Music Reissues Weekly: Sharks - Car Crash Supergroup

Sharks were formed in 1972 by bassist Andy Fraser after he left Free. There were two albums, line-up changes and ripples which resonated after the band spilt in 1974. A 2017 reunion album featured former Sex Pistol Paul Cook on drums. “Sophistication,” from Sharks' 1974 second album Jab It In Yore Eye, had an insistent riff Mick Jones repurposed for The Clash's “Should I Stay or Should I go.”

There is more to Sharks’ aftermath, but the dovetailing with what would become British punk rock is, on the face of it, unlikely. Sharks were a band born from the aftershocks of the late sixties British blues boom and made music which, in the main, could only have tied-in to that scene. Nonetheless, their frill-free style touched a chord with figures who would be integral to the birth of Brit-punk.

Andy Fraser had left Free on 22 July 1972 as the band were about to begin a tour of Japan. Guitarist Paul Kossoff was increasingly unreliable and unstable, and Fraser – pre-Free, he was briefly in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers – had had enough. The band were shaky anyway. They formed in May 1968, fell apart in May 1971 and reformed in January 1972 following which the single “Little Bit of Love” was a hit. Fraser, though, was off.

His new band played their first show in October 1972. As well as Fraser, they were: Steve “Snips” Parsons (vocals), Canada’s Marty Simon (drums) and top-drawer session player Chris Spedding (guitar). Island Records, Free’s label, was interested in Fraser’s next move and the head of A&R Muff Winwood brought Snips, then fronting Nothineverappens, into the new band. Debut album, First Water, was recorded in December 1972 and issued in April 1973 while the band were touring the UK as support to labelmates Roxy Music. These were Eno’s final dates with Roxy, and Sharks’ Simon and Spedding played on his debut solo album Here Come The Warm Jets. In February 1973, Spedding's customised Sharks car – with teeth on its front grill – crashed and Fraser was injured. Hence part of the title of this 3-CD clamshell set Car Crash Supergroup: The Island Years 1973-1974. The word “supergroup” is perhaps a stretch: does the presence of Fraser really merit the description?

First Water – taking up much of Disc One – is as bluesy as might be expected but doesn’t sound like Free. Snips has a Paul Rodgers rasp but the songs have a Faces swagger and are, generally, poppy. Oddly, there are broad hints towards the strutting rock Rodgers’ post-Free band Bad Company would perfect. The acoustic guitar-based version of “Steel Away” has a Stones’ “Wild Horses” vibe. In the US, Billboard said of First Water “Group leaders here are Andy Fraser (ex-Free) an popular session guitarist Chris Spedding. The sound they create with Marty Simon on drums and Snips on vocals (a la Joe Cocker) is a hard driving rocking one which should attract them many followers. Sharks is (are) ready to make a splash.” The album entered the lower reaches of the US Top 40.

Once First Water was out, Fraser left. In his engaging, frank essay for the booklet coming with the set, Snips writes “the recording process [for the album] had been an absolute disaster. Andy Johns as co-producer with the band itself seemed like a good choice but, unfortunately, Johns had just spent a year in France working with The Rolling Stones where he had picked up some extremely bad habits. Johns brought both heroin and cocaine into the studio. There were heated confrontations between myself and Fraser over the musical direction of the band. His songs were immaculately arranged whereas mine were delivered as rough sketches on acoustic guitar. Both Simon and Spedding seized on the opportunity to have a great deal of input and place their own signatures on the musical arrangements created for my songs. Although Andy never raised the issue directly, preferring awkward silences, it was obvious that my contribution to the songs on First Water was not welcome from his corner.”

Contracted to make a second album, Sharks pushed on without Fraser. Initial candidates for a new bassist included Boz Burrell (later in Bad Company), former Family and Blind Faith member Ric Grech and Tom Robinson (that one). In the end, they went with a suggestion of Mick Jagger’s: Memphis bassist Busta “Cherry” Jones. The also added keyboard player Nick Judd and debuted the new line-up live in August 1973 (both Jones and Judd were also on Eno’s Here Come The Warm Jets). December recording sessions resulted in what became second album Jab It In Yore Eye, issued in March 1974 in an arresting-come-hideous sleeve. US dates followed – some supporting Roxy Music.

Jab It In Yore Eye, the focus of Disc Two, is different to First Water. Looser, more soulful in a Muscle Shoals southern rock way, the band’s blues predilections are now a backdrop. There is also (with “Sun Beat Down”) a non-embarrassing nod to reggae. Some of its more rootsy aspects have a slight Mott The Hoople flavour, possibly what attracted Mott fan and future Clash man Mick Jones. It is an assured album, but once the band were back in the UK after the US tour Snips and Spedding were abandoned by their three other fellow Sharks.

With a new bassist and drummer on board, a third album was begun with The Who’s John Entwitsle as producer. Island rejected what they heard. These tracks were later issued as The Car Crash Tapes and are collected here on Disc Three in better fidelity than previously. In his text, Snips says at this point Island was more interested in recent signeees Sparks than Sharks which is a pity as what was recorded in 1974 has, again, that Bad Company feel but from a more poppy, reductive perspective. What’s here could have clicked, but that was it for Sharks.

After an ill-fitting spell with the Baker Gurvitz Army, Snips resurfaced over 1978 to 1981 with a series of convincing Tom Petty-esque and new wave-styled records. In 1978, he produced a demos for Adam and The Ants. Some of his solo records from the era – the 1980 solo single “9 O’Clock” was compared in NME to Buzzcocks’ Pete Shelley – were produced by Midge Ure and featured Bill Nelson. Snips’ former Sharks colleague Busta "Cherry" Jones became a regular Talking Heads collaborator. Chris Spedding went solo after Sharks, produced Sex Pistols' first demo, recorded with The Vibrators and, amongst countless other ventures, has worked intermittently with Snips.

As unlikely as it is, Car Crash Supergroup: The Island Years 1973-1974 – with its non-album material and bonus live tracks – celebrates a band formed by a member of Free which had other participants who were effortlessly simpatico with the punk and new wave eras. Even so, it remains hard to hear this in what Sharks recorded over 1973 to 1974. Nonetheless, Sharks resonated for The Clash’s Mick Jones and Sex Pistols’ Paul Cook. Herein, then, an unsung element of the picture which coalesced as British punk rock.

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