hypersongs

Egg

A London progressive rock trio of Dave Stewart, Mont Campbell and Clive Brooks, who made three albums between 1970 and 1974 for Deram and Caroline, including The Polite Force (1971).

From Uriel to Egg

Egg grew out of Uriel, a band of Dave Stewart on organ, Mont Campbell on bass, Clive Brooks on drums and the guitarist Steve Hillage. Brooks had joined through a Melody Maker advertisement in early 1968. When Hillage left in August 1968 for university the three carried on as a trio, and management advised a new name because Uriel sounded too much like urinal. Wikipedia dates the formation to July 1968; Brooks's own page says Uriel became Egg in January 1969. The line-up never changed.

They signed to Deram, Decca's progressive subsidiary, in mid-1969. That summer, with Hillage, they made a one-off psychedelic album as Arzachel, the members under pseudonyms because of the Decca contract. Their single "Seven Is a Jolly Good Time" came out on August 29, 1969, and their debut album Egg in March 1970. Deram financed a second album but shelved it until the producer Neil Slaven lobbied for its release as The Polite Force, in February 1971. They signed to the Groundhogs' management and toured more but found no new deal, and split in July 1972.

One more album, and after

In 1974 Stewart, by then in Hatfield and the North on Virgin, arranged a deal to record the unreleased material, which became The Civil Surface (Caroline, December 1974), recorded in August 1974 at Saturn Studios in Worthing and produced by the band, with guests including Hillage, Lindsay Cooper, Tim Hodgkinson and Barbara Gaskin. The Metronomical Society (December 2007) collects live recordings from 1969 to 1972, BBC Sessions and More 1968-1972 appeared in 2015, and Esoteric reissued the debut on vinyl in 2024 with "Movement 3", reportedly cut at first for borrowing Stravinsky themes, restored.

Stewart went on to Khan, Hatfield and the North, National Health, Bruford and a duo with Barbara Gaskin, whose "It's My Party" reached number one in the UK. Campbell studied at the Royal College of Music (ARCM 1974), played in National Health and Mozaic and took the name Dirk in 1977, and Brooks joined the Groundhogs and later worked as a Pink Floyd drum technician, filling in on drums for one night of The Wall tour on June 14, 1981. Campbell cites Stravinsky as a major influence, and many fans regard "Enneagram" as his masterpiece.

Albums

  • The Polite Force 1971 · Deram

    Their second album: three songs on side one and a four-part 20-minute piece on side two, recorded in May 1970 and released the following February.

Songs

  • Boilk The Polite Force · 1971

    Dave Stewart's track on side one of The Polite Force, nine minutes long.

Sources

  1. Egg (band), Wikipedia
  2. The Civil Surface, Wikipedia
  3. Clive Brooks, Wikipedia
  4. Mont Campbell, Wikipedia