Guide to British Music of the 1960s
August 2026
Book Review: While You See a Chance by John van der Kiste
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Steve Winwood is one of those artists who was not just a member
of a great group but more than one great group. He made his name as a youngster
in the Spencer Davis Group with his powerful white soul voice delivering
such timeless classics as Gimme Some Loving, Keep on Running and
I'm a Man. They played many venues where the underage Winwood should not
have been, At the peak of the band's fame he left to form Traffic. He
wanted to be more experimental, fusing different styles of music rather than
churning out hit singles. However, Traffic's career started with two big
hits, Paper Sun and Dave Mason's Hole in My Shoe. The band headed
off to Berkshire to "get it together in the country", probably the first band to
take this approach. The four members of Traffic would jam in the cottage
and songs would come out of this jamming. Dear Mr Fantasy and Traffic
would evolve from this approach. Dave Mason was more of an outsider and was in
and out of the band. Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood were a tighter unit,
writing together and playing different instruments.
Again, Winwood left the band when they were at their apparent peak. He had become friendly with Eric Clapton and they decided to form a band together. They brought in Clapton's Cream colleague Ginger Baker and considered Jack Bruce before settling on Ric Grech from Family to create Blind Faith. This "supergroup" lasted one album only. The nucleus of Traffic reformed with other artists joining them, sometimes including Mason. Winwood then started to develop a solo career. He had various writing partners, the most notable probably being Vivian Stanshall, previously of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. Stanshall was the co-writer of the title track of Arc of a Diver, an album that included the hit When You See a Chance. In the '90s Winwood solo career had a resurgence with the release of two albums that showcased his soul voice really well, Back in the High Life and Roll With It. Winwood continued touring to support these albums with a set that included Traffic favourites and, of course, Gimme Some Loving. The new releases brought the earlier music to a whole new audience who though Gimme Some Loving was a song from the Blues Brothers film! This is a very well written book that helps the reader understand much more about Steve Winwood. He comes across as a musician rather than a performer. Making music is to him, more important than being on stage and performing it or churning out hit singles. Published: 29 March 2018 Fonthill Media |