The three Brown children grew up on their parent’s farm in Clevedon, just south of Auckland. They all studied music and began to play together before adding another local, Milton Lane to their line-up. Milton played rhythm guitar and they called themselves the Clevedonaires
By 1965 they had changed their style and were then covering hits by The Who, the Small Faces and The Beatles. In 1966 they released their first recording on the Impact label called "How You Lied". 1967 saw two more singles, "He's Ready" and "Funny How Love Can Be". A final single, "Sunny Godge Street" was released in 1968, just prior to the group departing for Australia
On arrival in Australia they shortened their name to The Cleves. Their was plenty of work around Sydney, at one stage they had Vince Maloney (ex Bee Gees) in their line-up. From 1968 to 1970 they recorded three singles, "Tintookies 2000", "Sticks And Stones" and "You And Me" for Festival, along with two EP's, "A Taste Of Energy" and "Music From Michael" in 1970 and an album "The Cleves" in 1971.
The band moved to England in 1971, at which point Graham decided to return to New Zealand and was replaced by Aussie drummer Ace Follington (ex Chain and Country Radio). At this time they renamed themselves to Bitch. They recorded three singles here for you to download.
The three singles were "Laughing"/"House Where I Live" (CB-151) in 1971, "Good Time Coming"/"At The Party" (WB-16235) in 1973 and "Wildcat"/"I'm Gonna Love You" (K-16313) also in 1973. The first single was a cover of The Guess Who's 1970 hit. None of the singles were commercially successful. Bitch recorded an album for Warners which was never released.
After releasing a solo single Gaye Brown returned to New Zealand. Bass player Rob Aickin returned home in the mid-1970s and ended up producing Hello Sailor, The Dudes and Golden Harvest. He currently lives in Australia. Guitarist Ron Brown returned to New Zealand and along with Gaye and Graham Brown are now playing together again as The North Road Band.
3 comments:
Thanks so much for these! I've been looking for them for ages. Cheers to you :)
J Richter
Thank you Ozzie, I'm familiar with the Cleves album, but I can't say that I know anything about this or the Gaye Brown single. Should be great listening!!
Graham
Thanks Ozzies - finally got to have a listen to this. Certainly reminds me of the Guess Who with a touch of Steve Marriot - particularly in the groovy track 'House Where I Live'
Very Hip :-)
Not sure if their name helped their career.
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