Description

Members of RAIN are drummer Chris Woroch, guitarist Bill McLaughlin, lead vocalist Phyllis ‘Charity’ Brown, bassist Ron Hiller and keyboards Charlie Hall. Producer Greg Hambleton brought his song “Out Of My Mind” to Rain and recorded and engineered the session at Sound Canada Studios in early 1971. After its release by London Records in April, it took seven months before finally charting in November and now established as one of the biggest hits of that year. This was followed by “Stop Me From Believing” (AXE 1) – both singles released by Bell Records in the United States.

At first, “Out Of My Mind’ was a top 10 record across Canada in 1971, but in 1976 it crossed the Atlantic and became a “Northern Soul” hit in England. Clubs in northern England, like Wigan’s ‘Casino’ & ‘Mecca’ in Blackpool, became infatuated with the record and dealers started importing thousands of records from Canada on the Axe label. The song was featured in the UK Granada documentary “Northern Soul This England”.

Lyric topics of songs on the album are amazingly current to today’s news headlines such as “Got To Get Away“, warning of polluted environments, “Sad Colours Blues” on the subject of black and white relationships and “Find Our Love” about moving on from a relationship.

Rain manager, David Lodge was also the bassist and songwriter with Major Hoople’s Boarding House and lead singer Phyllis later recorded a string of hits for A&M as Charity Brown.

Credits

Produced by Greg Hambleton
Engineered by Terry Brown at Toronto Sound Studios
Mixed by Regent Sound in New York by Bob Liftin
Songs published by Axe Music & Belsize Park Music

ⓟ & © 1971, 2014 Greg Hambleton
Axe Records A501