by IanEye » Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:44 pm
The Voice - "Train To Disaster"
[url=http://www.mickronson.com/mrearly.shtml]In London, Mick (Ronson) took a part time job in a garage and soon joined a group called The Voice. The group was from Scotland, having formed as The Royal Crests before moving to London and changing their name to Karl Stuart and the Profile and signing with Mercury. The Profile released three singles fro Mercury, before changing their name to The Voice.
Mick was replacing Miller Anderson as lead guitarist in The Voice, and the two played alternating sets for a few gigs during the transition. The Voice had released one single in 1965 while Miller Anderson was still in the band. 'Train To Disaster' b/w 'Truth' (1965 Mercury MF905) is an expensive slice of psychedelia, fetching prices in excess of 100 pounds in collector circles. (Miller Anderson, coincidentally, had also been playing in bands with Ian Hunter around this time.)
Mick played a few dates with The Voice, and when their drummer left Mick called in his old Mariners and Crestas bandmate Dave Bradfield to fill in. Bradfield's successful audition was held in Brighton, where the group was playing support to The Yardbirds that very evening. Yardbirds historian Doug Hinman points to a scheduled appearance at Brighton Top Rank on 18 March 1966 as the likely date for the Dave Bradfield audition.
[Dave Bradfield] Mick got in touch with this band, and I went down to join them. I had an interview, did my drumming, and was accepted. They were playing with The Yardbirds down in Brighton when I joined. Jeff Beck, who was in the Yardbirds, was Mick's idol.
The Voice was backed by a religious organization called The Process, which was founded by Robert De Grimston Moore and Mary Ann McClean. In 1964, the pair started a therapy group called Compulsions Analysis, which soon blossomed into a religious cult called The Process Church of the Final Judgement, or 'The Process' for short. By 1965, The Process had moved to a mansion in Mayfair at Balfour Place.
[Dave Bradfield] There was a singer, a keyboard player, a bass player, Mick, and myself. The other members were all members of the religious cult. They had a big mansion in the middle of London, and the couple that led it were called Bob and Mary Ann.
Mick's dream of turning professional in London was quickly dashed, however, when he and Dave Bradfield returned from a weekend in Hull.
[Dave Bradfield] We were playing down there for a while, professionally, and one day we came back from a holiday in Hull and our gear was on our bed in our flat down Cavendish Road in London. There was a note saying 'We've bought an island, and we've gone off to The Bahamas with Bob and Mary Ann.' And that was that. What happened to them, I have no idea!
The date of the group's departure for the Bahamas has been fixed as 23 June 1966 in biographies of The Process. After the band left for the tropics, Mick stayed in London looking for more work while Dave Bradfield returned to Hull. Mick soon teamed up with a band called The Wanted, playing Motown material, but the group broke up almost immediately. This left Mick Ronson in debt, and with no choice but to return to Hull.[/url]
