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1- IT'S ALL OVER NOW, BABY BLUE
2- HEROES ON MY PICTURE WALL
Graham Bonnet's first chart entry would be as half of a duo known as THE MARBLES. Bonnet and cousin Trevor Gordon's 1968 single "Only One Woman" (written by The Bee Gees) would peak at #5. The Marbles' follow up single, "The Walls Fell Down" (also written and recorded with the Gibb brothers), released in '69, would make the Top Thirty.
During the early part of 1977 Graham went back to London and He signed with Ring O'Records who were a subsidiary of the Polydor label. This was Ringo Starr's own label which he had started in 1975.
The first single to be released was the old Bob Dylan song "IT'S ALL OVER NOW BABY BLUE" on May 27th in the UK. The 'B' side had a song on it that wasn't to appear on the forthcoming album. This song being "HEROES ON MY PICTURE WALL". The single had a reasonable amount of publicity and was very well received in the press. 'Record Mirror' saying it was a competent version and that it deserved to be a hit. 'Melody Maker' saying that if you bought it, you wouldn't be disappointed.
Ring O'Records had done a reasonable publicity job on "It's All Over Now Baby Blue", but it just hadn't come off. They had an even bigger campaign planned for Graham's second single, "DANNY" and also his debut solo album. Two videos were also made, one for "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" and the other for "Danny".
August 12th saw the release of "Danny" in the UK. Some very early copies had a promotion picture/information sleeve which talked about Graham and his forthcoming album. Both the 'A' side and the 'B' side, "ROCK ISLAND LINE" were from the forthcoming album.
Graham's debut solo album saw the light of day on September 5th in the UK. It was simply titled "Graham Bonnet". The inner sleeve had all the lyrics on one side and a photograph on the reverse.
A third single was released in November in the UK. This was Graham's version of "GOODNIGHT AND GOODMORNING" written by Daryl Hall and John Oates. It was a shorter version to the one that appeared on the album.
Work on a new album started on December 5th and one of the first songs to have been in contention for it must have been "10/12 OBSERVATION". With Graham being interested in mysteries and things in the sky, he wrote down lyrics to do with what he had looked at and thought about. The producer, again Pip Williams, suggested from what Graham had written, it was an observation and so the title "10/12 Observation" came about because that was the date, the 10th of December!!. "10/12 Observation" became the 'B' side to the first single release from the new batch of songs recorded. "WARM RIDE", written by the Gibb Brothers was the 'A' side. Released in March 1978 in the UK and in Europe, the song had an accompanying video. In the UK the record was released in 7" and 12" formats. Ring O'Records issued some promotional copies in both 7" and 12" form. The 7" featured both the long version and the short version of "Warm Ride". The long version having a guitar solo in it. Promotional copies of the 12" were one sided and featured the long version only. "Warm Ride" was Graham's final release of any kind on Ring O'Records.
© 1998 MELGAR PRODUCTIONS.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
