Mel Collins

For most of the 1970s, it seemed like every sax, clarinet, or flute that turned up on an art-rock album was played by Mel Collins. He practically owned the franchise on reed and flute sounds on every King Crimson-related session for a couple of years, and added his sax to Camel's sound later in the decade. But he also proved himself multi-lingual where music was concerned, working in jazz-based blues with Alexis Korner's and Pete Thorup's Snape, and played solid r&b-style as a member of Kokomo in between King Crimson and Camel. Collins' first major band was the Stormsville Shakers, a group out of Guildford with a history going back to 1963. The quintet-Collins (saxes), Philip Goodhand Tait (vocals, keyboards), Ian Jeffs (guitar, vocals), Alan Bunn (succeeded by Chris Burrows) (drums), and Kirk Riddle (bass)--later changed their name to Circus. In 1969, they were signed to the Transatlantic label, for whom they recorded a self-titled debut album that same year. Circus delivered a second album to Transatlantic, but Collins was out of the line-up after March of 1970.

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