Formed in late 1968, Tully the First were wild, expansive and unpredictable, their live shows now the stuff of legend. Terry Wilson (vocals), Richard Lockwood (reeds), Michael Carlos (organ), John Blake (bass) and Robert Taylor (drums) employed extended improvisation, spacious dynamics and an intuitive intensity, so impressing Australian jazz icon John Sangster that he called them “the best band in the world at the time.”
In mid 69, Tully became the house band for love-rock musical Hair, recording the original cast album later that year. They also starred in a six part live-in-studio series Fusions, which premiered on ABC TV in August 1969. Ken Firth (later of the Ferrets) replaced John Blake on bass in December 1969.
After Tully’s 1970 self-titled debut, Wilson and Taylor left the band, which then assimilated Extradition’s Shayna Stewart and Colin Campbell before releasing two more albums, Sea Of Joy (1971) and Loving Is Hard (1972), both markedly different from their fiery and often thunderous early form. Sadly, all three of Tully’s studio albums are yet to be officially reissued.
