Mississippi Poster
Mississippi Kings Of The World #4 In Go Set Chart
Mississippi Kings Of The World #4 In Go Set Chart
Mississippi First Full Lineup
L To R: Russ Johnson, Graeham Goble, Derek Pellicci, Beeb Birtles, John Mower and Colin Deluca.
The promotion surrounding the whole Bootleg release of three albums – Mississippi’s, Brian Cadd’s, and one by an Adelaide singer/songwriter Stephen Foster – was just the right launching pad for a find single like “Kings Of The World”. It reached the national Top-10. With a hit record on their hands, Mississippi realised they had to find some musicians to complete the group. There was no use performing as just a trio.
Graeham Goble: “The only bass player I could think of was Beeb Birtles”, said Graeham. He called the top booking agency and asked the voice answering the phone whether he knew how to find the former Zoot bass player. It was Beeb himself on the other end. After the breakup of the Frieze duo, he had decided to keep himself busy by working at the agency.
Beeb Birtles: “I had to tell Graeham that I didn’t play bass anymore. I’d been playing guitar with Frieze, and I really didn’t want to go back to bass. But, I told him I’d like to have a listen to the album anyway. I loved the songs so much, I wanted to be part of that music. We had a sing and Graeham’s voice and mine sounded so good together. Graeham made a stand with the others about having me in the group”.
Mississippi – Kings Of The World
Early in 1972 Allison Gros were renamed as Mississippi with Goble, Johnson and Mower joined by session musicians: Geoff Cox on drums, Peter Jones on piano, Graeme Lyall on flute and Barry Sullivan on bass guitar. They released a self-titled debut LP in that year which reached No. 21 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart. Mississippi reached No. 7 with “Kings of the World” (October 1972).
Mississippi – Mississippi LP
A1 Save The Land Written-By – Russ Johnson 5:15
A2 Mr. Moondog Written-By – Russ Johnson 2:48
A3 Three Days Written-By – Graham Goble 3:50
A4 All Through The Day Written-By – Graham Goble 2:53
A5 Sweet World Written-By – Graham Goble 4:37
B1 Feel Alone Written-By – Graham Goble 3:38
B2 Do I Written-By – Russ Johnson 3:53
B3 Kings Of The World Written-By – Graham Goble 2:30
B4 City Sunday Written-By – Russ Johnson 1:30
B5 When You’re Old Written-By – Russ Johnson 3:23
B6 Day Job Song Written-By – Graham Goble 4:52
Mississippi
Allison Gros changed its name to Mississippi, it was a means to aid any international thrust the band might take.
Graeham Goble: “That was sort of naivety… we were just called Allison Gros at that point and Ron Tudor (of Fable records) said that he thought that, if we were going for a world situation, we should have more of a worldly name – a name everybody would know. So it just came out of a meeting and we didn’t think much of it and just took it.”