PsychepediA

From: London, England

The London based Toe Fat evolved out of the Gods when Ken Hensley (keyboards, guitar, vocals, percussion), John Glascock (bass, vocals) and Lee Kerslake (drums) joined forces with frontman Cliff Bennett (lead vocals, piano) to round out the foursome in June, 1969. The outfit's name was apparently concocted over a dinner when Bennett and his manager attempted to come up with the most disgusting moniker possible. The group played mostly straight forward, hard-driving blues-rock sprinkled with a hint of progressive psychedelia.

In late '69, the band signed to the EMI label Parlophone and went straight to work recording their self-titled, debut LP, which was issued in the spring of 1970 and produced by Jonathan Peel (not to be confused with famous British disk jockey John Peel). The highlight on the record is the excellent 'The Wherefors And The Whys', which is considerably more laid back than the vast majority of the other more blues based, harder rock tracks. It should also be noted that the rather unsightly album cover, which originally pictured four naked people with toe heads standing on a beach, replaced a man and topless woman in the background with a baby lamb for both the U.S. and Canadian releases, making it even weirder looking. Another interesting little factoid about the U.S. cover version is that the band photo on the back includes a new member Alan Kendall (guitar, vocals), who didn't play on the record at all and had replaced Hensley who had exited the fold not long after recording had been completed. Although the LP did receive glowing reviews from critics at the time, it unfortunately failed to sell that well.

After the commercial failure of the first album, both John Glascock and Kerslake also exited and were replaced by former Gods member Joe aka John Konas (bass, vocals) and Brian Glascock (drums, vocals), the brother of John. It was this lineup that issued a followup, Jonathan Peel produced LP titled Toe Fat Two in late 1970 that includes the outstanding, Eastern tinged instrumental 'Indian Summer', which is again atypical of the rest of the album's more straight forward, harder blues-rock output. Unfortunately this album also sold poorly, prompting EMI to drop the group followed by a split up in 1971. Bennett forged on with the name however, recruiting new members Mick Clarke (guitar), Ice alumnus Lynton Naiff (keyboards, vocals), Andromeda and Five Day Week Straw People alumnus Mick Hawksworth (bass) and Tony Fernandez (drums) who played together into 1972 before finally breaking up for good. It should be noted that both Hensley and Kerslake went on to play together in Uriah Heep, while John Glascock would later become a member of Jethro Tull in the late 70s until his untimely death in 1979 at the age of 28 from a congenital heart valve defect.

Artist information sources include: The book, 'Tapestry of Delights Revisited' by Vernon Joynson.