Kippington Lodge

Best remembered as the vehicle for the earliest Nick Lowe (b. 24 March 1949, Walton-On-Thames, Surrrey, England.) recordings, Kippington Lodge stemmed from Lowe’s first band, Sounds 4+1, which he formed with school pal, Brinsley Schwarz. On leaving school, Lowe, already used to a nomadic existence as his father was in the Royal Air Force, decided to go and see some more of the world leaving, Schwarz to return to his native Tunbridge Wells in Kent. Here Schwarz formed Three’s A Crowd who were signed to EMI Records in 1967. Changing their name to Kippington Lodge they released their debut ‘Shy Boy’ in October. This effective pop song was accompanied by the equally good ‘Lady On A Bicycle’. At this point, Lowe returned to England and joined his friends in time for the second single ‘Rumours’ which was produced by Mark Wirtz. Lowe’s arrival fixed the line-up as Schwarz (guitar/vocals), Lowe (bass/vocals), Barry Landerman (organ) and Pete Whale (drums). Landerman soon departed - later resurfacing in Vanity Fare - and was replaced by Bob Andrews (b. 20 June 1949). To supplement their lack of income from record sales, Kippington Lodge became Billie Davies’ backing group and released three further singles during 1968-69. These releases were produced by EMI stalwarts such as Mike Collier, Roger Easterby and Des Champ. The last single, a version of the Beatles’ ‘In My Life’, came out in April 1969 and, after doing as poorly as previous efforts, left the group at a loose end. In September they replaced Pete Whale with the American drummer Billy Rankin and the name Kippington Lodge was dropped in favour of that of lead guitarist Brinsley Schwarz.