{"id":7440,"date":"2026-01-05T14:09:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T14:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7440"},"modified":"2026-01-05T14:09:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T14:09:45","slug":"issue-171-the-herd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7440","title":{"rendered":"Issue #171 \u2013 The Herd"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Psych-pop idols THE HERD were responsible for a string of unforgettable singles in the late \u201960s including &#8216;From the Underworld&#8217; and &#8216;I Don&#8217;t Want Our Loving To Die&#8217;, but behind the hits lay a frustrated jazz-rock band, career-derailing business woes and a set of clashing personalities. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>HUW THOMAS travels back to Swinging London with in the company of founder member and organ whizz Andy Bown<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Herd - I Don&#039;t Want Our Loving To Die\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ISFywATPgTY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bown says that he and Frampton were \u201cpretty pissed off\u201d about Howard and Blaikley\u2019s tight grip on their output \u201cbecause we thought we wrote great songs. Actually, of course, we didn\u2019t.\u201d Evidence to the contrary can be found on <em>Paradise Lost<\/em>, a full-length Herd album rushed out in January 1968. It contains six band originals in a mish-mash of styles; there\u2019s the head-bopping piano pop of \u2018On My Way Home\u2019, legitimate jazz moments in \u2018On Your Own\u2019 and lengthy instrumental \u2018Impressions Of Oliver\u2019 (named for Oliver Nelson) and even a gospel workout, \u2018Fare Thee Well\u2019, written by drummer Andrew Steele. The pillowy \u2018She Loves Me She Loves Me Not\u2019, a favourite of Bown\u2019s, sounds a little like Caravan 12 months early. The most striking of the album&#8217;s tracks, however, must be the Howard-Blaikley contribution \u2018Something Strange&#8217;, about a man leaving his girlfriend whilst on holiday and having a gay experience (\u201cHe takes a stroll in the jasmine scented night, gay voices beckon to some new delight.\u201d) The songwriters, both gay, had hinted at such themes in their songs before: \u2018Have I The Right?\u2019, their number one for The Honeycombs, evokes the jeopardy of same-sex love in \u201960s Britain and many of their Dave Dee hits trade on camp desperation. \u2018Something Strange\u2019, however, was their boldest ever lyric, and not played for laughs. Speaking to <em>Record Mirror <\/em>in \u201968, Bown described it outright as \u201cabout a bisexual boy\u201d and \u201cthe problems involved when he first finds out about himself\u201d. Today, he points out, \u201cI would have been told exactly what to say. It\u2019s all bollocks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Herd - From The Underworld\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YUa9p92TjjA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sales for the album were poor and Gary Taylor took to the pages of <em>Melody Maker<\/em> to call it premature. &#8220;We are still a very new group trying to prove ourselves, and not enough people knew about us to spend a few bob on an LP,\u201d he opined. Taylor also had a bee in his bonnet about the focus on Frampton, telling fans, \u201cThere are three other guys as well.\u201d Bown and Frampton were writing heaps of topsy-turvy originals at this time, among them \u2018Mother\u2019s Blue Eyed Angel\u2019, \u2018Laugh And Dance and Sing\u2019 and \u2018I Lied To Auntie May\u2019 (released by Decca hopefuls The Neat Change in July \u201968), but all were held back. The next Herd A-side would be yet another Howard-Blaikley contrivance, a bubbly rock-ska mutant titled \u2018I Don\u2019t Want Our Loving To Die\u2019. It was, Bown says, \u201cquality pop\u201d, and more representative of The Herd\u2019s real sound than the previous singles: \u201cIt was nice to actually get the chance to play on it! I did recorder, organ, bass&#8230; all sorts of things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paradise Lost - The Herd\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s8C7kvh_wZg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018I Don\u2019t Want Our Loving To Die\u2019 was The Herd\u2019s biggest hit, making #5 in the UK and intensifying their draw as a live act. The band weren\u2019t seeing a lot of the benefit, however. \u201cOur wages went up from 12 pounds a week to 15 pounds a week,\u201d Bown says. \u201cWe were working five or six nights a week. We were being fucking stuffed.\u201d Frampton was embarrassed about his earnings and, when he met with Jonathan King for dinner in Soho, the impresario helped him calculate the money missing. The Herd were unsure exactly who was screwing them over, so they decided the best course of action would be to disentangle themselves from <em>everyone<\/em>. As summer \u201968 approached, the band repudiated their contracts with Fontana, Howard and Blaikley, Steve Rowland and business manager Ronnie Oppenheimer. A full clean-out. It was a ballsy move, complicated by a writ from Howard and Blaikley, but it meant freedom. Friends in the record industry would now be hard to find. Bown, even today, isn\u2019t certain where the money went. \u201cWho knows? We\u2019re talking gallons of milk spilt under the bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.qobuz.com\/album\/0060252765147?zone=GB-en\" width=\"378\" height=\"390\">Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>To read the whole story order issue #171 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverbackpublishing.rocks\/product\/shindig-171\/\">here<\/a>. Subscribe to the mag <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverbackpublishing.rocks\/product\/unlock-the-world-of-shindig-subscribe-today-and-access-every-issue-ever-published\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<span class=\"synved-social-container synved-social-container-share\"><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F7440&#038;t=Issue%20%23171%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Herd&#038;s=100&#038;p&#091;url&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F7440&#038;p&#091;images&#093;&#091;0&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2026%2F01%2FR-2022039-1537207894-9207.jpg&#038;p&#091;title&#093;=Issue%20%23171%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Herd\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-twitter nolightbox\" data-provider=\"twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F7440&#038;text=New%20post%20on%20our%20site\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"twitter\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-mail nolightbox\" data-provider=\"mail\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share by email\" href=\"mailto:?subject=Issue%20%23171%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Herd&#038;body=New%20post%20on%20our%20site:%20https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F7440\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"mail\" title=\"Share by email\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/mail.png\" \/><\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psych-pop idols THE HERD were responsible for a string of unforgettable singles in the late \u201960s including &#8216;From the Underworld&#8217; and &#8216;I Don&#8217;t Want Our Loving To Die&#8217;, but behind the hits lay a frustrated jazz-rock band, career-derailing business woes and a set of clashing personalities. HUW THOMAS travels back to Swinging London with in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1009,7,1172],"tags":[1230],"class_list":["post-7440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-music-videos","category-qobuz","tag-the-herd","post_format-post-format-video"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7440"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}