Hannibal -

Hannibal was an English blues-rock band from Birmingham that released a self-titled album on B&C and Philips in 1970.

Members: Rolando Alex Boyce [aka Kirk St. James] (lead vocals), Jack Griffiths (bass), Bill Hunt (keyboards), Adrian Ingram (guitar), John Parkes (drums), Cliff Williams (tenor saxophone, clarinet)

Background

Hannibal formed circa 1969 with two West Midlands pros: guitarist and composer Adrian Ingram and keyboardist Bill Hunt.

Ingram came from Wolverhampton harmony-popsters The Californians, which issued multiple 1967–69 singles on Decca and Fontana. He played in a sequence of local groups (The Choice, Gilt Edge, Evolution) before they hired him as their second guitarist.

Hunt hailed from Brumbeat psychsters Breakthru, which cut the 1968 Mercury single “Ice-Cream Tree ” (b/w “Julius Caesar“) and vaulted an album’s worth of material (later issued as Adventures Highway).

Singer Alex Boyce and the rhythm section of Jack Griffiths (bass) and John Parkes (drums) rounded the core Hannibal lineup. Before settling on the name Hannibal, they toured Germany as Bakerloo at the behest of rock manager Jim Simpson, who’d funded a recent album by a now-defunct, unrelated Brummie band called Bakerloo.

Hannibal combined post-Mayall blues rock (Savoy Brown, Juicy Lucy) with the brassier sounds of Colosseum and the Keef Hartley Band. The latter element came via multi-reedist Cliff Williams, whose fluid winds meshed with Ingram’s scaly runs in Hannibal’s extended numbers. They signed with the Charisma-adjacent B & C Records (Atomic Rooster, Delivery, Ginhouse, Steamhammer, Spirogyra) and the management firm of Big Bear, Birmingham (Black Sabbath, The Dog That Bit People).

The Album

Hannibal released their singular album in December 1970 on B & C. Side one features three lengthy numbers: “Look Upon Me,” “Winds of Change,” and the 10-minute “Bend for a Friend.” Ingram sole-composed those and the flipside cuts “1066” and “Wet Legs.” The album wraps with the eight-minute “Winter,” co-written with Boyce, Griffiths, and Parkes.

Hannibal recorded the album at Island Studios with producer Rodger Bain (Budgie, Indian Summer, Wild Turkey, Barclay James Harvest) and engineer Roger Beale (Spooky Tooth, Clear Blue Sky, Amazing Blondel, Family).

Hannibal sports a gatefold cover with a photo-negative underview of an unspecified hilltop quadruped (front) trailing a flutist (back) against an orange sky. The designer, Keith MacMillan (aka Keef), also did visuals for 1969/70 Vertigo titles by Colosseum (Valentyne Suite), Beggars Opera, Rod Stewart (Gasoline Alley), Affinity, Hungry Wolf, Black Sabbath (Paranoid), Warhorse, and Manfred Mann Chapter Three (Volume Two).

B & C paired “Winds of Change” and “Winter” onto a promo 7″.

After Hannibal

Hunt toured with The Move and did animal noises on their 1971 release Message from the Country. He then played French horn on No Answer, the debut album by Electric Light Orchestra. Hunt played that instrument, plus trumpet, piano, and harpsichord, in Roy Wood‘s subsequent band Wizzard. In 1989, he cut a single with Blessing In Disguise, which also featured Bob Lamb (Locomotive) and Slade alumni Dave Hill and Noddy Holder.

Ingram cut the 1980 classical guitar album Duets on one-press Domino. In the ’90s, he appeared on Jazz Cat releases with Alan Skidmore and the Ben Crosland Quintet.

Hannibal received its first official CD reissue in 1994 by German archivists Green Tree Records. It has since appeared on Melting Pot Music (Ireland, Russia) and Big Pink (Japan, 2019).

Discography: