This recording could have been The GBO’s debut album had Graham Bond not signed deals with three major labels simultaneously. 

The recording was made by Giorgio Gomelsky and his sound-engineer Philip Wood. Previous endeavours included the Yardbirds’ first British LP Five Live Yardbirds, recorded at the Marquee and the Alan Price Rhythm & Blues Combo lived at Newcastle’s Club A’GoGo. (When they relocated to London, they changed their name to The Animals at Bond’s suggestion). 

Formerly a jazz club named after US drummer Kenny Clarke’s 1956 album Klooks Clique, Klooks Kleek in West Hampstead also hosted Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce’s debut London performance with Eric Clapton (ex-Yardbirds) as Cream in August 1966. The GBO tapes feature both Bruce’s signature tune ‘Train Time’, and Baker’s ‘Early in The Morning’. 

While this 1964 recording succeeded in getting the GBO signed to EMI’s Columbia imprint less than two months after it was recorded, it wasn’t released until 1972, when Jean-Luc Young issued it on his French label BYG Records as part of the archival Rock Generation series. This was a departure from BYG’s esoteric jazz recordings and a first step towards the creation of Charly Records in 1974.