David Kubinec

- THE KUBIE STORY IN PICTURES -
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- KUBIE ON VIDEO -
BEAT-CLUB APPEARANCE (July 13, 1968):
The World of Oz performing their debut single "The Muffin Man" on the famed German Television Show 'Beat-Club' as the song was Storming Up The Charts! David 'Kubie' Kubinec appears singing and playing the organ while maintaining a sensible cool along with a magnificent smile - THE MUFFIN MAN - featuring David 'Kubie' Kubinec!!!
THE RATS – Turtle Dove (1974):
"Turtle Dove" from their debut album "Rats First Long Player Record" (Released 1974 on Goodear Records catEARLH 5003 / Reissued 2006 on RPM Cherry Records catRPM 322)
THE RATS - Mainhorse Cowboy (1974):
"Mainhorse Cowboy" from their debut album "Rats First Long Player Record" (Released 1974 on Goodear Records catEARLH 5003 / Reissued 2006 on RPM Cherry Records catRPM 322)
THE RATS - Child He Die (1974):
"Child He Die" from the album "Rats First Long Player Record" (Released 1974 on Goodear Records catEARLH 5003 / Reissued 2006 on RPM Cherry Records catRPM 322)
Note: Turtle Dove, Mainhorse Cowboy & Child He Die videos by the one-and-only Sonja Peterson!
STIJENE-Jedanaest i Petnaest (1982):
Stijene’s cover version of the classic 1979 David Kubinec song “Singing That Rock And Roll”
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ABOUT KUBIE & THE RATS:
"THE RATS" were a group hastily formed around them mercurial talents of David 'Kubie' Kubinec. Kubinec had already enjoyed a long career in the music business, having played extensively in Hamburg with "The Pieces of Mind" in the mid-sixties and with the psych-pop act "The World Of Oz". He wrote their single 'The Muffin Man' – which was a hit in Holland, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand – but left during the recording of their album and rejoined "The Pieces Of Mind", who were hugely popular in North Germany, a territorial link that continued to offer Kubie an outlet later on.
By 1973 'Kubie' was a singer songwriter in search of a deal. Timing was such that producer and manager ADRIAN MILLAR, then a recently departed partner in World Wide Artists (home to "Black Sabbath" amongst others), was looking for new projects to get involved with. Following an introduction made via girlfriends working at the very fashionable Mr. Freedom store in Kensington, Kubie was sent along by Clem Curtis from The Foundations to meet Millar. Despite turning up at Millar’s flat like a character from 'Budgie', with a guitar over the shoulder and no case, Kubie proceeded to stun Millar with the quality of his songs and sheer unique presence. This could be the one…
There ensued a period of Millar, along with business partner Andrew Loog Oldham, trying to claim Kubie’s moment in the sun with a deal on Motown Records Rare Earth label, with whom they had a production deal. When Motown confessed that actually they were having trouble breaking white acts, the moment passed back to Millar, now wondering if his own A&R assessment had been accurate.
Thinking that maybe repositioning Kubie inside a band situation could be the answer Millar recruited a readymade band called "CWT" (The Hundredweight), a heavy rock four piece hailing from a mansion in Kent, and recorded an albums worth of material with them by way of test. A recording test to see if they would fit behind Kubie. As it turned out Millar was able to license the resulting material to his friend Eckhart Rahn, then in the process of attempting to set up his own version of Chrysalis Records in Germany called Kuckuck). Meanwhile Millar was impressed enough by the drummer, bassist and guitarist to bring them back in to the studio to work up Kubie's songs in new sessions with Kubie, now in the role of band leader vocalist.
To release this next stab at stardom for Kubie, Millar made a presentation to Paramount Pictures, massive in the movie industry but something of a sleeping giant in the music business. Failing that his next move was going to Warners.
In the midst of waiting for sleeping and active giants to make their call Millar was under increasing pressure from Kubie to have his record released. So when another mutual acquaintance of Rahn and Millar, Nigel Thomas stepped in, offering a UK release with huge support on his won newly created Goodear Record label Millar had to take the deal. 'Turtle Dove' was an easy choice for the lead off single, and as we all agree should have been a massive hit. That it wasn't, Millar puts down to partly the Goodear deal via Pye Records, who in reality offered only pressing and distribution but no proper promotion and also Goodear the label set up, being more about assets than artists and repertoire.
Further disaster or bad luck befell Kubie when, as the album was I preparation for production, two of the band members fell out with Millar and were sacked. Another couple of players (Roddy MacKenzie aka 'Jeep Solid' & Jeff Allen) were hastily drafted in for a band photo, that which appears inside the LP gatefold, but never played on the record nor anywhere else as THE RATS. Indeed THE RATS even with the band members who did play on the record, never played live. Album dead, project dead, Kubie's moment gone.
Millar still had belief in Kubie's songs, a belief he retains to this day. Back then all he could do was record another selection of them, with session players and orchestra, and pick up again with Eckhart Rahn. Consequently an LP by David Kubinec called "Day Of The Madman" followed a year after CWT and was released in Germany on Kuckuck.
The sting in the end of the tale was that in looking for recruits Millar found MICHAEL CORBY, an extremely photogenic musician, and for thirty seconds in a potential line up with Kubie. However the marriage never happened. Millar needed to move on so took Corby into his next project which eventually delivered "THE BABYS"…but that's another story.
Lee Connolly September 2006
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THE RATS - First Long Player Record
Press Release:
Very much a vehicle for cult figure David Kubinec, aka 'Kubie'. Kubinec had been a member of the pop psych band "World Of Oz" and wrote their single 'The Muffin Man' - which was a hit in Holland, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand in 1969. He’d also been associated with Motown's Rare Earth label, and later had solo albums released on Kuckuck in Germany, and on A&M (produced by John Cale). A talented original writer capable of beautiful tunes, haunting lyrics, though obsessed with despair, drink, drugs.
THE RATS album was a collection of Kubinec songs recorded by producer Adrian Millar with musicians brought in for the job (aka their own band CWT, also with an album on Kuckuck). Adrian Millar had a history in the studio going back to being an artist for Joe Meek, a partner in World Wide Artists (home to "Black Sabbath"), and by 1972 was partner in several production enterprises with Andrew Loog Oldham...of which THE RATS was one. (Millar's next move after THE RATS was to put together another group of musicians to form "THE BABYS").
Millar and Oldham had a tie up with Motown to present product for the Rare Earth offshoot, and Kubinec was delivered. When the release stalled Millar picked up another offer, in the UK, and THE RATS were formed.
THE RATS existed for a few months in 1974 and had one brilliant single released via the Goodear Record label, the T-Rextatsic 'Turtle Dove', which is a classic Junkshop Glam single, and features as lead off track on the successful comp "Boobs:The Junkshop Glam Discotheque".
THE RATS, also on Goodear, only ever 'escaped' in few numbers rather than achieve a properly promoted release. A great pity for the efforts of Graham Quinton-Jones, Chris Bailey and Peter Kirke, aka THE RATS backing Kubie, and Kubie himself, really kick along a storming rock album of the glam era.
RPM Records - September 2006
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THE RATS – Second Long Player Record
Press Release:
David Kubinec has enjoyed a long and varied career in music which kick started in the beat boom of the sixties and continued throughout the Glam influenced seventies and beyond. David was a member of s number of bands during the sixties including Pieces Of Mind who spent a great deal of time in Germany and The World Of Oz who managed to score a hit single with a David Kubinec song Muffin Men released on Decca’s underground label Deram.
After passing briefly through the ranks of progressive rock band Mainhorse Airline at the tail end of the sixties and into the start of the seventies which subsequently became the shortened Mainhorse. By 1973 Kubinec had found a new musical outlet and christened this new band The Rats. The Rats recorded a self titled album which was released along with a single. A change in line up however meant that the band that promoted the album was not the band that had recorded the album.
The band then recorded the Rats Second Long Player. The master tapes were given to his accountant for safe keeping. Due however to a disagreement between the accountant and members of a notorious criminal gang the tapes “Disappeared” and were thought to be lost forever… Not so David Kubinec had made a safety copy of the master tape and had hidden it away where it remained unreleased.
Now thirty five years later the tapes have been taken out of hiding brushed down and readied for release. The album stands up to scrutiny very well and still sounds incredibly modern and certainly not of the era in which it was recorded. The album is however one of the all time great “Lost” albums and as such the release will interest collectors and fans alike of David Kubinec's work.
Voiceprint Music – April 2009
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ABOUT DAVID KUBINEC'S MAINHORSE AIRLINE:
It has always been said that the origins of the Patrick Moraz debut recording group "Mainhorse" are not well documented. Now, with the discovery after 37 years of 'THE GENEVA TAPES' all that has changed. These tapes provide a unique insight into how the band was formed and what its original aims and personnel were.
In the late summer of 1969, Moraz and his friend, bass player and cellist Jean Ristori came over to England in search of an English rock drummer and singer. After putting an advertisement in Melody Maker they hired a rehearsal room in Shepherds Bush, London for 2 days. On the first day they auditioned drummers and chose a then unknown 17 year old Bryson Graham. The 2nd day was spent listening to singers and finally the choice was reduced to 2. The singer from that great band "IF" and cult rock figure David Kubinec aka 'Kubie' from pop-psych band "The World of Oz". Finding it impossible to decide between them, they were given an exam in which they both had to write lyrics for 'Pale Sky' in 10 minutes but Kubinec raced through it in 3 or 4 and they can be heard here in their entirety for the 1st time. And so Kubie was chosen. These 4 guys then flew over to Switzerland and joined up with Auguste De Antoni the renowned French jazz guitarist and Swiss jazz drummer Arnold who were part of The Patrick Moraz Quartet which had already played to great acclaim at The Montreux Jazz Festival, forming a 6 piece group with 2 drummers with differing styles which Moraz named "Integral Aim". However, after 3 months Arnold left to get married but the group continued as a 5 piece, rehearsing every day and night when they weren’t gigging. At this stage, David Kubinec decided that the name of the band was so dire it had to go and he renamed it "MAINHORSE AIRLINE" with the approval of Sam Miesegaes, a Dutch millionaire living in Switzerland who had a financial stake in the group and who was also to be responsible for kick-starting "Supertramp" a few months later with a cash injection of over £60,000, a fortune in 69/70. In fact "Supertramp" became the warm-up band for MAINHORSE AIRLINE in the early days of "MHA" when they themselves weren’t supporting the likes of "Free", "Humble Pie" and "Canned Heat".
The atmosphere in the basement studios of MHA was of a hothouse intensity with track after track being laid down on a row of Revox tape recorders linked together and Ristori or Kubinec leaping forward to flick a switch or adjust a volume control depending on who was free to move about, the whole group driven on by the obsessional force of Moraz and Kubinec who combined to produce material of total originality, with the youthful enthusiasm of Bryson Graham pushing them hard as can be heard on these fantastic tracks.
Because there was no direct injection into a mixing consul they used open mikes, giving a feeling of an almost live performance; in fact at the end of the 1st line of the last verse in 'Pale Sky' the sound of breaking glass can be heard which was Bryson kicking over an empty wine bottle! If the listener closes their eyes they will be almost able to imagine being there, sitting right in the middle of the group.
Although some of the tracks made it through to be recorded the following year on Polydor and Mainhorse they mostly lacked any lyrical or vocal content because David Kubinec, who had been working at a ferocious pace non-stop for over 4 years, first in Germany with "The Pieces of Mind" playing keyboards 4 or 5 hours a night, 7 days a week of R'n'B and Soul and then as organist with "The World of Oz" for who he wrote the multi-million seller 'The Muffin Man' amongst others, woke up one morning in a hospital in Geneva with no idea how he'd got there. In fact, he’d collapsed at Sam Miesegaes' villa with a heart attack brought on by sheer exhaustion and was in no condition to continue. After 2 weeks rest the Doctors gave him permission to travel and Sam flew him back to England in his private jet. Auguste, disheartened after all the many months of hard work the group had put in called it a day. A friend of Bryson's, guitarist and singer Peter Lockett was drafted in to replace both Kubie and Auguste, but the spark had largely gone out of the enterprise which makes the emergence of these original tapes all the more exciting.
An innovative project of free jazz, rock, psychedelia, pop and classical fusion which filled the gap between Underground and Prog-Rock that would have taken the world of music by storm had David Kubinec not burned himself out with the effort and Auguste stayed on, was over.
This album is a must for any fan, young or old of what was to become known as Prog-Rock, laying down as it did one of the foundation stones for that genre and yet these particular recordings have never been heard before. A truly fabulous and unexpected find that shines a light into the dark corners of late 69 and early 1970 experimental music and blazing a trail for others.
Moraz went on to play with "Refugee", "Yes" and "The Moody Blues" adding several albums of his own when he left them after 15 years. David Kubinec recorded solo albums and also LP's with "THE RATS" and John Cale, while Bryson Graham teamed up with Gary Moore, Spooky Tooth and The Paul Kossoff Band and was with Paul when he died on the plane coming back from the States. He rejoined Kubie in "DAVID KUBINEC'S EXCESS" in 1978 to promote Kubie’' A&M LP "Some Things Never Change" with Chris Spedding Ollie Halsal and John Cale till Kubie went to Yugoslavia and joined "Stienje" a rock band which enjoyed national success before the Balkan Wars after which it was rumoured he had been killed in crossfire between the Serbs and Croats. It’s certain that he hasn’t released a record since.
Louise Campbell
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DAVID KUBINEC'S MAINHORSE AIRLINE - The Geneva Tapes
Press Release:
Progressive rock's lost classic! In London, the summer of 1969 sees future Yes and Moody Blues keyboard-player Patrick Moraz hook up with bassist Jean Ristori, drummer Bryson Graham and World Of Oz singer songwriter David Kubinec. With financial backing in place, the band relocate to Switzerland, playing live with stable mates Supertramp plus supports to Free, Humble Pie, Canned Heat, and set about perfecting their musical vision – an innovative fusion of hard rock, classical themes and psychedelic-jazz.
Within a year the initial band was no more, musicians leaving and Kubinec back in England recovering from health problems. Moraz later recorded the Mainhorse album for Polydor but the dynamic had altered. The group's earlier recorded output, predominantly written by Kubinec and Moraz, remained undiscovered and unheard – until now, a fabulous collection of tracks, bursting with vitality and imagination, a fascinating insight into "what might have been" as well as a fluent slice of seventies' progressive rock.
RPM Records - July 2007
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PROGRESSIVE ROCK ARCHIVES - Your Ultimate Prog Rock Recource
4 Star Review:
Before Patrick Moraz released the Mainhorse LP in 1971, he and bassist/cellist Jean Ristori founded one of the most significant groups in prog rock history. In the summer of 1969, the two left Switzerland for England in an effort to form a new band. They found it in drummer Bryson Graham and singer/songwriter David Kubinec (World of Oz). Initially calling themselves Integral Aim - then Mainhorse Airline - and supporting acts as Free, Canned Heat and Humble Pie, the band did early symphonic psych-rock with better musicianship than the Nice, less freaked-out space explorations than Egg, and did it a full year before anyone had ever heard of ELP. Moraz's vibrant organ and Ristori's classical foundation led the way and came together with Kubinec's songwriting talents beautifully for these ten tracks recorded in a Swiss basement studio. Kubinec would later suffer a heart attack and the original line-up dissolved, and Patrick Moraz would go on to work with other prog greats, some of the key music from this period making it on to 1971's 'Mainhorse'. But these early sessions give a taste of the group's true potential and exposes a shadowed corner of the progressive underground to the light of day, giving fans a priceless missing link in prog's evolution. Opener 'Overture and Beginners' is an explosion of late 60s energy tempered by musical discipline, powerhouse rhythms and wild organ runs. 'Blunt Needles', a startling look at drug culture, clips with jazzy street life and a ghostly church organ. Drowsy Beatles impression 'The Passing Years', funny jazz-pop of 'Make it the Way You Are', very prog 'Pale Sky' at 7 minutes complete with Eastern-style acoustic interlude, savage psych bit 'Directions for Use' and pastoral 'A Very Small Child'. 11-minute 'God Can Fix Anything' is enormous, almost Who-like, and ends things convincingly.
Bursting with fresh ideas and technical virtuosity rarely seen in its time, 'The Geneva Tapes' is a revelation, finally giving these guys their due and answering the question of what this band sounded like in its earliest incarnation. Mandatory for anyone with a taste for prog in its youth, a great record and a great piece of history. Excellent addition to any prog music collection (100%)
Posted July 10, 2008 by 'Atavachron' Special Collaborator Art Rock Specialist (David)
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