Angel Pavement

Angel Pavement were a late 60's sunshine pop outfit from York, England. There sound was equal parts psychedelia and pop/rock in the best Hollies/Zombies/Beatles manner. The band, which took its name from a 1930 novel by J.B. Priestley , himself a Yorkshireman, was assembled by guitarist/songwriter Alfie Shepherd out of the remnants of a soul-based outfit, Wesley Hardin's Shotgun Package, with Paul Smith (lead vocals), Dave Smith (guitar), Graham Harris (bass), and Alan Reeve (drums) (later replaced by Mike "Candy" Candler). They quickly developed an effective pop-oriented psychedelic sound, similar to what the Hollies were doing on Evolution and Butterfly, and the Zombies generated on Odessey & Oracle, with lush harmonies. They managed to build a large following in their native York and this gave them a thirst to try cracking the competitive London Club Scene. The group's attempt to crack the London club scene coincided with their starting work on a debut album at Morgan Studios. In early 1969 just as the band set to work on there debut album they received an offer to play a series of gigs ,for a few days, in Mexico City. The boys took up the offer and flew to Mexico where there "few days stay" turned into five months! The band did finally return to London and were able to pick up work on the album, a process interrupted by Dave Smith's departure (and his replacement by John Cartwright, who played guitar and trumpet). Finally a pair of singles, "Baby You've Gotta Stay" and "Tell Me What I've Got to Do," were released through Fontana Records, but failed to elicit any serious chart action. A third single and the announcement of their forthcoming LP all ended up "Missing In Action", mainly due to disputes between guitarist Alfie Shepherd and the studio's publishing arm. The studio producer eventually put the final nail in the coffin, and the band broke up at the end of 1970. Candler went on to join Decameron (3) and the John Coppin and his band, and Shepherd wrote songs and attempted to do a musical adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, while the others exited the business altogether. In 2005, Wooden Hill Records issued Maybe Tomorrow, the first-ever release of nearly two-dozen songs from those long-ago Morgan sessions by Angel Pavement. The 1969 Wind in the Willows project was finally released on CD in 2009, digitally remastered with extra demo songs, on the Wooden Hill label.