Medicine Head

Medicine Head were a British blues rock band – initially a duo – active in the 1970s. Their biggest single success was in 1973 with "One and One Is One", which reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart. The group recorded six original albums, the first three of which were released by John Peel's Dandelion label.

Main personnel

For most of its career, the group was a duo comprising:

John Fiddler (born 25 September 1947, the Moxley area of Darlaston, Staffordshire, England) – (vocals, guitars, piano and drums)

Peter Hope-Evans (born 28 September 1947, Brecon, Powys, Wales) – (harmonica, Jew's harp, guitar, and mouthbow)

At various stages, the band involved the following musicians: Laurence Archer, Clive Edwards, Keith Relf, Tony Ashton, Roger Saunders, George Ford, John Davies, Rob Townsend and Morgan Fisher.

Career

Fiddler and Hope-Evans met while attending Wednesfield Grammar School, Wolverhampton and later Stafford Art School, only to then quit, and began performing together on an informal basis. In or around 1968, they began performing the blues and rock and roll songs in pubs and clubs in and around Birmingham. Radio DJ John Peel saw Fiddler and Hope-Evans perform at the Lafayette Club and later shared their music with John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend. At Lennon's insistence, the duo was signed by Dandelion Records.

The demo recording of "His Guiding Hand" was released as a single, Peel describing it as "the cheapest single ever made and one of the classic records of all time" and keeping the single in his box of most treasured records. The duo's first album, New Bottles Old Medicine, was recorded in a single two-hour session, and they toured with Peel at many of his gigs, Peel paying them out of his own fee.