At one stage around 1973 there was a really good cabaret band resident in Brett’s night club (later Samanthas after it was cut down to about 1/3 of the size), and , of course, Holy Black did lunchtimes and Sunday nights…I could just about recite the Holy Black repertoire, still! Anyway, they put together a combined performance (or two) and I remember being completed overawed to see such progressive music being played so well. I think Yes’s ‘Roundabout’ and Frank Zappa’s ‘Peaches En Regalia’ were featured, at a time when I thought I was the only person in town who had the ‘Hot Rats’ album! I still say I have never heard anything that sounded instrumentally more together than Holy Black in Bretts (and I’ve now seen many great sounding international acts, like Pink Floyd, Elton John, Santana, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, The Eagles, Hall & Oates, etc.).
Hugh Fraser (ex-The Unemployed/Haggard)