Stealers Wheels
Stealers Wheel was originally a famous Scottish folk and rock band formed by a group of 1972 former school friends, Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty from Scotland in the same year. In the early 70's, the band was considered as the British version of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and, after their two unsuccessful singles, came to worldwide recognition with their first hit "Stuck in the Middle With You". The track blended in the style of former greats Bob Dylan and The Beatles made the top 10 of the single charts in Great Britain and the US in 1973 with the ratings of number 6 in the USA and number 8 in UK This broke their shackles and sold over one million copies worldwide.
Some decades later a remixed dance version was a rated as UK Top 10 in September of 2001.This was a hit for Louise, with a music video that drew heavily on the original song's appearance in the sound track of Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino.
Mentor Williams got the chance to produce their last album as Leiber & Stoller ran into disagreements and managerial problems. The first two albums were produced by the two. All the three albums had a particularly remarkable, slightly bizarre sleeve designs by artist John Byrne.
The band's self-titled debut album sold quite well, with a rating of number 50 in the US-album-charts and was critically acclaimed hit, but the Stealers Wheel could not repeat this success with subsequent releases. In 1973/1974 the two singles "Everything Will Turn Out Fine" and "Star" also made the top 30 of both the UK and US charts, but the latter track is still pretty popular today. Former Spooky Tooth member Luther Grosvenor who later became member of Mott the Hoople, took part in the recordings for "Everything Will Turn Out Fine" and replaced Rafferty who left the band for quite some time. By 1973, Coombes, Pilnick and Williams had all left en bloc; the lonely Williams later went on to a tour with Jethro Tull in the year 1978 teaming up with his old acquaintances from Blackpool, Ian Anderson and Barriemore Barlow.
As there was confusion between Rafferty and Egan, they could not agree whether they should carry on as a full band or set of two, and because of their artistic differences, there was a hindrance of over eighteen months in the release of their third and last album. Not withstanding the frequent changes in the line-up, Stealers Wheel finally broke up in 1975, and their last album Right or Wrong was released with no one to promote it. Roughly two years after the release of Ferguslie Park (1973), the group was barely known and the two last single releases faded away without a sound in the charts.
Quentin Tarantino in his first directorial venture Reservoir Dogs used the track "Stuck in the Middle with You" as its soundtrack, bringing new notice to the band. All three albums have been out of stock for years, but in 2004-05 the British independent label Lemon Recordings re-released them with re mastered sound and new liner-notes. Do try to catch up these fabulous discographies and experience the sublime era of soft rock.
