Band Personnel:
Andy Clark: keyboards, vocals
Stephen Amazing: bass
Jim Copley: drums
+ Jeff Beck: guitar
+ David Bunce: guitar
The mystery train of rock music can churn down any number of fascinating side tracks. Connections are made, then abandoned. Accidents can happen…including more than a few cataclysmic train wrecks. (Blind Faith, anyone?) A perfect example of the detour phenomenon is the “accidental” band Upp (often spelled with all-caps, and not to be confused with Irish prog-rockers Fruupp).
This particular music profile was marginally more difficult to write than usual, as there’s scant material on Upp, and my discovery of them was an accident in itself. But Upp is interesting if for no other reason than its Spinal Tap-styled antecedents, and its significant connection to someone who, to many listeners’ ears (including the author’s), was the greatest guitar practitioner in rock. So, for that reason…let’s take Upp their short story.
Upp begins with keyboardist Andy Clark (not to be confused with Be-Bop Deluxe keyboardist Simon Andy Clark). Clark was in the 1966-68 incarnation of heavy-psych band Sam Gopal Dream, along with tabla player Gopal, guitarist Mick Hutchinson, and journeyman bassist Pete Sears. No recordings exist, but the group assisted sundry acid trips in the major London underground clubs of the day, and played at the 14 Hour Technicolor Dream and Christmas on Earth Continued extravaganzas. [A later Gopal lineup made the collectible stoner LP, Escalator (1969), featuring infamous Lemmy.]
Clark, Hutchinson, and Sears then formed the short-lived ensemble Vamp with crazed drummer Viv Prince (ex-Pretty Things). Vamp released one single, “Floatin'” / “Thinkin’ Too Much” (1968).
Clark and Hutchinson then formed Clark-Hutchinson with Stephen Field (bass, aka Stephen Amazing) and Del Coverly (drums). They managed three minor albums, the first of which, A=MH2 (1969), is praised by prog junkies for its extended raga workouts (while critic Richie Unterberger called it “the sort of thing you might hear blasting away…in the background of drug orgies in some low-rent psychsploitation flicks.”)
Having little success with music, Clark turned to pumping gas (petrol) for a living. But in 1973 he was given a limo ride by a roadie for David Bowie, during which he somehow finagled studio time where Bowie recorded. He and Amazing began casually rehearsing soul-jazz numbers with new drummer Jim Copley, calling themselves 3-Upp, then just Upp. This period coincided with Bowie’s ballyhooed farewell gig as “Ziggy Stardust” at Hammersmith Odeon on July 3, 1973. One featured guest at this show was guitarist Jeff Beck.
The story goes that Beck visited Bowie’s CBS studio, then overheard Upp rehearsing down the hall. He kicked open their rehearsal room door, at which the band, open-mouthed, abruptly stopped playing. “Please carry on! I love it, I love it!” raved Beck, according to drummer Copley. What followed was six months-worth of Upp jamming with Beck, resulting in two albums for Epic/CBS, the first with the legend himself as producer (though, oddly, he’s not credited anywhere). He also used Upp as his backing band for BBC broadcasts. All this was warmup to his seminal George Martin-produced fusion LP, Blow by Blow (1975).
It’s tempting of course to claim that, without Upp, Beck would never have embraced instrumental fusion like he did – musical stylings that he pursued until his death in 2023. Fact is, he’d already toyed with fusion with the Jeff Beck Group. Also, Beck himself claimed in interviews that drummer Billy Cobham‘s 1973 Spectrum album was the impetus for turning him away from vocal-heavy, bluesy hard rock and closer to jazz. (His hiring of Martin was spurred by Martin’s production of fusion giant Mahavishnu Orchestra‘s Apocalypse LP). Significantly, he didn’t enlist Upp for Blow by Blow, instead utilizing Max Middleton (keyboards), Phil Chen (bass), and Richard Bailey (drums).
But what of the music of Upp and This Way Upp? Well, the first album is pleasant after a few beers, maybe for a party, or for “background noise in some low-rent porn flick,” and overlooking some clumsy changes and fadeouts, and Clark’s English lad-trying-to-sound-like-Curtis Mayfield-and-Wilson Pickett vocals. Beck’s guitar is, naturally, the big draw. He’s politely restrained here, offering breathing room to the others, and Amazing earns his pseudonym with some hyperkinetic bass (see link below). Funk-jazz is the operative word, and much of this slight LP sounds like rehearsal material for “Constipated Duck,” a lesser song on Blow by Blow. Best cut is the tender “Jeff’s One,” written by Beck and Clark, with a Beck solo that’s the epitome of taste.
The eye-catching Magritte-inspired cover is by CBS Records staff designers Roslav Szaybo and Les May.
This Way Upp has a slicker, L.A. sound and seems aimed at the disco market. But it has more liveliness than the debut, with tighter playing, singing, and arrangements. Maybe it’s because Beck didn’t produce. (Upp was his only attempt at producing someone other than himself.) His guitar graces only two songs, though his playing is as impeccable as ever. (One David Bunce is main guitarist, and L.A. session saxophonist Tom Scott guests.) Best song: “Dance Your Troubles Away,” with both Beck and Scott.
***
It goes without saying, if you’re a Jeff Beck man, you want these two albums. Even without his involvement, though, this white-boy funk does have its moments. And if you do manage to locate these curios, please tell Discogs, or whomever, that longitudes sent you. (No, Pete doesn’t get a commission.)
Andy Clark reunited with Sam Gopal in the 1990s, recorded four albums with him, and as far as I know is still around. Jim Copley did session work after Upp, but died of leukemia in 2017. And if various music-related threads can be trusted, Stephen Field/Amazing, like so many musicians of old, had some personal struggles. Presumably, he’s now Upp there…jamming once more with Copley and Beck.
(R.I.P. Rob “Marty DiBergi” Reiner, and thanks for your films and activism.)
Singles:
“Never Gonna Turn Your Love Away” (1976)
“Dance Your Troubles Away” (1976)
Albums:
Upp (1975)
This Way Upp (1976)
Compilations:
Get Down in the Dirt: The Complete Upp (2004, CD only)
Upp/This Way Upp (2017, CD only)
longitudes 
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