Medicine Head with John Fiddler

John Fiddler in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://medicinehead.rocks/

Fiddler and Hope-Evans met while attending Wednesfield Grammar School, and later Stafford Art School and began performing together on an informal basis. In or around 1968, they began performing the blues and rock and roll songs in pubs and clubs in and around Birmingham. Radio DJ John Peel saw Fiddler and Hope-Evans perform at the Lafayette Club and later shared their music with John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend. At Lennon's insistence, the duo was signed by Dandelion Records.

The demo recording of "His Guiding Hand" was released as a single, Peel describing it as "the cheapest single ever made and one of the classic records of all time" and keeping the single in his box of most treasured records. The duo's first album, New Bottles Old Medicine, was recorded in a single two-hour session, and they toured with Peel at many of his gigs, Peel paying them out of his own fee. Their second album, Heavy on the Drum, was recorded with Keith Relf, formerly of The Yardbirds, as producer. The single "(And The) Pictures in the Sky" rose to number 22 on the UK Singles Chart in 1971. This was not included on Heavy on the Drum, but was added to CD reissues of their debut, New Bottles Old Medicine. "(And The) Pictures in the Sky" was the first hit on the Dandelion label.