Splinter on CD

Splinter: Two Man Band on Bigpink Records.

George Harrison’s Dark Horse Records label released three albums by the duo Splinter. All these albums are now available from the Korean Bigpink Records.

Splinter was a two-man vocal group from South Shields, England, consisting of Bill Elliott (William Elliott) and Bobby Purvis (Robert J Purvis), who formed in the early 1970s. The duo was the first act signed to George Harrison’s Dark Horse Records label, when it partnered with A&M Records. The duo’s biggest success came with their debut album, the critically admired “The Place I Love” (1974), which contained the hit single “Costafine Town”.

The 1977 Splinter album “Two Man Band”, Dark Horse catalogue no. DH 3073 is now also available on CD for the first time, completing the trilogy. Whereas the former two albums are available though Amazon, we found “Two Man Band” from catchopcd.net.

Although the duo of Purvis and Elliott continued to perform together until 1984,”Two Man Band” was the last Splinter album released in most countries and their final album on Dark Horse Records. Harrison is credited as co-executive producer, and played some of the guitar.

This album had two singles released “Round & Round” b/w “I’ll Bend for You”. The latter was a non-LP track and lastly “Motions of Love” as double sided promo single in 1977. “Motions” did get released in 1978 with a B side of “I Need Your Love”. On YouTube you can find the opening track “Little Girl” from the album, whose title comes from a passage in the lyrics of the song.

Two Man Band back cover.

After “Two Man Band”, Splinter recorded two more albums that were each released in just two countries. The first of these, “Streets at Night”, was issued only in Japan, in 1979. Purvis and Elliott produced and arranged this album themselves. “Streets at Night” featured Alan Clark, who played keyboards, synthesizers and clavinet.

The final Splinter album was “Splinter”, which was released in the UK in 1980 on the Bellaphon label. The album was also issued in Japan the following year under the title “Sail Away”, with a song called “Pigalle” used in place of “All That Love”.

Splinter finally split up in 1984. In recent years, Purvis has re-emerged as a performer and composer, working for a British cancer research charity.

The Bigpink record label has also released another CD from the Dark Horse catalogue, former Wingsman the late Henry McCullough’s “Mind Your Own Business!”