The Churchills

The Churchills were part of Israel’s emerging underground rock scene and offered young listeners a fresh alternative to mainstream music.[1] They were among the pioneers of the founding generation of Israeli rock and have also been described as “one of the first, if not the first” Israeli rock bands, although that priority claim remains qualified.[3][4] Their sound drew on hard rock and psychedelia, with accounts also noting progressive rock and Eastern musical currents.[1][5]

The group’s significance rests especially on its combination of original rock with a scene initially shaped by beat bands and cover performances, its work with Arik Einstein, and its ventures beyond conventional rock settings. The band played long, heavy songs that mainstream radio rarely aired.[6][5] Its recordings later attracted collectors, and it adapted Bach for performance with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.[2][7]

The Churchills emerged in Israel in 1965 from the beat-band scene and initially built their reputation by performing covers in clubs and other engagements.[2][7] Their name came from Yitzhak Klepter’s school nickname, “Churchill.” One account traces the nickname to a classroom talk about Sir Winston Churchill; another recalls a friend comparing Klepter’s build to a Churchill tank.[2][8]

Accounts differ on who founded the band and who belonged to its original lineup. One account says Klepter founded it, with Haim Romano joining from the start; another says Romano and Miki Gavrielov decided to form the group and then brought in Klepter.[1][2] Romano separately recalled that Ami Treibitsch and Klepter approached him and that he suggested Gavrielov, while a 2003 retrospective lists Klepter, Romano, Gavrielov, Treibitsch, and Selwyn Lifshitz among the founding lineup.[5][7] English-language accounts also use both “The Churchills” and “the Churchillim.”[8]

Romano had first played mandolin because his hands were considered too small for a guitar. After seeing The Shadows perform in Israel in 1964 and meeting guitarist Hank Marvin, he taught himself guitar chords, played covers in a neighborhood band, and joined the Churchills about a year later. The group performed in Ramle and Tel Aviv, where Romano recalled that bands playing the best covers were the most popular.[1]

The band’s membership changed as musicians entered military service. Klepter and Lifshitz were replaced by English guitarist and songwriter Rob Huxley, while Canadian singer Stan Solomon later left and was replaced by vocalist Danny Shushan. Across its lineups, members included Romano, Gavrielov, Treibitsch, Klepter, Lifshitz, Huxley, Solomon, and Shushan.[2]

In 1968 the group spent several months performing abroad. Romano recalled a stay in Copenhagen, where the band saw international performers including The Doors; he also described leaving a Jimi Hendrix performance early because the Churchills had their own show.[1] Another recollection describes travel through Naples and Rome before a six-month period in Denmark, while a separate account says the band opened for Deep Purple.[5][2] The reported itineraries therefore differ.

The group’s first album appeared in 1969, was recorded at Kolinor studios in Tel Aviv, and was produced by Solomon and Gavrielov. It also served as the soundtrack to Jacques Katmor’s avant-garde film Mikreh Isha (A Woman’s Case).[2] A retrospective says the album drew partly on film scores Huxley had written for Mikreh Isha and Judd Ne’eman’s Simla, and describes influences including Cream, Love, and the Doors alongside Greek and Eastern musical currents. The film did not succeed at the box office, while the record later became a sought-after collectors’ item.[2][7]

A Churchills recording titled “To Much In Love To Hear” is catalogued as dating from 1968 and also appears in a retrospective of the band’s early releases.[3][7] The band recorded versions of songs by Led Zeppelin and the Beatles as well.[2][7]

After returning to Israel, the Churchills began working with Arik Einstein, providing instrumental backing on his album Poozy, also rendered Fozzy in the National Library’s catalogue.[1][9] Einstein initially worked on the album with Misha Segal and then added the Churchills to the recording group. The band had until then sung mainly in English and stood out among beat bands for performing original songs.[9] The Churchills contributed half of the album’s instrumental tracks, and Poozy has been characterized as the first true Israeli rock album.[4]

One especially direct link between the band’s original material and Einstein’s Hebrew repertoire was “Achinoam Lo Yodaat,” the opening song on Fozzy: its melody had been written by the Churchills for one of their own songs.[9] Huxley wrote the original “When You’re Gone,” which Einstein recorded in Hebrew as “Achinoam Lo Yodaat” in 1969.[2][7] Huxley’s “Asur Levater” (“Don’t Give Up”) appeared on Plastelina; he later recalled that it became a hit and received extensive airplay.[2]

The Churchills also played on Einstein and Shalom Hanoch’s albums Shablul and Plastelina, released in 1970.[2] In the early 1970s, the band, including Gavrielov, served as Einstein’s backing group on recordings and performances as he sought to bring more rock-and-roll influences into his music.[10] Gavrielov, the band’s bass player, composed and arranged all the songs on Einstein’s 1971 album Badasha Etzel Avigdor, whose lyrics were divided between Einstein and Yankele Rotblit.[11] Klepter and Gavrielov also wrote the Yiddish song “Meidale,” performed by Einstein on the television program Lool 4.[12]

The Churchills became known for heavy, non-commercial rock and played in clubs in Israel. Romano recalled that they performed songs lasting seven or eight minutes—unusual at the time—and made music without regard for establishment expectations. Mainstream radio rarely played the band.[6][5]

In November 1969, the group collaborated with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Zubin Mehta, performing music by Bach. Romano recalled that Mehta wanted to bring a rock band into the Philharmonic to attract younger audiences to classical music. After the band initially played cautiously, Mehta urged the musicians to use distortion and perform more forcefully; Romano remembered the performance as well received, though some listeners raised eyebrows.[6][2]

The collaboration also produced a double single titled “Churchill Sebastian Bach,” which arranged Bach works for a rock lineup. The recording and performance included organist Eddie Shapiro, and the pieces were identified as the Double Concerto and “Chorale for Young Lovers.” Some conservative audience members reportedly left the concert in protest, while younger listeners responded positively to the combination of electric guitars, bass, drums, and Bach.[2][7] Noam Sheriff initiated a separate joint appearance by the Churchills and the Israel Philharmonic in 1970, an undertaking described as daring.[13]

The group also attracted contemporary press attention: journalist Noam Shach interviewed the Churchills and the Lions for Maariv in April 1970.[3]

In 1970, Romano, Gavrielov, and the rest of the group moved to London and adopted the name Jericho Jones for their British career.[1] They signed to make a record and rehearsed in Gloucester. Romano said Led Zeppelin’s manager offered them an opening slot on the band’s winter tour, but their British label demanded £5,000 to release them for the tour, a sum the group could not pay.[1]

The album Junkies Monkies And Donkies was recorded in London over two weeks in early 1971 and released by the British label Red Bus. Reviews were generally positive, and the band played prominent British clubs and opened for Rod Stewart and Deep Purple in Europe, but it did not achieve the breakthrough it hoped for. The title is also printed as Junkies, Monkeys & Donkeys in another account.[7][14] The group released a second international album, Jericho, in 1972.[7]

Accounts place the band’s end at different times. One says the return to Israel of Gavrielov and Treibitsch after Jericho marked the end, while another says the last members returned in 1973.[7][2] Romano later recalled that the band broke up in 1974.[6] Huxley said that the group eventually could not continue because it lacked money, explaining that keeping a band alive required “the fuel of success.” He also recalled the band playing in South Africa during apartheid, including an appearance before an exclusively white audience that he described as very problematic.[2]

The Churchills’ work with Einstein brought the band wider recognition and connected its rock approach to Hebrew-language popular music. The collaboration moved the group beyond the underground club scene and into recordings that became landmarks of Israeli rock.[2][4] Its contribution to Poozy and the related Einstein recordings is one reason the Churchills are remembered among the pioneers of the genre.[1][4]

Their legacy also includes musical experiments beyond the standard band format: original material, extended songs, and collaborations that joined amplified rock instruments with classical repertoire. The recordings and performances with the Israel Philharmonic, together with the later circulation of the debut album as a collectors’ item, illustrate the range of the group’s work.[2][7]

The Churchills’ exact founding lineup and the sequence of their formation are not described consistently in the available accounts. Some credit Klepter with founding the group, while others describe Romano and Gavrielov as its initiators or recall Treibitsch and Klepter approaching Romano.[1][2] Contemporary recollections and retrospectives also differ over the membership of the founding lineup.[7][5] Their status as Israel’s first rock band is a qualified priority claim: they have been described as “one of the first, if not the first,” rather than being given an uncontested ranking.[4]

Sources likewise differ over the band’s overseas itinerary in 1968, particularly whether the journey should be described chiefly as a Copenhagen stay or as travel through Italy followed by six months in Denmark.[1][5] Accounts also place the group’s ending after the 1972 Jericho album, upon the last members’ return in 1973, or in 1974.[2][7] These variations should be kept distinct rather than combined into a single precise account.[6]