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Issue 26

The Downliners Sect were among the first-and least appreciated-of Great Britain's rhythm-and-blues groups.  Between 1964 and 1966, the band released three albums and a multitude of fine singles, but ultimately the Sect players were outcasts-too young, too uncouth and just a tad too eccentric to be accepted by the masses. Today, however, particularly to fans of raw, vital punk and R&B, the Downliners Sect are a cult classic, revered above many of their tamer, more famous U.K. beat contemporaries.

Guitarist Don Craine (born Mick O'Donnell) formed the group in 1962 in Twickenham, Middlesex. Originally they were simply "The Downliners," taking their inspiration from Jerry Lee Lewis's "Down the Line." By early 1963 they had essentially turned pro, and their classic lineup began to fall into place when drummer John Sutton and bassist/vocalist Keith Grant (born Keith Evans) joined the group. Terry Gibson (born Terry Clemson) replaced the original lead guitarist, a student named Melvin, in mid-1963.

By this time, the four-piece Downliners had added "Sect" to their title and were almost exclusively playing R&B, specializing in the music of such artists as Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed and, especially, Chuck Berry. They played at a dilapidated old hotel on Twickenham's Eel Pie Island and at the Studio 51 club (also referred to as Ken Colyer's Jazz Club), at the time a cramped, sweaty Soho basement perfect for nurturing the Downliners Sect's brand of primitive, sweaty rhythm-and- blues.

In January 1964, Contrast Sound, a tiny independent label that normally specialized in sound effects records, released the Downliners Sect on a four-track EP, At Nite in Great Newport Street. The raw-sounding EP captured the band live at Studio 51, belting out crude but appealing versions of "Beautiful Delilah," "Shame Shame Shame," "Green Onions" and "Nursery Rhymes."

Not long after the EP, the Downliners Sect added a fifth member, harmonica player Ray Sone. With R&B earmarked as the newest teen music fad, the group easily secured a deal with Mike Collier, an independent producer who landed the band a deal with Columbia Records.

The Downliners Sect released their first single in June 1964, a cover of American bluesman Jimmy Reed's "Baby What's Wrong" backed with an original, "Be a Sect Maniac." In an article published in Record Mirror, Don Craine explained to Jimmy Reed why they recorded his song: "We've always played a lot of your numbers in our stage act, Jimmy, and it just seemed a natural thing to record one of them." Reed approved of other groups recording his material, but commented, "I figure it would have been much better for everybody though if I could have been sitting there just playing along with them."

"Be a Sect Maniac" was the first of a string of songs playing on the band's name, which also included "Sect Appeal," "The Leader of the Sect" and "Insecticide." This self-effacing humor, along with Don Craine's ever present deerstalker hat, was a key ingredient in the group's unique image.

Record Mirror described the effort as "a fairly authentic approach to a pungent blues song. Somewhat way-out commercially," while Beat Instrumental called the single "a foot-thumper" and commented that it "could do well." With the positive critical reception of "Baby What's Wrong," the group began to travel regularly to other U.K. cities, working almost constantly. They released a follow-up single, a rocking version of the Coasters' novelty tune, "Little Egypt," in September. Record Mirror called it "a good tune, a compulsive sound and a heavy throbbing beat," further complimenting it with, "It grows on you, and the vocal work is excellent."

The single created a small buzz in the U.K. and became a minor sensation in Sweden, where it climbed to the upper reaches of the charts. In future years, the Downliners Sect remained hugely popular in Sweden, touring there several times, often playing huge arenas. At one performance at the Stockholm Ice Hockey Stadium, police had to stop the band after only three numbers when close to 15,000 excited Swedes tried to take over the stage. The band begged to continue, but when they began playing "Little Egypt," the intensity level proved too much-the place erupted into a riot and the band was forced to flee for safety.

In November 1964, the quintet released another single, "Find Out What's Happening" backed with "Insecticide." This seemed to offer their best shot yet at a breakthrough in the U.K. A reviewer for Disc Weekly predicted,  "The Sect must hit the upper brackets soon," describing the single's "very steady boppity blues which they perform almost casually, but without allowing any sloppiness to creep into their work." Craine told Record Mirror, "We think it's the best thing we've done in the eighteen months we've been together." Even though Columbia gave the single a big promotional splash, broadcasters ignored it. Nonetheless, "Find Out What's Happening" solidified their position as an up-and-coming young R&B group.

They followed up the single in December with their first LP, The Sect. Melody Maker reviewer Ray Coleman bashed the album: "If this is British rhythm-and-blues, then may we be preserved from much more. It sounds like crude, third-rate Rolling Stones, and though it might conceivably be reasonable background beat in a basement, it takes a lot of consuming for 14 tracks." New Musical Express was cautiously positive: "All the jangle of [R&B] comes through here, specially [sic] when the five break in between Keith Grant's monotone singing. Ray Sone's harmonica playing brews up the right excitement." But their fans loved the album, and the record sold respectably well. Today, it is regarded as something of a masterpiece of punk R&B. Among its highlights are rough versions of Inez and Charlie Foxx's "Hurt by Love," Chuck Berry's "Our Little Rendezvous," and Willy Dixon's "I Put a Tiger in Your Tank."

Craine looked to his skiffle roots for the group's next single, "Wreck of the Old '97," issued in March 1965. Ray Sone's harp gave the track a bluesy feel, about which New Musical Express remarked, "[The song] bounces along jauntily with a sort of railroad rhythm, with two voices duetting the sad saga of the ill-fated engine." But with its country-and-western twang, the song was an odd choice for a single.

The Downliners Sect continued to play pure R&B onstage, but they continued their experiments with country-and-western in the studio. They released the country novelty song "I Got Mine" as a single in June, soon followed by a full album, The Country Sect. The Country Sect was a strange mix of mostly tongue-in-cheek C&W material with a few bluesy gems thrown in. New Musical Express, which had been sympathetic before, wrote well of both the single and album. Of the single, the music newspaper declared, "It's a happy record, toe tapping and infectious-with a chorus you can join in." As for the album, they wrote, "The group has a smooth instrumental unity, and this experiment-the marrying of skiffle with blues-is quite a success." Some fans reacted to the LP with confused head-shaking, but today Sect loyalists make a reasonably convincing argument that with this album, the Downliners Sect invented "country rock" several years before Gram Parsons and the Byrds et al.

Prior to The Country Sect, Sone departed from the band after an argument with Craine. Pip Harvey replaced him on harmonica, lasting only a few months before departing abruptly when the police came looking for him.

Concurrent with their C&W flirtations, the Downliners Sect let their unusual obsession with B-movie humor and horror run amok on The Sect Sing Sick Songs. The four-song EP-filled with ghoulish references to car accidents, murder and necrophilia-was instantly banned from BBC airplay. Still, it garnered much-needed publicity and assured the group's fans that the group hadn't permanently "gone country."

Released in October, their next single-the Don Craine and Keith Grant-penned "Bad Storm Coming"-was a haunting protest number that won over the reviewers at Disc Weekly: "It's very gentle with some lovely deep guitar work and . . . a simple and direct quality about it." However, it saw no chart action, and neither did their tough version of Rufus Thomas's "All Night Worker," which kicked off 1966 with a howl of fuzz guitar and thumping bass and drums.  

As the months wore on, innovation was the mood of the day and the Downliners Sect floundered for direction, still belting out Chuck Berry songs without any inclination either to grow artistically or to pander to commercial tastes. The Rock Sect's In (1966), their third album, went against the grain once again. Although it contained some powerful band originals, including Keith Grant's "Outside" and "Everything I've Got to Give," it also mixed in then-unfashionable rock'n'roll favorites such as Little Richard's "Hey Hey Hey" and Vince Taylor's "Brand New Cadillac." The eclectic LP also included such sarcastic, semi-novelty material as "He Was a Square," the rocking R&B tunes "I'm Lookin' for a Woman" and "Don't Lie to Me," and a fuzz guitar-driven stomper called "Why Don't You Smile Now" that was a pre-Velvet Underground collaboration by then-unknowns Lou Reed and John Cale. If the Downliners Sect were out of step with the blues-rock scene at the time, the players didn't seem to care in the least. They saw The Rock Sect's In as a statement of their down-to-earth approach to music. "The Rock Sect's In was an attempt at fundamentalism," says Craine, "to get away from the more poppy melodic thing that was beginning to manifest itself." 

They distilled that statement of raw, anti-pop intent perfectly into the A-side of their next single, released in June 1966. "Glendora," a song about a love obsession with a shop window mannequin, combined a snarling Terry Gibson fuzz guitar lead with a relentless smashing beat and deliciously black-humored lead vocals from Keith Grant. New Musical Express found this release to have a "great R&B sound going" but "Glendora" would be the original Sect members' last release. The band members were frustrated with the changing musical climate and diminishing gigs. The final blow for Craine came after a gig in Leicester when he discovered that there wasn't enough available floor space in Gibson's tiny Ford van to entertain an old girlfriend. The band agreed that this was a sign that the end of the line had truly been reached. They went their separate ways right there and then-at an anonymous service station somewhere on the M1 Motorway.

Still, another Downliners Sect single appeared in the autumn of 1966. "The Cost of Living" was a Graham Gouldman composition that featured Craine's and Grant's vocals over a backing track of session players.

By the end of 1966, Craine and Grant had regrouped as Don Craine's New Downliners Sect and released a single on Pye coupling a cover of the Remains' "I Can't Get Away from You" with an original titled "Roses." Soon afterward, Craine decided he'd had enough and left to pursue other interests, among them Irish folk music. Grant kept the New Downliners Sect name alive for another year (releasing several tracks on jukebox EPs in Sweden), but by the end of 1968 the Downliners were spent-at least for a while.

After the Downliners split up, Don Craine (now using his real name, Mick O'Donnell) first busied himself with an Irish folk duo, Finnegan's Wake, with Mick Smith. He then took over a folk club at the White Bear in Hounslow, Middlesex, and formed an acoustic folk-blues duo, Loose End, with Paul Tiller.

Keith Grant joined Punchin' Judy, releasing an album on Transatlantic Records in 1972. He later played with Magnet, touring the United States in 1975 and releasing one single.

After playing in the J.J. Sound (a soul group that at one point backed Edwin Starr) and Tales of the City, Terry Gibson joined the Houseshakers at the end of 1969. The group spearheaded a rock'n'roll revival in Britain at the turn of the decade by releasing an album and backing Gene Vincent on two of his European visits. They also served as the backing group for Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley for the Wembley Rock & Roll concert in August 1972. Along with Houseshakers' singer Graham Fenton (later of the rockabilly group Matchbox), Gibson next formed the Hellraisers, which released one album on Contour Records in 1976. He also backed Screaming Lord Sutch as one of the Savages on numerous occasions throughout the 1970s. 

John Sutton, the Downliners Sect's original drummer, pursued his love of 1920s jazz with the prolific Pasadena Roof Orchestra.

In 1977, feeling a resurgence of interest in their music and a kinship with the energy and attitude of punk rock, Craine, Grant and Gibson reformed the Downliners Sect with Paul Tiller on harp and Paul Holm (ex-Syndicats and Bluesology) on drums. (John Sutton had been involved in the early stages, but dropped out to continue with the Pasadena Roof Orchestra.) They released a strong punk single, "Showbiz" (backed with "Killing Me"), on Raw Records in November 1977. A full-length LP, Showbiz, followed in early 1980 on a German label, Sky, by which time Rod De'Ath (ex-Killing Floor and Rory Gallagher) had replaced Holm on drums.

The Downliners Sect played sporadically on the pub rock circuit throughout the 1980s. A typical set has been documented on the Live in the 80's album, which shows the group's rockin' R&B sound relatively unchanged since their 1960s heyday. By 1989, Rod De'Ath had disappeared and Terry Gibson decided to bow out.

The group continued, however, with Del Dwyer on guitar and Alan Brooks on drums. Both had once been members of the 1960s "freakbeat" band the Barrier (Brooks had also been in Punchin' Judy with Grant). The band stepped into high gear in the 1990s, keeping a full gig schedule as well as involving themselves in numerous recording projects. They recorded three new Downliners Sect albums that decade: Savage Return (1991), A Light Went Out in New York (1993) and Dangerous Ground (1998).

Craine and Grant were also a part of the British Invasion All-Stars, along with Eddie Phillips (of the Creation), Jim McCarty (the Yardbirds) and Ray Phillips (the Nashville Teens). They released two CDs, Regression (1990) and United (1991)-the latter with guest appearances from Procol Harum's Matthew Fisher and the Pretty Things' Phil May and Dick Taylor.

Another band, Thee Headcoats, emerged in the 1990s with a sound distinctly resembling the Downliners Sect, with band members similarly clad in deerstalker hats as they churned out loud punk R&B. They collaborated with Craine on a 1990 EP as Thee Headcoat Sect, adding Grant to the lineup for the album Deerstalking Men (1996). They released a second joint Headcoat Sect LP, Ready Steady Sect, in 2000 and were supported by a tour of Japan. The Downliners Sect, meanwhile, continued to be active, touring Sweden the same year.

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