Watching this clip is like passing through a timewarp straight back to 1970. The clothes! The cars! Young Annie Nightingale (who even then asked sensible questions and got real answers, unlike many of her peers)! Nostalgia for the olds, and a glimpse of an alien landscape for the young. No M4 motorway! No mobile phones! No personal computers - not even a pocket calculator! No video games! The past is another country, as they say.
Loved this band, saw them twice at a small venue up here in the NE. Gifted musicians and have to say, Linda Hoyle was my absolute dream girl! Strangely, among others, their LP was in a pile I just took out of my loft this week. Its going on the deck ASAP. Happy days!
OK so this is Affinity! One of the first groups signed to Vertigo, they made one album in 1970 before breaking up and Linda Hoyle went solo - her debut abum Pieces Of Me (1971), also on Vertigo, is a great listen. Thanks to the late BBC pioneer Annie Nightingale for an insight of this time, it explains to me why there were so many groups I've only just discovered now with one album to their name before splitting up. So much great talent and music but with such fierce competition playing great music it can be brutal when only a few succeed.
I love that album, gods! playing All along the watchtower for the fist time while smoking some pot was amazing, and my personal favorite, Long Voyage is such a beautiful song and United States of mind too. Really sad they didn't continue ,very talented artists.
Good old Annie, l had forgotten those hours kicking one’s heels waiting to go on! We had to travel with the gear in a van also. Once after breaking hard, one of us had an AC 30 land on him! But after finding a little more about this great band, it’s a bit more clear after seeing same name bands with a different line-up. Good also to hear their music on the Affinity site.
Similar to,"what do we have here in these old little boxes pushed to the back of the top shelf of this closet? Let's have a look,shall we?". Akin to finding a small buried time capsule tube in your yard. Real cool treasure,in top condition. Great band.Doing what they did to get by.Real life frozen in time.
Really great to see this treasure...Years ago there was a vinyl copy of 'Affinity' up on the wall in Cardiff market...i was enchanted by the cover and the 'Three Sisters' track off the 'annual'...i couldn't afford the record as a 16 year old on a YTS, but eventually got it! Thanks for this...
Thanks for this wonderful upload. As a teenager I think I had rather more glamorous fantasies about a band that could make such sophisticated music - this was certainly a reality check!
The Club they are seen at is The Old Granary in Bristol. This was before the M4 motorway so the drive from London was a long journey on A roads . I used to be one of the team that ran the gigs @ the club - great to see this footage of the old place which is a listed building but converted into luxury apartments & a posh restuarant.
I saw The Vibrators at The Granary in 1977 or 1978 ( I think the name had changed). Great place. The London-Bristol drive by the 70s was already an M4 motorway experience- the longer cross country journey with plenty of cafes and a slightly different route every time was a thing of the past - the sequence in the car park here reminds me of the arty road film Radio On
I have the LP. I paid about £50 in 1989. It was the most I had paid for an LP, I decided to buy because I used to see it on lists for £15 during the early 80's and failed to buy. It is an excellent LP and good that Vertigo gave her the deal.
I grew up with the album around the house when I was a kid. I didn't much like it till I started 'opening my mind' around 16 - then I could appreciate it! I couldn't believe my luck around 1988 when I found a mint condition Vertigo copy for £4 (that local record shop had no idea of what a gem they were giving away eh!?). I still love the album and it sone that I kept when I sold most of my collection
Thanks for uploading this! I managed to find a US first pressing of their one and only album. German or UK pressings sell for silly money in these days. Affinity is my favorite band on the vertigo Swirl label. I've started a little video series about it.
You need look no further than AFFINITY as the exemplar of the injustices of the music industry... *This band should have been HUGE.* ...and, alas, who could blame them for giving up on the dismal and depressing life style we see them forced to live in this program. *Truly a shame.* ~~~~
Yes! Kellys..she was great....always looked out for things for me. I remember going to her house to collect a Nick Drake cassette when such a thing was scarce. The 'Affinity' lp was £100 odd I think. never seen any singles...great lp...have you heard Linda Hoyle's solo album?
It's too bad Lynda Hoyle gave up on the band. It is understandable, though, given the hardships and frustration of being on the road and the low pay. She had trained as an English teacher so, unlike the others, she had a decent paying career she could fall back on. If she had only persevered, I think Affinity would've eventually made it big given the immense talent within the band.
@@innocentoctave Yes. She taught at the University of Western Ontario for a number of years in a city called Waterloo which is not far from Toronto where I live.
I wish there was some live footage of this band. They were brilliant the one time I saw them back in the day. Linda Hoyle had all the power of Grace Slick but was capable of jazzy nuance as well. Her solo record Pieces of Me is extraordinary and pointed to a brilliant future but she quit. Fast forward to 2015 when she makes a solo album The Fetch which I personally found disappointing but since then nothing. I gather Affinity have reformed for one off performances so why not release one? She's a tremendous interpreter of other people's songs so why not make an album of favourite songs? I wish....
Was it upstairs along the balcony? If so that wasMrs Kelly's, How much was it I wonder? I paid £3 for the '45 in about 1984 and the same a few years earlier as a 2nd hand LP - sadly the sleeve had the classic Vertigo sticker tear!
"On The Road Reporter Anne Nightingale with John Craven A look at the life of nomads today including gipsies, tramps, circus families and pop groups. Can this wandering way of life survive the motorway age?" I guess the next chap coming up was the tramp.
B.A. Robertson had a string of hits in the late 70s/early 80s, then went on to make some TV scores but tbh I hadn't heard much since. A possibility that members of this group later played in his band? There should be a wiki page on him no doubt.
Yeah makes no sense, that is a young persons perspective. That is drummer Grant Serpell, who after Affinity joined the 70s group Sailor who had a few hits then. After that in the 80s he taught chemistry, which was the degree he got in the 60s before Affinity, was a teacher for a number of years, sometimes did comeback tours with Sailor in the 90s on, til retiring in 2011 at 67. So he ate his words but had a degree to fall back on so turned out alright.
