Tomorrow - Tomorrow
On this week's episode, we discuss Tomorrow, the criminally underappreciated 1968 self-titled debut album by the band Tomorrow.
Mostly known as a band that featured future Yes guitarist, Steve Howe, alongside bands like Pink Floyd and the Soft Machine, Tomorrow was a pillar of the British underground scene, and their song "My White Bicycle" was considered by many to be its its anthem. While heralded by critics, the album saw little success (an almost year long delay in its release didn't help). It has become somewhat of cult classic, but it deserves a much wider audience. Quintessentially British, the music is whimsical and fun, even when the subject matter isn't. And while the LP cover may be absent of color, the songs are not. Full of amazing musicianship (especially Howe's guitar playing) and unique studio trickery, Tomorrow is easily some of the best psychedelic rock ever committed to vinyl.
Recommendation for this episode: A Book: White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s by Joe Boyd.
THINGS WE DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE
The Tomorrow story starts with a band called 4 +1, which featured two future members of Tomorrow - Keith West and John “Junior” Wood.
Pictured (L to R): Ken Lawrence, John Wood, Les Jones, Keith West, and Simon Alcot.
Future Tomorrow (and Yes) guitarist Steve Howe found his first taste pf stardom playing with the band the Syndicats. Here’s the band performing the Bo Diddley song “You cant judge a book by its cover.” on British TV in 1964.
4 + 1 eventually changed their name to The In Crowd. Steve Howe joined the lineup, replacing in 1965, replacing Les Jones.
The In Crowd pictured (L to R): Ken Lawrence, Junior Wood, Simon Alcot, Steve Howe and Keith West,
By late 1966, Ken Lawrence had left The In Crowd and the band had replaced their drummer with Twink Alder. By 1967 the ban had changed their name to Tomorrow.
The band was tapped to appear as a band named the Snarks in the 1967 movie Smashing Time. Here is a promo photo for the movie featuring the band.
Tomorrow in all of the psychedelic finery.
Here is the fittingly trippy poster advertising Tomorrow’s first single “My White Bicycle’”
Here’s what appears to be a promotional video for “My White Bicycle.”
Producer Mark Wirtz helped Tomorrow realize their sound in the studio and played keys and piano on the tracks, as well.
Here he is pictured (L) with Keith West.
During the recording of the Tomorrow LP, Keith West gets involved with project of Mark Wirtz's called A Teenage Opera. It is a sort of multi-media rock opera As part of the project, Wirtz and West co write a song called “Excerpt from 'A Teenage Opera,” which was also known as "Grocer Jack.” West, sings lead with Steve Howe plays guitar.
You can watch West perform the song on British television in 1967 below.
“Excerpt from 'A Teenage Opera,becomes a hit single in the UK peaking at number 2. This leads to the band being rebranded as “Tomorrow featuring Keith West.”
This caused all sorts of issues within the band and ultimately lead to the breakup of the band.
Steve Howe eventually forms a band called Bodast, a more conventionally sounding rock band with lots of noodley guitar work from Howe.
Along Howe, the band featured Dave Curtiss (bass and vocals) and Bobby Clark (drums). The name is made up of the first two letters of each of the members' first names
The group recorded an album in 1968 and 1969 that was produced by Keith West.
