Collective Consciousness Society, more commonly known as CCS, were a British musical group, led by blues guitarist Alexis Korner.
Formed in 1970 by musical director John Cameron and record producer Mickie Most, CCS consisted largely of session musicians, and was created primarily as a recording outfit. The personnel also included Peter Thorup, vocals; Alan Parker, guitar; Harold McNair, flute; Herbie Flowers, bass; Roger Coulam, keyboards; Barry Morgan, drums; plus Don Lusher and Bill Geldard, trombone. Some of the musicians were also members of Blue Mink.
CCS are best known for their instrumental version of Led Zeppelin's 1969 track "Whole Lotta Love", which got into in the UK Singles Chart in 1970,[1] and was used as the theme music for the BBC pop programme Top of the Pops for most of the 1970s, and, in a remixed version, between 1997 and 2003. Technically, the TOTP theme was not by CCS, but was recorded by the TOTP orchestra one morning before the day's rehearsals. Having said that, the band was conducted by John Cameron on that occasion and many of the musicians were CCS regulars. This enabled the production to tailor the tune to the correct duration and, more importantly, avoided the weekly payment of royalties to the record label.
Their single, "Brother", was used as the theme to Tom Browne's and Simon Bates' Sunday Top 40/20 Chart Rundown on Radio 1 in the 70's.
Their highest-charting singles were the Donovan song "Walkin'", and "Tap Turns on the Water". They also recorded three albums, including cover versions of the old blues standard "Boom Boom", "Living in the Past", and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" as well as original material. A retrospective compilation album, Singles As, Bs and Rarities was released in 2004.
Not widely known is that the band were also responsible for the first set of jingles for Manchester's Piccadilly Radio when the station launched in April 1974 — examples can be found on ex Piccadilly presenter Jeff Cooper's website.
Formed in 1970 around bluesman Alexis Korner and Peter Thorup. The rest of the line-up was rather loose and depended on people's availability but it included the likes of Tony Carr (drums), Harold Beckett (trumpet), Herbie Flowers (bs), Henry Lowther (trumpet) and Harold McNair (woodwind) to name but a few. They were among the first groups to record on Mickie Most's new Rak label and John Cameron arranged their albums. They had several hit singles, commencing with a cover of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love, which was used as the theme for BBC's 'Top Of The Pops' in this era. This also got to No 58 in the US, where their debut album made No 197. Their music was characterised by Korner's unique growling vocals. They split in 1973 when Korner and Thorup teamed up with former King Crimson members Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace to form Snape.
1. Boom Boom (Hooker) 3:32 2. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (Jagger/Richard) 4:30 3. Waiting Song (Thorup) 4:32 4. Lookin' For Fun (Thorup/Fich) 3:59 5. Whole Lotta Love (Page/Plant/Jones/Bonham) 3:41 6. Living In The Past (Anderson) 3:46 7. Sunrise (Korner) 5:14 8. Dos Cantos (Cameron) 8:05 9. Wade In The Water (Trad.arr.Cameron) 2:54 Bonus Tracks 10. Walking (Persons/Spedding) 3:10 1971 11. Salome (Cameron/Korner) 3:03 1971 12. Tap Turns On The Water (Cameron/Korner) 3:40 1971 13. Save The World (Cameron) 4:00 1971
The Band; Trumpets: Greg Bowen or Tony Fisher, Les Condon, Harold Beckett Henry Lowther or Kenny Wheeler Trombones: Don Lusher, John Marshall or Brian Perrin, Bill Geldard French Horn: Neil Sanders Saxes/Woodwind: Harold McNair or Tony Coe, Pete King, Danny Moss, Bob Efford, Ron Ross Guitar: Alan Parker Bass guitar: Herbie Flower Bass: Spike Heatley Drums: Barry Morgan and Tony Carr Percussion: Jim Lawless or Bill L Sage Vocal: Alexis Korner and Peter Thorup Conductor/Electric Piano, etc.: John Cameron
All Arrangements by John Cameron Produced by Mickie Most Recording Engineer: Peter Brown
Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, May - July 1970
