Dear headdoc,
The reason why you could not find anything about the band is easy: You
made a small, but crucial spelling mistake. Actually, it's not
"Stanford/Townsend Band", but "Sanford/Townsend Band". Here is what I
found out about them:
"Ed Sanford and John Townsend got known for their songwriting works
around 1975 when "Just Another Lie" was recorded by Nigel Olsen on his
1st solo album. In 1976, Loggins and Messina performed "Peacemaker" on
their 1976 album "Native Son". Those career gave them chance to
release their own project's albums. At the first time, as "Sanford
Townsend Band", they released their first album "Sanford Townsend
Band" in 1976. Warner USA re-released the same album as "Smoke From A
Distant Fire" in August 1977 because Warner wanted to promote them as
the new duo Unit as "Sanford and Townsend" after the smash hit of
their 3rd single "Smoke From A Distant Fire" in the summer of 1977. In
late 1977, Sanford and Townsend completed their 2nd album "Duo Glide"
supported by the top L.A. studio musicians including TOTO members,
Jeff Porcaro, David Paich and David Hungate. I would like to express
my gratitude to Warner Japan who has reissued those two fine albums on
CD.
For your ready references, Sanford and Townsend released one more
album "Nail Me To The Wall" as Sanford and Townsend Band in 1979 under
Warner USA. You can find Ed Sanford as the co-writer of "I Keep
Forgettin'" on Michael McDonald's 1982 smash hit album "That's What It
Takes" and as the co-writer of "No Lookin' Back" also performed by
Michael McDonald and by Kenny Loggins."
Source:
Adult Contemporary Music in Japan: Monthly Recommended Discs Page,
8-2000
http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~takeito/8-2000.html
The musicians on their first LP, apart from Sanford (keyboards,
vocals) and Townsend (lead vocals and keyboards) were:
Guitars: Otis Hale, Roger Johnson
Bass: Jerry Rightmer
Drums: Jim Varley
Keyboards: Barry Beckett
Percussion: Tom Roady
Backing Vocals: Kenny Loggins, George Hawkins, Billy Townsend
Basso Produndo: Tex Wex
Woodwinds: Jon Clarke
The second LP featured as musicians:
Guitars: Fred Tackett, Otis Hale, Paul Barrére, Steve Cropper, Jerry
McGee
Keyboards: Bill Payne, Mike Utley, David Paich
Drums: Jeff Porcaro, Mike Baird
Bass: David Hungate
Sax: Otis Hale
Percussion: Milt Holland, Jeff Porcaro, Sam Clayton
Additional Vocals: Richard Torrance, Herb Pedersen
Strings Arrangement: Dick Halligan
Woodwinds: Jon Clarke
Both Ed Sanford and John Townsend are still active in the music
business as musicians, songwriters, and vocalists ; Townsend has quite
recently released an new solo album:
"Do you remember John Townsend? Yes, known for his late 70's towed
efforts as Sanford & Townsend; "Smoke From A Distant Fire" (1st
edition was released as "The Sanford Townsend Band" in 1976), "Duo
Glide" (1977) and "Nail Me To The Wall" (1979) as The Sanford and
Townsend Band. As for Ed Sanford, we could see his name in 80's as a
songwriter of several smash hits including "I Keep Forgettin'" and "No
Lookin' Back" with Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins and also the
keyboard player for Michael's band until around early 90's. As for
John, after nice long run with Ed Sanford, he took some time off, then
also started getting into co-writing with other artists like Kenny
Loggins, Gregg Allman and Larry Carlton. Through the years John had
also been the vocalist on many prominent national commercials and had
quite a few songs placed in motion pictures. John decided to be back
to the front in late 80's and tried to get signed to MCA, but
unfortunately no success. Surprisingly, John advised me that he
actually auditioned for TOTO years ago when Geoffrey Porker was still
alive. And now in 2003, John Townsend is back with his brand-new album
"The Road Leads Home" done with recording engineer/producer, Alex
Kazanegras, known for his works with Loggins and Messina."
Source:
Adult Contemporary Music in Japan: Hot News Page, 5 April 2003 (in
Google Cache!)
://www.google.de/search?q=cache:v04PFet6DjMJ:www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~takeito/hot.html+%22Ed+Sanford%22+%22John+Townsend%22&hl=de&ie=UTF-8
I found the Sanford-Townsend 1977 album "Duo Glide" available as
CD-reissue from Amazon Germany for EUR 32.99:
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004WIL7/qid%3D1055979947/028-0848187-6615760
The Dutch online mailorder record dealer "Rockhouse" offers all
Sanford-Townsend albums in various editions; I will list only one
example of each album:
"The Sanford Townsend Band", aka "Smoke From A Distant Fire", 1976:
CD, EUR 33.90
http://www.cdexpress.com/php/gettrackinfo.php?arart=4028282&supp=psp
"Duo Glide", 1977: CD, EUR 33.90
http://www.cdexpress.com/php/gettrackinfo.php?arart=4018015&supp=psp
"Nail Me To The Wall", 1979: Vinyl LP, still sealed. EUR 38.90
http://www.cdexpress.com/php/gettrackinfo.php?arart=4270128&supp=all
For more information, please refer to Rockhouse Music:
Rockhouse Records B.V.
Pampuslaan 67
1382 JM Weesp
Holland
Tel: (+31) (0) 294 460548
Fax: (+31) (0) 294 460547
e-mail: info@cdexpress.com
Website: http://www.cdexpress.com/
That is all I was able to find on Sanford-Townsend. It is not very
much, but I hope it proved to be interesting and helpful.
Search terms used:
"Smoke From a Distant Fire"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22Smoke+From+a+Distant+Fire%22&btnG=Google+Suche&meta=
"Ed Sanford" "John Townsend"
://www.google.de/search?q=%22Ed+Sanford%22+%22John+Townsend%22&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&start=0&sa=N
"Sanford - Townsend Band"
://www.google.de/search?q=%22Sanford+-+Townsend+Band%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&btnG=Google+Suche&meta=
"sanford ed" townsend
://www.google.de/search?q=%22sanford+ed%22+townsend&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&start=10&sa=N
"ed sanford"
://www.google.de/search?q=%22ed+sanford%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&meta=
"john townsend" sanford
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22john+townsend%22+sanford&meta=
Best regards,
Scriptor |
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