Baja Bus - The Butts Band:

In 1973, Jess teamed up with John Densmore and Robby Kreiger to form The Butts Band.

Densmore and Krieger were, in effect, attempting the impossible - trying to find a replacement for the Doors' late Jim Morrison. By the time they'd met Jess, they had already auditioned several singers, among whom were Kevin Coyne (then of Siren) and Howard Werth (of Audience).

Indeed, Werth rehearsed with the pair for a week – and, alledgedly, Jac Holzman favoured Howard taking over the slot as he had once imagined that Audience would fill The Doors own spot on Elektra.

Audience were falling apart as a band and Werth (potentially) merging to create a 'new' Doors' had some logic behind it, in the end it wasn't to be as Ray Manzarek upped sticks and returned to L.A – effectively ending The Doors, per se, as a band for all time.

As Robby Krieger points out, "Before An American Prayer, we did two albums as the Doors, Full Circle and Other Voices, which were fairly well received albums."

"But the problem was after Jim had gone, the three of us couldn't get along anymore. We did for a while but after a while, it got very strange. We all decided to go to England and maybe find a singer over there. So we all went over there, kind of moved over there. Then Dorothy, Ray's wife, got pregnant and she had gone through some weird stuff. So Ray decided to go back home". Densmore and Krieger hung on… and hung out some more staying at an hotel on Park Lane.

Harper was, at that time, juggling both tour management duties as well as f.o.h sound for a number of acts; he was also involved with Traffric and would later go on to either manage or co-manage Robert Palmer, UB40 and Ephraim Lewis. He also did f.o.h. sound when Bob Marley's seminal Live At The Lyceum album was recorded, that July day in the steaming hot summer of '74 when Arthur Ashe became the first black tennis player to win Wimbledon.

The house was, in fact, Garrick Cottage - once owned by the English actor, playwright and theatre manager (notably Theatre Royal, Drury Lane) David Garrick (1717-1779), a friend of Dr Johnson and a seminal figure within 18th century theatre. The main house was Grade 1 listed (in other words of extreme historical significance) but - and long after the fledgling Butts Band had moved on - was badly damaged by fire in October 2008.

Davies' own pedigree included work on a number of recordings by Freddie Kinbg, Doris Troy, Gonzalez and Maggie Bell. Before his untimely death, he would also work with Elton John, Madness, Dr Feelgood as well as guest on other of Jess' records.

Its about an hour's - uphill - journey from Kingston via exceedingly twisting and narrow roads before one reaches Strawberry Hill - set high into Irish Town in The Blue Mountains.

This, extraordinary mountain-top haven began life as an 18th century coffee plantation that was originally deeded by the British Royal Family to Horace Walpole. Indeed, his name is synonymous with the house of the same name in Twickenham, just west of London - after which this estate took its own name.

Blackwell, himself, acquired the house in 1972 - and it was here that Bob Marley was transported - amidst great secrecy - after being wounded in the December 1976 assasination attempt just two days prior to "Smile Jamaica" - a free concert organized by the Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley in an attempt to ease tension between two warring political groups. The show went ahead to 80,000 people with Bob backed by Zap Pow since members of The Wailers were either in hiding or, simply, missing.

Robbie Krieger again - "We recorded half of the record in the U.K. and half in Jamaica which Phil helped with because he is from there and he was able to visit his mother and father for the first time in ten years".

Blue Thumb Records was the idea of Bob Krasnow. He'd cut his teeth out on the road with James Brown before running King and then Kama Sutra Records. Krasnow recruited two key players from A&M - producer Tommy LiPuma and marketing man Don Graham, and, an entirely 'different' record label was begun.

The label's name actually came by way of Captain Beefheart; he was planning on calling his new blues band Blue Thumb but... Krasnow talked him out of it for the band... telling Beefheart he'd like it as the name for his label.

Krasnow and company located the label's offices in Beverly Hills, making it the first upscale quasi-alternative music label and, in many senses, a mirror to Island in the UK.

In addition to the music, Blue Thumb deliberately packaged their albums to appeal to the targeted buyer. For example, many had fold-open or gatefold covers, and the graphics were never entirely predictable.

Probably the most famous album packaging of their time was the Dave Mason album Alone Together, (BTS 19) which was issued in a three-fold "kangaroo pack". This opened up to become a poster for wall hanging (it even had a small hole in the top for the nail). At the bottom of this poster was a pouch for the record album, which - clearly - was meant to be viewed as well as heard.

Indeed, the record itself was unique - in the very literal sense of the word; it came pressed as a marbled vinyl and this was made by the manufacturer's dropping coloured pellets into the hot vinyl mix - the result being that the colour pattern of every single piece of vinyl produced was different. However, while unique... not entirely cost-effective.

Island had a particularly loose licensing arrangement with Blue Thumb - only a handful of releases were given the coveted ILPS prefix - besides The Butts Band, records by Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks, The Crusaders, Phil Upchurch and National Lampoon's recordings were among the few.

The US release party was held in a very upscale restaurant in Beverley Hills where, as some form of a (weird / of the time, maybe?) promotional exercise, the label had three naked male streakers rush around the restaurant with the band's name inked across their buttocks.

The Wolfman (born plain Robert Smith) was, quite simply, a cornerstone of (American) rock history; over time becoming one of the most influential DJ's of the sixties and seventies while also hosting The Midnight Special on NBC for nearly nine years with other of his shows being networked throughout all of North America. The gravel-voiced DJ spun his last in 1995.

Later in the year, Jess, Phil and Roy set off for Los Angeles, once again. This time, full-scale band rehearsals were on the menu since this'd see the first proper outing of... The Butts Band.

When touring was over, we all headed to our respective homes……

The English contingent, Roy, Phil and I, were always pretty homesick in LA and I suppose, ultimately, the pace of the whole thing being so casual, was the reason for the split.