Formed in Southport, England back in 1965, they originally performed under the name, Take Five. The following year, they moved to London where they secured a residency at the Whisky A Go Go club, and supported bands such as The Kinks and The Small Faces.

Their first two singles released by Picadilly Records, had a Northern Soul and Mod sound to them, while the later singles on Deram became more varied in style. Sadly, of all their eight singles, only one actually made it into the Top 40. ‘Beggin” a cover of The Four Seasons’ song, spent four weeks in the lower reaches of the UK chart, peaking at #38.

In my book, far better than this, and deserving to have been a A-side as opposed to the B-side of ‘Girl Don’t Make Me Wait.’ is this – the lush and warm psychedelic, ‘Gone Is The Sad Man.’

Highlighting the band’s versatility were their two final single releases which both came in 1969. The first of these sport a title Welsh prog-rockers Man would have been proud of, ‘Baked Jam Roll In Your Eye.’ (Believe it or not, this is a song about an alien invasion of Earth!)

Then, following that, there is the almost bubblegum pop sound of ‘Yellow Man.’

Shortly after this release though, those dratted ‘musical differences’ reared their ugly head, and keyboard player Chris Holmes quit the band. He would later go on to play with prog rockers, Babe Ruth.

The remaining band members continued adopting vocalist Mike Patto’s surname as that of the band. Patto changed musical direction yet again and built a good reputation for their jazz / rock fusion, though still without the commercial success and sales they undoubtedly merited.

Sadly, Mike Patto died in 1979 of throat cancer and Ollie Halsall suffered a fatal heart attack in 1992. On top of that, a serious car crash left Clive Griffiths partially paralyzed. Drummer John Halsey was also involved in that accident, but fortunately escaped without serious injury and would later play with The Rutles.

I find it hard to believe that a band with the talent of Timebox failed to make it ‘big’ in commercial terms. Perhaps it’s another case, as seen so many times before, of a band not truly finding a genre that they were comfortable with; perhaps they were too versatile for their own good and failed to hang around long enough within one particular style to continue building momentum?

Whatever, Timebox were in my opinion, one of this bands that ‘got away.’

TIMEBOX

Mike Patto – Vocals
Pete ‘Ollie’ Halsall – Vocals / Guitar / Organ
Chris Holmes – Keyboards
Clive Griffiths – Bass
‘Admiral’ John Halsey – Drums

TITLE	FORMAT	YEAR	LABEL	NOTES
Soul Sauce	7″ single	1967	Piccadilly
I’ll Always Love You	7″ single	1967	Piccadilly
Don’t Make Promises	7″ single	1967	Deram
Girl Don’t Make Me Wait	7″ single	1968	Deram
Beggin’	7″ single	1968	Deram
Baked Jam Roll In Your Eye	7″ single	1969	Deram
Yellow Man	7″ single	1969	Deram