Collective Consciousness Society

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)

Collective Consciousness Society, more commonly known as CCS, was a British musical group, led by blues guitarist Alexis Korner.

Formed in 1970 by musical director John Cameron and producer Mickie Most, CCS consisted largely of session musicians, and was created primarily as a recording outfit. The personnel also included Peter Thorup, vocals; Alan Parker, guitar; Harold McNair, flute; Herbie Flowers, bass; Roger Coulam, keyboards; Barry Morgan, drums; plus Don Lusher and Bill Geldard, trombone. Some of the musicians were also members of Blue Mink.

CCS are best known for their instrumental version of Led Zeppelin's 1969 track "Whole Lotta Love", which got into in the UK singles chart in 1970, and was used as the theme tune for the popular BBC pop programme Top of the Pops for most of the 1970s, and, in a remixed version, between 1997 and 2003. Technically, the TOTP theme was not by CCS, but was recorded by the TOTP orchestra one morning before the day's rehearsals. Having said that, the band was conducted by John Cameron on that occasion and many of the musicians were CCS regulars. This enabled the production to tailor the tune to the correct duration and, more importantly, avoided the weekly payment of royalties to the record company.

Their highest-charting singles were the Donovan song "Walkin'", and "Tap Turns on the Water". They also recorded three albums, including cover versions of the old blues standard "Boom Boom", "Living in the Past", and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" as well as original material. A retrospective compilation, "Singles As, Bs and Rarities" was released in 2004.