Isotope

Gary Boyle

Isotope was the band of the guitarist Gary Boyle, born in Patna, India, on 24 November 1941. He came up through youth-club skiffle in London and the Hamburg clubs, joined The Echoes, Dusty Springfield's band, in 1965, and moved to the Brian Auger Trinity the following year. Along the way he lent Jimi Hendrix his Stratocaster for jams. He studied at a music college in Leeds, played with Eclection, and in the early 1970s did sessions with Keith Tippett, Mike Gibbs, Mike Westbrook, Stomu Yamash'ta, Bert Jansch and Norma Winstone.

His new quartet had Brian Miller on keyboards, Jeff Clyne, formerly of Nucleus, on bass and Nigel Morris on drums. They worked the college and club circuit in Britain, then France, Germany and Scandinavia, and signed to Gull Records in England and to Motown in the United States.

The first line-up

On 12 October 1973 the band played a BBC Radio 1 In Concert, and that month they recorded their debut at Advision in London, produced by Tim Sharman with the group. Miller wrote every track but one, Boyle's Honkey Donkey. Isotope came out on Gull in April 1974. Reviewing it later, David Randall heard Miller's electric piano as the anchor and found the band funkier and less cerebral than John McLaughlin's model. On 26 March 1974 they played Bite On This and Upward Curve on the Old Grey Whistle Test.

By then the quartet was coming apart. Aymeric Leroy's Calyx history puts it down to a clash of egos, while The Progressive Aspect says the band wanted a rockier direction. Miller and Clyne left and went on to form Turning Point.

Hopper and Illusion

Boyle brought in Hugh Hopper, formerly of Soft Machine, whom he knew from Yamash'ta's East Wind, and Laurence Scott, a semi-professional keyboard player. Hopper said he was already bored with Yamash'ta's band and was good friends with Boyle. The new line-up toured Britain in June and July 1974 and Germany and the Netherlands in August.

Illusion was made at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire with Poli Palmer, once of Eclection and Family, producing. The writing was now shared between Boyle, Scott and Hopper, who brought tunes from his Monster Band demos. Boyle's Illusion opens it. Gull's American releases went out through Motown, and the band toured the US in March and April 1975. Hopper remembered the label and its publisher keeping them busy and fairly paid for a couple of years. On 20 May 1975 they played the Post-Aula in Bremen for Radio Bremen.

Deep End and after

In December 1975 Scott left and Frank Roberts took his place. Management problems brought money trouble, and Hopper left too, saying he had grown less interested in where the music was going. Deep End, recorded at Trident Studios with Robin Lumley of Brand X producing, brought in Zoe Kronberger on keyboards and vocals, Dan K. Brown on bass and Morris Pert on percussion. Hopper appears only on his own Fonebone. Its Crunch Cake was later picked up by Strut for the 2008 compilation Disco Not Disco.

Gull issued The Best of Isotope. A last line-up with Geoff Downes on keyboards only rehearsed and recorded radio sessions, and the band ended when Boyle went solo with The Dancer and Electric Glide. He later taught music at colleges in the north of England. Hopper died on 7 June 2009.

Afterlife

Vernon Joynson's Tapestry of Delights calls Isotope a well-respected jazz-rock outfit. Randall noted that many listeners took them for a lighter Mahavishnu Orchestra, while Homegrown says critics ranked them with Mahavishnu, Return to Forever and Weather Report. The archive has kept growing. Hux issued the BBC sessions as Live at the BBC in 2004, and Cuneiform released the 1974 and 1975 concert tapes as Golden Section in 2008. Esoteric remastered all three studio albums in 2011. Cherry Red bought the Gull catalogue in December 2025, and on 15 May 2026 Esoteric gathered the albums and the BBC tracks in the three-disc box Upward Curve (The Recordings 1973-1976).