TOMORROW
Tomorrow
(previously known as The In Crowd and before that as Four Plus One) were
a 1960s psychedelic rock band. Despite critical acclaim and support from
DJ John Peel who featured them on his "Perfumed Garden" radio
show, the band was not a great success in commercial terms. They were
among the first psychedelic bands in England along with Pink Floyd and
Soft Machine. Tomorrow recorded the first ever John Peel show session on
BBC Radio 1 on 21 September 1967.
Film director Michelangelo Antonioni
intended to feature the band in his 1966 film Blowup,
but instead used The Yardbirds. However Tomorrow did appear in the ''
film Smashing Time under
the name of The Snarks. John "Junior" Wood was ill and was
replaced by John Pearce, a clothes dealer. Again their music was not
used in the film. The rock group sounds used in the film are by Skip
Bifferty.
The band released two singles, one of which,
"My White Bicycle" was later covered by heavy rock act
Nazareth, and as a novelty record by 'Neil the Hippy' (Nigel Planer) of
The Young Ones TV series. According to drummer John 'Twink' Alder, the
song was actually inspired by the Dutch Provos, an anarchist group in
Amsterdam: they had white bicycles in Amsterdam and they used to leave them around
the town. And if you were going somewhere and you needed to use a bike,
you'd just take the bike and you'd go somewhere and just leave it.
Whoever needed the bikes would take them and leave them when they were
done
Tomorrow's
September 1967 single "Revolution" was likely the primary
inspiration for the John Lennon song Revolution
which was released a year later.[citation
needed] Tomorrow's lyric "Have your own little
revolution, NOW!" sounds like it prompted Lennon's response
"You say you want a revolution." [citation
needed] Though Tomorrow's song was not a hit the
group was well known to insiders of the London music scene. Frank Zappa
met the group on his first trip to England in 1967 and praised Steve
Howe's guitar solo on Claramount Lake. Zappa even played the record during a radio
interview many years later.
Tomorrow
singer Keith West is perhaps better known as a participant in Mark
Wirtz's Teenage Opera project that gave him a solo hit single
"Excerpt from a Teenage Opera (Grocer Jack)" and brief
commercial success. Guitarist Steve Howe later joined progressive rock
band Yes, whilst Twink joined The Pretty Things on their concept album
"S.F. Sorrow" before forming The Pink Fairies .
DISCOGRAPHY
Singles
"My White Bicycle" / "Claramount Lake" (single,
Parlophone R5597, May 1967) "Revolution" (Hopkins/Howe) /
"Three Jolly Little Dwarves" (single, Parlophone R5627,
September 1967) Tomorrow (album, Parlophone, February 1968) 50 Minute
Technicolor Dream (album, RPM 184, 1998)
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