Gloria Lambert

Under Appreciated

GLORIA LAMBERT
 
 
Bandmembers in Haymarket Square are Gloria Lambert (vocals), Marc Swenson (guitar, vocal), Robert Homa (bass, vocal), and John Kowalski (percussion).  The name of their sole album, Magic Lantern came out in 1968 and had been known in underground circles for several decades.  After being bootlegged several times over the years, Gear Fab Records – a reissue label that combines two Beatles-era slang terms – finally put out an authorized release in 2001.  My copy, however, is one of the bootlegs; it is dated 1996 and marked “Made in England”.  The record label is given as LSD Records, and the catalogue number is LSD-007. 
 
By then students at the University of Illinois – ChicagoRobert Homa and John Kowalski got another band together by advertising in the campus newspaper.  Guitarist Marc Swenson – a devotee of the lead guitarist of the Kinks, Dave Davies – was quickly added to the line-up.  A pretty blonde 20-year-old, Gloria Lambert also answered the ad, bringing her powerful, classically trained voice to the band Haymarket Square.  She had previously been in a folk music band called Jordan, Damian and Samantha.  
 
Haymarket Square gained a solid reputation in the local music scene right away; one of their gigs was at the Playboy Mansion.  Allmusic says that they began “sharing stages with important international groups like the Yardbirds and Cream, as well as local favorites H. P. LovecraftSaturday’s Children, and the Shadows of Knight”.  Before long, the bandmembers began writing songs similar to those of their idols Jefferson Airplane, particularly Gloria Lambert (who was the sole author of 4 of the 6 songs).  
 
Stanton Swihart writes of Haymarket Square for Allmusic:  “As the music featured on it was initially utilized as live accompaniment and created expressly with that purpose in mind, the album plays much like the records of the [Jefferson] Airplane’s middle, most psychedelic period, as much visceral experiences to fill San Francisco ballrooms as they are objects for home listening, or like early Grateful Dead recordings, intended as soundtracks for Acid Tests and experimental light shows.  But as with the work of those bands, Magic Lantern transcends its intended purpose; in fact, it is one of the stronger – not to mention one of the earliest – slices of acid rock from the era, outstanding in every way, from [John] Kowalski’s expert drumming, to [Gloria] Lambert’ impressive, insistent singing, to the intensely mood-filled, darkly textured original songs.” 
 
Magic Lantern first came out on a small label called Chaparral Records.  Shortly afterward, Robert Homa left the band and was replaced by Ken PitlikRobert Miller was brought in as a second guitarist.  This line-up stayed together for several years, but they evidently did not make any more records.  Gloria Lambert and Marc Swenson were married by the time Haymarket Square broke up in about 1974
 
(June 2015)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021