Airforce
Formed in 1970 by drummer Ginger Baker, this capacious ensemble included Steve Winwood (keyboards) and Ric Grech (bass), ex-colleagues from the ‘supergroup’ Blind Faith. The initial Airforce line-up also featured two of Baker's early mentors, Graham Bond (saxophone/keyboards/vocals) and Phil Seaman (drums), as well as Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Chris Wood (saxophone), Harold McNair (flute), Bud Beadle (horns), Remi Kabaka (percussion) and Diane Stewart (Bond's wife) (backing vocals). Although AIRFORCE included the unit's promising, if ragged, interpretation of the Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey song, Man Of Constant Sorrow, the set was marked by the leader's predilection for lengthy percussive interludes. Bond's guttural jazz-rock was another influential factor in a largely self-indulgent approach which precluded commercial success. The departures of Winwood, Wood, McNair, Kabaka and Seaman undermined an already unstable act and although the remains were augmented by eight new members, AIRFORCE 2 was a largely undistinguished collection. Having dissolved the band, Baker moved to Lagos to study African drumming, while Bond and Stewart pursued elements of the Airforce sound in a new venture, Holy Magick.