Graham John Clifton Bond (28 October 1937 – 8 May 1974) was an English musician and occultist, considered a founding father of the English rhythm and blues boom of the 1960s. Bond was an innovator, described as "an important, under-appreciated figure of early British R&B", along with Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner. Jack Bruce, John McLaughlin and Ginger Baker first achieved prominence in his group, the Graham Bond Organisation. Bond was voted Britain's New Jazz Star in 1961. He was an early user of the Hammond organ/Leslie speaker combination in British rhythm and blues – he "split" the Hammond for portability – and was the first rock artist to record using a Mellotron, on his There's A Bond Between Us LP. As such he was a major influence upon later rock keyboardists: Deep Purple's Jon Lord said "He taught me, hands on, most of what I know about the Hammond organ".
Links To Peel[]
Graham Bond was a big name on the London club scene in the 1960s, but his reputation was based on live performances rather than his records, which didn't sell well, and according to his admirers didn't do him justice. He was little-known in the US when Peel lived there, and the jazz and R&B-based style he pioneered was going out of fashion by the time the DJ returned to the UK in 1967. In addition, many of his former sidemen left the Graham Bond Organization to find greater success elsewhere, and the group broke up in that year.
Peel didn't seem to be a big fan of Graham Bond's work but was aware of the respect Bond had among his fellow musicians, and of his influence on the likes of Cream and Colosseum. Colosseum, who included former Bond sidemen Dick Heckstall-Smith and Jon Hiseman, showed the influence of the Graham Bond Organisation on their first LP, whose best-known track was a version of the Bond song "Walking In The Park". Peel played a few tracks from Bond's 1960s output and invited him to do a session for his show in 1970, by which time the musician had developed an interest in the occult. A live concert from the Graham Bond Initiation group introduced by Peel was broadcast in the spring of that year. But these were the only recordings Bond made for Peel's shows before his untimely death in 1974.
Sessions[]
- Graham Bond Initiation
1. Recorded: 1970-01-20. Broadcast: 31 January 1970
- Walking In The Park / Wade In The Water / Love Is The Law
Live[]
Graham Bond Initiation
Recorded: 1970-03-09. Broadcast: 22 March 1970
- Love Is The Law
- Magick Mojo Blues
- The Whole World Will Soon Be Free
- Wade In The Water
Other Shows Played[]
- 21 August 1971: Ajama
- Graham Bond Organisation
- 27 September 1969: Little Girl (LP - R&B (Rhythm & Blues)) Decca
- 16 August 1976: 'Train Time (LP-The Sound Of 65)' (EMI Columbia)