when talking about music with classmates.

There was also this acetate, 'People try Hard'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7WwuOMCTsA&ab_channel=Modboy1

The Hard Days Night cover, Barry Wigley' Brother Jack and Wish I Could Communicate (Mizen/Wigley)

maybe there'smore outside, Cherry Red would need to do a massive boxset!

And I missed that, but it looks the first release of the album was actually in Italy, pressed in July 1971 :wink:

An underrated band indeed... I'd love one of those clamshell box with the complete Majority/Majority One story! :+1: :shell:

The french singles with picture sleeves are easy to find and cheap here. I think I paid 2 francs (less than 0,5€!) for "Love came today" and "Because I love" at the time. The LP though seems to always come in trashed condition when I run into it..