Thunderclap Newman

Thunderclap Newman were a British rock band that Pete Townshend of the Who and Kit Lambert formed in 1969 in a bid to showcase the talents of John "Speedy" Keen, Jimmy McCulloch, and Andy "Thunderclap" Newman.Their single, "Something in the Air", a 1969 UK number one hit, remains in demand for television commercials, film soundtracks and compilations. The band released a critically acclaimed rock album, Hollywood Dream, and three other singles from the album, "Accidents", "The Reason" and "Wild Country".From 1969 until 1971, the nucleus of the band consisted of the songwriter John "Speedy" Keen (vocals, drums, guitar), Andy "Thunderclap" Newman (piano) and Jimmy McCulloch (guitar). Pete Townshend (using the alias "Bijou Drains") played bass guitar on their album and singles, all of which he had recorded and produced at the IBC Studio and his Twickenham home studio. The band augmented its personnel during its tours: in 1969 with James "Jim" Pitman-Avery (bass guitar) and Jack McCulloch (drums) and in early 1971, with Australian musicians Roger Felice (drums) and Ronnie Peel (bass guitar). The band folded in late 1971.In 1969, Townshend created the band to showcase songs written by the former Who chauffeur, drummer, singer, and guitarist, Keen. The opening track on The Who Sell Out album, "Armenia City in the Sky", was written by Keen. Newman, McCulloch, and Keen met each other for the first time in December 1968 or January 1969, at Townshend's home studio, to record "Something in the Air". Townshend produced the single, played its bass guitar under the pseudonym Bijou Drains, and hired GPO engineer and Dixieland jazz pianist "Thunderclap" Newman (born Andrew Laurence Newman, 21 November 1942, Hounslow, Middlesex, died 30 March 2016) and the fifteen-year-old Glaswegian guitarist Jimmy McCulloch. Before then, Townshend had planned to work on projects for each of the musicians, but Kit Lambert prevailed upon Townshend, who was working on what became the rock-opera Tommy, to save time by coalescing the three musicians into the collective project that became Thunderclap Newman."Something in the Air", which Keen wrote, was number one on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks, replacing the Beatles' "Ballad of John and Yoko" and holding off Elvis Presley. Originally it was titled "Revolution", but later renamed because the Beatles had released a song of that name in 1968, the B-side of "Hey Jude". By December 1969, the single had been awarded a gold disc for worldwide sales of more than a million.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.