Beatles George Harrison Splinter Demo LP

	£		67
	$		89

This is a fantastic piece of Beatles memorabilia.

When George Harrison had cut ties with Apple he started his own record label 'Dark Horse' in 1974 and was eagerly looking out for any material that he could find which would add to his own contributions.

In 'Splinter' he found a new raw band and he produced their 1974 album 'The Place I Love' including the hit single 'Costafine Town'.

George in fact appears himself in the band on each track as Hari Georgeson!

This is an example of a white label demo although it has it's own uniqueness.  Not many can claim to have a Beatle trying to start up a new and eventually successful business as it's reason for existence!!!

the album itself contains 9 tracks and are typically the kind of songs that George would be happy to associate himself with - gentle, melodic and making a point.

His name appears on a sheet that is still photocopied to the white original cover with the track listings and 'Dark Horse' added in handwriting.    

On the inner labels of the vinyl LP, A+M Records and Dark Horse and the various sides appear in handwriting.  With a point about the single 'Costafine Town'. 

Do take a good look at this item - it's unlikely you'll see something like this again!! 

Splinter was essentially a two-man vocal group consisting of Bill Elliott and Bobby Purvis. But they were connected with powerful people (most notably, George Harrison) and had good groups of instrumentalists to back them on each album. One of those musicians was a guitarist by the name of Hari Georgeson (Harrison's pseudonym). Splinter was the first artist signed to Harrison's Dark Horse label, when it was still partnered with A&M. All of Splinter's albums are out of print.

On their splendid debut album The Place I Love, the duo got a big boost from Harrison, who produced and pseudonymously played guitar on all the songs. (The harmonium and Moog synthesizer on certain tracks are credited to P. Roducer; guess who that is? Also, try pronouncing the name of percussionist Jai Raj Harisein). Other musicians included Alvin Lee, Billy Preston, Gary Wright, Jim Keltner, and Klaus Voorman. Most of the songs were written by Purvis, with Elliott co-writing lyrics on "China Light" and "Costafine Town".

While some of the songs recall Badfinger (especially "Gravy Train" and "Haven't Got Time"), most of The Place I Love very much resembles a Harrison solo album, but it is more consistent than most of them. Even the vocals sometimes resemble Harrison's; Purvis and Elliott harmonize in a beautifully Beatlesque way. Any Beatles aficionado who hasn't discovered The Place I Love ought to search it out. Lost classics such as "China Light", "Costafine Town", and "Situation Vacant" are among the best Beatles songs that the Beatles never made.

Track Listing:

1. Gravy Train

2. Drink All Day (Got To Find Your Own Way Home)

3. China Light

4. Somebody's City

5. Costafine Town

6. The Place I Love

7. Situation Vacant

8. Elly-May

9. Haven't Got Time

Not too many people remember Splinter, which is a shame on a number of counts. For starters, their sound -- an amalgam of mainstream electric rock with pop and folk elements, surprisingly similar to Badfinger -- was intrinsically satisfying and made them one of the more pleasing and promising groups of the mid-'70s. For another, they were one of the few genuinely bright discoveries to come out of the Beatles' orbit in the period after the breakup of Apple. And they cut one great album featuring some superb work by George Harrison as a producer and musician. Co-founder Bill Elliott had already worked on the periphery of the Beatles' orbit in 1970 when, as part of the Elastic Oz Band (sometimes billed as "Bill Elliott & the Elastic Oz Band"), he'd worked with John Lennon on the single "Do the Oz," recorded to raise money and enlist support for the underground Oz magazine, which was being suppressed in England. The two singers, who harmonized very attractively together, hooked up with George Harrison just as the latter was setting up his own Dark Horse Records label. That ill-starred venture coincided with Harrison's disastrous 1974 tour of the United States and the release of his own Dark Horse album -- ironically enough, Splinter's debut LP and single were better received by those who heard them than Harrison's own album, which was doubly funny since the ex-Beatle guitarist lavished more attention on their LP The Place I Love than he evidently did on his own album. The duo sang beautifully -- Elliott's vocalizing recalled John Lennon, and their harmonizing brought to mind not only the group Badfinger at their best, but also memories of the finer massed vocal sections of All Things Must Pass. Moreover, Harrison's guitars (many of them, overdubbed many times), percussion, and keyboards were all over the album, along with Klaus Voormann's bass and some piano and organ by Billy Preston, thus establishing an even closer connection with the late Apple organization and its sound. Harrison's appearances throughout the album were under various guises: "Hari Georgeson," "P. Roducer," and "Jai Raj Harisein." The Splinter debut album and the accompanying single "Costafine Town" made the lower reaches of the American Top 100, but this was their only brush with success. They cut two more albums over the next three years, Harder to Live and Two Man Band, under the aegis of Dark Horse Records, and, after touring for a few more years, they finally split up in 1984. In recent years, Bob Purvis has re-emerged as a performer and composer, doing charity work for a British cancer research charity