JULIAN KIRSCH. (da sweet floral albion)
jethro tool
'Clever Little Man' is a gem. Classic UK psych pop, but strangely somewhat overlooked. The band have
remained even more of a mystery.
The Julian Kirsch were surprisingly named not after an imaginary character (as with The Jason Crest)
nor after a single individual but was composed of the conjoined first and surnames respectively of
its two principal members, viz., JULIAN Brook Smith and Barry KIRSCH.
"I was ex-Guildhall School of Music." says Julain,"I met Barry when he was at Kings, Canterbury. I
was at Radlett College, south of Oxford. We got together around '67 -'68. Spent a couple of years
doing the clubs. we were opening for acts like Tyrannosaurus Rex, Chris Farlowe, Alan Price...we
were quite a wacky little band. We had a good time." In late 1968, The Julian
Kirsch recorded at EMI's Lansdowne Studios, and were produced by Denis Preston, the jazz producer,
famed for 'Stranger On The Shore' and his work with Roger Whittacker, et al. Their first sessions
produced the 45 sides, 'Clever Little Man' and 'The Adventures Of A Young Cuckoo'.
The two sides of the single both possess classical and jazz elements, on the A side the former and
on the B side the latter tend to predominate. This disparity and yet coherence is very much one of
the strengths of The Julian Kirsch sound, as well as an indication of their tastes and evidence of
faultless musical proficiency: "I was well into Jacques Loussier Trio, especially when they played
Bach," exclaimed Julian, "I was really screwed up on that. I loved that stuff! It was quite
fashionable then in certain circles. I was at the Sorbonne in '68, briefly; and I remember he played
there. God, I loved that stuff."
Julian Kirsch sessions at Lansdowne." 'Justine' was much liked by Michael Grade, then at London
Management, which lead to a 5-year recording contract with Polydor. Where as Julian Brook (no's'!)
were released singles such as
'Just Wanna Be Around You' and 'Moderation', plus the 1974 'Portrait' LP.
Since those days Julian has written another 400 - 500 songs and is still in the business. He sums up
the happy 1967-70 Julian Kirsch period thus -
"The whole thing was just bloody marvellous really. Never a dull moment, and...
notare questa parte:
...it was a time when if
you came up with something different, there was always somebody prepared to listen to it and very
often somebody who was prepared to take a chance on it.
What better example of this than Denis
Preston. I've worked with a number of producers since then, and the only producer that I feel the
same way about was Gus Dudgeon. I made some recordings with Gus and he is another example. but there
aren't many like them now."