McGuinness Flint was a rock band formed in 1970 by Tom McGuinness, former bassist and guitarist with Manfred Mann, and Hughie Flint, former drummer with John Mayall; plus vocalist and keyboard player Dennis Coulson, and multi-instrumentalists and songwriters Benny Gallagher and Graham Lyle. With a varying subsequent line-up, "they earned a loyal following in Britain, but in the United States they were scarcely more than a cult act, despite a top-flight line-up and a sound that should have been a natural for the era." Career: Their first single "When I'm Dead and Gone" reached No.2 on the UK Singles Chart at the end of 1970 (and No.47 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart) and the debut album McGuinness Flint also made the Top 10 of the UK Albums Chart. In 1999, it received another outing, in the soundtrack of the film, East is East. A follow-up single, "Malt and Barley Blues", was a UK No.5 hit in 1971, but the group floundered under the pressures of instant success, being required to record a second album and reproduce their recorded sound adequately on stage, which resulted in disappointing concerts. Due to a series of illnesses among the band members, most of the concerts on their first tour were cancelled. According to McGuiness, at this time the band consisted of two groups of close-knit friends, the first being Flint, McGuiness, and Coulson, and the other being Gallagher and Lyle. Though these two units generally got along well, a key disagreement between them was that the first group felt the band should focus on touring and performing, while the Gallagher/Lyle camp felt they should focus on songwriting and recording. The second album Happy Birthday Ruthy Baby failed to chart, as did the title track when released as a single, but contained some Gallagher and Lyle songs, notably "Sparrow", which attracted cover versions. Gallagher and Lyle quit towards the end of 1971 to record as a duo. McGuiness Flint would continue to play some of their compositions in live performances. The group then recruited bassist Dixie Dean, and recorded Lo and Behold, an album of Bob Dylan songs (which had not yet been officially recorded and released by the writer himself), as credited to Coulson, Dean, McGuinness, Flint, and issued in 1972. A single "Let The People Go" was banned by the BBC as it related to the Ulster crisis, a fate which also befell a contemporary single by Wings, "Give Ireland Back to the Irish". Coulson left and was replaced by Lou Stonebridge on keyboards and Jim Evans on guitar. This new line-up recorded two further albums, Rainbow (1973) and C'est La Vie (1974), but interest had evaporated, and they disbanded in 1975. A splinter group, Stonebridge McGuinness, had a minor hit in 1979 with "Oo-Eeh Baby" (No. 54 in the UK) and released the album Corporate Madness on RCA Records the following year. This group proved short-lived, however, and afterwards McGuinness and Flint both joined The Blues Band, fronted by former Manfred Mann vocalist and harmonica player, Paul Jones.

Source: Wikipedia

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