Upp (sometimes known as UPP) was a British rock-jazz fusion band, active in the 1970s. The group was originally going to be called 3 UPP, and consisted of Stephen Amazing (bass guitar), Andy Clark (keyboards) and Jim Copley (drums). David Bunce (guitar) joined on guitar for the second album.
Stephen Amazing, aka Steve Fields prior to his career in Clark Hutchinson in his teenage years, used to play bass guitar in a band called 'The Kinetics', and also, at times, in another band called 'The Abstracts'.
Jim Copley has spoken of the genesis of the band; "Three months of rehearsing almost everyday, Jeff Beck came down to the studio to play with David Bowie who was doing his Hammersmith Odeon farewell concert in 1973. Jeff was with a friend of my dad’s and he heard the band through the wall and we were doing James Brown and very funky stuff. He kicked the door open and he came in and we stopped 'cause it was Jeff Beck and he said 'please carry on, I love it, I love it!’".
The band was heavily influenced by other acts like Otis Redding, Sly & The Family Stone, Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway.
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Links to Peel[]
The band did a session for Peel's programme in 1975 (Ken Garner's The Peel Sessions book has a typo stating on page 342 that the session was first broadcast in 1974.) and also played their songs on his shows until the rise of punk, when he largely became uninterested in their music.
Sessions[]
1. Recorded: 1975-03-27. First Broadcast: 05 June 1975
- Bad Stuff / I Give It To You / It's A Mystery / Get Down In The Dirt
Other Shows Played[]
- 27 February 1975: Get Down In The Dirt (album - UPP) Epic
- 13 March 1975: Jeff's One (LP - UPP) Epic