Scott's Spotlight #44: Fruupp
Originally posted to Facebook on September 11, 2025
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Welcome to Scott’s Spotlight (#scottsspotlight) issue #44. For more information about this series, please click here:
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This week, we are going to jump in the way-back machine and feature a wonderful prog-band that time forgot. Now, don’t worry, I am still going to feature many more recent bands and artists as I go along. From time-to-time, however, I will feature an obscure prog band from long ago that didn’t get the attention that many of their contemporaries got, yet still have some great music to explore. This week, we are going to learn about Northern Ireland proggers, Fruupp!
The story of Fruupp begins with guitarist Vincent McCusker who had gone to London for several months in 1970 or 1971 to find other musicians to help him develop and realize his musical ideas. Unable to find the right musicians, he frustratedly returned home to Belfast, and found the people he was looking for, some with classical training. By the end of 1971, he had put together the line-up of Peter Farrelly on bass and lead vocals (and also painted the pictures on the first two Fruupp albums), Stephen Houston on keyboards and oboe, and Martin Foye on drums and percussion. According to Paul Charles who was the band’s manager/lyricist/roadie/sound-engineer on his website [which is one of the primary sources for much of this article] (https://paulcharlesbooks.com/fruupp.php#:~:text=Fruupp%20played%20their%20first%20gig,is%20extremely%20difficult%20to%20find.), once the band was in place, they lived and rehearsed in a dilapidated house in Belfast for several weeks in the summer of 1971. Also according to Charles, there are two stories as to how the band derived their unusual name. One says that the name came from a young female ghost in that house. Great story, but Charles refutes that one. He and most other sources say that the name came from a “Letroset page” (sometimes erroneously referred to as an “Electroset page”, which made it a bit of a task to figure out what that was). For those, like me, who aren’t familiar with Letroset, it is a brand name for a sheet of letters that can be peeled off and transferred to another location to make words. Apparently when trying to create a name, someone noticed a sheet of Letroset that had been mostly used up and only had four letters remaining: “F, R, U, and P”. They decided to double the “U” and double the “P”, and thus FRUUPP was born!
According to Charles, Fruupp’s first live gig was in June of 1971 at Ulster Hall in Belfast, opening for the legendary Irish blues-rocker Rory Gallagher. Over the next two years, Fruupp became a very active live band, eventually playing up to 230 gigs per year. Over the years they opened for the likes of ELO, Queen, Hawkwind, Man, Supertramp (RIP Rick Davies), Focus, King Crimson and Genesis. In March of 1973 they recorded a 4 song demo in London, which included a song composed by Vincent McCusker called “Decision”. When Pye Records’ (home of the Kinks) A&R man heard that song he decided to sign them to their progressive rock subsidiary Dawn Records. In August of 1973, Fruupp took a break from their busy gig schedule to record their debut album called “Future Legends”, released in October of that year. Interestingly the track “On a Clear Day” was based on “The Planets” by Gustav Holst, and had to be removed from the album after the first 100 pressings, as Holst’s estate objected to the song’s inclusion. It was included as a bonus track on the 2009 remaster of the album (the legal issues must have been worked out by then; or it had become part of the Public Domain by that time – which I think is more likely). It is also on the 2004 compilation called “It’s All Up Now”. Other standout tracks include “Graveyard Epistle” and “Song for a Thought”.
Just a few months later, Fruupp would enter the studio in January - February of 1974 and record their follow up, “Seven Secrets”. The album was initially to have six songs, but they decided that seven was a more mystical number and quickly composed a short track called “The Seventh Secret” which was, of course, to be the seventh and final track on the album, and led to the album’s name. Favorites from this album are the opener, “Faced with Shekina”, “White Eyes” and “Garden Lady”.
Despite constant touring, Fruupp somehow managed to get a third album recorded and released by the end of 1974! Many (although not many Prog Archives reviewers) consider this to be their finest. Based on a short story by the aforementioned Paul Charles, the album was called “The Prince of Heaven’s Eyes”. (If Paul Charles wasn’t called the “Fifth Fruupp” that was an opportunity missed!) The band released a single called “The Prince of Heaven” which was composed by the entire band (for the first and only time), which was meant to help explain the album’s concept, but wasn’t part of the story itself and as such was kept off of the album. It would be a bonus track on 21st century reissues. Notable tracks on the album include the opener “It’s all Up Now”, “Annie Austere” and the 10:50 “Knowing You” which is one of only two 10 minute plus Fruupp tracks, and the longest overall, but only by a few seconds. If 1974 was a triumphant year for Fruupp, unfortunately it would begin to go downhill soon after.
In January of 1975, keyboardist Stephen Houston would leave Fruupp due to his recent conversion to Christianity. Although he initially agreed to stay until a replacement was found, he disappeared after a gig on January 19, and took a lot of equipment with him (I’m not a Christian, but it doesn’t seem a very Christian thing to do). Eventually the band got their gear back, and they continued as a 3-piece until they hired John Mason to take over. He played his first gig with them on March 14, 1975. While Houston had a classical background, Mason had more of a jazz background, so he interpreted the songs in his own way, and brought that influence to the band’s fourth album, “Modern Masquerades”, which was released in the fall of that year. The album was produced by original King Crimson member Ian MacDonald prior to him becoming a member of the original Foreigner line-up. In listening to the second longest Fruupp song, “Gormenghast”, which is the longest on the album (10:46), I can hear the jazzy electric piano adding a bit of fusion flavor to the band. Other notable tracks include “Masquerading With Dawn” and the closer “Sheba’s Song”, which somehow found its way to being sampled on a rap song in 2006, called “Come the New Day” by Talib Kweli (featuring Nora Jones on vocals). Thankfully the rapper shared credit, giving composers Paul Charles and Paul Mason a well-deserved cut of the royalties.
On the ensuing tour, a live album was recorded in December of 1975, but the master tapes were burned in a fire. Miraculously an audience recording of the very same show surfaced some years later, and was cleaned up and released as a live album in 2022 called “Masquerading with Dawn”. Fruupp returned to the studio in 1976 and began recording a new album to be called “Dr. Wilde’s Twilight Adventure”, but it wasn’t meant to be. Soon after, the record company dropped the band, as Fruupp wasn’t selling enough albums for Dawn Records to recoup the advances the band was being paid, despite their reputation as a great live band. That was essentially the death knell for Fruupp since, as I understand it, breaking up got them off the hook for repaying the advances.
Details are sketchy at best as to what some of the members of Fruupp did following the breakup. The most info is available regarding Stephen Houston. Upon his departure, he joined a christian rock band called Liberation Suite. He eventually became an ordained minister with a PhD from somewhere and is currently a televangelist based near Dallas, TX. I looked up his website, and it’s full-on faith healing and the whole shebang! Search at your own risk! Peter Farrelly sadly passed away in March of this year at the age of 76. Following Fruupp, Farrelly formed a band called The Crowd along with Martin Foye, who played music that was somewhere between The Doors and The Stranglers. When they didn’t break through he officially left the music business, but kept composing music on his own, taking up the piano and developing an interest in classical music. As for Foye, following The Crowd, he went back to Northern Ireland and played in various local bands, and still plays at least for his own enjoyment. Founder Vincent McCusker’s post-Fruupp years are unclear outside of reports that he became a guitar teacher and somewhat of a renowned guitar repairman/restorationist in Maghera, Northern Ireland. All I can find on John Mason is that he released an EP in the mid 80s with a band called The Back Room Boys, then possibly played on cruise ships for an unknown amount of time. He passed away sometime prior to 2022 after having a stroke. If anyone has any more verifiable information on the band members post-Fruupp careers, please post it in the comments.
Thankfully, however, interest in Fruupp grew in the internet-driven resurgence of all things prog. The albums have been re-issued, and career retrospective compilation albums have come out. More people may be aware of the music Fruupp made all those years ago these days than at the time it was current. Their music is easily accessible if you want to find it! As always, I’ll post my “Links for Listening” below. In the end they lived up to the promise of their first album title: “Future Legends”!
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Prog On!
Scott
Links for Listening:
From “Future Legends”
“Decision”:
“Graveyard Epistle”
From “Seven Secrets”
“White Eyes”
“Elizabeth”
From: “The Prince of Heaven’s Eyes”
“Annie Austere”
“Knowing You”
From: “Modern Masquerades”
“Masquerading With The Dawn”
“Sheba’s Song”
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