Mr. Bloe - 71-75 New Oxford Street (1971, DJM)

Mr. Bloe was an alias used by the DJM record label producer/arranger and multi-instrumentalist, Zack Laurence.

"Groovin' With Mr Bloe", written by Bo Gentry, Bernard Cochrane, Paul Naumann and Kenny Laguna, featuring Harry Pitch on harmonica, and Zack Laurence on piano, entered the UK Singles Chart on 9 May 1970, peaking at Number 2. It was denied the number one spot by "In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry. In total "Groovin' With Mr Bloe" spent 18 weeks in the chart.

A follow up single, "Curried Soul", failed to chart, and an album, also entitled "Groovin' with Mr. Bloe", was released in 1970 but flopped, leaving the act with the one-hit wonder tag. However, Laurence's contributions to the Roger Whittaker worldwide hit single "The Last Farewell", included arranging the music to the song when it initially appeared on Whittaker's radio programme in the UK in 1971, as well as arranging the instrumental to the subsequent hit song in 1975.

"Groovin' With Mr Bloe" is also a lyric in the song, "I Was a Mod Before You Was Mod", by the band, Television Personalities. The b-side to Madness' "Our House" single was "Walking With Mr Wheeze", another instrumental with occasional scratch mix effects. The tune's title was an asthmatic play on "Groovin' With Mr Bloe". The song was partly recorded by The Fall in 2003, for a Peel session as the beginning of their song, "Green Eyed Loco Man".

"Groovin' With Mr Bloe" was used as the theme music to the 2009 BBC TV series, Oz and James Drink to Britain.

© Wikipedia

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However, I thought it could be interesting to know about other of Mr. Bloe's releases, nevertheless if it is a complete flop, though I wouldn't say that. I owned this single a long time ago and it was just in these noon hours when, after a quite long search around the net, I found it again and actually between my hands.

Of course, unless Sir Elton John features this track as composer and possibly piano player, I don't care of him. :P



Artist: Mr. Bloe
Single: 71-75 New Oxford Street / Get Out of This Town
Label: DJM
Year of release: 1971
Genre: Pop-rock, instrumental
Country: Spain (preferently)