The Ramong Sound

History

The Ramong Sound was a London based outfit, that featured two black lead singers doing Sam & Dave styled duets, one of them being former professional boxer Clem Curtis, and the other being Raymond Morrison aka Ramong Morrison. Curtis joined the group after hearing from his uncle that the lead singer of the group Ramong, was looking for backing singers and he should give it a try. At this time was Curtis's singing experience was more or less limited to singing with his uncle when he came around the house with the guitar. Guitar player Alan Warner was an experienced musician, and joined the Ramong Sound after having worked in various bands. He would stay with the group through all of their name change evolutions from Ramongs to Foundations, until he left the Foundations in 1970 to join progressive rock band Pluto. At some stage the group had dropped the "sound" part of their name and shortened it to simply The Ramongs, or The Ramong.

The group had a steadily growing reputation and following around the London club scene due to the energetic performance of the group. After the original lead singer, Ramong Morrison, whom the group was named after, was imprisoned for six months, a friend of the band called Joan suggested Arthur Brown as a replacement. Around this time they had gone through a succession of name changes that included The Foundation Sound, The Foundation Squad and would eventually evolve into The Foundations. Arthur Brown would leave the band after a few weeks, and they would emerge in January 1967 with a new horn section replacing Mike Felano and the other horn player. This new horn section consisted of Dominican trombonist Eric Allandale and Jamaican saxophonists Pat Burke and Mike Elliott. Tim Harris replaced Lyndsay Arnold as the drummer and Clem Curtis was now the lead singer. The Foundations would go on to have several hits, including "Baby Now That I've Found You" and "Build Me Up Buttercup".

Former personnel