Friday, March 10, 2006

United Empire Loyalists - Notes From The Underground (Canadian psych)

The United Empire Loyalists were a Vancouver B.C. band that originally consisted of Rick Enns (lead vocals, bass), Anton "Tom" Kolstee (lead guitar), Jeff Ridley (rhythm guitar), and Richard Cruickshank, later replaced by Glen Hendrickson (drums). In 1968 the band recorded the lone single "No, No, No," which was pressed in only 200 copies but sold well enough to attract a fan base and the attention of a local concert promoter who booked the band to open for the Grateful Dead. In 1968, since the UEL's were part of the Vancouver underground music scene, the release of a single was perceived as a commercial ploy by the band. Thus, they abandoned their commercialization and focused on songs consisting of long jams and experimental sounds. With a limited fan base of only a few hundred of Vancouver teens, the band started to make waves around the West Coast music scene. With some music pointers gleaned from their experience with the Dead, they managed to attract interest from Canada's National Television station the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). In 1968, as part of the Enterprise television series, the CBC filmed an hour-long studio performance of the band. This brought even more of a cult mystique to UEL and in1990, the band was reformed to again perform for the CBC in a documentary about the Vancouver '60s music scene. During the late '60s and early '70s the band went on tour throughout British Columbia, opening for such acts as Cream, the Yardbirds, Steve Miller Band, Country Joe & the Fish, Canned Heat, and many more bands both local and international. They became one of B.C.'s hottest groups, yet they never released another single or received radio air play. Notes From the Underground is the first compilation entirely devoted to the music of the United Empire Loyalists. The CD contains 13 songs taken from a variety of sources including some "live" club recordings from 1968, unreleased studio recordings from 1970, and songs that were originally featured on both CBC Television programs from 1968 and 1990. While the sound quality on some tracks, especially those recorded privately in 1968, is not great, these are some of the only recordings that still exist of this band. Noticeably missing from this set -- without explanation -- is the band's "commercial" single "No, No, No." Nonetheless, all but two on this set are originals written by the band members. With liner notes by Anton Kolstee that detail the history of the band, this CD is a fitting tribute to one of Vancouver's best kept secrets that is, for the first time, finally available for all to hear. ~ Keith Pettipas, All Music Guide


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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is an amazing find for me - I grew up in Vancouver during the sixties and can remember seeing United Empire Loyalists opening for Cream! I'd love to hear some of the other local bands who were around at that time, like Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck, the Painted Ship, the Poppy Family and the Collectors. Thanks for bringing back some good memories!

P.S. I found more United Empire Loyalist links starting here: http://pnwbands.com/loyalists.html

Lisa Sinder said...

Great! I'm planning to share Poppy Family & Collectors in the future!

Thank you for coming!

Anonymous said...

Fantastic news... can't wait!

Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

wasnt a member or two of seeds of time in this band?

Anonymous said...

It wouldn't surprise me, as band lineups were constantly changing in those days, with old groups splitting up and new ones forming all the time. Drummer Glen Hendrickson joined United Empire Loyalists in the late 60's after playing with the Black Snake Blues Band, according to an interview I found here: http://members.tripod.com/armenia.city/UEL/uel03.htm

Anonymous said...

Hi, the password "ezhevika.blogspot.com" dont works.

Anonymous said...

Excellent site! I just started looking around here a few days ago. I have had no problems with passwords except for this one particular file. I have seen the comments about them before, but for some reason, this one is not working for me here. Thanks for any help you can give me!

Anonymous said...

Excellent site you have here! I have been slowly checking some of these bands out. I have read the comments about password problems, but this is the only one so far to give me trouble. None of the others have, not even the ones that other people had problems with. Any help here would be appreciated. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

hi lisa! what do you exactly mean with "add space to the original password"? i tried a few ways but it don't worked :(

Anonymous said...

hey rodolfo!

add space means you have to add an empty field after the original password like this: "ezhevika.blogspot.com "

best regards

Anonymous said...

This is great! Thanks for posting it