Simon Dupree and the Big Sound

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Comment by Jason on January 27, 2008 at 6:12pm

I've only seen one other clip of Simon Dupree and it was at the back end of a VHS Gentle Giant record convention tape. Very cool. It's nice to be reminded that heroes come from humble beginings.

Comment by progrock.ning on January 26, 2008 at 6:44pm

The awesome Shulmans! great post! quite rare footage, I didn´t know of the existence of this.

Comment by Max Herschfeld on January 26, 2008 at 3:16pm

Simon Dupree and the Big Sound was a British pop band formed by three brothers, Derek Shulman, (vocals), Phil Shulman, (vocals, saxophone, trumpet), and Ray Shulman, (guitar, violin, trumpet, vocals). They started as The Howling Wolves, and then became The Road Runners, playing hard core R&B around the Portsmouth area, home of the Shulman brothers. Making up the rest of the group were Peter O'Flaherty (bass), Eric Hine (keyboards), and Tony Ransley (drums).

Their first few singles, notably "I See The Light" (1966), failed to chart and they only broke through at the end of 1967 with the psychedelic "Kites", a Top 10 hit in the UK singles chart. Regarding themselves as blue-eyed soul brothers, they hated it as it was so unrepresentative of their usual style. The follow-up, "For Whom The Bell Tolls", was only a minor hit, and a subsequent single "Broken Hearted Pirates", featuring an uncredited Dudley Moore on piano, made no headway at all.

A then unknown keyboard player by the name of Reginald Dwight was hired to fill in for an ill Eric Hine and he joined them on a 1967 tour in Scotland. They were asked to allow him to stay on, and he was almost recruited as a permanent member. They politely rejected the chance to record any of his compositions, and laughed when he told them he was adopting the stage name of Elton John.