Gravy Train was a progressive rock group from Lancashire, England, formed by vocalist and guitarist Norman Barratt in 1969.
Freelance journalist, broadcaster and lecturer John O’Regan wrote that, despite recording four albums, Gravy Train's "success rate did not befit their choice of name".
The term, "Gravy Train", he commented, was northern slang for "an occupation or other source of income that requires little effort while yielding considerable profit".
The group gathered a considerable following among British Progressive Rock audiences with incendiary live performances, along the way recording the debut Gravy Train (1970) and its follow-up (A Ballad of) a Peaceful Man (1971) on Vertigo, while a switch to Dawn Records yielded two further albums in Second Birth (1973) and Staircase to the Day (1974).
"Musically Gravy Train played melodic Progressive rock" — John O’Regan again — "with the accent on hard rock riffing alternating with quieter moments with the flute high in the mix topped with solid personable vocals from singer/guitarist/chief songwriter Norman Barratt.
Gravy Train eventually foundered in 1975 through a combination of bad luck, poor business decisions and lack of success .
O'Regan quotes him from an e-mail interview in March 2006 as saying: "Playing with a big soul band, Spaghetti House, I met bassist Les [Williams].
After leaving school, he honed his guitar skills in local bands The Hunters (with whom he sometimes later still performed) and Newton's Theory, whilst holding down a day-job as a trainee accountant.
After passing his accountancy exams, he turned professional, moving to London in the late Sixties with Newton's Theory.
Hughes had been playing in Spaghetti House, and Barry had been part of a jazz outfit called "The John Rotherham Trio".
I was still living at home in Liverpool, Les Williams and drummer Barry Davenport were from St. Helens and Norm from Earlestown, Lancs."
The band's influences mined a richly varied canvas: The Beatles, Jethro Tull, Roland Kirk and John Coltrane (J.D.
On his departure after (A Ballad of) A Peaceful Man (he did play on three tracks on Second Birth), the writing became more melodic, much of the repertoire coming from Norman Barratt.
Citing Vernon Johnson's inestimable "Tapestry of Delights" on the Progressive Rock Archives website, Marcel Coopman described Gravy Train as follows: "Starting like your typical Vertigo act, Gravy Train's first album sounds faintly like early Jethro Tull mainly due to similar flute lines, but without a dominating personality like Ian Anderson.
John O'Regan quoted him as saying: "When we were making the first Gravy Train album, my old manager in The Hunters, Norman Littler, had become a Christian while I had been away touring and recording with the band.
Now they found Vic Smith, who had produced Peter Sarstedt’s third United Artists album, Everything You Say (Is Written Down) and would later work with The Jam.
Staircase to the Day was recorded at the Manor Studios, Kinnerton, Oxford and came wrapped in a colourful Roger Dean-designed gatefold sleeve depicting a winged-space monster descending onto a cosmic landscape.
It kicked off with one of Gravy Train's best-known Dawn Cuts, "Starbright Starlight", anthologised in various progressive samplers and compilation albums.
Marcel Coopman (again citing Vernon Johnson) described it as "a blistering piece of melodious hard-rock, that sets the standard for similarly inclined music (though not many may have heard it, of course)."
At this stage, he explained, "I became more involved in cabaret bands, only occasionally meeting the others for Gravy Train gigs.