I’ll be honest, I had no inkling of this band’s existence until I found these tracks while playing through a compilation set.

Quiet Melon weren’t around long, only for a short period in 1969 and during that time, while they did play a few live shows, they failed to release any material.

A couple of tracks have subsequently turned up on various compilations and Lost Moment Records did retrospectively release a CD single and 12″ Vinyl single in 1995.

Art Wood was a British blues / rock vocalist who formed and led the band The Artwoods, having previously played with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated.

(There will be a short feature on The Artwoods on Loud Horizon in the coming days, but for now, the two pertinent facts are: Art Wood was the older brother of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie, and when they failed to make any significant commercial inroads, The Artwoods folded in 1967.)

Fast forward then to the end of 1968. Steve Mariott decided to leave The Small Faces to join Peter Frampton in the formation of Humble Pie. Left kicking their heels a bit, the remaining members, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones accepted Art Wood’s invitation to hook up. Also invited into the band were two members of The Birds (or Birds Birds as they were renamed following litigation from ‘you-know-who’) – Art’s younger brother Ronnie and Kim Gardner. Bringing the merry band up to seven members was a pal of Ronnie, some geezer called Rod Stewart … he got everywhere in the late ’60s and early ’70s! 😉

Art had some studio time available and got the lads together to record four tracks, I believe. He then took the tapes to Fontana Records, with whom he had a contract, but they weren’t interested. In fact, they cancelled Art’s contract!

I guess that would cheese anyone off, and at that point Art semi-retired from the music business and concentrated on setting up a graphic design business with his other brother Ted.

Kim Gardner would go on to find success with Ashton Gardner & Dyke and of course, we all know what the other five got up to after that. (The Faces, just in case I’m being a bit too presumptuous.)

And that was it! I find it amazing that a band with (now) such stellar names came together for such a short period, and that a major label seems to have turned them down out of hand, leaving these tracks ignored for so long.

QUIET MELON.

Art Wood – Vocals
Kim Gardner – Bass
Ronnie Lane – Bass
Kenney Jones – Drums
Ian McLagan – Keyboards
Rod Stewart – Vocals
Ronnie Wood – Guitar

TITLE	FORMAT	YEAR	LABEL	NOTES
Art Wood’s Quiet Melon	12″ EP	1995	Lost Moment Records	Recorded from original tapes from 1969 an unreleased to this point.