The 20th of February 1974
Official U.K. Singles Chart results from Sunday the 17th to Saturday the 23rd of February 1974
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 16th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 17th,
published on Tuesday the 19th,
and broadcast on B.B.C. Radio 1 on Sunday the 24th of February 1974.
Medicine Head
Slip And Slide
At No.25, on the “The Top 50 U.K. Singles Chart”, the week of my 2nd Birthday, are Medicine Head with Slip And Slide.
This Rock & Blues outfit…
…are enjoying what would turn out to be their final visit so far to the UK Singles Chart as they visit the week of my 2nd birthday.
Consisting of the core duo of John Fiddler, a multi-instrumentalist and drummer from the English village of Moxley, near Darlaston, and Peter Hope-Evans, a fellow instrumentalist, which includes harmonica, jew’s harp, and something called a mouthbow which I’ve never heard of; anyway, he hailed from the Welsh market town of Brecon in the county of Powys.
The universe brought them together at a grammar school in Wolverhampton.
Later on, as part of the formation of their group, they had also invited guest musicians into the band to contribute to the recordings.
Fun Fact time:
These are the guys who almost changed the course of musical history when, a couple of years previously in 1972, they released an album entitled “Dark Side of the Moon”.
This was a bit of a shame,..
…for another musical combo, who, at their inception, had initially also categorised themselves in the Rock & Blues type of mould. Back then, they had named themselves after a couple of blues players with the surnames of Anderson and Council.
Since those days, they had then morphed into quite a successful psychedelic outfit, but were now classed more of a Progressive Rock ensemble, who had, at the same time as Medicine Head’s album release, set their heart on that very same name for their next album. They’d even been playing most of the material, which would make up their own long player, to audiences for quite a while, and were now in the studio recording it, hoping to use that very title.
Due to this issue, the other group had a brainstorm, and decided instead to call their soon-to-be-released album “Eclipse” instead. I mean, it’s only a name…isn’t it?
Anyway, after a few months, and their own album still not quite released yet, it became apparent that the Medicine Head album which had taken their title idea had (fortunately for them anyway) completely bombed; so the other lot decided to take a chance, scrap their “Eclipse” alternative, and use “The Dark Side of the Moon” as originally intended… Not sure what happened to them after that….
Anyway, that was way back in Medicine Head’s past…
This single,..
…which wasn’t from that album, but pulled from their latest album “Thru’ A Five” (which, just like its predecessors, also failed to chart), had entered on the 3rd of this month of February at No.43 and last week it moved up 12 places to No.31. This week it breaks into the Top 30.
From here,..
…it will slip back a place next week, but then recover and scale further up to achieve its highest position of No.22 at the beginning of March; then it will fall back with more purpose, dropping out after a 7 week run, after the 23rd of that early spring month.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
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