Factory/Five Day Rain

"Why don't you come and see us play" said a group of young musicians to BRIAN CARROLL at a summer party back in 1967. The FACTORY were three boys from Surrey in England at the height of Jimi Hendrix and the whole flower power fantasy of the summer of love. Through the haze of cities covered in smoke from a generation that was expanding their minds came thousands of groups and musicians waiting for the break that would take them from a seedy club to a recording contract.

The FACTORY were lucky. BRIAN and his friend DAMON LYON SHAW worked for IBC, the leading independent recording studios in London and they were looking for a band to record for their newly formed production company, HOMEGROWN MUSIC. They were both recording engineers who had worked with such legends as JIMI HENDRIX, THE WHO, THE ROLLING STONES, CREAM, STATUS QUO and many more. Surrounded by all this talent the engineers decided they had to find a raw young group that could use the knowledge they had learnt.
Brian went to see the band and although only 21 himself, he was impressed by the energy from a trio of 17-year-olds. Time was spent searching for a debut single and finally they came upon an obscure track called "PATH THROUGH THE FOREST". The boys learnt quickly and IAN OATES haunting guitar intro leads us into a nightmare of psychedelia. Satisfied with the track they completed the B-side, a cover version of PAUL REVERE'S "GONE" and within weeks the record was released by CBS.

Without the backing of a record company behind you it is impossible to reach the ears of the masses and like many good records of this era the single was swallowed up among the hundreds of tracks released every week.

But there was still some more music to be made and while looking for a new single they recorded FAIRPORT CONVENTION'S "MR LACEY" and FAMILY'S "SECOND GENERATION WOMAN". The single "TRY A LITTLE SUNSHINE" came from a meeting of the band with JOHN PANTRY, a talented writer who was also an engineer at IBC. The words to "TRY A LITTLE SUNSHINE" was a peaceful message that worked against the band in an anti drug society. With "RED CHALK HILL" as the B side and released on MGM records,"TRY A LITTLE SUNSHINE" took many years to be appreciated as a statement of the times. Once again IAN OATES guitar took us somewhere else while drummer BILL McCLOUD and bassist JACK BRAND kept a steady rhythm in a song that has also joined "PATH THROUGH THE FOREST" as a classic of Psyche.

Also included on this the demo version of "RED CHALK HILL" sung by JOHN PANTRY and a version of "PATH THROUGH THE FOREST" that Brian and Damon wanted to do but were advised against by the record company.

The FACTORY went on to other things and today are all successful in their own careers.

The sixties ended with a man on the moon and the seventies saw a music business that was leaning more to the sales potential of albums than the not so profitable single. Bands were spending more time creating their music but they all needed good writers. BRIAN and DAMON found one in GRAHAM MAITLAND, a talented musician from Scotland who wanted to record his songs with his own band. This was a group of musicians he knew locally and his cottage in the country was a meeting place as they put together enough material for an album.

HOMEGROWN produced the band and within a few months they had a finished master that would be sent to leading record companies. 25 test pressing were made but only 2 or 3 were sent out before POLYDOR records showed interest. (10 copies of this album were thrown away in error by Brian Carroll in the early 1990's which has made this a rare album.).

The man from POLYDOR who wanted the album was running around for weeks as the band settled down for a long wait while negotiation were taking place. No one really knows what happened but the out come was that after 6 months of getting nowhere the band decided to spilt when GRAHAM was offered a chance to become a member of a band called GLENCOE. With the deal dead BRIAN and DAMON decided to get into producing their own songs (see ONE WAY TICKET albums from EVANGEL RECORDS)

FIVE DAY RAIN were basically a studio band put together by GRAHAM, BRIAN and DAMON as proved by the forgotten surnames of KIM the drummer and CLIVE the bass player. RICK SHARPE was guitarist on most of the tracks except for "SEA SONG" "FALL OUT"and "ROUGH CUT MARMALADE (OUTRODUCTION)"

These had the guitar of future producer JOHN HOLBROOK who was a friend of Brian and Damon and soon to be off to America to work for Bearsville studio.

Included on this CD is a previously unreleased version of GRAHAM MAITLAND'S soulful version of BOB DYLAN'S "TOO MUCH OF NOTHING"

With most of the tracks either written or enhanced by MAITLAND it was very much his band and a vehicle for his talent. The input of BRIAN and DAMON was to keep it all together through the moments of frustration and to produce a timeless piece of music.

I think they did and I hope you enjoy listening to a couple of bands who have lasted that test of time.

Thomas Martin.
December 1999.