I’ve always loved Argent...

I’ve always loved Argent. I even loved the name. They were always second division in the sales and fame stakes, but that doesn’t concern me. They had three UK Top 40 singles: "Hold Your Head Up", which reached No. 5 and spent 12 weeks on the chart, "Tragedy" (No. 34), and "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" (No. 18). Two of their albums charted in the UK: All Together Now, which peaked at No. 13 in 1972, and In Deep, which spent one week at No. 49 in 1973.
Even so they always loomed large in my teenage rock life. All their albums are worth your ears’ time. The eponymous first is great and features ‘Liar’ which you’ll recognise, probably because Three Dog Night had a hit with it. It’s a really strong debut, but inexplicably it didn’t sell. However, there was no reason to panic, Epic stuck with them for seven albums. Would never happen now. They always seemed to be on the edge of the big time.
Ring of Hands was their second album and featured the minor hit "Sweet Mary". All Together Now was their third album, released in 1972. It featured the song that they are best remembered for: "Hold Your Head Up", which was a Top 5 hit in both UK and the US charts. It was Argent's biggest hit featuring lead vocals by Russ Ballard, which, in a heavily edited single form, reached No. 5 in the US. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Personally it always felt really inspiring to me, especially in dark times. It still does.
Their next album, In Deep, is the one I remember having the most impact on me. It contained two more hits in "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" and the far superior but less successful, "It's Only Money".
1974's Nexus was dominated by Rod Argent's writing. There were 3 instrumentals on the album, including "The Coming of Kohoutek", which was probably their most proggy track yet, inspired by that year's appearance of the comet. Russ Ballard, who was a super successful songwriter in an AOR style (and would write ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ for Head East then Rainbow, as well as ‘I Surrender’) didn’t fancy the new more proggy style and left after the double live Encore. Another favourite of mine, with a superb opener, a ten minute version of ‘The Coming of Kohoutek’. I used to find the cover ( live photos of the band) so exciting. It spoke to me so strongly of the grown-up world of rock, and as such, was very formative.
The band regrouped as a quintet with the addition of guitarist John Grimaldi and guitarist/vocalist John Verity. Both of their final albums, Circus and 1975's Counterpoints, were poorly received and failed to sell, though their final concert tours were well attended and actually both albums are wonderful proggy records. In 1975, John Grimaldi left the band. While Rod Argent considered whether to continue Argent, the remaining members (Henrit, Rodford and Verity) became Phoenix for an album which I’ve got, but as is the way of the man with a huge record collection, have never played.
The original line-up reunited in 2010 for five shows and again in 2012 and a last benefit show in 2013, in Aylesbury, supporting the Zombies. Their bass player Jim Rodford passed away aged 76 in 2018 but Rod Argent, Bob Henrit, John Verity and Russ Ballard are still thankfully with us. John Grimaldi, died in 1983 of MS.
If you’re interested in other stuff they got up to, I recommend Colin Blunstone’s ‘Ennismore’ on which they all played and Russ wrote the lovely single ‘I Don’t Believe In Miracles.’ And Rod’s first solo album ‘Moving Home’ with Gary Moore and Phil Collins is good too in a 70s rock sort of way.

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