The Nineteen Seventies have been nuts, simply utterly bonkers; a decade the place love and hate mashed into one large ball of struggle, peace, medicine, full-frontal nudity and acid-spitting guitars. A time and house that was loony.
Sifting by the detritus of these unusual and infrequently alarming occasions, you start to see shining moments when the whole lot got here collectively completely. Climax Blues Band are liable for a type of moments.
The band’s hit Couldn’t Get It Proper, a tune from their aptly-titled 1976 album Gold Plated, merely and elegantly summed up life within the mid-70s. The band had already been collectively practically 10 years by then, had progressed from a scruffy, straight blues outfit from the streets of Stafford to a globe-trotting, multi-faceted trendy rock band. With Gold Plated, they’d hit their stride, and the album pretty throbbed with downtown cool.
Whereas Gold Plated contained many rewards, it was Couldn’t Get It Proper that really rose to the event. It was a heat, evergreen slice of pure pop genius stuffed with funky bass, cowbell, and lyrics that dripped with wide-collared cool: ‘Time was drifting, this rock had obtained to roll/So I hit the highway and made my getaway…’ The tune reached No.10 within the UK in October ’76 and later No.3 within the US.
It began within the West Midlands city of Stafford, circa 1967. Singer/songwriter Colin Cooper had simply completed his tenure with The Hipster Picture, a sax-driven garage-pop band. Seeking to get again to his past love, the blues, Cooper obtained along with some fresh-faced native expertise and named his new outfit the Climax Chicago Blues Band. At their inception, they have been a straight-ahead blues band, however by the point of their second album, Performs On, their signature sound – an R&B-tinged, blues-rock hybrid – started to emerge.
Issues picked up rapidly for the band from there. After a minor squabble with US band The Chicago Transit Authority (later simply plain previous Chicago), they shortened their identify to the Climax Blues Band and launched a slew of seminal albums, together with A Lot of Bottle (1970) and Tightly Knit (1971).
Regardless of their headway, the early Nineteen Seventies have been nonetheless a wrestle for Climax. They obtained by the exhausting approach: gigging endlessly. After which got here Couldn’t Get It Proper.
“The unique draft composition was mine,” guitarist/vocalist Peter Haycock stated of their breakthrough tune. “The band then labored on the association for a day at [drummer] John Cuffley’s place in Milwich, Staffs. Later, Colin honed and added to my lyrics to swimsuit his personal deep vocal type in the course of the recording interval, together with evenings within the resort in London after the classes, after we would sit collectively and work on the lyrics.
“A very good instance can be the transition from my unique ‘All of us went on the lookout for an indication in the midst of the night time’ to ‘I stored on wanting…’ My unique refrain lyric concept was merely about driving round some metropolis within the USA looking for the Vacation Inn, which, regardless of its brightly illuminated signal, turned more and more exhausting to succeed in attributable to one-way techniques, etcetera.
“Couldn’t Get it Proper was successful in England, we have been on Prime Of The Pops, all that. A couple of 12 months later it went to quantity three within the States. From 1975 to ’76 was our greatest 12 months. However a protracted one.”
The gigs obtained greater, and so did their earnings. And with them a slew of recent challenges, alternatives and inevitable dysfunctions. “It was a protracted 12 months with many rewards,” Haycock recalled. “A few us had developed costly hobbies involving white powder and noses. As for myself, I used to be fairly busy writing songs.”
Climax stored issues rolling, however that all-important follow-up hit eluded them till 1980, when certainly one of guitarist Derek Holt’s songs, I Love You, took them again into the highlight. A syrupy, AOR ballad, it turned each a blessing and a curse for Climax. Whereas it boosted their standing, particularly within the US, it might finally break them aside.
“It was purely the producer’s concept,” Haycock stated. “I hated most of it. Sadly, the producer was nominated primarily by the report firm and turned out to be an fool. I ended up writing bland pop crap, too, due to him.”
Disillusioned, Haycock left the band quickly after. Climax carried on, working first as a contemporary rock band, after which returning to Colin Cooper’s past love, the blues. Peter Haycock’s post-Climax profession included a profitable run with ELO Half Two. Whereas he stayed in contact with a lot of the unique Climax band members, it was strictly enterprise.
Climax Blues Band settled into a snug groove, enjoying blues festivals. However issues took a flip for the tragic in 2006, when founder Colin Cooper was recognized with most cancers. He continued to play with the band till his demise in July 2008. Haycock, who collaborated with Hans Zimmer on a number of Hollywood movie scores after leaving ELO Half Two, died in October 2013 of a coronary heart assault.
After Cooper’s demise, the band rallied and continued to tour with none remaining unique members. Their most up-to-date album, 2019’s Arms Of Time, included a bonus observe that includes vocals from the late singer.
This function initially appeared in Traditional Rock 140, printed in January 2010. The story was up to date in 2026.
