West Coast Consortium

West Coast Consortium (later just known as Consortium) was a British pop/rock group that evolved through several incarnations in the mid-'60s, before finally achieving some chart success at the tail end of the decade. The band initially coalesced under the name Group 66, with Robbie Fair on lead vocals, Geoff Simpson on lead guitar and backing vocals, Brian Bronson playing rhythm guitar, John Barker on the bass, and John Podbury playing drums. They were a fairly nondescript band, doing nothing but covers of current rock & roll hits -- by sheer luck, they were trying to do their own rendition of the new Four Seasons hit "Rag Doll" and discovered that they could harmonize better than they could play. A similarly successful attempt at performing the Beach Boys' "I Get Around" proved to the quintet that vocals were their strong point and could set them apart from most of their rivals, especially as they had their instrumental skills nailed. By 1967, Simpson had started writing songs and the group was actively seeking a recording contract. They were signed by Pye Records, who put them together with Tony Macaulay, who had just joined the company and was not yet a name in the business -- he, in turn, brought them into the orbit of his writing/producing partnership with John MacLeod. It was also Macaulay who insisted that the group -- which had changed its name to the gimmicky monosyllabic Xit -- had to get another name. In the interest of emphasizing an American cultural connection (still a mark of quality in England in those days), they arrived at West Coast Consortium. The group's original sound was on the lightweight side, rooted in high harmonies and midtempo songs, much closer to the Ivy League than to, say, the Hollies. Their first two singles failed to chart, as did a...