Bio:
Formed by ace guitarist Jimi Slevin, ex of Alice / Brogue
towards the end of 1972, Peggy's Leg were known for their adaptations of classical
music. Their live set included covers of Yes and Emerson Lake & Palmer
as well as music by Bach ("a blistering rendition of Bach's Sinfonia from Cantata Nr. 29"),
Katchaturian ("Sabre Dance"), Rossini ("William Tell Overture") and Handel.
Their self-released album "Grinilla" came out in late 1973.
Managed by John Donohue (Mushroom) who is credited with organising
the recording of their self-released album that came out in 1973:
"This is one of the rarest albums of the seventies. Peggy's Leg were an Irish classical rock outfit and their sole album was recorded in just 23 hours. 500 copies were pressed originally and as most were sold to local fans, originals are extremely difficult to locate nowadays, particularly with the inner lyric sheet. The album consisted of six tracks and, aside from an unadventurous cover version of Love Sculpture's Sabre Dance, they comprised self-penned compositions which forged frantic heavy rock sections with soft dreamlike passages into a series of well structured songs. They also recorded a pretty frantic and indeed demented version of the William Tell Overture, which was put out on a 45."--Kissing Spell PR blurb. |
The distinctive cover artwork for "Grinilla" was designed by Bad Taste Productions, i.e. Tim Booth of Dr.Strangely Strange. The album release was preceded by a headling concert at Liberty Hall in Dublin on October 24th.
A bootleg reissue of Grinilla appeared on the Italian Kasoa label in the late '90s with a paste on cover. 500 copies were pressed but most were ruined by a reaction (AKA off-gassing) between the surface of the vinyl LP and the plastic inner sleeve in which it was housed. These are easily spotted by examing the surface of the disc. Beware dealers unloading 'bargain' copies -- there is quite a lot of noise during playback. In 2001 it was reissued officially on CD by Kissing Spell. This digital remaster offered an interesting (if you like drum solos!) bonus track. This is now out of print but no doubt it will be licensed for release again, hopefully with the non-LP single tracks as bonus this time.
Vincent Duffy left mid 1974. Martin
Biseneiks joined on keyboards, followed by new bassist John Brady. Jimi left in
1975, joining the reformed Skid Row and later fronting Jimi Slevin & Firefly
and recording several solo albums (one of which, "Freeflight", was co-produced by
John Donoghue in his studio in Slane, County Meath). He was replaced by Eric Bell, but Peggy's Leg
split a few short months later. Don Harris, who'd previously been with
the Urge, was later in Spud and
Metropolis
and went into session work.
He played with David Bowie in
the early eighties. Jimmy Gibson was later in Hotfoot.
Vincent Duffy sadly committed suicide in 1983.
Help!: We need your help to complete this entry. If you can tell us more about this band then please do! We welcome any corrections, missing details, connections to other bands, where are they now, etc. We also need photos, scans, copies of releases or live or demo recordings, and any other memorabilia gathering dust in the attic. If you can help, then please get in touch.