Tractor (band)
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Tractor is a band founded by guitarist/vocalist Jim Milne and drummer Steve Clayton in Rochdale, Lancashire, England. They have been championed through the years by John Peel and others such as Stuart Maconie and particularly by Julian Cope who raves about their influence on him on his website Head Heritage. Tractor has it roots in 1966 when Milne and Clayton were members of a beat group called The Way We Live.
By 1970, the quartet -- which also featured bassist Michael "Slim" Batsch and founding member, lead vocalist Alan Burgess who would later engineer in studios for the band -- were down to just Milne and Clayton. They were soon signed to Dandelion Records. The group was booked into London's Spot Studios and finished its first album sessions in two days' time. In January 1971, Dandelion released The Way We Live's debut, A Candle for Judith, named after Clayton's then girlfriend, now wife. The album earned critical praise[citation needed] if little in the way of sales.
John Peel, who had links with Rochdale having worked there in the late fifties and early sixties, bought the band recording equipment and a stereo PA system. Peel also soon convinced the duo to change their name. Looking out of his kitchen window, he spied a tractor on his farmhouse property and recommended it to them. Tractor's first release was an EP -- "Stoney Glory"/"Marie"/"As You Say" -- for Dandelion. They also backed up another Dandelion act called Beau -- led by C.J.T. "Beau" Midgley -- on the album Creation. All of this recording was done in an attic and bedroom studio of a terraced house in Edenfield Road Rochdale, which John Peel called Dandelion Studios to tie in with his record label Dandelion Records.
The duo's first full-length follow-up was released in 1972. By January 1973, the album was earning positive reviews. Melody Maker stated "albums don't come any better than this", Bob Harris, Anne Nightingale on BBC Radio One and Kid Jensen on Radio Luxembourg all gave heavy airplay to the album and it climbed to 18 in the Rado Luxembourg album charts and 30 in the Virgin Bestseller charts.[citation needed] Longtime sound engineer John Brierley was eventually replaced by former The Way We Live singer Alan Burgess and, along with Milne, Clayton, and new production manager Chris Hewitt, the group began building a studio in Heywood, Lancashire, named Tractor Sound Studios, again partially financed by John Peel.The third album for Dandelion which was to be eventually released in the 1990's on cd as Worst Enemies was recorded at both Chipping Norton Studios and Tractor Sound Studios, Heywood.Standout track is the 21 minute piece about the Peterloo Massacre.
Tractor eventually left the Dandelion label, who no longer had distribution,[citation needed] and recorded a single, the reggae-tinged "Roll the Dice", on Jonathan King's label, UK Records.
In the summer of 1976, Milne and Clayton recruited bassist Dave Addison and teamed up again with John Brierley, now the owner of Cargo Recording Studios. They recorded another single -- "No More Rock 'n' Roll"/"Northern City" -- which was issued on Cargo and made the newly invented Indie singles chart.[citation needed] It was released to coincide with the 1977 Deeply Vale Festival, a legendary northwest England music festival of the 1970's which the band were heavily involved in
In 1980, Milne, Clayton, and Addison re-grouped once again, this time adding blind musician Tony Crabtree on keyboards/guitar. They recorded another single -- "Average Man's Hero"/"Big Big Boy" -- this one for Roach Records, which was a label run by the band themselves. The band issued CDs on numerous labels from 1991 before starting another "own label" in 1996, Ozit Morpheus Records, which has now secured the rights to and has reissued their entire catalogue. Tractor began performing live again in 2001 and have become a regular festival band playing both Glastonbury and Canterbury festivals.
[edit] Discography
- Tractor
- The Way We Live / A Candle for Judith
- Worst Enemies
- Original Masters
- Before, During and After the Dandelion Years, Through to Deeply Vale and Beyond
- John Peel bought us a studio and PA
- DVD Beyond Deeply Vale
