Cliff Bennett - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: 1970

Here's the fourth and final volume of Cliff Bennett playing for the BBC. For the previous three, he stuck pretty consistently to a soul-influenced sound. But for this volume, while he still had a soulful voice, he caught up to the trends of the time, and went for more of a bluesy, hard rock sound. The AllMusic review of his music around this era compares it to Humble Pie, Savoy Brown, and Status Quo. So if you like them, you'll probably like this.

Bennett had previously been backed by the Rebel Rousers for most of his music career until this point. (He actually stopped using the Rebel Rousers name in 1968.) But he dropped them, and was billed just by the name of his new band, "Toe Fat." But as the AllMusic review says, "Unfortunately, although it met with widespread critical kudos, Toe Fat's debut was a resounding commercial flop, and may now be best remembered because of its curious, Hipgnosis-designed cover art, featuring toe-headed people lounging on a beach." 

Personally, I think the band really screwed up with their bizarre name - what the heck is "toe fat" anyway? And they also screwed up with their bizarre album covers. Their second cover was just as off putting as their first. AllMusic describes it like this: "a battle scene, pitting some species of alien lard against assorted roast chicken parts and a helpless bunch of grapes." Back in those pre-Internet days, it would have been hard for people to even figure out what kind of music Toe Fat played. But on the plus side, their obscurity then means this might be a surprise discovery for you now.

In case you're curious, here are the two album covers I speak of.

As an aside, note that the A-side of their first single was "Bad Side of Moon," and it's also included here. That was written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and released by Toe Fat shortly before Elton John became famous.

Note that nearly every song has "[Edit]" in the title, because even in 1970 the BBC DJs talked over most of their songs. I did the usual thing, using the UVR5 audio editing program to wipe the talking and keep the music.

Toe Fat broke up in 1971 after two studio albums. Two band members joined Uriah Heep instead. Bennett went back to a solo career, sometimes with the reformed Rebel Rousers, sometimes not. But it seems his commercial fortunes dropped low enough for the BBC to lose interest in him, because I can't find any BBC sessions he did after this.

This album is 38 minutes long.

01 That's My Love for You [Edit] (Cliff Bennett & Toe Fat)
02 Bad Side of the Moon [Edit] (Cliff Bennett & Toe Fat)
03 I Done Told You [Edit] (Cliff Bennett & Toe Fat)
04 Turns Out like the Rest [Edit] (Cliff Bennett & Toe Fat)
05 Idol [Edit] (Cliff Bennett & Toe Fat)
06 Gone [Edit] (Cliff Bennett & Toe Fat)
07 Three Times (Cliff Bennett & Toe Fat)
08 Midnight Sun [Edit] (Cliff Bennett & Toe Fat)
09 A New Way (Cliff Bennett & Toe Fat)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17175667/CLIFFBNNTT1970BBSessonsVlum4_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/EPEBNgH2

I could only find a few black and white photos of the Toe Fat band. I took one of those, cropped it to just Bennett's head, then colorized it using the Palette program.  

UPDATE: On September 29, 2024, I upgraded the photo with the use of the Krea AI program.