CHIMERA is basically two young English women named Francesca Garnett and Lisa Bankoff who were from the “West Country” of England (basically the southwestern tip of the country in and around Cornwall); they were first cousins and look like teenagers on the cover photograph. They had a backing band of a variety of fine musicians, including several having considerable renown in rock and roll.
Chimera recorded something like 20 songs (variously reported as being in 1968, 1969 and/or 1970) in a acid-folk style for a planned album that remained unreleased for decades, while picking up legendary status among psychedelic record collectors. After having several bootleg pressings, the album (10 songs) was finally officially released by Tenth Planet Records in 2002 in a limited edition (1,000 numbered copies) of 190-gram LP’s; that is the one that I picked up years ago. More recently, Wooden Hill Records issued a more complete CD of Chimera’s music in 2004 that includes 19 tracks. Amazingly, only cassettes remain from the recording sessions, though the sound quality is not at all impaired; they were remastered beautifully by Denis Blackham, an industry legend who had previously mastered the music for the Evita and Cats musicals and also albums by Led Zeppelin, Madness, Eurythmics, and Brian Eno.
The real attraction of Chimera for me is the lush female vocals; either woman individually is amazing enough, but when both are singing, it sounds like a choir. The opening song, “Come into the Garden” has a quiet musical build-up before Francesca Garnett and Lisa Bankoff begin delivering the first lyric at such a measured pace as to make one check the turntable to see whether it is set to the proper speed. Many of the songs have a similarly earthy tone in their lyrics that is a fine counterpoint to the unusual musical settings.
Writing in the Time Has Told Me blog, Paul Martin has a glowing review of the album; he compares Chimera to an Irish all-female folk-rock band of the same time period called Mellow Candle that I am not familiar with. He also wrote: "What we have as the musical legacy is a game of two halves. Half, or perhaps slightly more, of the songs are real vehicles for the girls’ voices (all the songs are originals). These are acid-folk songs of the very first order . . . and many of the numbers would have fitted deftly in to The Wicker Man film soundtrack [the original film that is, from 1973]. . . . It should be said that none of the songs on this album have a predictable or conventional pattern to them. They are beautifully syncopated affairs with interesting vocal patterns, lilting bass lines, etc. – in fact ‘progressive’ in the very best sense of that often abused word, with rhythms rising seemingly from nowhere and winding back down again. . . .
“All songs on this album are instrumentally very strong and seem to go out of their way to find counter rhythms rather than plump for the obvious, both instrumentally and vocally.”
Paul Martin notes that about half of the songs are geared mostly to the vocals, with the second and third songs, “The Grail” and “Sad Song for Winter” being particular favorites of mine. Lisa Bankoff handles solo vocals on the latter song. On the other songs, the band is highlighted more strongly, with the closing song “Peru” sounding especially good to these ears. Of these songs, Martin says: “The band dominated numbers can best be described as Fairport Convention meets Little Feat as they have a blend of blues-funk and folk rock in them.”
All of the songs were written by Lisa Bankoff, showing true originality and a wide variety of moods. The backing band included Bob Weston on guitar; he was a prominent member of Fleetwood Mac for about a year in 1972 and 1973. Roy O’Temro (or Roy Temro) was the drummer; other bandmembers on some of the songs are Nick South (bass guitar) and Ian Milne (keyboards). Orchestral arrangements were by Wil Malone.
The manager of Chimera (and possibly the producer for at least some of the recording sessions) is none other than Nick Mason, the drummer for Pink Floyd and the only bandmember who has appeared on all of the PF albums. Mason also sat in as drummer on “The Grail”. His bandmate in Pink Floyd, Richard Wright played keyboards on “Lady with Bullets in Her Hair”. Even one of Pink Floyd’s roadies, Alan Styles played saxophone on one track. Francesca Garnett and Lisa Bankoff had boldly gone backstage to a music festival where Pink Floyd was performing, introducing themselves to Nick Mason and telling him that they were songwriters.
Lisa Bankoff was quoted on one Internet blog as saying that Mal Luker is their record producer; Luker also plays guitar and keyboards on “Sad Song for Winter”.
Francesca Garnett and Lisa Bankoff self-published a book in 2002 about their experiences in the 1960’s London music scene, called Making It! Famous Names and Silly Girls. Her son Sacha Edmundson reported on the Time Has Told Me blog that Lisa Bankoff died in 2003.
(November 2013)
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Items: Chimera
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