British progressive rock group Caravan was born out of Canterbury based band Wilde Flowers, a musical collective subject to many line-up changes. Historic Canterbury is a college city in Kent, southeast England.
At various stages, Wilde Flowers included Kevin Ayers (guitar), Richard Sinclair (guitar), Robert Wyatt (drums), and Hugh Hopper (bass). The band was enhanced in 1965 when Hopper invited trainee dental technician and drummer Richard Coughlan to replace Robert Wyatt, who had chosen to sing rather than play drums. Shortly afterwards, Pye Hastings, a new guitarist, was also recruited. Hastings was born in Banffshire, Scotland but had been living in Canterbury since the age of twelve.
Originally an R&B band, Wilde Flowers were developing towards more of a soul direction when Dave Sinclair joined. He originally played bass, but soon switched to keyboards. Both Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt left the band and later re-emerged in another influential progressive band called Soft Machine.
By 1968, the group changed its name to Caravan. The classic first line-up featured Pye Hastings on guitar and vocals; Richard Sinclair on bass and vocals; Dave Sinclair on keyboards; and Richard Coughlan on drums. Caravan soon developed a unique style, writing its material, and began to perform outside of Kent.
A concert at Middle Earth in Covent Garden (London) in June 1968 eventually led to Caravan becoming the first British band to sign to the New York-based Verve Records. The album “Caravan” appeared on Verve Forecast in October. Unfortunately, Caravan was only in the record stores for a few months before Verve Records ceased operations in the UK.
Caravan soon found a new home. The band signed to Decca Records and recorded its second album in September 1969. “If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You” was released a year later. By then, Caravan had already written the new material that would make up the bulk of their next vinyl recording. “In the Land of Grey and Pink” was the result.
Sessions for “In the Land of Grey and Pink” began at Decca Studios in West Hampstead in September 1970 where Caravan worked on first versions of what would become legendary songs in their repertoire. On this occasion, Pye Hastings’ sole songwriting contribution was ‘Love To Love You.’ “For the first two albums I wrote most of the material, and Dave Sinclair also wrote a lot,” said Hastings. “When it came to Grey and Pink the others had a big backlog of material. Dave especially was advancing way ahead of the rest of us in terms of musical development, so he had a lot of say on the album. Richard Sinclair also had a pile of good material. I only contributed one entire track, but offered bits to some others.”
The first song recorded was Richard Sinclair’s ‘Group Girl,’ also known as ‘Golf Girl’. Another Richard Sinclair composition to appear in the album was ‘Winter Wine,’ a song of fairy tales and dreams. “We tended to come up with the music first and the lyrics were usually the last thing to be finished,” explained Pye. “I think Winter Wine is probably the finest song Richard Sinclair has ever written.” The remaining sessions in September 1970 were dedicated to Dave’s Thing, a major composition that became ‘Nine Feet Underground.’ The memorable 22-minute suite was recorded in five distinct sections and skillfully edited by David Hitchcock and engineer Dave Grinsted.
In December 1970 Caravan moved to the newly opened Air London studios in Oxford Street. These Air sessions saw ‘Golf Girl’ re-recorded, with a superb piccolo solo from Pye’s brother, Jimmy Hastings, plus the remaining titles, including ‘Grey and Pink’ and Hastings’ Love To Love You. The work at Air also produced Richard Sinclair’s long unreleased “Frozen Rose (I Don’t Know It’s Name Alias The Word)”, now one of the bonus tracks on Disc Two of the reissued version of ‘In the Land of Grey and Pink’.
The album’s final mixing was completed at Decca studios in January 1971, with its initial single, released on February 12th 1971, coupling ‘Love To Love You’ (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly) with ‘Golf Girl’. “In The Land Of Grey And Pink” followed in April 1971 on Decca’s progressive rock label Deram. It was the inaugural release in Deram’s “deluxe” series. Notably, its gatefold sleeve featured a striking Tolkien-esque illustration by Anne-Marie Anderson.
“In The Land Of Grey And Pink” has remained on catalog since its 1971 release and is Caravan’s biggest selling album. Its fusion of folk, jazz and rock – tinged with the band’s humor – created an album that is still highly regarded.
At that key moment, Dave Sinclair decided to leave. As Pye Hastings explained, “Dave was developing faster than the rest of us and I think he was getting frustrated at seeing other bands of dubious talent getting greater financial reward. The management must have been beside themselves: the band were getting somewhere, a new album is released and the main player decides he is off.”
Steve Miller came in as a replacement for Dave. He had been recommended to Richard Sinclair by Phil, Steve’s guitarist brother. This line-up produced a jazzier groove based around Steve’s piano-fueled keyboards. This style dominated the next album release, “Waterloo Lily”, released in May 1972. Dave’s signature keyboard sound, based around his Hammond organ was gone. Pye’s older brother Jimmy Hastings appeared only on ‘Love in Your Eye’ on saxophone and flute, the bulk of this work going to Lol Coxhill.
Caravan fell apart, leaving Pye Hastings and Richard Coughlan to reform. A change of direction resulted with the addition of Geoffrey Richardson on viola. The band was completed by Welshman Stu Evans on bass and Derek Austin on keyboards. No album was released by this version of Caravan, although they toured extensively, including a series of dates in Australia, accompanying Slade, Lindisfarne and Status Quo.
In February 1973, another change in lineup occurred. John Perry, who Pye had previously invited to join the band, signed up on bass and Dave Sinclair agreed to rejoin to make an album and take part in the tour to follow. The album, “For Girls That Grow Plump in the Night” was a return to form, with practically every track written by Pye Hastings.
Caravan got the chance to try something a little different and recorded an album with the New Symphonia, “Caravan & The New Symphonia” for which Pye wrote a couple of new tunes. Simon Jeffes of Penguin Cafe Orchestra arranged some of the music, with the bulk of the ‘charts’ arranged by Martyn Ford, with contributions from Don Gould. Martyn was the conductor. Rehearsal time was 6 hours only.
“Caravan & The New Symphonia” marked the end of the memorable progressive rock phase of Caravan. After that, Caravan released a series of studio albums that were more pop oriented.
By July 1974, John Perry left Caravan to play with Quantum Jump. He was replaced by Mike Wedgewood who had played previously in progressive rock band Curved Air.
With Dave Sinclair firmly re-established in the band, an album was put together. This was originally to have been titled “Toys in the Attic”, but they were beaten to it by American rock band Aerosmith and had to rename the album “Cunning Stunts”, which featured Dave Sinclair’s songwriting far more heavily. Two tours of the United States of America took place and at one stage the album was the fastest selling import in San Francisco.
Dave Sinclair decided to leave again and was replaced by keyboardist Jan Schelhaas who had played in the National Head Band. An album titled “Blind Dog at St Dunstans” resulted, with positive reviews. Soon after, Mike Wedgewood departed and was replaced by Dek Messecar. Dave Sinclair returned temporarily to play on a tour to help promote a ‘best of’ compilation from Decca.
A change of label to Arista produced an album titled “Better by Far”. Despite good promotion, Caravan was struggling to maintain the level of support it had previously enjoyed and the arrival of punk rock meant hard times for progressive music. Geoffrey Richardson decided to leave in 1978 to do session work.
Terry King, the band’s old manager signed them up to his own Kingdom Records and a tour and album followed: “The Album”, which was released in November 1980. With Dave Sinclair involved and Geoffrey Richardson guesting, they managed a few prestigious dates including a full house at London’s Dominion Theatre.
Caravan was inactive until 1982. A reunion album titled “Back to Front” was released, featuring the original line-up with additional support provided on some tracks by Mel Collins on saxophone. The band made an appearance at the Marquee club in 1983 for the club’s 25th celebrations and a ‘final’ gig in Canterbury in 1985.
In 1990, Central TV put together a series of concerts to focus on bands from the 1970s and through the efforts of Richard Sinclair, the original bass player, the very first line up got back together to record a set. As a warm up, Caravan played the Canterbury Festival in June 1990, followed by the concert recording at Central Studios in July in front of 400 fans who had discovered what was happening.
With the band members concentrating on other projects, Caravan struggled once more.
The discovery of old tapes left over from a recording session in 1977 (with Richard Sinclair on bass), led to a revival of interest and the release of this material under the title of “Cool Water” in 1994. Pye Hastings and Dave Sinclair had done some live dates with a band called Mirage and were therefore ‘up for it’ at the suggestion by HTD records to record a brand new Caravan album.
“The Battle of Hastings” appeared in the fall of 1995, with the participation of Pye Hastings, Richard Coughlan, Dave Sinclair, Geoffrey Richardson, plus Jim Leverton on bass; an old friend of Geoffrey’s. This marked a true return to form for Caravan, with the songwriting of Pye Hastings back to its very best and the contribution of Dave Sinclair on keyboards, plus his songwriting ability evident on an engaging song, ‘Travelling Ways’ which ultimately gained radio airplay in the UK as well as turning up in Ireland’s Top 40 as a charity single recorded by a group of High School students. An additional Caravan recording was released in April 1996, a remake of early classics titled “All Over You”.
In 1997 a live album was released. Hux Records also put out two volumes of live material recorded at the BBC in the 1970s.
In the summer of 2002, Caravan made a triumphant return to the United States, playing a concert at Nearfest, New Jersey in front of a sell-out, adoring audience. This was followed by two performances in Quebec, one of which featured Caravan playing a version of ‘For Richard’ alongside an orchestra conducted by Martyn Ford.
The departure of Dave Sinclair in late summer 2002, midway through recordings for a new album, was not a happy situation for either the band or Dave. The ‘re-arrival’ of Jan Schelhaas after an absence of 23 years gave the band a new life, which led to the completion of the new album, “The Unauthorised Breakfast Item” which was released in September 2003 to great critical acclaim.
Caravan toured throughout the world in 2004/2005. In November 2004 they played a concert at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London to celebrate their 35th Anniversary. The concert, which was recorded for DVD, featured Jimmy Hastings and included a short acoustic set, a first in the history of Caravan.
After a memorable concert at the Isle of Wight Festival in June 2005 Caravan played their last concert in Germany on June 19. Unfortunately, health problems and line-up changes affected the band once more.
In 2010, Pye Hastings announced that Caravan had resumed activity in anticipation of a one-off concert recording at Metropolis Studios for ITV in December. New material was written for a debut performance and the band was joined by Mark Walker on drums and percussion.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of Caravan’s “In The Land Of Grey And Pink”, Universal Music released a special three-disc, deluxe edition of the album. The original multi-track session and album masters were revisited by Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree and Blackfield) who prepared new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes.
Disc One features the original album, newly remastered by Paschal Byrne at The Audio Archive, plus three new Stereo mixes by Steven Wilson. Disc Two features two previously unreleased versions of “It Doesn’t Take A Lot” and “Nigel Blows A Tune” plus four non-album tracks remixed by Wilson.
Disc Two also includes three songs recorded live for BBC radio’s Sounds of the Seventies – Love To Love You, Love Song Without Flute and In The Land Of Grey And Pink – plus two songs recorded live for John Peel’s Sunday Concert (which include a cover version of Soft Machine’s Feelin’, Reelin’, Squealin’ and Caravan’s own magnum opus, ‘Nine Feet Underground’).
Disc Three is a DVD featuring the brand new 5.1 surround sound and stereo mix of the album, plus two performances recorded for German TV’s Beat Club in June 1971. ‘Golf Girl’ was broadcast at the time but ‘Winter Wine’ hds never been seen.
Discography:
Caravan (Verve Forecast, 1968)
If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You (Decca, 1970)
In The Land Of Grey And Pink (Deram, 1971)
Waterloo Lily (Deram, 1972)
For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night (Pink Elephant, 1973)
Caravan & The New Symphonia (Deram, 1974)
Cunning Stunts (Decca, 1975)
Blind Dog At St. Dunstans (RCA, 1976)
Better By Far (Arista, 1977)
The Best Of Caravan “Live” (Kingdom Records, 1980)
The Album (Kingdom Records, 1980)
Back To Front (Kingdom Records, 1982)
BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert (Windsong International, 1991)
Cool Water (HTD Records, 1994)
The Battle Of Hastings (HTD Records, 1995)
Songs For Oblivion Fishermen (Hux Records, 1998)
Ether Way (Hux Records, 1998)
All Over You…Too (HTD Records 2000)
Live In Nottingham (Classic Rock Productions 2002)
Green Bottles For Marjorie (BBC Music, 2002)
The Unauthorised Breakfast Item (Eclectic Discs, 2003)
Here Am I (Membran Music, 2005)
The Show Of Our Lives: Live At The BBC 1968-1975 (Deram, 2007)
Paradise Filter (2013)
It’s None of Your Business (2021)