Magic Lanterns

With a name like the Magic Lanterns, one would expect a late-1960s band that might reflect the psychedelic side of the era's music -- when first heard of in 1968, they seemed to fit in with groups like Strawberry Alarm Clock and other trippy-sounding acts (what Bleeker Bob's in New York calls "Lounge Acts That Dressed Cool"), promising their own brand of incense and peppermints. Instead, the Magic Lanterns were a pop/rock outfit, closer in spirit to the Tremeloes or Marmalade; and apart from the exquisite pop-psychedelia of "Impressions of Linda," their music was mostly straight-ahead upbeat pop/rock, which doesn't mean they weren't good, just less adventurous than one might expect. A Manchester-based band that never saw the success of the Hollies or 10cc, the Magic Lanterns did place three singles on the charts on either side of the Atlantic during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The group started life as the Sabres in 1962, organized by Jimmy Bilsbury (some sources spell it Pilsbury) on vocals and, later, guitar, who also wrote songs. Among the musicians who passed through their ranks were Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who went on to international fame in the 1970s, but the core of the group, in addition to Bilsbury, were Peter Shoesmith (guitar), Ian Moncur (bass), and Allan Wilson (drums). Organized originally in Warrington, Lancashire, the band played clubs in the area around nearby Manchester, taking on the name the Magic Lanterns in the mid-1960s. They were put in contact with publisher Mike Collier, who arranged for the group to cut a song he handled called "Excuse Me Baby," which got them signed to British CBS Records. The song -- an unambitious piece of mid-tempo pop/rock that could have passed for a Herman's Hermits' single with a little work -- managed to...