Thunderclap Newman were <!-- Bands that originate from Great Britain are treated plural. See WP:ENGVAR for more details. --> a British rock band that Pete Townshend of the Who and Kit Lambert formed in 1969 in a bid to showcase the talents of John "Speedy" Keen, Jimmy McCulloch, and Andy "Thunderclap" Newman.

Their single, "Something in the Air", a 1969 UK number one hit, remains in demand for television commercials, film soundtracks and compilations. The band released a critically acclaimed rock album, Hollywood Dream, and three other singles from the album, "Accidents", "The Reason" and "Wild Country".

From 1969 until 1971, the nucleus of the band consisted of the songwriter John "Speedy" Keen (vocals, drums, guitar), Andy "Thunderclap" Newman (piano) and Jimmy McCulloch (guitar). Pete Townshend (using the alias "Bijou Drains") played bass guitar on their album and singles, all of which he had recorded and produced at the IBC Studio and his Twickenham home studio. Newman, McCulloch, and Keen met each other for the first time in December 1968 or January 1969, at Townshend's home studio, to record "Something in the Air". Townshend produced the single, played its bass guitar under the pseudonym Bijou Drains, and hired GPO engineer and Dixieland jazz pianist "Thunderclap" Newman (born Andrew Laurence Newman, 21 November 1942, Hounslow, Middlesex, died 30 March 2016) and the fifteen-year-old Glaswegian guitarist Jimmy McCulloch. Before then, Townshend had planned to work on projects for each of the musicians, but Kit Lambert prevailed upon Townshend, who was working on what became the rock-opera Tommy, to save time by coalescing the three musicians into the collective project that became Thunderclap Newman.

"Something in the Air", which Keen wrote, was number one on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks, It was also used in Almost Famous (2000) and is on the soundtrack.

The song also figures prominently in the introduction to the 2026 streaming episodic series "This Is a Gardening Show."

Thunderclap Newman had not planned to undertake live performances, but the band relented when, to their collective surprise, "Something in the Air" became a chart success. The trio, augmented by Jim Pitman-Avery (bass guitar) and McCulloch's elder brother Jack (drums), undertook a 26-date tour of England and Scotland, in support of Deep Purple, from July 1969 to August 1969. On 8 August, Pitman-Avery and McCulloch announced their intention to leave the band. Within weeks, they had formed the country-rock band Wild Country with Terry Keyworth (guitar) and Stuart Whitcombe (keyboards). That year, the band appeared in television programmes in Britain (How Late It Is, Top of the Pops) and Germany (Beat-Club).

In October 1970, Thunderclap Newman released its critically acclaimed album, Hollywood Dream.

Thunderclap Newman broke up around 10 April 1971, days before they were scheduled to start a tour of Scotland, and weeks before they were scheduled to be part of a package tour with Marsha Hunt and others during the Who's 12-week tour of the US.

The members of the band had little in common. In a 1972 NME interview, Newman said that he got on with Keen's music but not with Keen personally, while the exact opposite was true with regard to McCulloch.

In 2008, Newman appeared on an episode of the British television programme Those Were the Days to comment upon the night of the first Moon landing, when Thunderclap Newman had performed an almost-night-long concert.

Separate ways

McCulloch had stints with a dozen or more bands, including John Mayall, Stone the Crows, and Paul McCartney's Wings

Discography

Studio album

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Year

! Album details

|-

| 1970

|Hollywood Dream

  • Label: Track / Polydor <small>(SD 8264)</small>
  • Formats: 1970 LP, 1991 CD

|}

Live album

{| class="wikitable"

!Year

!Album details

|-

|2010

|Beyond Hollywood

  • Label: Track <small>(TRA 1067)</small>

|}

Singles

<!--When adding/changing chart data please cite a reliable source. No fan sites. For more information see Wikipedia:Verifiability-->

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! style="width:70px;" rowspan="2"|Year

! style="width:220px;" rowspan="2"| Song

! Chart peak positions

! rowspan="2" style="width:100px;"| Album

|-

!width=30|<small>UK</small>

|-

| style="text-align:center;"|1969

|"Something in the Air" / "Wilhelmina" <small>(non-album track)</small>

|align=center| 1

| rowspan="7;" style="text-align:center;"|Hollywood Dream

|-

| rowspan="3" style="text-align:center;"|1970

|"Accidents" <small>(single version)</small> /<br>"I See It All" <small>(non-album track)</small>

|align=center| 46

|-

|"The Reason" /<br>"Stormy Petrel" <small>(non-album track)</small>

|align=center| —

|-

|"Wild Country" / "Hollywood Dream"

|align=center| —

|}

See also

  • List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
  • List of performers on Top of the Pops
  • UK No.1 Hits of 1969
  • List of 1960s one-hit wonders in the United States

References

Bibliography

  • Sleeve notes on CD re-issue of Y'Know Wot I Mean? (Edsel EDCD 462)
  • Obituary