Officially released for the first time on CD, McCully Workshop’s legendary “Genesis”, is a prog-rock concept masterpiece that is loosely based on the biblical book. Packed with psych guitars, brassy interludes ala early Chicago or Blood Sweat & Tears, and funky tracks like “Stone man” and “Red light city”, ”Genesis” is highly prized by collectors worldwide.

Genesis

McCully Workshop is arguably one of South Africa’s finest pop-rock bands. They started way back in the ’60s, dominated the South African airwaves in the ’70s, continued through the ’80s and ’90s, and in the 21st century are still going strong.

In the beginning

When asked about their beginnings, vocalist, bassist, and producer Tully McCullagh had this to say: “My brother, Mike, who plays drums and myself would play around and record ourselves in the lounge, I was about nine at the time. We recorded a track called ‘Swinging Time’ with some other friends when I was thirteen and sent it to a record company. The track didn’t get anywhere but it was quite interesting. We grew a bit more and when I was sixteen we started a band called McCully Workshop and a whole string of other bands and I started a garage studio.”

McCully Workshop has had many line-up changes over the years, but these 2 talented brothers have always surrounded themselves with superb musicians.

In 1965, the McCullagh brothers, Tully (born Terence on 31st May 1953) and Mike (born Michael on 7th April 1947) started as a folk-rock trio with Richard Hyam and called themselves the Blue Three. Hyam had previously been in a folk duo, Tiny Folk, with his sister Melanie.

After a few personnel- and name-changes, like The Blue Beats and Larfing Stocke, the line-up settled down (for a while) in 1969 and they called themselves the McCully Workshop because they used to rehearse in Mrs. McCullagh’s garage.

Vocalist Glenda Wassman later married Richard Hyam, and then formed the pop band Pendulum who had a big hit with ‘Take My Heart’ in 1976. Glenda Hyam then went on to major success with the all-girl group, Clout, who had a worldwide smash hit with ‘Substitute’, which went to #2 in the UK in 1978.

Before Genesis

Their debut album, ‘McCully Workshop Inc.’ features a variety of styles and influences including The Beatles, Frank Zappa and early Pink Floyd.

The Forced Exposure website has this quote: “A superb South African band’s stunning debut album. ‘Sgt. Pepper’ influenced psychedelic music blended with R&B, garage punk tunes. Great songs, lovely vocals, strong harmonies, great distorted guitar work.”

‘Inc.’ was released in June 1970 and included the epic and powerful ‘Why Can’t It Rain’, which went to #12 on the Springbok Radio charts in July 1970 and reached #13 on the LM Radio charts. This hit single featured a fiery guitar solo by Allan Faull who went on to form the eclectic Falling Mirror with his cousin Nielen Marais in the late 70s.

McCully Workshop also played on country-pop singer Jody Wayne’s ‘The Wedding’ in 1970 which hit #1 for 3 weeks on the Springbok Radio charts.

“Jody Wayne had come down from Jo’burg” recalls Tully, “and he wanted to record a ballad, they wouldn’t let him do it in Jo’burg, so he asked us to do it. I took the reverb unit out of an old Hammond organ and recorded everything with yards of reverb and it went on to sell four gold discs (it was called “The Wedding”), we made eleven rands each!!”

Genesis

The follow-up to ‘Inc’ was the album ‘Genesis’ recorded in early 1971 and released in June of that year by Trutone Records with catalogue number STO 745. After the ‘Inc’ album there was a deliberate move to do something different and progressive. “’Genesis’ wasn’t really a concept album based on the Bible,” says Tully, “but more about looking back and learning from old wisdom”.

Tully speaks of “his dream stories, about waking up with ideas, the words, and music together, real stream of consciousness stuff.” “It was more about the feel than the actual words,” Tully says.

The core of Mike McCully (drums), Tully McCully (vocals, bass), and Ian Smith (brass and flute) from the ‘Inc’ album were now enhanced by the Hendrix-influenced guitarist Bruce Gordon.

The musical vibe at the time of the album’s recording was very brass influenced by bands like Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Traffic pushing the boundaries of Jazz and Rock.

Inspired by the progressive albums of the time, ‘Genesis’ included a number of long tracks with sub-sections. However, in the interest of garnering radio play ‘(We All) Look For The Sun’ and ‘Sweet Fields of Green’ were more pop-influenced. “Pop” was inspired by The Beatles, though, rather than the throwaway bubblegum pop prevalent at the time.

Tully remembers that when he was asked what type of band they were he would reply, “we play heavy music”. Terms like “heavy” and “underground” were very broad terms in those heady days of the early ’70s to describe music that was not pop or radio-friendly.

‘Sweet Fields Of Green’ was released as a single, reaching #2 on the LM Radio charts in August 1971. The follow-up single ‘Birds Flying High’ (actually the flipside of ‘Rainbow Illusion’), recorded shortly after the ‘Genesis’ sessions, peaked at #9 on the LM Radio charts.

Tully recalls the recording sessions being a fun time and due to the limitations of the 4-track recording studio, most songs were recorded in one take. If they made a mistake, they would do the whole take over again, not an easy thing to do with songs exceeding seven minutes!

Ian Smith took care of the brass arrangements and Tully used multi-tracking techniques to make him sound like a horn section, mainly utilizing the trumpet and flugelhorn, though the flute also makes its presence felt a few times.

Due to wiring problems in the studio, the original album mix was out-of-phase and unusable and Tully had about two hours to remix the album in a Johannesburg studio before it went to the pressing plant.

Keith Madders, a friend of the band and big music fan introduced them to painter Tommy McLelland. He took photos of the band members and then included their likenesses into an original painting with religious overtones. The original painting was one-meter square and to be mysterious the name of the band does not actually appear on the cover. “This was not a deliberate ploy”, says Tully, but it has probably led a few vinyl collectors over the years, to think they have discovered a lost gem by Peter Gabriel’s band.

Madders also came up with the name for Tully’s Spaced-Out Sound Studios, as well as the name Crocodile Harris for Robin Graham. ‘Miss Eva Goodnight’ was composed by the McCully Brothers and McCully Workshop played on this song, which was released by Crocodile Harris in 1974.

After Genesis

After ‘Genesis’ came more line-up changes, more albums, and huge hits with ‘Buccaneer’ and ‘Chinese Junkman’, but all that is for another time.

The McCully Brothers and their talented friends continue to be very involved with making and recording music and McCully Workshop released a live album recorded in early 2008.

There is even a possibility of a new original McCully Workshop album due sometime in 2009 which will hark back to the progressive rock sounds of ‘Genesis’ and their lengthy jamming sessions from their Canterbury Inn residency in the late ’70s.

Looks like the Workshop is still open for business…

Brian Currin
August 2008

Following on from their psych pop-tinged debut “Inc” and the brass rock energy of “Genesis”, McCully Workshop reinvented themselves as progressive rockers on “Ages” with its keyboard-driven direction with elements of Celtic jigs and hard rockers. Includes seven previously unavailable bonus tracks, updated liner notes, and photos.

Through the Ages…

In 1965, the McCullagh brothers, Tully (born Terence on 31st May 1953) and Mike (born Michael on 7th April 1947) started as a folk-rock trio with Richard Hyam and called themselves the Blue Three. After a few personnel- and name-changes, they settled on McCully Workshop as they used to rehearse in Mrs. McCullagh’s garage. Their debut album ‘McCully Workshop Inc.’ was released in June 1970 and included the hit single ‘Why Can’t It Rain’. ‘Inc’ has been referred to as: “‘Sgt. Pepper’ influenced psychedelic music blended with R&B, garage punk tunes. Great songs, lovely vocals, strong harmonies, great distorted guitar work.”

After the ‘Inc’ album there was a deliberate move to do something different and progressive and with the band`s second album ‘Genesis’, released in 1971, they embraced a more brass influenced sound ala Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears with elements of Traffic, pushing the boundaries of Jazz and Rock., McCully Workshop spent the next three to four years changing line-ups and playing countless live gigs. They moved away from the brassy sound of the ‘Genesis’ album and replaced it with a more keyboard-dominated lineup and returned to the studio to lay down tracks for a new album.

The Recording Of Ages

The `Workshop` hunkered down in Advision Studios in Long Street, Cape Town with Tully as engineer and producer. ‘Ages’ was recorded using a Studer 1 inch 4 track recorder.

“’Ages’ is a sort-of concept album”, remembers Mike McCully. In the early ’70s, the promise made by the improvisational bands in the late ’60s, like Cream, Iron Butterfly, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and many others, had started to bear fruit. It was a time of rock music becoming really heavy and progressive, but also a time of the Singer-Songwriters genre and Folk Rock. Medieval themes, Lord Of The Rings, and ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ styles were also the order of the day. Keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman had released an instrumental album about the ‘Six Wives Of Henry VIII’, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow had sung about ‘The Man On The Silver Mountain’ and Uriah Heep celebrated ‘The Magician’s Birthday’.Mike says that when McCully Workshop used to perform live around that time, the setlist would include their arrangements of classical pieces like Bach’s ‘Toccata in D Minor’, Grieg’s ‘Hall Of The Mountain King’ and Strauss’ ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ (better known as the theme to ‘2001: A Space Odyssey)’ alongside ‘Every Little Thing’ by The Beatles and ‘The Man From Afghanistan’ by Curtiss Maldoon. Quite an eclectic mix.

When asked about his favourite song on the ‘Ages’ album, Mike McCully says without hesitation: ‘I Walked Alone’. “This song had very difficult drumming, and I was influenced by Jim Keltner at the time. And the drumming on ‘Guinevere’ features double-tracked triplets”, continues Mike, “and live I used to play this with four sticks (a la John Bonham) for audio and visual effect.” The album opener, ‘Avenue’ is a bass-driven rock track, which echoes ‘Salisbury’-era Uriah Heep, whilst ‘Carbon Canyon’ is an up-tempo Steve Miller Band influenced blues boogie with rollicking piano and cool guitar licks from Richard Black (born 9th December 1946) who had been playing guitar with various bands since the mid-60s. He had been in a rock power trio, Elephant, with George Wolfaardt (Abstract Truth) and Savvy Grande (Suck) and he brought his impressive rock credentials into McCully Workshop as a replacement to Bruce Gordon. Black also brought his flute-playing skills to the ‘Ages’ album, and the flute adds an extra dimension to the Focus-inspired instrumental ‘Shingles’. ‘Step On Easy’ is influenced by Country Folk Rock, and would not have been out of place on a Stealers Wheel album. ‘Blues In C minor’ was recorded live at the Students Union Hall at the University Of Cape Town. It is a tongue-in-cheek improvisational live blues jam with Tully trying out his best Louis Armstrong impersonation. “It was a spoof song”, says Tully, “I would make up different lyrics every time I sang it”. Leon Morton’s organ-playing shines on this song.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer were a big influence on the recording sessions. Keyboardist Leon Morton loved Keith Emerson, Mike McCully rated Carl Palmer as a top drummer, and Tully McCully is a singing bassist, just like Greg Lake. Leon Morton used an Elka Rhapsody string synthesizer (also used by artists like Jean-Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream) extensively on the ‘Ages’ album, and the epic chords on ‘The Plague’ are thanks to this instrument.

Richard Wilson’s violin playing can be heard on a number of tracks on ‘Ages’ including a few of his own compositions. ‘1623’ and ‘Shingles’ are among Tully’s favourite songs on the album .’Great medieval sounds, mixed in with Irish jigs”, says Tully. “They were very much in the style of 70’s prog-rock band East Of Eden`s surprise hit single,. ‘Jig-A-Jig’ ,we even used to play that song at our live performances”. Richard Wilson was also a classically-trained pianist and his playing can be heard prominently on ‘Guinevere’. This song is a powerful prog-rock ballad that reached the LM Radio Top Ten. The vocal harmonies of Crocodile Harris can be heard on this track and it was performed live during the early days of South African TV.

McCully Workshop always prided themselves on their vocal harmonies and was influenced by bands such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Yes, The Beach Boys, Uriah Heep, The Moody Blues, and The Beatles. “We were always well-rehearsed with our vocal harmonies”, remembers Tully. ‘Forgot How To Smile’ was penned by Richard Black and Tully wanted to try something different with the vocals, so he put them through a guitar phase pedal! On the subject of strange effects, the echo chamber for this album was the 18 by 12 foot corrugated iron water tank on the roof of the studio building. “We put a speaker on one side, and two mikes on the opposite side to create echo and reverb effects,” says Tully. “Then one day a storm came and blew the water tank across the road on top of the building next door!” Unperturbed they strung cables across and continued to use it.

After Ages

Leon Morton left to pursue a career in banking, and Richard Wilson formed the Wright Brothers with Crocodile Harris and they had a hit with Tully’s composition ‘Silver Bird’.

Rupert Mellor joined on keyboards and their biggest hit ‘Buccaneer’ lay just around the corner. 35 years after ‘Ages’ the Workshop is still open for business.

Brian Currin
December 2009

McCully Workshop

Tully McCully- lead vocals, bass, guitar
Richard Black- lead guitar, vocals
Richard Wilson- electric violin, mellotron, electric piano
Leon Morton- organ, synthesizer
Mike McCully – drums & percussion

Possibly one of the longest-lasting bands in South African history, McCully Workshop has dominated music for over 4 decades. Gathered together for the first time is a collection of their greatest songs drawn from their multiple musical influences over the years including tracks from their prog-rock epics and pop-rock chart material. Featuring “Buccaneer”, “Chinese Junkman”, ”Why can’t it rain “, ’Avenue” and “Reaching for a dream”.

Still flying high… The McCully Workshop Story

The McCullagh brothers, Tully (born Terence on 31st May 1953) and Mike (born Michael on 7th April 1947), have been an integral part of the South African music scene for five decades now. In 1965 they started as a folk-rock trio with Richard Hyam and called themselves the Blue Three. Richard had been in a folk duo, Tiny Folk, with his sister Melanie. After a few personnel and name changes, like The Blue Beats and Larfing Stocke, the line-up settled down (for a while) in 1969.

“I had my own studio in the garage since I was 12” remembers Tully. It was a single garage in the garden of their home in Plumstead, in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town. The brothers’ father, radio personality Michael Drin (his stage name), painted the name “McCully Workshop, Inc.” on the garage wall. “McCully” was an easier-to-spell version of McCullagh and the “Inc.” was a tongue-in-cheek addition. “We had been playing music for 6 years” remembers Mike McCullagh. “In 1969 I was 22 and Tully was 16, along with Richard Hyam, his sister Melanie and Allan Faull the group started.” “We all wrote our own songs”, continues Mike, “and we just took the best ones for the album. Tully wrote ‘Why Can’t It Rain’ in the middle of the night and this became a hit single putting McCully Workshop on the charts for the first time.” This song went to number 12 on the Springbok Radio charts in July 1970 and also reached number 13 on the LM Radio charts.“Why Can’t It Rain” drew the attention of the Gallo label, and they said they wanted an album. McCully Workshop signed probably the first independent licensing deal with a major label in South Africa.

The “Inc.” album shows a variety of styles and influences including The Beatles, Frank Zappa, and Pink Floyd. “’Sgt Pepper’ was very important, as were the pop charts at the time”, recalls Tully. Another big influence, according to Tully, was The Moody Blues ‘Threshold Of A Dream’ which was released in April 1969. Echoes of Graeme Edge’s poems can be heard in Mike McCully’s spoken words during the moon landing-inspired ‘Head For The Moon’. A photo of the garage was used as the album cover. The photo was taken by Sigurd Olivier from the Argus newspaper and the cat’s name was Sirikit.

The follow-up to ‘Inc’ was the album ‘Genesis’ recorded in early 1971 and released in June of that year by Trutone Records with catalogue number STO 745. After the ‘Inc’ album there was a deliberate move to do something different and progressive. “’Genesis’ wasn’t really a concept album based on the Bible,” says Tully, “but more about looking back and learning from old wisdom”. Tully speaks of “…dream stories, about waking up with ideas, the words and music together, real stream of consciousness stuff.” “It was more about the feel than the actual words,” Tully explains. The core of Mike McCully (drums), Tully McCully (vocals, bass) and Ian Smith (brass and flute) from the ‘Inc’ album was now enhanced by the Hendrix-influenced guitarist Bruce Gordon. The contemporary musical vibe at the time of the album’s recording was very brass influenced with bands like Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Traffic pushing the boundaries of Jazz and Rock.

McCully Workshop spent the next three to four years changing line-ups and playing countless live gigs. They moved away from the brassy sound of the ‘Genesis’ album and replaced it with a more keyboard-dominated lineup and returned to the studio to lay down tracks for a new album. The `Workshop` hunkered down in Advision Studios in Long Street, Cape Town with Tully as engineer and producer. ‘Ages’ was recorded using a Studer 1 inch 4 track recorder.
“’Ages’ is a sort-of concept album”, remembers Mike McCully. In the early ’70s, the promise made by the improvisational bands in the late ’60s, like Cream, Iron Butterfly, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and many others, had started to bear fruit. It was a time of rock music becoming really heavy and progressive, but also a time of the Singer-Songwriters genre and Folk Rock. Medieval themes, Lord Of The Rings, and ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ styles were also the order of the day. Mike says that when McCully Workshop used to perform live around that time, the setlist would include their arrangements of classical pieces like Bach’s ‘Toccata in D Minor’, Grieg’s ‘Hall Of The Mountain King’ and Strauss’ ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ (better known as the theme to ‘2001: A Space Odyssey)’ alongside ‘Every Little Thing’ by The Beatles and ‘The Man From Afghanistan’ by Curtiss Maldoon. Quite an eclectic mix.

When asked about his favourite song on the ‘Ages’ album, Mike McCully says without hesitation: ‘I Walked Alone’. “This song had very difficult drumming, and I was influenced by Jim Keltner at the time. And the drumming on ‘Guinevere’ features double-tracked triplets”, continues Mike, “and live I used to play this with four sticks (a la John Bonham) for audio and visual effect.” The album opener, ‘Avenue’ is a bass-driven rock track, which echoes ‘Salisbury’-era Uriah Heep, whilst ‘Carbon Canyon’ is an up-tempo Steve Miller Band influenced blues boogie with rollicking piano and cool guitar licks from Richard Black who brought his impressive rock credentials into McCully Workshop as a replacement to Bruce Gordon. Black also brought his flute-playing skills to the ‘Ages’ album, and the flute adds an extra dimension to the Focus-inspired instrumental ‘Shingles’. ‘Step On Easy’ is influenced by Country Folk Rock, and would not have been out of place on a Stealers Wheel album. ‘Blues In C minor’ was recorded live at the Students Union Hall at the University Of Cape Town. It is a tongue-in-cheek improvisational live blues jam with Tully trying out his best Louis Armstrong impersonation. “It was a spoof song”, says Tully, “I would make up different lyrics every time I sang it”. Leon Morton’s organ-playing shines on this song.

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer were a big influence on the recording sessions. Keyboardist Leon Morton loved Keith Emerson, Mike McCully rated Carl Palmer as a top drummer, and Tully McCully is a singing bassist, just like Greg Lake. Leon Morton used an Elka Rhapsody string synthesizer (also used by artists like Jean-Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream) extensively on the ‘Ages’ album, and the epic chords on ‘The Plague’ are thanks to this instrument.

Richard Wilson’s violin playing can be heard on a number of tracks on ‘Ages’ including a few of his own compositions. ‘1623’ and ‘Shingles’ are among Tully’s favourite songs on the album .’Great medieval sounds, mixed in with Irish jigs”, says Tully. “They were very much in the style of 70’s prog-rock band East Of Eden`s surprise hit single,. ‘Jig-A-Jig’, we even used to play that song at our live performances”. Richard Wilson was also a classically-trained pianist and his playing can be heard prominently on ‘Guinevere’. This song is a powerful prog-rock ballad that reached the LM Radio Top Ten. The vocal harmonies of Crocodile Harris can be heard on this track and it was performed live during the early days of South African TV.

McCully Workshop always prided themselves on their vocal harmonies and was influenced by bands such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Yes, The Beach Boys, Uriah Heep, The Moody Blues, and The Beatles. “We were always well-rehearsed with our vocal harmonies”, remembers Tully. ‘Forgot How To Smile’ was penned by Richard Black and Tully wanted to try something different with the vocals, so he put them through a guitar phase pedal! On the subject of strange effects, the echo chamber for this album was the 18 by 12 foot corrugated iron water tank on the roof of the studio building. “We put a speaker on one side, and two mikes on the opposite side to create echo and reverb effects,” says Tully. “Then one day a storm came and blew the water tank across the road on top of the building next door!” Unperturbed they strung cables across and continued to use it.
After the release of  “Ages” Leon Morton left to pursue a career in banking, and Richard Wilson formed the Wright Brothers with Crocodile Harris who had a hit with Tully’s composition ‘Silver Bird’. Rupert Mellor joined on keyboards and together with Tully, Mike and Richard embarked on a string of Top 10 hits with the likes of ‘Buccaneer’ and “Chinese Junkman”, both of which appear on the “Revisited” album.

40 years after “Inc” the Workshop is still open for business.

Brian Currin