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After years of bad luck, the Undertakers eventually fizzled out in America. Geoff Nugent had refused to accompany them to the USA in the autumn of 1964 and at the end of 1965, Brian Jones returned home. The other three decided to stay in America but went their separate ways.
JACKIE LOMAX says '… we all started getting separate gigs. Chris got involved with the Young Rascals, and Bugs ended up with this group in Queens called the Mersey Lads. He got me in on bass, and then left me with them!… '
Jackie Lomax and Bugs Pemberton eventually ended up in a band called The Lost Souls who played regularly in Greenwich Village.
JACKIE LOMAX says '...Bugs got a job in a band called the Lost Souls, then they got me. It was sort of a copy group of the Beatles, then it started to change into an R&B group, which became the Lomax Alliance. Epstein ended up in New York with the Beatles for the Shea Stadium concert, and we went to Shea with the Beatles, and hung out with them at the Warwick Hotel. Epstein wanted to take me back to London as a singer, but I told him to listen to the whole band, and the entire Lomax Alliance went back to London….'
The line-up was Tom Caccetta (using the surname 'Peters')(bass),
John Cannon (guitar), Jackie Lomax (guitar, vocals) and Bugs Pemberton
(drums) and they were signed to CBS. They had recorded some
tracks in New York before crossing the Atlantic and Brian Epstein
arranged for them to record more titles to complete an album, produced
by John Simon.
JOHN SIMON says
'...I was producing
the Cyrkle (named by Epstein - a name they weren't excited about),
and Epstein said to me that, with all due respect to the Cyrkle,
he had an act that would REALLY impress me. It was Jackie….'
JOHN CANNON says '...the New York recordings were engineered by Roy Halee (Dylan, The Byrds and many more) at the Columbia Studios and the London ones were engineered by Dave Siddle (Animals, Donovan etc.)….'
JOHN SIMON says '...Linda Eastman (later McCartney) was hanging around snapping pics…'
In Britain, the only Lomax Alliance single, Try As You May / See The People, proved no more successful then the Undertakers' releases in spite of Brian Epstein's backing. Unfortunately Epstein's untimely death intervened and no further Lomax Alliance recordings were released. The band were 'inherited' by Robert Stigwood who was too preoccupied with the BeeGees to pay any attention to the Lomax Alliance.
The group went back to America but disbanded soon afterwards: Jackie Lomax returned to Britain and John, Tom and Bugs continued working as a unit in the States, and released Hey Taxi / Enter Into My World on Columbia. The A-side, a Lomax/Cannon song, had been recorded by the Lomax Alliance in New York: the B-side by John Cannon had been recorded during the album sessions in London. Jackie sang and played on the single but due to the fact that he was no longer part of the band, the single was credited to One. Unfortunately it was no more successful than the previous release.
JOHN CANNON says '...It was actually released in the U.S. under the band name "ONE". This was the name Bugs, Tom and I used when Jackie went with Apple and we continued together in the States. Hey Taxi was recorded with Jackie and I singing in New York before we went to London…'
JOHN SIMON says
'...I played Tommy
Smothers Hey Taxi
which he loved
- because of the taxi horn as I recall…'
The next CBS single released in Britain was the first Jackie Lomax solo release. Although its catalogue number points to a much earlier release, CBS released Genuine Imitation Life / One Minute Woman in October 1967. The B-side was written by Robin, Barry, and Maurice Gibb.
At the same time, Jackie met up again with Wayne Bickerton and some members of what used to be the Pete Best Combo. They were recording demos for a publishing company, had studio time available and wanted a singer. Jackie recorded Honey Machine with them, a track which in the 1990s appeared on a Bam Caruso compilation (CIRCUS DAYS VOL 1 & 2) as being recorded by the Lomax All-Stars. Jackie also recorded a demo of one of his own songs, Only A Fool, which was recorded by Clyde McPhatter and released on the Deram label.
JACKIE LOMAX says '… I was doing this album with Brian Epstein when he died. That sort of left me in limbo until George Harrison said, 'Do you want to make an album?' What could I say?…'
In spite of his lack of success, Jackie Lomax was the first person signed to the Beatles' new Apple label as a solo artist at the beginning of 1968, and at last it looked as if the success which had, incredibly, eluded him for six years, would finally be coming his way.
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