Splinter (band)

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 Place I Love, Harder to Live and Two Man Band have been remastered and reissued on compact disc on the Big Pink Music label from South Korea.

The next album Splinter Live In England will be released in the near future, and it displays Billy and Bobby as they were never intended to be heard on record."

Splinter, who had worked together at various times in the Newcastle and London music scenes, first came to the attention of Harrison through Mal Evans, a longtime assistant to The Beatles and latterly a scout for Apple Records.

[1][2] Harrison was impressed with one of their songs, "Lonely Man", which he felt would be ideal for a film he was producing, based on the stage play Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs.

But as Apple fell apart, Harrison decided to establish his own record label, setting up offices in London on Royal Avenue and in Los Angeles.

[4] Also during this period, Purvis and Elliot co-wrote the song "Kyle" with Gary Wright, another friend of Harrison's who contributed to the lengthy sessions for Splinter's album.

[8][9] As well as Wright, other musicians included Alvin Lee, Billy Preston, Jim Keltner, Klaus Voormann, Willie Weeks and Mel Collins.

[3] In preparing for Splinter's second album, Harder to Live, Harrison arranged for them to record at A&M Studios in Los Angeles during the late spring and early summer of 1975.

[13] The band were unable to use the studio time, however, due to Purvis suffering from hay fever, apparently brought on by the LA smog.

[13] Since Harrison was in town working with fellow Dark Horse acts such as Keltner's band Attitudes, he instead used the pre-booked studio time to record his own album, Extra Texture.

[16][17] "Lonely Man" was a hit in Japan,[17] and in recording a version of the song in Japanese, Splinter became the first western artists to sing in that language.

[9] In 2019, both members of Splinter, realising their recordings were not on the market and had not been for some considerable time, decided to commence a Legacy Project, thus ensuring that unreleased material will be made available to fans.