Fuchsia is a British progressive folkrock band formed in 1970. Named after Fuchsia Groan they released one album before disbanding. Their album, Fuchsia, was listed as one of Mojo magazine's "Forgotten Classics". Their style was similar to their contemporaries Jade and Comus.
Formation
The band was formed by Tony Durant while a student at Exeter University with Michael Day, Michael Gregory. The trio was soon augmented by Janet Rogers, Madeleine Bland and Vanessa Hall-Smith so that Durant could explore his musical ideas. Produced by David Hitchcock, their album was recorded at Sound Techniques Studios by Vic Gamm. It was released by Pegasus in the UK and by Kingdom in France. A single advertisement in the Melody Maker and their manager's failure to arrange an often promised tour resulted in minimal sales and the demise of the band. Durant went to work in Australia with Dave Warner and later learned of the popularity of the album amongst collectors and the unlicensed re-pressings. Using his original master tapes he digitally remastered the album at Sound Practices Studios in Sydney which was released on CD.
Recent activity
In 2005, the CD Fuchsia, Mahagonny & other gems was released. This contained three further Fuchsia tracks, two recorded while looking for a new record company after the first album, and the third an original demonstration acetate recording. Another eight tracks from other projects including Mahagonny, a theatre show based on the works of Bertoldt Brecht and Kurt Weill, completed the album. In 2013, the CD album From Psychedelia... To a Distant Place was released under the name Fuchsia II with a new band assembled by Durant in Australia and comprising Durant himself, Lloyd Gyi, Emily Duffill, Tracy Wan, Lidia Bara and Jo Bara, with Suzy Toomey and Isabel Durant. The album gained favourable reviews in the British music press The album contained mostly new material, although the track "The Rainbow Song" included a re-working of "Shoes and Ships" from the first album recorded forty-two years previously. Also in 2013, the single "The Band" was released. This song was written for a second album that was never recorded before Fuchsia disbanded in the 1970s. In the 2013 release, "The Band" is performed by the Swedish band Me and My Kites with Durant on vocals. In August 2017, a Fuchsia line-up including Durant and Day began a short British tour in Cardigan, Wales, to coincide with the release of the Song double EP, and it was announced that a Fuchsia III album was in preparation.
