 |
Steve Winwood: vocals, organ, piano, guitar
b. 12 May 1948, Birmingham |
Chris Wood: flute, saxophone
b. 24 June 44, Birmingham;
d. 12 July 1983, London |
Dave Mason: vocals, guitar, sitar
b. 10 May 1946, Worcester |
Jim Capaldi: drums
b. 24 August 1944, Evesham
d. 28 January 2005 |
| |
| 1966 |
| In 1966, Steve Winwood
was racking up his biggest hits with the Spencer Davis Group ("Keep
on Runnin'," "Somebody Help Me," and "Gimme
Some Lovin'"), but many wondered why this band was not the
Stevie Winwood Group. He played the guitar solos, the piano and
organ solos, and sang the most successful songs. His abilities
as a musician clearly had outstripped his colleagues. |
|
| He began looking for
other musical challenges, sometimes guesting under the pseudonymn of "Superfreak"
as a session musician (occassionally in the company of "Slowhand" when
they record together as Powerhouse). However, he found himself drawn to
a more organic approach to making music than the Spencer Davis Group could
deliver: a communal, co-operative, natural sharing of ideas. |
| |
| 1967 |
| 28 February. Steve
and Muff Winwood announce that they will leave Spencer Davis when their
tour ends in April. Muff would eventually become a producer and executive
for EMI. |
| March. NME reports
that Steve Winwood has formed a group with Dave Mason, Chris Wood, and
Jim Capaldi — musicians with whom he'd been jamming at the Elbow Room
in Birmingham [they appear as the percussion section on SDG's "I'm a Man"]. |
| April. Traffic retire
to a cottage in Aston Tirrold, in Berkshire to develop their sound and
sense of ensemble. Their music embraces an eclectic mix of elements from
Indian music, English folk music, jazz, r&b, and music hall tunes. |
| Winwood (Schaffner 280): [We
were] four blokes not even out of their teens, shoved together and living
in squalor. |
| May. "Paper
Sun" / "Giving to You" [charts 1 June 1967; UK #5] |
| August. "Hole in My
Shoe" / "Smiling Phases" [charts 6 September 1967; UK #2] |
| November. "Here We
Go Round the Mulberry bush" / "Coloured Rain" [UK #8] |
| December. Mr. Fantasy [Island UK LP #8] |
| |
| 1968 |
| February. "No Face, No Name and No Number" / "Roamin' in the Gloamin" [UK #40]. |
