Quill, The


Band members               Related acts

- Dan Cole (aka Da Ank Khoi) -- 
- John Cole (aka Jo Unk Khoi) -- 
- Roger North (aka R. Willy North) -- 
- Bill Rogers (aka Red Rocket Rodgers -- 
- Phil Thayer (aka Phil Stan D'There) --  

 

 

- The Holy Modal Rounders () 


 

Genre: rock

Rating: *** (3 stars)

Title:  The Quill

Company: Cotillion

Catalog: SD 9017

Year: 1970

Country/State: Massachusetts

Grade (cover/record): VG+ /VG+

Comments: --

Available: 1

Catalog ID: 124

Price: $50.00

Attending Massachusetts' Mount Herman Academy, brothers Dan and John Cole started their musical careers as members of The Knights (see separate entry). By the late-'60s they'd hooked up with Roger North, Bill Rogers and Phil Thayer, performing as Quill. Following a brief appearance at the Woodstock festival (as one of the lesser known acts they played on one of the secondary stages), Atlantic's Cotillion subsidiary signed the band. 

Self-produced, the quintet's 1970 debut featured a set of original material (six out of seven tracks written by the Coles). While "Quill" wasn't exactly the year's most innovative release, bouncing between standard rock moves ("Too Late") and light psychedelia ("Shrieking Finally"), the set wasn't without it's oddball charms. The Coles proved decent singers and extended song structures such as the harmony and percussion-rich "They Live the Life", the bizarre "The Tube Exuding" and the sweet ballad "Yellow Butterfly" (vaguely recalling something out of the Syd Barrett catalog) were quirky enough to deserve multiple listenings. Released with minimal fanfare and no marketing support, the set quickly vanished into cutout bins, followed in quick order by the band. (The album was originally released with a gatefold sleeve.) 

"Quill" track listing:
(side 1)

1.) Thumbnail Screwdriver (Dan Cole - John Cole) - 5:30
2.) The Tube Exuding (Dan Cole - John Cole) - 3:50
3.) They Live the Life (Dan Cole - John Cole) - 9:23

(side 2)

1.) BBY (Dan Cole - John Cole) - 4:40
2.) Yellow Butterfly (Dan Cole - John Cole) - 4:15
3.) Too Late (N. Rogers) - 3:40
4.) Shrieking Finally (Dan Cole - John Cole) - 7:28

 

 

 

Quill was a popular Northeast USA band that played extensively throughout New England and New York in the late 1960s and that gained national attention by performing at the original Woodstock Festival in 1969. The band was originally founded by two singer/songwriters and brothers from the Boston area, Jon and Dan Cole.

Contents

 [hide

[edit] Management Team

The Coles were managed by Ray Paret and David Jenks of Amphion Management, a Boston artist management group that helped to lay the groundwork for a fertile music scene in the Cambridge-Boston area. Many musicians who became international stars were a part of their coterie of bands, like the J. Geils Band, Peter Wolf & the Hallucinations (with Wolf later joining Geils to form a hit combination), Skunk Baxter (later of Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan fame), Jim Hodder of The Bead Game (who went on to become a drummer and vocalist for Steely Dan), Andy Pratt, Jimmy Thompson, drummer Russ Levine and Country Funk whose bass player Jim Lanham was later a founding member of The Pure Prairie League. Many very successful Boston groups and musicians such as Aerosmith, The Cars, Jonathan Edwards, and Boston rose up out of the creative atmosphere in which Amphion was a key player.

[edit] Early Days

With the assistance of the Ray and David, the Coles attracted some of the best musicians in the community. The basic line up included Roger North on drums, Norm Rogers on guitar and Phil Thayer on keyboard, sax and flute, with Jon on bass and Dan doing the bulk of the lead vocals. (However, as explained in detail below, instrumental flexibility was one of the band's most unusual features.) Out of this combination, and with the Cole brothers' focus on original songwriting came 'Quill', which was then signed as a group to Amphion Management. The band spent 1967, 1968 and 1969 regularly playing rock venues in Boston, Providence, and New York, as well many other smaller markets around the Northeast. Though Quill rarely played outside of their region, the show made it as far west as Aspen, Colorado.

[edit] Success

Though most often headlining in smaller clubs, where Quill gained a very loyal following, the group also played in a number of much larger venues, opening for such international acts as The Jeff Beck Group, The Who, The Kinks, Deep Purple, Buddy Guy, Blue Cheer, Sly and the Family Stone, the Grateful Dead, and Janis Joplin. It even opened for comedian Steve Martin in one of the interesting pairings in Quill lore. In addition. Quill was featured on several local TV shows in Boston and the Midwest, and was highlighted by the music press on numerous occasions for its originality and creativity. An early summer '69 appearance at Steve Paul's Scene in New York City resulted in Quill being invited to play at The Woodstock Festival. Interestingly, that night at the club also featured the first introduction of Johnny Winter to the NYC record industry crowd. The night ended finding Jimi Hendrix and Stephen Stills joining Johnny and members of Quill for a late jam.[citation needed]

Aside from the basic roles of each member of the band as mentioned above, one of the interesting aspects of the band was its ability to mount a variety of instrumental and vocal configurations to play specific songs. Considered by many to be among the best technical and most creative rock drummers of that era, Roger North anchored the band on the drums and percussion. The other members of the band would often switch instruments to create different sounds and effects. Jon and Norm both sang some lead vocals while Dan might be playing guitar, or even trombone, forming a small horn section with Phil on sax; Jon would sometimes switch to guitar with Norm playing bass; Norm was known to trot out his cello on occasion; Phil even played bass while Norm and Dan played guitar and Jon sang; everyone participated in group vocals as needed. Though Dan was the primary front man for the band on stage, its ability to effectively and frequently change focal points and configurations was well-suited to the broad song writing ambitions of the Coles, who were responsible for almost all of the band's material.

Quill's music was eclectic, social commentary, sometimes poetic, sometimes ironic, merged with very unusual, at times nearly atonal scales. Although for some in the drug-induced haze of the '60's, Quill music could be quite stimulating, it was never intended to be psychedelic music, and actually had a somewhat anti-hedonist slant. The Cole brothers were hoping to make their audiences think, even while the music was being enjoyed. The band's music was compared to a modern day "Three Penny Opera" by Bertolt Brecht by a local reviewer.

In addition to its unique original material, Quill made its reputation on performance art by drawing the audience into the music. The band handed out rhythm instruments and exhorted the crowds to a near riotous dance frenzy. A number of famous bands that played on the same bill with Quill received lukewarm receptions after finding themselves no match for the excitement generated by this five piece band from Boston. After Quill disbanded, many other groups took up audience participation with incitement to rhythm.

[edit] Woodstock

At Woodstock, in addition to playing the main festival stage on Saturday, Quill spent the week preceding the festival living at the setup crew's camp at a nearby motel, providing entertainment for the collection of stage crew, hog farmers, and festival workers. Quill was also hired by festival promoters to play a series of goodwill concerts at nearby state prisons, mental institutions, and halfway houses as a gesture aimed at countering community concerns about the upcoming festival. (Note: In the history of Quill, this rated as one of the strangest tours. Though enjoyed by the band, there were moments of unpredictability as many members of the very animated audiences were either certifiably insane or 'doin' time', depending on the venue.)

In the run up to Woodstock, seeing the market potential of the buzz that the band had already created with press, pundits and fans, and it's coming appearance at the Festival with the potential for film exposure, Ahmet Ertegün President of Atlantic Records agreed to sign Quill in the summer of 1969 to their Cotillion label.


At the festival, after relentless, and torrential rain all Friday and through the night, the skies miraculously cleared just before the band was to play. On a still soaking stage, under a now beaming sun, the band played a 40 minute set of 4 songs ("That's How I Eat", "They Live the Life", "Waiting For You", and "Driftin'"), and was received enthusiastically by the mud-caked, but drying 500,000 person throng. As a result of its position as first on stage that day and the remaining disarray due to all of the rain, Quill missed a key opportunity to appear in the Woodstock film, although that was the original intent of Paret and the band. The band was filmed, but a glitch in the film/audio system made it such that the audio and film were not synchronized properly. This rendered the footage unusable for the now famous film that made so many acts household names. The problem was fixed in time for Santana the next band up and their appearance in the film sealed the band's later success.

Shortly after the festival, Quill self-produced and then released its first Cotillion album, which made some impact, but did not gain national attention. The fact that the Quill footage could not be used for the Woodstock movie seriously disappointed Ertegün and the band's record was never actively promoted, even though over the years it has attained some cult status.

[edit] After Woodstock

Jon, who was, in many ways, the driving creative force in the band, left several months after that release to pursue other production projects in which he had an interest. With the assistance of New York producer, Tony Bongiovi, the other four members, in a collaborative effort composed enough material to produce and record a second album for Cotillion, but which the label chose not to release. The remaining four disbanded Quill late in the Spring of 1970, going their separate ways.

Roger North ended up joining the post "Easy Rider" version of Holy Modal Rounders after Quill disbanded, moving to Oregon with Steve Weber and the rest of the band (save Peter Stampfel, who remained in New York). He continued to perform with the HMR well into the 1980s, although missed the opportunity to record with the band on what may be one of their best remembered efforts, "Have Moicy," a 1975 collaboration with Michael Hurley and Jeffrey Fredrick and the Clamtones. Roger went on to design the unique North Drums, still favored by some drummers lucky enough to have purchased a kit. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon and plays in the Freak Mountain Ramblers. His son, Tye North was a member of Leftover Salmon and continues to perform with the Piano Throwers, Strings for Industry (featuring Tony Furtado and Darol Anger) and the ever-changing Everyone Orchestra

 

 

Quill was a popular Northeast USA band that played extensively throughout New England and New York in the late 1960s and that gained national attention by performing at the original Woodstock Festival in 1969. The band was originally founded by two singer/songwriters and brothers from the Boston area, Jon and Dan Cole.

The Coles were managed by Ray Paret and David Jenks of Amphion Management, a Boston artist management group that helped to lay the groundwork for a fertile music scene in the Cambridge-Boston area. Many musicians who became international stars were a part of their coterie of bands, like the J. Geils Band, Peter Wolf & the Hallucinations (with Wolf later joining Geils to form a hit combination), Skunk Baxter (later of Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan fame), Jim Hodder of The Bead Game (who went on to become a drummer and vocalist for Steely Dan), Andy Pratt, Jimmy Thompson, drummer Russ Levine and Country Funk which became The Pure Prairie League. Many very successful Boston groups and musicians such as Aerosmith, The Cars, Jonathan Edwards, and Boston rose up out of the creative atmosphere in which Amphion was a key player.

With the assistance of the Ray and David, the Coles attracted some of the best musicians in the community. The basic line up included Roger North on drums, Norm Rogers on guitar and Phil Thayer on keyboard, sax and flute, with Jon on bass and Dan doing the bulk of the lead vocals. (However, as explained in detail below, instrumental flexibility was one of the band's most unusual features.) Out of this combination, and with the Cole brothers' focus on original songwriting came 'Quill', which was then signed as a group to Amphion Management. The band spent 1967, 1968 and 1969 regularly playing rock venues in Boston, Providence, and New York, as well many other smaller markets around the Northeast. Though Quill rarely played outside of their region, the show made it as far west as Aspen, Colorado.

Though most often headlining in smaller clubs, where Quill gained a very loyal following, the group also played in a number of much larger venues, opening for such international acts as The Jeff Beck Group, The Who, The Kinks, Deep Purple, Buddy Guy, Blue Cheer, Sly and the Family Stone, the Grateful Dead, and Janis Joplin. It even opened for comedian Steve Martin in one of the interesting pairings in Quill lore. In addition. Quill was featured on several local TV shows in Boston and the Midwest, and was highlighted by the music press on numerous occasions for its originality and creativity. An early summer '69 appearance at Steve Paul's Scene in New York City resulted in Quill being invited to play at The Woodstock Festival. Interestingly, that night at the club also featured the first introduction of Johnny Winter to the NYC record industry crowd. The night ended finding Jimi Hendrix and Stephen Stills joining Johnny and members of Quill for a late jam.

Aside from the basic roles of each member of the band as mentioned above, one of the interesting aspects of the band was its ability to mount a variety of instrumental and vocal configurations to play specific songs. Considered by many to be among the best technical and most creative rock drummers of that era, Roger North anchored the band on the drums and percussion. The other members of the band would often switch instruments to create different sounds and effects. Jon and Norm both sang some lead vocals while Dan might be playing guitar, or even trombone, forming a small horn section with Phil on sax; Jon would sometimes switch to guitar with Norm playing bass; Norm was known to trot out his cello on occasion; Phil even played bass while Norm and Dan played guitar and Jon sang; everyone participated in group vocals as needed. Though Dan was the primary front man for the band on stage, its ability to effectively and frequently change focal points and configurations was well-suited to the broad song writing ambitions of the Coles, who were responsible for almost all of the band's material.

Quill's music was eclectic, social commentary, sometimes poetic, sometimes ironic, merged with very unusual, at times nearly atonal scales. Although for some in the drug-induced haze of the '60's, Quill music could be quite stimulating, it was never intended to be psychedelic music, and actually had a somewhat anti-hedonist slant. The Cole brothers were hoping to make their audiences think, even while the music was being enjoyed. The band's music was compared to a modern day "Three Penny Opera" by Bertolt Brecht by a local reviewer.

In addition to its unique original material, Quill made its reputation on performance art by drawing the audience into the music. The band handed out rhythm instruments and exhorted the crowds to a near riotous dance frenzy. A number of famous bands that played on the same bill with Quill, received lukewarm receptions after finding themselves no match for the excitement generated by this five piece band from Boston. After Quill disbanded, many other groups took up audience participation with incitement to rhythm.

At Woodstock, in addition to playing the main festival stage on Saturday, Quill spent the week preceding the festival living at the setup crew's camp at a nearby motel, providing entertainment for the collection of stage crew, hog farmers, and festival workers. Quill was also hired by festival promoters to play a series of goodwill concerts at nearby state prisons, mental institutions, and halfway houses as a gesture aimed at countering community concerns about the upcoming festival. (Note: In the history of Quill, this rated as one of the weird tours of all time. Though enjoyed by the band, there were moments of unpredictability as many members of the very animated audiences were either certifiably insane or 'doin' time', depending on the venue.)

In the run up to Woodstock, seeing the market potential of the buzz that the band had already created with press, pundits and fans, and it's coming appearance at the Festival with the potential for film exposure, Ahmet Ertegün President of Atlantic Records agreed to sign Quill in the summer of 1969 to their Cotillion label.

 

At the festival, after relentless, and torrential rain all Friday and through the night, the skies miraculously cleared just before the band was to play. On a still soaking stage, under a now beaming sun, the band played a 40 minute set of 4 songs ("That's How I Eat", "They Live the Life", "Waiting For You", and "Driftin'"), and was received enthusiastically by the mud-caked, but drying 500,000 person throng. As a result of its position as first on stage that day and the remaining disarray due to all of the rain, Quill missed a key opportunity to appear in the Woodstock film, although that was the original intent of Paret and the band. The band was filmed, but a glitch in the film/audio system made it such that the audio and film were not synchronized properly. This rendered the footage unusable for the now famous film that made so many acts household names. The problem was fixed in time for Santana the next band up and their appearance in the film sealed the band's later success.

Shortly after the festival, Quill self-produced and then released its first Cotillion album, which made some impact, but did not gain national attention. The fact that the Quill footage could not be used for the Woodstock movie seriously disappointed Ertegün and the band's record was never actively promoted, even though over the years it has attained some cult status.

Jon, who was, in many ways, the driving creative force in the band, left several months after that release to pursue other production projects in which he had an interest. With the assistance of New York producer, Tony Bongiovi, the other four members, in a collaborative effort composed enough material to produce and record a second album for Cotillion, but which the label chose not to release. The remaining four disbanded Quill late in the Spring of 1970, going their separate ways, leaving a major asterisk in the history of the late '60's rock culture explosion.

Roger North ended up joining the post "Easy Rider" version of Holy Modal Rounders after Quill disbanded, moving to Oregon with Steve Weber and the rest of the band (save Peter Stampfel, who remained in New York). He continued to perform with the HMR well into the 1980s, although missed the opportunity to record with the band on what may be one of their best remembered efforts, "Have Moicy," a 1975 collaboration with Michael Hurley and Jeffrey Fredrick and the Clamtones. Roger went on to design the unique North Drums, still favored by some drummers lucky enough to have purchased a kit. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon and plays in the Freak Mountain Ramblers. His son, Tye North was a member of Leftover Salmon and continues to perform with the Piano Throwers, Strings for Industry (featuring Tony Furtado and Darol Anger) and the ever-changing Everyone Orchestra.


Quill were a Boston-based hard rock band that enjoyed some regional popularity, as well as a momentary flash of national exposure by playing at the Woodstock festival in August of 1969. The quintet was co-founded by siblings John Cole (bass, guitar, vocals) and Dan Cole (vocals, guitar, trombone) -- the rest of their core lineup was Roger North on drums, Norm Rogers on guitar, and Phil Thayer on keyboards, sax, and flute (though most of the members, at some point, switched around on instruments, depending on the song). They got together in 1967 and, after choosing the name Quill, played New England and New York over the next few years, getting some positive regional press for their combination of high-wattage rock with elements of psychedelia and jazz, and what would later be identified as performance art -- they might have been an East Coast rival to the Doors, except that apart from North, it's debatable whether any of them were a match for the latter; additionally, none of the members had Jim Morrison's charisma or Robby Krieger's sense of melody, or -- so far as the surviving evidence suggests -- could deliver a song with the mass appeal of "Light My Fire," or even "Break on Through." Most of the songwriting was handled by John and Dan Cole, who were highly literate and tended to deliver fairly complex pieces that lent themselves to elaborate performances, sometimes involving some heavy audience participation as well -- in 1967 and 1968, amid the psychedelic haze of the era, it all seemed very much of a piece with the times and quite effective, at least based on the accounts of those who were there.
Their reputation was sufficient to get them opening act spots for artists such as Jeff Beck, Deep Purple, Buddy Guy, and Janis Joplin, and their appearance at Steve Paul's Scene in New York City earned them a booking at Woodstock, but they never made the cut for the movie, owing to a technical flaw in their footage. They did get signed to Cotillion Records, but the resulting debut album languished in stores without the help of exposure from the Woodstock movie. John Cole left not too long after to pursue his own musical horizons, and the remaining members found their effort at a second album rejected by Cotillion. Quill had broken up by 1971 -- ironically, they received perhaps the greatest international exposure of their history 38 years later with the release of Woodstock 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm, a six-CD set that contained two of the four songs they did at the festival. Roger North is probably the most well-recognized ex-member of Quill, with a lengthy performing career that followed over the next couple of decades (including a stint with the Holy Modal Rounders) as well as his renown, in percussionist circles, as the inventor of North Drums, an unusual and highly specialized design of kit, which he played from the late '60s onward.

 

 

Quill opened up the Saturday festivities at Woodstock in 1969, though some may say the real claim to fame for Jo Unk Khol (aka John Cole) is the sound effects he makes (uncredited) at the beginning of Andy Pratt's 1973 classic "Avenging Annie." The group's self-produced album is one of the better offerings from "The Bosstown Sound," as was Pratt's 1971 Polydor release Records Are Like Life. Perhaps it is no coincidence that both were recorded by the mysterious Boston-area engineer who went by one name, Aengus. Steven McDonald originally wrote in AMG that "Quill came and went in 1970, leaving a single album behind as evidence of their existence. The band hurtled into the depths of psychedelia with results that are both painful and entertaining." McDonald went on to call the music "a self-indulgent mess with some promise and much racket." Actually, the six compositions by John and Dan Cole, along with N. "Red Rocket" Rogers' "Too Late," deserve to be remembered a little bit better than that. Perhaps the entire album was too far out to include "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night" or "Journey to the Center of the Mind," titles like "Thumbnail Screwdriver" and "Tube Exuding" giving the impression that these were bad Ultimate Spinach or Eden's Children outtakes. That's far from reality. The music is more toward the entertaining than the painful end of McDonald's spectrum. And though they, like Sweetwater, failed to catch on as other acts from the Woodstock festival did (unlike Ten Wheel Drive, who were said to have turned the gig down to settle in near obscurity), there is something special in these grooves and the pastel/half-psychedelic cover with esoteric lyrics spread across the inside of the Unipak gatefold. Despite the zany pseudonyms the bandmembers embraced, this record has more smarts than anything Zager & Evans ever put to plastic. There are jazzy overtones mixed in with the mayhem and experimentation far beyond anything Ultimate Spinach, the dreadful Eden's Children, and even the beloved the Beacon Street Union from that "Bosstown Sound" era attempted to create. Maybe it was the marketing, maybe it was the damage caused by Eden's Children, there's no doubt Quill deserved a better fate. If only Cotillion, the label that released the Woodstock triple and double LPs, had put this and other groups out as part of a "Woodstock" series.



Absolute greatness. Best psychedelic album ever. My second favorite album of all-time.
tonycarroll
Dec
22
2008

5.00 stars




[Rating19655833]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quill_(band)
Tovan
Apr
29
2008

3.50 stars

CD-R


[Rating15083862]
I like this album. The music could be described as folksy proto prog, and is quite far from the sound one would expect out of an american band at this time. Recommended.
mykepsych
Dec
21
2007

 


[Rating12820791]
1970 Cotillion Records . This is a very underrated lp - well I have heard nothing of it in terms of reviews or cult status - I just bought it on the off-chance as a cheap old disc in old record shop by a forest in the heart of Essex for about 5 pounds! I was suprised how good it was . As with many interesting records , it does not reveal itself easily , and takes at least 3 listens or so . But one gets the feeling there’s something there to be found . It’s sophisticated . It’s trying lots of new things . It could easily be from 1970 1980 1990 2000 . There’s elements of Zappa, Stomu Yamashta , Neil Young . There are new guitar tones , weird harmonies - yeh the cover suggests a lot of what the music’s like - which is the word QUILL written in weird lysergised lettering . This is lysergised , energised , off-centre rock , chock full of descending keys and musical mazes and chiming tones . This is sort of blue collar rock guys gone odd . A musical avant-gardism is reached for : Countdown - keys down , bass down , shutdown , not dumb down . Some tones you’ve never heard . Regular instruments , percussive and primal . Inside : Photo of the guys - they’re LAUGHING - looning around - looking like optimistic homesteaders , hippies , factory or mill workers . Very slightly Beefheart , a little like Fever Tree . Yes / no , it’s (not) always successful . But it’s really reaching for something . It’s worth making an effort to get into . The band member’s names are : Ju-unk Khol , Red Rocket Rogers , R Willy North , Da - ank Khol , and PHIL STAN D’ THERE . Nuff said .
Lord_Corkscrew
Nov
02
2006

3.00 stars
6/10 Good.


Digital


[Rating6712255]
Strange odd release from this north-eastern American band (they are famous for having played in Woodstock), near to prog but still anchored to psychedelia and to an anachronist sound ("Yellow Butterfly" is very floyd-ian, for example), they are not excellent musicians nor singers. Pleasant but not essential, surely curious.
ochsfan
Jul
29
2005

2.00 stars

CD-R


[Rating2422852]
Although "Thumbnail Screwdriver" and "Yellow Butterfly" are undeniably catchy, most of this album is dark, cold, and distant.  If I'd heard the music in isolation, I would have guessed it was some early Euro Prog band, but SURPRISE, these are Bostonians so afraid of being linked to the mismanaged "Bosstown Sound" that they even outfit themselves with cutesy fake names.  Even if the music were brilliant (which it isn't), I couldn't bring myself to give a high rating to something this glaringly disingenuous.



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