The Mojo Men - Dance With Us (1966)

The Mojo Men formed in 1964, when singer/bassist Jim Alaimo,  guitarist Paul Curcio, drummer Dennis DeCarr, and keyboardist Don Metchick moved from Florida to San Francisco to form a new band. There they met Sylvester Stewart, later known as Sly Stone, who was at the time a record producer at Autumn Records for acts such as The Beau Brummels and The Vejtables. Stewart and the band recorded a few songs under the name Sly And The Mojo Men, but he was unsatisfied with the results and chose not to release them, and he later produced a number of recordings from the band where they performed their own material, as well as a few covers. Once again, these were held in the vaults of Autumn Records as they were not deemed worthy of release. In 1966 DeCarr left the group and was replaced by drummer/vocalist Jan Errico, formerly of the Vejtables, and following a move from Autumn to Reprise Records, the band's earlier British Invasion-influenced garage rock style evolved into a more successful pop/folk rock. The 1966 recordings have since been released on a compilation, but you can hear why some of them didn't find favour with the label, and so by trimming the track listing down to just the best songs, and removing demos and duplicates, we can approximate what an album of British Invasion-style rockers from the group might have sounded like in 1966.  

Track listing

01 Why
02 My Woman's Head
03 As I Get Older
04 Girl Won't You Go On Home
05 Free As A Bird
06 Lost Love
07 Dance With Me
08 Loneliest Boy In Town
09 Everything I Need
10 Fire In My Heart
11 Something Bad
12 The New Breed
13 She's My Baby
14 Why Can't You Stay

Les Fleur De Lys - I Can See A Light (1968)

The Fleur De Lys (or Les Fleur De Lys as they were originally known) were formed in Southampton in 1964, and were the brain-child of Dave Jay, Southampton's answer to Brian Epstein. The original line up consisted of Frank Smith on vocals and guitar, Danny Churchill on bass and vocals, Alex Chamberlain on organ, and Keith Guster on drums. After a little over a year of continuous hard slog they came to the attention of Tony Calder, Andrew Loog Oldham's partner in the newly formed Immediate records, and he offered them the chance to make a record, with the Jimmy Page-produced 'Moondreams' being released in November 1965. The band never liked the A-Side, but agreed to record it as they had written a song to be included on the flip entitled 'Wait For Me', which they felt better represented their live sound, but when the record was issued their version was replaced by an instrumental with the same name performed by session musicians. Possibly partly as a result of this, Churchill became disillusioned with the music business and quit the band, being replaced by Gordon Haskell, who had previously been playing with The Dowlands. This new line up set off for a month long residency in Germany at the start of 1966, and it was there they met Phil Sawyer, who was an amazing young guitarist from London, who had previously been with legendary Mod/R&B band The Cheynes, alongside Peter Bardens and Mick Fleetwood. He was then playing with a band called Johnny Deen and The Deacons, but wasn't happy, and so jumped at the chance of joining Les Fleur De Lys. 

On their return to the UK, Chamberlain decided to leave the band, but Immediate Records offered them the chance to record their second record, which was a cover of The Who's 'Circles', and their version has since become the definitive version of the song. Shortly afterwards, Smith left the group, leaving Guster as the only original member of the group, and so he had to recruit new members, settling on Chris Andrews, an old friend of Phil Sawyer's, on vocals and Pete Sears on keyboards. Throughout 1966 the band were constantly gigging, and they were approached by Nicky Wright and Kenny Barker, two young movers and shakers on the London scene, who asked if they could manage them. They introduced the band to Frank Fenter, who was at that time head of Atlantic records in the UK, and was married to South African singer Sharon Tandy. She had been recording for Pye Records, but through Fenter had managed to get a record deal with Atlantic, and he wanted the group to become her backing band for live shows, and so in late 1966 he signed them to Polydor records and became their manager. They began recording on Polydor almost immediately, and one of the first sessions they did featured overdubs by Jimi Hendrix, who had recently arrived in the UK, and was living with Guster and Haskell. 

The band's first release for Polydor was 'Mud In Your Eye', which was a superb slice of freakbeat, but shortly after its release in December 1966, Sawyer left to join Shotgun Express, and he was replaced almost immediately by Bryn Howarth. The early part of 1967 was spent gigging, mostly on their own, but sometimes backing Tandy. In May, Sears left to join Sam Gopal's Dream, and the rest of the group started working at Polydor studios as session musicians for other artists. In June, Andrews was approached by Howard Condor, who wanted the band to record a track for him which was written by his protégé Rod Lynton, and the group agreed. The result was a one off single which was released under the name Rupert's People, and 'Reflections Of Charles Brown' / 'Hold On' has become another well-respected piece of psychedelia. It was soon after this recording that Andrews left the band to pursue a solo career under the name Tim Andrews, and the remaining trio spent an increasing amount of time playing with Tandy, and doing session work at Polydor Records. Towards the end of 1967 they issued another record under their own name, with 'I Can See A Light' being a departure from their usual style, but which was still a beautiful piece of orchestrated 60's pop, and the same day that it was issued Frank Fenter took the unusual step of releasing another Fleur de Lys recording, 'Tick Tock', under the pseudonym Shyster. 

As 1968 dawned, the band were wanting to stretch out, and felt the need to get a full time vocalist on board, so Tony Head, a friend of Haskell's from his early days in Bournemouth, was soon given the job. Things were looking good for the band when, shortly after Head joined, Haskell decided he'd had enough and left to join The Flowerpot Men. Auditions were held for a new bass player and in came Tago Byers, ex member of Reading's top R&B band The Moquettes. The first single after this change was 'Gong With The Luminous Nose', which was issued in March 1968, but it was actually recorded a few months earlier and featured Haskell on lead vocals. The first job of the new line-up was to finish sessions with John Bromley for his album 'Sing', and they then began work on some new material. Ahmet Ertegun, legendary boss of Atlantic Records in America, watched the band play whilst in the UK and was so impressed that he signed them to Atlantic Records, with their first release for the label being 'Stop Crossing The Bridge', a powerhouse of a track that is now considered a high water mark of British Blue Eyed soul. Fenter tried to cash in once again by issuing another of their old recordings, 'Butchers And Bakers', this time as Chocolate Frog. 

In 1969 the band set about recording new material, and by February they had finished their next single 'Liar', and also the next Sharon Tandy record, 'Gotta Get Enough Time'. and in March they began work on what was to be their last record, 'Two Can Make It Together, which was issued under the name Tony and Tandy with The Fleur De Lys. Just as the record was making an impression on radio and TV, and was selling well, Guster was involved in a serious car accident that left him with a broken neck, and he was unable to perform for three months. By the time he had recovered enough to return to London, Howarth had announced that he was leaving the UK and going to America to join Leigh Stephens of Blue Cheer in his new band, and Tandy had become very ill, and was no longer able to sing. Head then went to work for Sparta Music as a session singer, and Byers and Guster joined The Amboy Dukes, leaving The Fleur De Lys as a footnote in the history of UK freakbeat and psychedelic rock. Most of their singles were superb examples of 60's freakbeat, and by 1968 they had enough material under their belt to release what would have been an excellent album, and so as they never got around to it in their lifetime, here is what it could have sounded like had it appeared some time in 1968. It includes that early b-side that was taken away from them by Immediate, plus 'Tick Tock' and 'Butchers And Bakers', as although they weren't singles by the band, they did record the tracks.   

Track listing

01 Mud In Your Eye
02 So, Come On
03 Stop Crossing The Bridge
04 I Can See A Light
05 Gong With The Luminous Nose
06 Prodigal Son
07 Circles
08 Nothing To Say
09 Tick Tock
10 Brick By Brick
11 I Walk The Sands
12 You've Got To Earn It
13 I've Been Trying
14 Hammerhead

15 Butchers And Bakers
16 Wait For Me

The Montanas - A Step In The Right Direction (1968)

The Montanas formed in Birmingham in 1964, and consisted of Bill Hayward on lead guitar, Graham Crewe on drums, and Ralph Oakley on bass, with John Jones as lead singer, and they were primarily known for their live shows, which had a very theatrical presentation, and included bits of comedy between the songs. The group were managed by Roger Allen, who was able to get them a contract with Pye Records, bringing them under the wing of songwriters Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent, who had written hits for Petula Clark. In 1966 they were joined by Terry Rowley, who was the lead guitarist with the Mountain Kings, although when he teamed up with The Montanas he switched to keyboards. They released two singles in 1966, the second of which, 'That's When Happiness Began' b/w 'Goodbye Little Girl', became a steady seller in the autumn, when it received extensive radio play. The band's breakthrough came later in the year when they were the opening act for the Walker Brothers tour across the UK, concluding in November 1966. More singles followed, and the band appeared on radio programmes like Easy Beat and Saturday Club, and touring expanded to other countries including France, the Netherlands, and Germany. One single in particular, 'Ciao Baby' b/w 'Anyone There', was released in March 1967, and sold over 10,000 copies in Britain alone, but although they were favourites among reviewers, and got very heavy radio play, none of their singles scored any major chart action in England. 

Somehow, however, the Trent/Hatch penned 'You've Got To Be Loved' from 1967 managed to make the American Top 50, but as they lacked the resources to go to the United States to promote the record, they had to watch as it rose and fell from the charts. That same year Jake Elcock joined on bass and Graham Hollis took over on drums, and their live reputation continued to grow. The recording side of the group, however, was showing some strain, as they felt that their reliance on outside songwriters, which had been a mere detail in 1965, had become a liability by 1967, and their records, for all of their excellence, didn't reflect the group's actual sound, which was a lot less pop-oriented than their singles would have led one to believe. In 1968, Rowley and Jones left the group to join a band called Finders Keepers, which soon after became Trapeze. Ian "Sludge" Lees and George Davies came into the lineup in time for the 'Let's Get A Little Sentimental' single in 1970, although Lees was best known for providing the comedy between their songs, and later became a well-respected comedian. Rowley and Jones only lasted as members of Trapeze for the group's first album, and returned to the Montanas in 1970, and the band carried on until they finally disbanded in 1978. Even if the group felt that their recordings didn't represent their live sound, some of the singles were creditable 60's pop, and by 1968 they had amassed enough material to put together an album, and so if they'd wanted to do that, this is what it could have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 Take My Hand
02 A Step In The Right Direction
03 Run To Me
04 Top Hat
05 Miss Mackenzie
06 Difference Of Opinion
07 Goodbye Little Girl   
08 Ciao Baby
09 You've Got To Be Loved
10 Hold On
11 Anyone There
12 Someday (You'll Be Breaking My Heart Again)
13 That's When Happiness Began
14 You're Making A Big Mistake

Toby Twirl - Toffee Apple Sunday (1968)

Toby Twirl grew out of an earlier band that started around 1963, formed by Stu Somerville on bass, Jim Routledge on drums, and Barry Redman on keyboards, who were in the same class at Rutherford College in Newcastle. The trio were later joined by Norman Errington on guitar and vocalist Graham Bell, and they played predominantly Rhythm & Blues material under the name of Shades Of Blue. Bell's time with the band was relatively short-lived, being replaced by Dave "Holly" Holland, although he did go on to some success later with stints in Skip Bifferty and Bell & Arc. Next to leave the original line-up was guitarist Errington, who was replaced by Nick Thorburn, while Richie McConnell took over from  Routledge on drums. These line-up changes also signalled a change in the musical direction of the group, moving away from its original Rhythm & Blues roots and playing more pop type songs. Before long Shades Of Blue had found its niche playing in Working Mens Clubs, which were abundant in the northeast at that time, building up a good reputation, and never being short of well paid work. At some stage one of the band members attempted to promote Shades Of Blue by touting demo acetate discs recorded by an early version of the band at Morton Sound Studios in Newcastle, and one of the acetates ended up at Decca Records, putting the band on the company's radar. Subsequently two original songs, 'Utopia Daydream' and 'Quarter Past Lovely Day', penned by guitarist Nick Thorburn, impressed producer-cum-songwriter Wayne Bickerton, who arranged a recording contract with Decca, and took the band under his wing.

There was already an existing American band recording as Shades Of Blue so a change of name was necessary, and so at the end of 1967 the name Toby Twirl was chosen, after a cartoon character in children’s books published in the 1940's and 1950's. At the same time as things seemed to be looking up for the band, McConnell decided to leave, as he was planning to get married and was uncertain about how a life on the road away from his new bride would affect his life. Bickerton also thought that the band would benefit from a more experienced drummer, and so McConnell was replaced by an established drummer from Sunderland called John Reed. The band's big break came around Christmas 1967, when following a gig in Gateshead they were approached by the directors of the Bailey Organisation, who owned a string of night clubs throughout the country. The band were offered a management contact, which they accepted, and the company gave then a red Transit van, and numerous gigs over the Christmas and New Year period. In January 1968 Decca released two track recorded before Reed had joined as a single, with Bickerton's 'Back In Time' backed with '(The Fantasy World Of) Harry Faversham', penned by American songwriters. 

This latter song featured the exploits of a knight fighting off dragons to save a damsel from a castle, and a promotional video filmed at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland was one of the earliest videos of that type, featuring the band members in Regency style costumes and a paid actress cast as the damsel. The 'Harry Faversham' video was aired on TV several times, but in spite of this and the nationwide publicity through Baileys and Fabulous Magazine, the single failed to chart. In 1968 the band's future looked promising, with almost daily gigs in northeast social clubs, and for the next two years they toured throughout the UK. Amid the busy touring schedule in 1968, the band managed a further recording session at Decca's studios in London, and while on the previous occasion session musician were used to provide the instrumental backing, this time the band were allowed  to record everything apart from string and brass parts. The recording session resulted in the release of the band's second single, 'Toffee Apple Sunday', written by band members Nick Thorburn and John Reed, backed with 'Romeo And Juliet 1968', another Wayne Bickerton composition. However, as with the first single, 'Toffee Apple Sunday' failed to make an impression in the charts, probably due to a lack of air play. The band's final single for Decca was released in January 1969, with 'Movin' In' being backed by a reworking of the Thorburn composition 'Utopia Daydream', but despite good media coverage, air play of the single was not forthcoming, and consequently it also flopped, resulting in the end of the band's recording career with Decca.

They continued with a gruelling schedule of club gigs throughout 1969 and 1970, including a couple of foreign trips to Germany and Denmark, but morale within the band was low, and Holland was the first of the five core members to leave the band, being replaced with a vocalist from the Rochdale area called Stuart Pickering, who had previously worked in the Manchester area under the name of Reg James. In May 1970 tragedy struck when bass player Somerville went missing whilst canoeing in the North Sea near Whitley Bay, and after an extensive search, a canoe and lifejacket were recovered, although Somerville was not found. His apparent death was a great shock to the rest of the band, and although new bassist Dave Robson was recruited, and the band continued to tour for a further six months, at the end of 1970 they decided to disband the group. And that would have been the last that we heard from Toby Twirl if it wasn't for the fact that their three singles were so different to the music that they played at their gigs, that when 1960's psychedelic pop made a come-back in the 1980's, Toby Twirl's output was re-examined and achieved a new-found appreciation. While they were probably not that bothered about releasing an album, as they were primarily a live band, they could have issued one in 1968 just by using the tracks from their Decca session to date, and so here is what that album could have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 Toffee Apple Sunday
02 Baby What Good Is Love
03 Movin' In
04 Back In Time
05 Marjorine
06 Dark Time Of The Year
07 Harry Faversham
08 Something In Your Eyes
09 Baby You're A Rich Man
10 Romeo And Juliet 1968
11 Love Is Love
12 Gonna Have A Good Time (Good Times)
13 Utopia Daydream

The Consortium - Whatever Became Of Emily Jane? (1969)

In 1964 guitarist Geoff Simpson joined Group 66, whose members included Robbie Fair on lead vocals, Brian Bronson on rhythm guitar and vocals, John Barker on bass and vocals, and John Podbury on drums, and who covered current songs from the charts. In 1965, the group named changed to Xit, and when Simpson began writing songs, the group put a demo tape together in early 1967, and sent iy off to various record companies. Tony Macaulay from Pye Records met up with the band in Denmark Street, and they were soon signed to the Pye label. However, Macaulay didn't like the name, and thought that a West Coast sounding name would suit them more, so they were renamed West Coast Consortium. Their first single was 'Some Other Someday', and it received favourable reviews, and charted on Radio London's Top Forty, but the song that the band had recorded as the follow-up was issued by Macaulay as a solo single by Robbie Fair, under the name Robbie. He tried to pass this off by saying that it was a rush release and the credits couldn't be changed, but this could have somewhat soured their relationship, as when they booked sessions to record Macaulay's 'Rainbow' the group began bickering and decided the session wasn't working. Instead, 'Rainbow' was recorded by David Garrick, and West Coast Consortium were handed over to another in-house Pye producer, Jack Dorsey, a former bandleader, who presented them with the song 'Colour Sergeant Lillywhite', which they recorded. 

A number of demos, recorded in the bedroom of bassist John Barker's home above his father's undertaker shop in Shoreditch, were cut to acetate, but then the group lost interest, as they felt that an LP wasn't important, and they returned to playing more gigs instead. During a gig at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, their fortunes took a turn for the better as Cyril Stapleton, head of Pye, came to see them play and expressed an interest in recording them. 'All The Love In The World' had been recorded with Jack Dorsey, but the group were not impressed with the result, so Stapleton produced another version, and it was released under a shortened group name Consortium. This 1969 single became a sizable hit after being championed by Radio One, reaching Number 22 in the UK, and spending nine weeks in the charts. Due to the single's success, Pye put pressure on Simpson to go back to the demos that had been recorded for the proposed album for a follow-up release, but he felt that the music scene had changed since that time, and the only song used was 'One Day The Train Never Came', which was slightly amended to 'The Day The Train Never Came' for the b-side of their next single 'When The Day Breaks'. This was a new song, recorded at the same session as 'All The Love In The World', but neither that nor their next two singles had any chart success, and so Consortium moved from Pye to Trend, a short-lived label owned by Barry Class, in 1969. They released 'Melanie Cries Alone' in 1970, and then booked a six month tour of Italy, but as Simpson had recently married and had new-born twins to look after, he left the group, with the rest of The Consortium fulfilling their obligations by touring Italy. Once the tour was finished they recorded a final single for Trend, 'Annabella', before calling it quits. They reformed in 1975 with a much heavier, almost psychedelic, style, and they recorded an album, 'Rebirth', which was then shelved until it sneaked out in 2006 on the Angel Air Label. None of the songs recorded in 1968 and 1969 were included on 'Rebirth', so there is an album waiting to be heard from the original incarnation of The Consortium, and this is it. 

Track listing

01 The Day The Train Never Came

02 Take A Round Trip

03 All The Love In The World

04 Fairground Playboy 

05 I Don't Want Her Anymore

06 Cynthia Serenity

07 The House Upon The Hill

08 Beggar Man

09 Whatever Became Of Emily Jane?

10 Windmill Hill

11 When The Day Breaks

12 Money Matters

13 Come On Into The Warm

14 Spending My Life Saying Goodbye

The Troyes - Morning Of The Rain (1967)

The Troyes were formed in Battle Creek in 1965 by Fred Dummer on lead guitar, Jerry Younglove on rhythm guitar, Brad Keagle on bass, Lee Koteles on organ and lead vocals, and Bill Hirakis on drums, and as the members couldn't agree on a name they picked one that didn't mean anything at all. Before they reached the recording studio, Keagle left and was replaced by Gary Linke on rhythm guitar, with Younglove moving to bass, and this line-up cut two songs for release as a single on Phalanx Records. 'Why'/'Rainbow Chaser' came out on Phalanx in 1966, and climbed to number 3 in the local top 40 of September, but by the time that single was released the band had signed to a new label started by a friend of Koteles' mother, who wanted to start a record label, and so he formed Space Records. The label owner, Ray Anthony, believed in the band, and paid for studio sessions so that they could record their own material, with the aim of releasing an album by the group. Eight songs were recorded at United Sound Studios in December 1966, with a further six tracks laid down in June 1967. Two of these later recordings were released as the band's second single 'Love Comes, Love Dies'/'Help Me Find Myself' on Space Records, but it didn't match the success of their first single. At their peak The Troyes were producing a mix of far-out psychedelic rock, unhinged fuzz and garage, and moody haunting sounds, but by 1968 the were moving towards a heavier sound with their final recording 'Corn Flake', which was so named because they hailed from the home of the Kelloggs empire. They were certainly one of the Cereal City's finest exports, who should have been bigger, as for an obscure band they were a really excellent garage/beat group, and as we know exactly which songs were recorded for their proposed album, it's fairly easy to reconstruct what it would have sounded like had Space Records been able to release it in 1967 as they'd planned.  

Track listing

01 Help Me Find Myself
02 Why
03 I Don't Need You
04 Rainbow Chaser
05 Mari
06 Tomorrow
07 Someday You'll See My Side
08 Love Comes Love Dies
09 I Know Different
10 The Good Night
11 Morning Of The Rain
12 I'm Gone
13 Blanket Of My Love
14 Turn Around
15 Jezebel

Turquoise - Tales Of Flossie Fillett (1969)

Turquoise was a British pop-psych group who only officially released two singles in their short existence as a band, but the four songs on those two releases became beloved by collectorsu of the genre. The group were initially called The Brood, and was formed in North London's Muswell Hill area in 1966 by Jeff Peters, Ewan Stephens, and Vic Jansen, with fourth member Barry Hart joining later. They were all friends and neighbours of the Kinks' Ray and Dave Davies, and Dave actually produced a batch of demos for The Brood in 1966, with a second lot being produced by the Who's Keith Moon and John Entwistle a year later in 1967. Eventually The Brood was signed to Decca Records, and after a name change to Turquoise, released two double-sided singles, '53 Summer Street'/'Tales Of Flossie Fillett' and 'Woodstock'/'Saynia', but neither release really took off, and the band called it quits in 1969. Peters and Hart went on to form Slowbone, releasing an album, 'Tales Of A Crooked Man', in 1974, but those two singles refused to fade away, and collectors of 1960's British psyche/pop re-discovered them, making Turquoise a sort of long-lost cult band. They had recorded other tracks while laying down those other four songs, and so there is enough material out there to imagine what an album from the band could have sounded like if the record-buying public who love the singles so much now had been around in 1968 to buy them.  

Track listing

01 Tales Of Flossie Fillett
02 53 Summer Street
03 Sunday Best
04 Stand Up And Be Judged
05 The Sea Shines
06 Sister Saxophone
07 Flying Machine
08 Village Green
09 Woodstock
10 Saynia
11 What's Your Name
12 Mindless Child Of Motherhood

The Onyx - Tamaris Khan (1971)

For anyone who enjoyed the recent post by The Onyx, and who wondered where all of the singles were that I mentioned in the notes, the simple answer is that I was saving them up for this post, which includes both sides of all of their singles from 1968 to 1971, including that classic title track.

Track listing

01 You've Gotta Be With Me (single 1968)
02 It's All Put On (b-side of 'You've Gotta Be With Me')
03 My Son John (single 1968)
04 Step By Step (b-side of 'My Son John')
05 Tamaris Khan (single 1969)
06 So Sad Inside (b-side of 'Tamaris Khan')
07 Time Off (single 1969)
08 Movin' On (b-side of 'Time Off')
09 The Next Stop Is Mine (single 1971)
10 What's That You Say (b-side of 'The Next Stop Is Mine') 
11 Our House (single 1971)
12 Air (b-side of 'Our House')

Tintern Abbey - Vacuum Cleaner (1968)

Tintern Abbey were formed by Don Smith after meeting David MacTavish at the Overseas Visitors Club in Earl's Court London, and each of them added another member to the group, with Smith bringing in John Dalton, and MacTavish introducing Stuart MacKay into the band. After discovering a mutual love of the poems of William Wordsworth, and in particular his 'Tintern Abbey', the group named themselves after the poem. They released only one 45rpm single on Deram Records, with a re-titled 'Busy Bee' as the lead track, and 'Beeside'/'Vacuum Cleaner' came out in December 1967. However, the Jonathan Webber-produced single failed to sell, and so although the proposed follow-up record 'Snowman' had reached mastering stage, Smith left the group. After Smith's departure, Paul Brett was added as a guitarist, and he was joined by organist Terry Goldberg, originally of the Mark Leeman Five, with this new line up recording what would have been their second single 'How Do I Feel Today'/'Do What You Must', which was slated for an April 1968 release, although in the end it never appeared. A full-length album was allegedly meant to follow in August 1968, and although recording sessions took place at Tony Pike's studios in Putney, London, by the time August rolled around the group had disbanded, and the album never appeared. Since the band's breakup, the 'Beeside'/'Vacuum Cleaner' single has been highly sought after by collectors, selling at £1000 plus, and it's been hailed as one of the best examples of British psychedelia. As such, the band has become something of a cult favourite among fans of British psyche, and so an album from them would have been most welcome. In 2006 a 7" vinyl EP of tracks recorded in 1968 was released by Paul Brett and John Dalton as a charity benefit for Oxfam, while other recordings have also since surfaced, and so we are now in a position to take the best of these 1967 and 1968 sessions and imagine what an album from the band would have sounded like if it had appeared as intended in 1968.

Track listing

01 Vacuum Cleaner
02 Tanya
03 Seeds Of Discord
04 Bodmin Blow
05 Black Jack
06 It's Just That The People Can't See 
07 Busy Bee
08 Hookah
09 Do What You Must
10 My Prayer
11 How Do I Feel Today
12 Snowman
13 Let The Wind Blow

Tuesday's Children - Bright Eyed Apples (1969)

Tuesday's Children were formed in 1966 by Phil Cordell, Mick Ware and Derrick Gough, who had been in a North London band called Steve Douglas And The Challengers, who later changed their name to The Prophets. The Prophets did some recording with producer Joe Meek, but nothing was ever issued, and when Steve Douglas and Freddie Fields left, the remaining members reformed the band as Tuesday's Children, adding Paul Kendrick on bass guitar and Derrick Gough on drums. The band signed to E.M.I. in 1966, and their debut single, 'When You Walk In The Sand', was written by Phil Cordell and was recorded at Maximum Sound studio in The Old Kent Road, London. It was released on the Columbia label in August 1966, and the flip was another Phil Cordell-penned track, 'High And Drifting'. 'When You Walk In The Sand' was in the Radio London Fab Forty for 2 weeks, but despite this moderate success, Cordell quit the band in summer of 1967 and subsequently had solo hits as Springwater. In August 1967 Tuesday's Children re-formed, drafting in Bob Hodges on Hammond organ, Phil McKenzie on tenor sax, and Roger Davies on baritone sax. Trumpet player Hilary Roy also joined and did four gigs with the group in September 1967, and 'Baby's Gone' was recorded at Abbey Road studios in September/October 1967, with the whole band playing on the session, alongside some brass players from producer Jack Dorsey's band. The song was written by Peter Callander and Mitch Murray and was released on the Pye label in November 1967, backed by Mick Ware's 'Guess I'm Losing You'. By December 1967, Tuesday's Children had become a four-piece again with the departure of Roger Davies and Phil McKenzie, and this line-up recorded two songs at the Chappel studio in New Bond Street in July 1968. By then the band were signed to Philips Records, who released their final single 'Bright Eyed Apples', but this song was relegated to the b-side after the other track 'She' had featured in the short film '29', which starred Alexis Kanner of the TV series 'Softly Softly' and 'The Prisoner'. By 1969, Tuesday's Children were changing direction, adapting to the new sounds and trends of the music scene, and they eventually renamed themselves Czar, and purveyed a much heavier sound, releasing a classic self-titled album in 1970. Had Tuesday's Children had a bit more luck after the, albeit, limited success of that first single then they might have stuck around long enough at Philips/Mercury to release this album.  

Track listing

01 In The Valley Of The Shadow Of Love
02 She
03 Doubtful Nellie
04 Ritual Fire Dance  
05 Mr. Kipling
06 When You Walk In The Sand
07 Bright Eyed Apples
08 High And Drifting
09 Baby's Gone
10 Guess I'm Losing You
11 Strange Light From The East
12 Ain't You Got A Heart

Frumious Bandersnatch - Can-A-Bliss (1968)

Originally from Lafayette, California, Frumious Bandersnatch named themselves after a character from Lewis Carroll's short poem 'Jabberwocky', having previously been known as All Night Flight. Lead guitarist David Denny was joined by local guitarists Jimmy Warner and Bob Winkelman to create a trio of raging fuzz guitars which blew the minds of any heads lucky enough to experience their winding compositions, and after they were joined by bassist Ross Valory and the group's lynchpin drummer Jack King, the ensemble recorded their sole EP in early 1968, and paid for 1000 copies to be pressed up. These flew off the shelves of Bay-area record shops and completely sold out after only a few weeks, but despite all the positive feedback, including gigs at many of the Bay's biggest venues, the group's manager, Jim Nixon, hampered the group's chances for a major-label record contract, despite several attractive offers. The band lingered for awhile before folding in late 1969, with some members going on to play in Faun, the arena-rocking legends Journey, and the Bay-area acid-rockers The Steve Miller Band. While a nice collection of their outtakes and live performances have been released as 'Golden Songs Of Libra' and 'A Young Man's Song', nothing on either of these compilations compares to the group's sole vintage vinyl offering. 

The EP opens with Jack King's 'Hearts To Cry', which was one of their finest moments, and this is followed by the short, swinging 'Misty Cloudy', before filling side two with the seven minute tour-de-force which is 'Cheshire', once again inspired by Lewis Carroll's famous cat. Luckily for us the band also laid down some other tracks while recording the EP, and these were spread over the two compilations, but by taking just the studio recordings, starting with an alternate take of 'Hearts To Cry', and including two lengthy pieces in the style of 'Cheshire', we can make up an album-length collection of the band's studio work from 1968, which they never managed to release during their lifetime. Frumious Bandersnatch have always been one of my very favourite Bay Area bands, and so I was thrilled to find that The Ultimate Psychedelic Vinyl HQ site has ripped an original copy of the band's EP in its original stereo incarnation, as the versions on Big Beat's 'Nuggets From The Golden State: The Berkeley EPs', were transferred from analogue tapes, with post-production done by David Young, and were in fact stereo remixes completely different from the original vinyl. So as a special treat, I'm including this rip of the original vinyl EP with the album, so we now have just about everything that the band recorded in the studio. The sole exception is a song, which if I recall correctly, they wrote as an advertisement for a local paper company, and while it's actually pretty good, it doesn't really belong here, and you can soon find it online if you really want to hear it. So if you have the slightest interest in late 60's West Coast psyche and you haven't heard this band, then prepare to have your mind blown. 

Track listing

01 Hearts To Cry
02 Chain Reaction
03 Woodrose Syrup
04 Pulpit Huff
05 Now That You've Gone
06 45 Cents
07 Black Box
08 Can-A-Bliss

plus Original 1968 EP

01 Hearts To Cry (Take 2)
02 Misty Cloudy
03 Cheshire

The Myddle Class - Gates Of Eden (1967)

In the early 60's The King Bees got together, consisting of Dave Palmer on lead vocals, Rick Philp on guitar, Chris Irby on bass guitar (soon replaced by Charles Larkey), Danny Mansolino on organ, and Mike Rosa on drums. They soon became known for their exciting live shows, which included songs such as 'Shout', 'She's Not There' and the original, 'It's The Season', and after a show at the Berkeley Heights CYO in December 1964, the band met the New York Post columnist Al Aronowitz, who, despite his lack of experience in the business side of music, became the group's manager. He introduced the band to Carole King and Gerry Goffin, the well-known husband-and-wife song writing team, and they agreed to write songs and produce the group. In late 1965, the King Bees changed their name to the Myddle Class to distinguish themselves from Danny Kortchmar's King Bees, who just had just released a record on RCA Victor, and in October, Goffin and King signed the Myddle Class to their new label, Tomorrow Records. Their first single, 'Free As The Wind', backed with a full-band rendition of Bob Dylan's 'Gates Of Eden', was released on Tomorrow in December 1965, and the Goffin/King penned A-side was a well-produced piece of garage-informed folk rock. The song became a hit in Albany, New York, but despite a glowing Billboard review, it failed to catch on outside the region, and so the band played at many of New York's leading clubs, such as the Night Owl and Cafe Au Go Go, to enhance their live reputation. 

In 1966, the Myddle Class released a follow-up single, 'Don't Let Me Sleep Too Long', which the band took from a demo by the Blues Project that later became their hit 'Wake Me Shake Me', and this hard-rocking single more accurately reflected the band's live sound, and reached #2 on the Albany charts, but like their first single did not reach a wider market. After Goffin and King's distribution deal with Atco fell apart, they were able to sign a deal with Cameo-Parkway to distribute the Tomorrow label, but the band encountered a number of discouraging setbacks around this time. They had a successful audition with producer Tom Wilson for MGM Records, but apparently Al Aronowitz did not allow the deal to go through, while in February 1967 they opened for the Animals, but their set was marred by technical problems in the microphones and public address system, resulting in poor reviews for the band's performance. In April 1967, the Myddle Class released one last single, with a cover of The Temptations 'Don't Look Back' as the A-side, backed by their own 'Wind Chime Laughter'. 

By late 1967, with some of the band's members either away at college or pursuing other musical ventures, the Myddle Class was rarely performing live, and what little active time they had was used to record demos for Goffin and King songs intended for other artists. Palmer and Philp signed a publishing with Screen Gems-Columbia, the same publishers representing Goffin and King at this time, but a promise from Don Kirshner to sign the group to Colgems never materialized. Danny Kortchmar replicated Philp's guitar parts for the Myddle Class' last recordings in 1969, and an album was planned for the summer, but any future chances of the band re-activating were dashed when guitarist Philp was murdered by his former roommate in Boston in May. By this point, the band's enthusiasm was had long receded, and they broke up shortly afterwards, with Dave Palmer going on to join Steely Dan as the vocalist on their early records. The band had already recorded enough material for an album-length release by 1967, but most of these recordings were released as singles, leaving little over for a long-player, but as most of us won't have heard those singles then this album hangs together extremely well as a summary of their work up to the end of 1967.   

Track listing

01 Gates Of Eden
02 I Happen To Love You
03 Lovin' Season
04 Don't Look Back
05 Wind Chime Laughter
06 Man On The Bridge
07 You Better Know
08 Free As The Wind
09 Don't Let Me Sleep Too Long
10 An Angel Walks Beside Me
11 Who Does He Love
12 Fun & Games

The Onyx - Kaleidoscope Of Colours (1967)

I was quite pleased at how my recent post from Jason Crest turned out, where I extracted the songs recorded for their unreleased album from the various compilation albums that are doing the rounds, and made a record that was more rooted in one particular period of their career. It does seem to me that when a record company decides to release a retrospective of an obscure group from the 60's they tend to chuck everything that they can find into the mix, and so we end up with singles, b-sides, demos, acetetes, alternate versions and mixes, multiple versions of the same songs, and sometimes even what the lead singer got up to when the band broke up! I have a number of these compilations, and it is a chore having to skip the inferior tracks or the multiple takes, and so I've decided to take the raw material and use it to compile an album that the group could have recorded at a certain point in their career, using just the best songs and recordings. Sometimes this does mean that the result is very much in the spirit of an actual 60's album, and might only be 35-40 minutes long, but that just adds to the authenticity of the album. I'm starting with a band who are mostly known for their classic 1969 single 'Tamaris Khan', but this music is from earlier in their career.   
The Onyx were a psychedelic rock band formed in Wadebridge, Cornwall, England in 1965. They were descended from a band called The Jaguars, which consisted of Tony Priest on vocals, Fritz Philips on drums, Cliff Webb on lead guitar, Rob Hancock on bass, and Anthony Jewel on rhythm guitar, with the addition of 13 year old guitarist Alan Hodge. After winning a battle of the band contest in Cronwall, they went through a number of line-up changes, and they eventually settled on Priest on vocals, with Steve Cotton on lead guitar, Mike Black-Borow on bass, Pete England on rhythm guitar, and Chris Cotterell on drums, with the new band beinf christened The Onyx Set, named after an Onyx ring owned by band member Black-Borow. After more changes in the line-up they shortened their name to The Onyx and the classic line-up was formed, with Preist and Cotton being joined by bassist Dick Bland and drummer Roger Dell (after a pre-Queen Roger Taylor turned them down), plus a returning Alan Hodge. The band evolved from doing cover versions of popular contemporary beat bands in their early days to psychedelia, and in 1967 they used Bob Potter's studio to record demos of some of the songs that they had been working on, including the live favourite 'Kaleidoscope Of Colours', which was a great piece of pop-psych, and included their only foray into phasing. Another track recorded during these sessions was the quirky progressive pop number 'Climb That Tree', which would be covered the following year by She Trinity on the b-side of their 'Hair' single, with the girls using the Onyx backing track for their recording.

Through Potter's contacts the band hooked up with songwriter Guy Fletcher and lyricist Doug Flett, who were fresh from working with Wishful Thinking, and they agreed to work with the band on what would become their first single. The Flett/Fletcher penned and produced 'You've Gotta Be With Me'/'It's All Put On' was released by Pye Records in 1968, but despite healthy local sales and an airing by Alan Freeman on the Top Of The Pops radio show, the record failed to fully take off. 'My Son John' followed later that year, to much the same reception, and so Fletcher and Flett decided to try something different, and moved in a more psychedelic direction with their next song 'Tamaris Khan', which gave guitarist Alan Hodge's Stratocaster and fuzz box their first opportunity to be let loose on record. It was released in 1969, and was the first single to include a band composition on the b-side, with their own 'So Sad Inside'. The single received some very positive press, with its excellent production, tight harmonies, searing guitar and a title hinting at something slightly lysergic without being too suggestive, but perhaps it was a bit too psychedelic for daytime radio, and not psychedelic enough for the underground. 'Tamaris Khan' has since become regarded as the band's high-point, and so that is a good place to take a break and re-evaluate their earlier work, most of which was recorded in 1967 in Bob Potter's studio, and so here is an album made up from the demos they laid down in that year, all housed in a suitable psychedelic cover. 

Track listing

01 Kaleidoscope Of Colours  
02 In Harmony
03 Travellin' Along
04 Billy
05 Life's Anticipation
06 I Put A Spell On You
07 On Our Way
08 Loneliness Cuts Like A Knife 
09 These Are The Things  
10 He's A Salesman
11 I Just Die
12 Porcelain Monuments
13 Louisa La Belle
14 I Used To Know Her
15 I Just Had To Laugh
16 Climb That Tree

Soft Machine - Soft Machine's Little Red Records (1970)

johntest has been busy recently upgrading the artwork for some of the posts on the excellent Soft Machine alternate universe blog https://softmachinerigamarole.blogspot.com, and I think that this one is such an improvement that I'm replacing the original cover on the post and in the album file with this one. If you already have the album then just save it from this page. The illustration of Kevin Ayers is by Neal Anderson. 

The Beau Brummels - Here We Are Again (1966)

Singer Sal Valentino grew up in the North Beach area of San Francisco, and following a string of appearances on local television, he received an offer to play a regular gig at El Cid, a San Francisco club. He needed a band, and so he called childhood friend and songwriter/guitarist Ron Elliott, who recruited drummer John Petersen, rhythm guitarist/singer Declan Mulligan, and bassist Ron Meagher, and that gig later led to a more lucrative deal at the Morocco Room, a club in nearby San Mateo, California. Meanwhile, San Francisco disc jockeys Tom Donahue and Bobby Mitchell were looking for new acts to bring to their fledgling Autumn Records label, aiming to capitalize on the Beatlemania craze that had originated the previous year in the UK, and which was spreading across the U.S., and The Beau Brummels, as they had named themselves, signed with Autumn, where house producer Sylvester (Sly Stone) Stewart produced the group's early recording sessions.The band had taken their name from the Regency era English dandy Beau Brummell, and they liked having a British-sounding name, which, as legend has it, so closely followed The Beatles in the alphabet that their records would be placed immediately behind those of The Beatles in record-store bins. Although Valentino has since dismissed this notion, it's a nice story. The band's debut single 'Laugh, Laugh' entered the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in January 1965, and as the song climbed the charts, many listeners assumed that the band were British, a fact which was not denied by Donahue and Mitchell, who knew that the publicity could only help the band. The follow-up single, 'Just A Little', became the band's highest-charting single in the U.S., peaking at number eight in June, and both songs were included on the band's debut album, 'Introducing The Beau Brummels', which was released in April and reached number 24 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. By the time that recording began for the band's second album, 1965's 'The Beau Brummels, Volume 2', Mulligan had left the group, and their third single 'You Tell Me Why', became their final U.S. top 40 hit, peaking at number 38 in August 1965. The band continued recording new material despite Autumn Records being on the verge of collapsing, but before the album was completed and released, the entire Autumn roster, including the Beau Brummels, was transferred to Warner Bros. Records. However, as Warner Bros. did not control the band's publishing, the company chose not to have the band release an album of original material, and instead released an album of cover versions titled 'Beau Brummels 1966'. As usual, money was the label's only consideration, and so instead of giving the group's fans a chance to hear the new songs that they'd written, they forced the band to deliver an album of old songs by other artists. Luckily, their original songs weren't thrown away, and many of them have since surfaced on box sets, and so we can piece together an album of original material which would have cemented their reputation as one of the better beat bands of the 60's. In the end we had to wait for the release of 1967's 'Triangle' before that happened, with that and the subsequent 'Bradley's Barn' proving what a great band they really were. So this is the record they should have released in 1966, and although 'Two Days 'Til Tomorrow' didn't come out as a single until March 1967, a demo titled 'She's Coming' was taped in 1966, and so that's included as well.  

Track listing 

01 Here We Are Again
02 Guitar Talk To Me
03 On The Road Again

04 Gentle Wandering Ways

05 This Is Love
06 Delilah

07 She Reigns
08 Candlestickmaker
09 God Help The Teenagers Tonight

10 Dream On

11 Down On Me

12 I Grow Old

13 Love Is Just A Game

14 Two Days 'Til Tomorrow

15 It Ain't No Use

16 Hey Love
17 Out Of Control

The Creation - Ostrich Man (1968)

The Creation were formed from the ashes of the beat group The Mark Four, who operated in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire between 1963 and 1966. By late 1963 The Mark Four was a quintet consisting of Kenny Pickett (vocals), Eddie Phillips (guitars), Mick "Spud" Thompson (rhythm guitars), John Dalton (bass), and Jack Jones (drums), and this line-up played regularly in the UK and in Germany, before issuing two non-charting singles on Mercury Records in 1964, 'Rock Around The Clock' and 'Try It Baby'. Dalton then left the band, later joining The Kinks as a replacement for Pete Quaife, and was replaced by new bassist Tony Cooke. Around the same time, Thompson left and was not replaced, and this new four-piece line-up issued two further non-charting singles in 'Hurt Me If You Will' and 'Work All Day (Sleep All Night)'. In April 1966 the group signed a management deal with Tony Stratton-Smith, who promptly suggested replacing Cooke with new bassist Bob Garner, and also asked they change their name. The band took him up on both suggestions, and Pickett came up with the name The Creation, based on a reference he found in a book of Russian poetry. The band's style at this point was loud art pop, similar to early records by The Who, and their first single under the new name was the Pickett/Phillips original 'Making Time', which was the first recording to feature an electric guitar being played with a violin bow, predating the more famous solos by Jimmy Page by some years. The single reached No. 49 on the UK chart, but almost immediately the band suffered another line-up change when Jack Jones was fired and replaced by new drummer Dave Preston, although he was quickly reinstated after the band decided they were unsatisfied with Preston's live work. 

Their next single was released in October 1966, and the more pop-orientated 'Painter Man' became their biggest hit, reaching No. 36 on the UK chart, and breaking the top 10 in Germany. The band took their pop art experimentation even further, with Pickett spray-painting a canvas during their concerts, before a member of the road crew would set fire to the artwork on stage. 'Painter Man' was the last single issued by the original line-up, with Kim Gardner being brought in as their new bassist, and former bassist Bob Garner taking over the lead vocal slot, leaving Kenny Pickett out of the group. This line-up issued its first single in June 1967, but 'If I Stay Too Long'/'Nightmares' was not a success in the UK, although it did well in Germany, and so the band released 'Tom Tom' as a follow-up just in Germany, with their commercial momentum in that country being so strong that an album called 'We Are Paintermen' was released in mid 1967 for the German and continental European market, compiled from previously issued singles and several newly recorded songs. The band tried to break the US market by releasing four singles during late 1966 and 1967, but none of them met with any success, although they continued to remain popular in Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. At the end of 1967 they released 'Life Is Just Beginning' in the UK, but almost immediately afterwards guitarist Eddie Phillips announced his departure, and although he was replaced for several European tour dates by guitarist Tony Ollard, within a matter of weeks vocalist Bob Garner also quit the group, and by February 1968 The Creation had officially ceased to exist. 

However, demand was still strong in continental Europe for Creation records and live shows, and almost immediately after the band disbanded, drummer Jack Jones formed a new Creation line-up, bringing back Kenny Pickett as singer and Kim Gardner as bass player, and bringing in his old bandmate from The Birds, Ronnie Wood on guitar. This line-up debuted with the single 'Midway Down', which was released in the UK and Germany in April 1968, but shortly afterwards the band splintered again, and this time it was for good. 'Bonney Moroney' (sic) and 'For All That I Am' were issued as posthumous singles in Germany in 1968, and that was the end of the band. Despite their early demise and lack of hits, The Creation posthumously became highly influential, acknowledged as an inspiration by Paul Weller, Ride, Pete Townshend, and The Sex Pistols, while Alan McGee named his massively successful record label Creation after them, and took 'Biff Bang Pow!' as the name for his own band. For this album I've gathered together all the singles and b-sides that didn't appear on the 'We Are Paintermen' album, as that record is well worth seeking out in its own right, and I've added in a few previously unreleased recordings that have since surfaced on the many retrospectives, plus a couple of live takes, in particular the full length version of 'That's How Strong My Love Is'. If you have this album plus 'We Are Paintermen', then you have everything that the band recorded in their short career, and yet they influenced so many bands that it's hard to believe that this is their entire recorded output. 

Track listing

01 Life Is Just Beginning (longer un-orchestrated version 1967)

02 Ostrich Man (previously unreleased)

03 I'm A Man (previously unreleased live recording 1966)

04 Instrumental #1 (previously unreleased 1966)

05 For All That I Am (German single 1968)

06 I Am The Walker (previously unreleased)

07 Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (b-side of 'Boney Moronie')
08 The Girls Are Naked (b-side of 'Midway Down')

09 Uncle Bert (b-side of 'For All That I Am')

10 Sylvette (previously unreleased full take 1966)

11 Bonney Moroney (German single 1968)

12 Midway Down (single 1968)

13 Sweet Helen (previously unreleased 1968)

Fire - Man In The Teapot (1968)

Fire was a late 60's psychedelic band that consisted of Dave Lambert, Bob Voice and Dick Dufall, with Paul Brett joining them to record their now classic 'Magic Shoemaker' LP at Pye Studios London in 1970. Original vinyl copies of this release have long been in the UK's top 10 of collectible vinyl, but although Fire were around for several years and managed to issue a couple of singles as well as the album, those releases were not wholly representative of the band's entire repertoire, with their classic single 'Father's Name Is Dad' being almost as famous and collectible as the album. Recent reissues and anthologies have unearthed previously unreleased recordings from 1967 to 1969, often showing a much heavier side to the band, but also, in the case of the 'Round The Gum Tree' single, which the band didn’t play on, though Dave Lambert did sing on the A-side, having a knack for the twee novelty song. Because these unheard songs span a three year period, they do cover psychedelic pop right through to extended heavy rock outings, but by taking just the songs which fit in best with the early sound of the 'Father's Name Is Dad' single and its b-side, there is a great little album hidden away in there, so here is what could have been the precursor to the 'Magic Shoemaker' if someone had had faith in them in the late 60's. Dave Lambert, of course, went on to join The Strawbs, and Paul Brett formed Sage, with Dick Dufall joining him in that band, but their first group will always be remembered as being responsible for one of the most intriguing psyche-pop albums of the 70's.  

Track listing
 
01 Treacle Toffee World
02 Happy Sound 
03 I Didn’t Know You
04 Father’s Name Is Dad
05 I've Still Got Time
06 Spare A Copper
07 Man In The Teapot
08 I Know You Inside Out
09 It's Just Love
10 I Just Can't Wait
11 Green-Legged Auntie Sally
12 Will I Find Love

The End - Today Tomorrow (1968)

The End was a British pop band formed in 1965 by Dave Brown (bass, vocals) and Colin Giffin (guitar, lead vocals) following the demise of The Innocents, with Nick Graham (keyboards, vocals) and John Horton (saxophone) joining from Dickie Pride's backing group, The Original Topics, and Roger Groom (drums) of The Tuxedos completing the line-up. Dave and Colin recalled that Bill Wyman had mentioned that he would help them whenever needed and he was contacted, arranging for the band to open for The Rolling Stones who were headlining a September/October 1965 UK national tour with The Spencer Davis Group, Unit Four Plus Two, The Moody Blues, The Checkmates and Charles Dickens. Following the tour, Roger Groom quit to be replaced by drummer Hugh Atwooll, a former school friend of Nicky Graham, and shortly after this Wyman took them into the recording studio with engineer Glyn Johns, resulting in the release of 'I Can't Get Any Joy' on the Philips label in October 1965. The single failed to chart in the UK, but it did generate enough interest to allow extra live work for the group, and following the departure of John Horton, to be replaced by saxophonist Gordie Smith, the band traveled to Switzerland in 1966 for a gig in a hotel, appearing with the Ready Steady Go! dancers. While in Switzerland, a friend of Smith's contacted Sandra Le Brock, who was a chorographer on a Spanish TV pop music show, offering The End as a potential performing act. After the band returned to the UK, Le Brock came over to England scouting for bands to appear on the Spanish TV show, and she phoned Smith to see if the band would be interested in working in Spain, as well as recording for the Spanish Sonoplay label. After consulting with Wyman, material was recorded at IBC and Olympic Studios with Wyman producing, and the finished product was licensed to Sonoplay for release, resulting in a top 5 hit in 1967 for their single 'Why?'. 

While performing in Spain, the band were treated like stars, playing alongside acts such as Los Bravos, and they became part of the Madrid music scene. In was while in Spain that they met Terry Taylor, guitarist for British group The Mode, and he was invited to join as their lead guitarist. Soon afterwards, Smith left the group, taking his sax with him, and with the brass section removed the group focused on a more guitar based sound. During this time, Wyman suggested that the band begin recording material for an album, so in July 1967 sessions took place at Olympic studios and continued intermittently until the beginning of 1968, with the band fulfilling their commitments in Spain at the same time, and after nearly nine months of studio time, 'Shades Of Orange' was issued as a single on Decca in March 1968. During the final stages of production for the album, it was decided to add dialogue from Bill Wyman's gardener, George Kenset, who had worked with Wyman's father on building sites for many years, and he was taken to Decca Studios in West Hampstead for a one hour session to record his life story, with snippets being interspersed between some of the album tracks. However, it wasn't until eighteen months later that the 'Introspection' album finally saw a release on Decca in the UK and the London label in the US, and by this time the psychedelic aspects of the songs were somewhat passé and the album sold relatively few copies, which is why original copies change hands for vast sums today. Sessions began for a follow-up album, but the band members realised that they were headed in different musical directions, so they split up, with Graham, Taylor and Brown forming Tucky Buzzard with drummer Paul Francis and vocalist Jim Henderson. Although The End actually formed in 1965, some early groundwork was laid down beforehand, as early in their careers Colin Giffin and Dave Brown had become increasingly aware that song-writing had a future, and so they used their free time between The Innocents' touring schedule to start developing their own writing, often demoing their songs at the now-legendary R.G. Jones recording studio in Morden. With this impressive backlog of songs available for the 'Introspection' sessions, there were a number of recordings which didn't make the final cut for the album, but which are all well worth hearing, and so those demos and out-takes are collected here for what could be considered a companion album to 'Introspection'. 

Track listing

01 Bypass The By-Pass 
02 Building Up A Dream 
03 Sometimes I Wish I Were Dead
04 Tears Will Be The Only Answer 
05 Morning Dew
06 Little Annie 
07 Black Is Black
08 The Fly

09 Mirror
10 Today Tomorrow 
11 Lady Under The Lamp 
12 Mister Man 
13 Call Me 
14 Stones In My Banana

search    end today aiwe

Simon Dupree & The Big Sound - Once More Unto The Breach, Dear Friend (1968)

Simon Dupree And The Big Sound were a British psychedelic band formed in 1966 by brothers Derek Shulman (vocals), Phil Shulman (vocals, saxophone, trumpet), and Ray Shulman (guitar, violin, trumpet, vocals). They started as The Howling Wolves and then became The Road Runners, playing R&B around the Shulman's home town of Portsmouth, before becoming Simon Dupree And The Big Sound in early 1966 (There was, of course, no Simon Dupree, but the band wanted a flashy-sounding name). The rest of the group were Peter O'Flaherty on bass, Eric Hine on keyboards, and Tony Ransley on drums, and the sound was originally focused more on the songs of Wilson Pickett, Don Covay, and Otis Redding. They were signed to EMI's Parlophone label, and issued a few singles which failed to chart, but in 1967 the group's management decided to try moving them in the direction of psychedelia, and one of their singles in this new style was the smash hit 'Kites'. Regarding themselves as blue-eyed soul brothers, they hated it as it was so unrepresentative of their usual style, and the follow-up 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' was only a minor hit, while 'Broken Hearted Pirates' missed the charts completely. A then unknown keyboard player by the name of Reginald Dwight was hired to fill in for an ill Eric Hine on a 1967 tour of Scotland, and he was almost recruited as a permanent member, but they turned him down, and laughed when he told them he was adopting the stage name of Elton John. The group released just one studio album, 1967's excellent 'Without Reservations', but they had made a start on a second record before it was cancelled, and tracks from it turned up on a recent retrospective of their career, so as we have the songs and the title, all we need is some artwork to complete the follow-up to 'Without Reservation'. Frustrated as being seen as one-hit wonders, the band broke up in 1969, with the Shulman brothers going on to some success with their next project, Gentle Giant. 

Track listing

01 Stained Glass Window
02 Please Come Back
03 Light On Dark Water
04 What In This World

05 You
06 Don't Make It So Hard (On Me Baby)
07 Kindness

08 Can't You See
09 Loneliness Is Just State Of Mind
10 Laughing Boy From Nowhere

11 Now

12 What Cha Gonna Do

13 Castle In The Sky
14 Rain
15 Something In The Way She Moves
16 I'm Going Home (John/Taupin)

Kaleidoscope - A Dream For Julie (1971)

Having performed since 1963 under the name The Sidekicks, the band changed their name to The Key in November 1965, before settling on the name Kaleidoscope when they signed a deal with Fontana Records in January 1967. The group originally consisted of Eddy Pumer on guitar, Steve Clark on bass and flute, and Danny Bridgman on drums, and vocalist Peter Daltrey, who also played organ, and joined the band in March 1964. Most of their songs were Pumer/Daltrey originals, with their first single 'Flight From Ashiya'/'Holidaymaker' being released in September 1967, quickly followed by the band's debut album 'Tangerine Dream' four months later. The single got quite a bit of radio airplay but failed to reach the charts, and so a new single was released in 1968, with neither side of 'Jenny Artichoke'/'Just How Much You Are' being taken from the album, but despite being a particularly catchy number, it also failed to chart. Their second album 'Faintly Blowing' was released  in 1969, and this time the band’s sound was heavier, although the tracks still included psychedelic elements with notably fairy-tale lyrics, but once again it failed to reach the charts. After the failure of 'Faintly Blowing', they released two more singles which were songs by other writers and, after a radio session in BBC Maida Vale Studios, the band never again appeared as Kaleidoscope. By the end of the decade, with the failure of their last single 'Balloon' still hanging over them, the band moved on with their new manager, DJ David Symonds, and re-emerged with the same lime-up as Fairfield Parlour. Despite the fact that they were now being called a progressive rock band, their music didn’t change much and still included fairy-tale lyrics with psychedelic harmony vocal. The band’s first single as Fairfield Parlour was 'Bordeaux Rose', which was released in April 1970 on the legendary Vertigo label, and despite the fact that it got a considerable amount of radio airplay, it fared no better chart-wise than their previous incarnation. After releasing a couple more singles, the band issued the 'From Home To Home' album in August 1970, and at the same time as they were heavily involved in this, they were asked to record the theme tune for the Isle of Wight Festival, 'Let the World Wash In', and so as not to detract from the album release they recorded and released two songs under the name of I Luv Wight, although they did open the festival as Fairfield Parlour. 

The band’s second album was 'White Faced Lady', which they financed independently and recorded in Morgan Studios in London, but attempts at finding a record company to issue it failed and the album was shelved until 1991, when it was released under the name Kaleidoscope on their own label. Despite their lack of commercial success at the time, Kaleidoscope's reputation has grown enormously over the intervening years, and they are now acknowledged as one of the finest UK psychedelic bands of all time, with original copies of their poorly-selling albums changing hands for huge sums. As both bands had the same line-up, I'm combining them for this post, and as they released so many non-album songs under both band names, there is easily enough rare material to put together a stunning album, which both celebrates and enhances the reputation of a group that it took half a lifetime to be appreciated for the ground-breaking band that they were. Some of these songs were only ever played on Top Of The Pops, and therefore suffered that bane of music-lovers everywhere, the DJ talking over the intro, so I've painstakingly patched them so that we now have complete versions of the songs, and hopefully you can't spot the joins.    

Track listing
                  
01 A Dream For Julie (single 1968) 
02 Jenny Artichoke (single 1968)
03 Just How Much You Are (b-side of 'Jenny Artichoke')
04 Balloon (single 1969)
05 Do It Again For Jeffrey (single 1969)
06 Jump In My Boat (from Top Of The Pops 1969)
07 Let The World Wash In (single as I Luv Wight 1970) 
08 Mediaeval Masquerade (b-side of 'Let The World Wash In')
09 Just Another Day (single as Fairfield Parlour 1970)
10 Caraminda (b-side of 'Just Another Day' single as Fairfield Parlour 1970)
11 Song For You (b-side of 'Just Another Day' single as Fairfield Parlour 1970)
12 I Am All The Animals (b-side of 'Just Another Day' single as Fairfield Parlour 1970)
13 Baby, Stay For Tonight (as Fairfield Parlour, previously unreleased)
14 Eye Witness (as Fairfield Parlour, from the soundtrack of the film 'Eyewitness' 1970) 
15 Long Way Down (as Fairfield Parlour, from Top Of The Pops 1971)
16 Diary Song (as Fairfield Parlour, from Top Of The Pops 1971)
17 The Matchseller (as Fairfield Parlour, from Top Of The Pops 1971)