An interesting though barely recorded mid-'60s British band, Deep Feeling fed members into major psychedelic bands, star and cult, of the late '60s, including Traffic, Spooky Tooth, Family, and the Blossom Toes. The group evolved from an outfit called the Hellions, which featured future Traffic members Jim Capaldi and Dave Mason. After Mason left Deep Feeling, future Spooky Tooth guitarist Luther Grosvenor joined. This lineup, also including vibraphonist and flute player Poli Palmer (later in Family and the Blossom Toes), guitarist Gordon Jackson, and bassist Dave Meredith, did some unreleased recordings with influential U.K. manager/producer/impresario Giorgio Gomelsky (most famous as the manager/producer of the Yardbirds). One 1966 track, Pretty Colours, does show up on the Luther Grosvenor CD Floodgates Anthology and is a pretty nifty early psychedelic venture, with flute, vibes, distorted vocals, and the kind of pop-friendly yet Asiatic-Middle Eastern melody that the Yardbirds often explored.

Unfortunately, nothing by Deep Feeling was released at the time, although they did record at least one other track with Gomelsky, Poltergeist of Alice (according to the liner notes of Floodgates Anthology). Gomelsky has recalled that they recorded an album's worth of material, and that some of the ideas -- including African percussion and vibraphone -- were incorporated by Traffic, the band Capaldi joined, signaling the end of Deep Feeling. In addition to the post-Deep Feeling projects mentioned above, there was a solo album by Gordon Jackson on Gomelsky's Marmalade label in the late '60s. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi