Rare Bird were an English prog-rock band, formed in 1969. They had more success in other European countries. They released five studio albums between 1969 and 1974. In the UK, they never charted with an album but charted with one single, the organ-based track “Sympathy”, which peaked at number 27. It sold one million copies globally.
The history of Rare Bird began when Graham Field placed an advertisement for a pianist in a musical periodical. He got thirty replies and formed a group called “Lunch”. He met Dave Kaffinetti in November 1968, and together they formulated the basic ideas for Rare Bird. In August 1969, they finally found the ideal rhythm section in Steve Gould, Chris Randall and Mark Ashton. Field and Kaffinetti had originally envisaged that the band would be a four-piece and were looking for a singer/bass player. Gould and Randall, who had both previously been members of the Pop-Psych band “Fruit Machine”, applied to the advert as vocals/guitar and bass respectively and were taken on. Lunch played a few gigs; one notable one was at the Tilbury Working Mens Club for the princely sum of five pounds. The band had no van and they managed to get amps, drums, guitars and Hammond organ into their cars. The gig was marred by Randall receiving a bad electric shock whilst on stage. It later turned out that the founders of the band were more interested in Steve Gould and convinced him to play bass. Randall was now high and dry and was kicked out of the band.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMWz5tMn2_M
Two weeks later, they had signed management and agency contracts, and three weeks later, were in the studio recording their debut album. Before joining Lunch, Randall and Gould had previously written a song called “To the Memory of Two Brave Dogs”. Rare Bird included this song in their debut album, renaming it “Iceberg” but Randall received no credit on the L.P. Along with Van der Graaf Generator and The Nice, they were one of the very first bands that signed to Charisma Records, the record label that Tony Stratton-Smith had founded.
The eponymous debut album from Rare Bird. Released on the newly formed Charisma label in 1969, this commercial organ based progressive rock album spawned the worldwide hit ‘Sympathy’. Vocalist Steve Gould had previously been in Brit psych band Fruit Machine.
The Fat Angel Sings 