Dantalian's Chariot | |
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| Origin | London, England |
| Genres | Psychedelic rock |
| Years active | 1967–1968 |
| Labels | EMI, Wooden Hill |
| Past members | Zoot Money Andy Summers Pat Donaldson Colin Allen |
Dantalian's Chariot were a Britishpsychedelic rock band formed in 1967,[1] led bykeyboardist and bandleaderZoot Money, and also featuringAndy Summers (later ofThe Police).[2] They are best remembered for theirsingle "Madman Running Through the Fields",[3] and for their live performances, which featured earlypsychedeliclight shows.[4] The band would all wear white robes andkaftans in concert, with all of their equipment painted white, to heighten the effect of these light shows.[4] The group disbanded in April 1968,[5] with Money going on to joinEric Burdon & The Animals and Summers joiningSoft Machine .[1]
In November 1961,George Bruno "Zoot" Money formed theBig Roll Band, playing a mixture ofsoul,jazz, andR&B. Despite becoming a popular fixture on the London club circuit in the early-to-mid-1960s and releasing two albums onEMI'sColumbia label, they had little commercial success.[2] With the burgeoning psychedelic scene rendering the band's blend of jazz and R&B passé, Money split up the Big Roll Band in mid-1967 and formed a new band. This new group comprised Money onkeyboards andvocals,Andy Summers onguitar,Pat Donaldson onbass, andColin Allen ondrums.[1] The new band's name, Dantalian's Chariot, was suggested by publicist Jim Ramble, and was derived from references to adevil, DukeDantalion, in the mediaeval book onwitchcraft,The Lesser Key of Solomon.[6] The band made their first live appearance at theWindsorNational Blues Festival in August 1967, which also featured the debut public performance ofPeter Green'sFleetwood Mac, as well as performances byThe Nice,Arthur Brown, andTen Years After. The band rapidly gained a strong live reputation and their light show, which had been brought over from San Francisco, was regarded as one of the best in London at that time.[4] To heighten the effect of the spectacular light show being projected onto them, the musicians would all dress in white robes, with their instruments and equipment also painted white.[6][7][8]
From the band's first recording sessions,EMI released the single "Madman Running Through the Fields" in September 1967 on their Columbia label. Money commented, many years later:
"Madman was a description of our personal experiences, and the subsequent self-revelations brought about by hallucinogenics... The verse is the voice of the taker, the one who's dropped the acid, and the chorus is him being observed by a second party - "Isn't that the madman running through the fields?" A puzzled onlooker - much like the audiences at the time."[6]
Despite some critical support, the record failed to reach theUK Singles Chart. However, the song's reputation has grown over the years, prompting journalist Nick James to note inRecord Collector magazine that "nowadays, the record is rightly regarded as one of the essential works of the era."[6]
EMI subsequently dropped the band, disapproving of Money's psychedelic direction. Dantalian's Chariot then appeared in the low-budget moviePopdown, directed by Fred Marshall and showcasing several groups from the "Swinging London" scene, includingBlossom Toes andThe Idle Race.[9] The band subsequently signed to Direction Records, a subsidiary ofCBS Records, and began work on their debutLP, which mostly consisted of new songs written by Money and Summers. However, the record label rejected these recordings, and instead put together an album of previously recorded tracks, which they released in 1968 asTransition, crediting the album to Zoot Money as a solo artist, rather than Dantalian's Chariot.[1][6]
The band broke up in April 1968,[5] with Money joiningEric Burdon & the Animals and various other acts in the following years, and Summers joiningSoft Machine, Eric Burdon & The Animals, theKevin Ayers Band, and subsequentlyThe Police. Drummer Colin Allen went on to play withJohn Mayall & the Bluesbreakers,Stone The Crows, andFocus, while bassist Pat Donaldson later worked withSandy Denny, among others.[6]
The song "Madman Running Through the Fields" wascovered by Eric Burdon & the Animals while both Zoot Money and Andy Summers were members of the band.[10] The track appeared on theLove Is album which was released in December 1968 by the record companyMGM.[10]
In 1996, the albumChariot Rising, featuring ten of the tracks recorded by Dantalian's Chariot in 1967, was released by the Wooden Hill label.[11] Over the years, the song "Madman Running Through the Fields" has appeared on manycompilation albums, includingNuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969, the secondbox set of theNuggets series.[12] "Madman Running Through the Fields" appears as number 28 in Record Collector's "100 Greatest Psychedelic Records", a list in chronological order.[13]
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