It’s school summer holidays in the early seventies and half a dozen adolescent boys from the sleepy suburbs are getting bored and looking for things to do. One of the crew spots that an up and coming jazz fusion band is playing at the Milngavie Town Hall this coming Saturday afternoon. Strange time and venue for a live gig but these lads are no major concert virgins. Most have entered the doors of Valhalla, the Glasgow Apollo Theatre and been treated to a veritable feast of rock and roll by some of the UK’s and even the USA’s biggest acts.

The band of brothers sauntered off to the hall and each purchased a ticket to see Head rather cruelly billed as ‘the haggis of jazz fusion bands’. They were compared to Ian Carr’s Nucleus who were much in vogue and doing the rounds on the British jazz scene at the time.

As they strode into the venue they assumed they had got the time wrong. There was no-one there. The stage was all set up with a faint hum of warming amplifiers but not one seat in the audience was taken. Undeterred the lads picked a row a few seats back and settled in expecting an announcement that the gig was to be cancelled. But no, the five musicians of Head shuffled on to the stage and took up their positions. I can’t remember how long they played for but I certainly didn’t feel short changed. These guys put everything into their performance. I was greatly impressed with their professionalism as well as the intriguing sounds they were making.

It was bad marketing that let them down.

After each number an amiable discussion ensued between band and audience. It was like being entertained by important house guests. Six spotty faced oiks being serenaded by one of Scotland’s top contemporary jazz rock bands.

At the end of the gig we shook hands and said our farewells. I think one of our gang even purchased their album GTF (which translates to ‘go away and don’t bother me’ in colloquial Glaswegian !)

I too have found myself playing at an empty venue. Fast forward a couple of decades to a pub in Perth, Western Australia. I think it was Christmas Eve and The Swing Kings were finishing up their set to a handful of bar staff putting chairs up on the tables. Demoralising stuff.

And what of Head ? Did they slink off never to be seen again ? No, they kept going for another seven years and two albums albeit with a couple of changes in personnel.

And where are they now ?

Sadly I’ve read three obituaries, no trace of one, but three remain in the business.

Dunfermline born drummer Bill Kyle founded the band in the early 70s and was the prime mover in establishing Platform, Scotland’s first non-profit organisation, with the aim of creating a touring circuit so that both indigenous and visiting jazz groups could be heard in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Dundee and Aberdeen. In 2000 he opened The Bridge Jazz Bar and then the Jazz Bar in Edinburgh when the former burnt down. He passed away in 2016 and the Jazz Bar closed in April this year.

Trumpeter/keyboard player John Davies was also a Professor of Psychology at Strathclyde University. He ran the University of Strathclyde Big Band for many years which I reluctantly ‘depped’ (deputised) for on one occasion. He passed away in 2017.

Graham Mince (aka Graham Robb) is still involved in the music industry. Mince ? What was he thinking ? Either his head was full of it or he has a distinctive walk ! One of his many musical ventures is the funk/jazz band HEAD2HEAD.

I can find no information on sax player Howard Copland but his replacement Gordon Cruikshank was the voice for BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Take The Jazz Train’ which ran from 1980 to 1992. Cruikshank didn’t take well to the program’s axing. Poor health and an alcohol problem led to his early death at 53.

Both guitarists are still active on the jazz scene. Charles Alexander is a lecturer at an adult college in Richmond, London and his replacement Lachlan McColl is still a respected artist in Edinburgh.

I’m proud to have shared a Saturday afternoon in the company of these trail blazing gentleman back in the seventies and only wished there had been more punters there to share the experience.

TITLE	FORMAT	YEAR	LABEL
GTF	LP	1973	SPT Productions
Red Dwarf	LP	1975	Canon Records
Blackpool Cool	LP	1977	Head Records

(Post by John Allan from Bridgetown, Western Australia – May 2024)