Keef Hartley

Keith "Keef" Hartley (8 April 1944 – 26 November 2011) was an English drummer and bandleader. He fronted his own eponymous band, known as the Keef Hartley Band or Keef Hartley's Big Band, and played at Woodstock. He was later a member of Dog Soldier, and variously worked with Rory Storm, The Artwoods and John Mayall.
He achieved some notability as John Mayall's drummer (including his role as the only musician, other than Mayall, to play on Mayall's 1967 "solo" record 'The Blues Alone'). He then formed The Keef Hartley (Big) Band, mixing elements of jazz, blues, and rock and roll; the group played at Woodstock in 1969. However, the band was the only artist that played at the festival whose set was never included on any officially released album (prior to 2019), nor on the soundtrack of the film.
They released five albums, including 'Halfbreed' and 'The Battle of North West Six' (characterised by a reviewer for the Vancouver Sun as "an amazing display of virtuosity").
(Read more at Wikipedia.)
== Links to Peel ==
As a former drummer with John Mayall's band, one of Peel's favourite groups of the time. Keef Hartley had a solid reputation before he formed a band of his own. Drummer-led outfits like Hartley's band and Colosseum never achieved the popularity and album chart success of groups led by guitarists, like Ten Years After, Fleetwood Mac and Chicken Shack, but were praised and written up in Melody Maker, particularly by Chris Welch, himself a drummer. Nevertheless, the Keef Hartley Band became a successful live attraction in Britain and the USA.
Between 1968 and 1972, they did five Peel sessions and four In Concert shows.. Their style was more jazz-influenced than many of the groups who appeared on his programme in those years, and the personnel included a number of musicians who were active on the British jazz scene (and therefore known to Top Gear producer John Walters). On one of the first of Radio 1's In Concert shows, Hartley expanded the band to 12 (according to the PasB) or 14 (according to Melody Maker) musicians, and their performance drew praise from MM readers. But after the band broke up, Peel doesn't seem to have revisited their material. 
Singer Miller Anderson embarked on a solo career and did two Peel sessions; Hartley's follow-up band, Dog Soldier, appeared on an In Concert show in November 1974, sharing the bill with Jess Roden. They also issued an LP in 1975, but no tracks by them appear in currently available Peel playlists of that year. 
== Festive Fifty Entries ==
*None
== Sessions ==
Five sessions. No known commercial release.
1. Recorded 1968-12-03. First broadcast 26 January 1969.
* Think It Over / Sinning For You / Halfbreed
2. Recorded 1969-04-29. First broadcast 04 May 1969. Repeated 15 June 1969.
*Waiting Around / Too Much Thinking / Spanish Fly / Me And My Woman / Sinnin’ For You
3. Recorded 1969-10-14. First broadcast 25 October 1969. Repeated 31 January 1970.
*Waiting Around / Believe In You / Spanish Fly / Too Much Thinking
4. Recorded 1971-12-07. First broadcast 07 January 1972. Repeated 11 February 1972.
* Marin County / Thinking Of You / Heartbreaking Woman / Don’t You Belong (first TX 11 February 1972 repeat)
5. Recorded 1972-01-25. First broadcast 01 February 1972. Repeated 28 March 1972.
*Don’t Sign It / Heartbreaking Woman / Don’t You Be Long
== Live ==
*25 January 1970: Recorded 1970-01-22 (Melody Maker preview, 1969-12-13: "Keef Hartley will be airing his special 14-piece big band, which includes Harold Becket, Barbara Thompson, Lyn Dobson and Chris Mercer. Keef's regular group will play the first half hour and augment for the second.")
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#Believe In You
#Sinnin' For You (Medley)
#Leavin' Trunk
#Half Breed
#Just To Cry
#Sinnin' For You
#Spanish Fly
#Me And My Woman
#Too Much Thinking
#Not Foolish, Not Wise
*23 August 1970 (set details from YouTube)
# Roundabout
# You Can't Take it With You
# Just To Cry
*22 November 1970
#Colours 
#The Time Is Near 
#Roundabout
*11 April 1971: Keef Hartley Quintet live (In Concert with Brinsley Schwarz). Recorded 1971-03-25, unknown venue.
#Overdog
#Roundabout
#Just To Cry
#Sinnin' For You
== Other Shows Played ==
*12 March 1969: Leavin' Trunk (album - Halfbreed) Deram SML 1037
*19 March 1969: The Halfbreed (album - Halfbreed) Deram SML 1037
*18 October 1969: Not Foolish, Not Wise (LP - The Battle Of North West Six) Deram
*20 December 1969: Waiting Around (LP - The Battle Of North West Six) Deram
*05 December 1970: Roundabout (Part 1) (single) Deram
*26 May 1972: Don't Sign It (LP - Seventy-Second Brave) Deram
*22 May 1973: Something About You (LP – Lancashire Hustler) Deram
== See Also ==
*Cover Versions
*Melody Maker
*Melody Maker: 1969
*New Singles
*Gigography 1968
*Gigography 1969 
*Gigography 1970 
*International Times: Perfumed Garden Column
*Disc & Music Echo: Peel Columns‎‎
== External Links ==
*Wikipedia
* Official site
* Other
Category:Artists