Gonzalez were a very loose UK-based group of some 15 to 30 itinerants (many of whom also played in Georgie Fame's Blue Flames), who assembled in England during 1971 to play a blend of funk, soul and later disco music.
The key members were keyboardist Roy Davies (also in the Butts Band with ex-Doors Robbie Krieger and John Densmore), Mick Eve (former saxophone player with Herbie Goins' Night-Timers and Georgie Fame's Blue Flames), Chris Mercer (former saxophone player with John Mayall, Keef Hartley and Juicy Lucy), Steve Gregory (former saxophone player with Tony Colton's Crawdaddies, Geno Washington's Ram Jam Band and Riff Raff), Gordon Hunte (ex-guitar with Johnny Nash), Lisle Harpe (ex-bass with the Night-Timers, Juicy Lucy and Stealers Wheel) and Rosko Gee (later to play bass with Traffic).
They released a self-titled album in 1974 but it was not a great success. In 1977, however, with the line-up standing at Davies, Hunte, Eve, Mercer, plus Ron Carthy (trumpet), Geoffrey "Bud" Beadle (saxophone), Colin Jacas (trombone), Alan Sharp, Godfrey McLean, and Bobby "John" Stigmac (percussion), John Giblin (bass), Richard Bailey and Preston Heyman (drums), and Lenny Zakatek (vocals), they recorded the Gloria Jones-penned "I Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet" for EMI Records' soul label Sidewalk. It was remixed in 1979 and it gave the band a surprise hit. The album "Shipwrecked" that featured the original version was re-released that year as "Haven't Stopped Dancin' Yet." The follow-up, "Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady", flopped. They later recorded for PRT and by the mid-1980's were on the Tooti Fruiti label. Having undergone many more personnel changes, the band finally disintegrated in 1986 after the death of founding member Roy Davies. |
