About Me
Floribunda Rose were the group formed by John Kongos -- who scored two British Top Five hits in the early 1970s, with "He's Gonna Step on You Again" and "Tokoloshe Man" -- in 1967. Kongos had been a recording artist in South Africa since he was a teenager in the early '60s, and in 1966 moved to England, where he recorded a solo single for Piccadilly. Soon after that he was at the head of Floribunda Rose on guitar and vocals, the lineup fleshed out by singer-guitarist Pete Clifford (who at one time had been in Dusty Springfield's backing band), organist Chris Dee, drummer Nick "Doc" Doktor, and singer-bassist Jack Russell. Despite the weird group name, Floribunda Rose's sole single, the 1967 Pye release "One Way Street"/"Linda Loves Linda," wasn't out-and-out psychedelia. It was rather twee period pop/rock with a whiff of psychedelic influence, "One Way Street" sounding, at times, like Monkees-influenced British freakbeat, "Linda Loves Linda" being a tamer ode for a self-absorbed flower child. The single flopped, and by 1968 the group, still recording for Pye, changed their name to Scrugg and made three more little-noticed singles, highlighted by the more convincingly psychedelic 45 "Everyone Can See"/"I Wish I Was Five." Both sides of the Floribunda Rose single -- as well as both sides of Kongos' 1966 Piccadilly single, everything from the three Scrugg singles, the entirety of Kongos' 1969 LP Confusions About a Goldfish, and a few unreleased songs by Kongos and Scrugg from the same era -- are on the anthology Lavender Popcorn. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
