Honeybus - Delighted To See You (1969)

Pete Dello and Ray Cane had been working together in various London groups since the early 60's, with Dello being lead guitarist with Red Tallis & The Tallismen and Cane handling bass duties with The Outlaws. They joined up in Grant Tracy & The Sunsets and the pair wrote a number of the band's single sides for Ember and Decca, but they were not successful and so they took a break from gigging to concentrate on writing, producing and arranging. During this period they wrote a clutch of single sides for The Applejacks (including the beat classic 'Baby Jane') as well as arranging material for Lionel Bart and playing on sessions for The Roulettes and Unit 4+2 among others, but in 1965 they found themselves back on stage, backing soul singer Steve Darbishire as The Yum Yum band. The line-up was completed by drummer Terry Noon, who had spent time with Them, and after signing a deal with Decca Records, Darbishire cut five singles for them between 1965 and 1967, mostly written by Dello and Cane. In 1966 Dello succumbed to a collapsed lung on the eve of a major tour, and after several months' recuperation, decided to quit the band to put together a new project to showcase his and Cane's new material. Christened Honeybus by Cane, the pair installed Terry Noon as their manager and entered Regent Sound studio to cut their debut single in spring 1967. The recording was made using Russ Ballard and Bob Henrit of The Roulettes, and two Dello-penned tracks were laid down, with 'Delighted To See You' b/w 'The Breaking Up Scene' appearing on the label's Deram subsidiary in June. 

Despite it's commercial potential, the single flopped, and after finalising their line-up with the addition of Colin Hare on guitar and Pete Kircher on drums, they cut two more singles, one of which has become something of a standard since its release. Dello's '(Do I Figure) In Your Life' was released in October 1967, with Cane's 'Throw My Love Away' on the flip, and they followed this in March 1968 with another classic 60's recording, 'I Can't Let Maggie Go', ensuring their place in the history books for recording this classic piece of 60's pop. The single hit number 8 in the UK and became a huge hit in dozens of territories, but the resulting merry-go-round of gigs, press and TV conflicted with Dello's vision, as he saw Honeybus as essentially a studio project, and had had enough of life on the road during the early 60's. With a record in the top ten, the record company screaming for a follow-up and an album, and widespread adulation, Dello quit his own group. Such a blow would have signalled the end for most bands, but the remaining members of Honeybus were more resourceful than that, and so first they recruited Jim Kelly on vocals and guitar, then set about recording a follow-up single, although it would be six months before Cane's 'Girl Of Independent Means' appeared in September 1968. It was a great upbeat single featuring brass and an insistent hook, but it nevertheless failed to sustain the group's success. 

Cane followed it with 'She Sold Blackpool Rock' in May 1969, with Colin Hare's first recorded composition 'Would You Believe' on the flip, but once again the single flopped in the UK, although it sold well in Europe, prompting the recording of an Italian language version. The band had virtually called it a day by summer 1969, but at Terry Noon's insistence sessions for a proposed album continued, and soon they'd completed enough new material. Kircher had left the group during the sessions to join Englebert Humperdinck's touring band, and was replaced by Lloyd Courteney and old friend Bob Henrit, and the album was eventually released without promotion in February 1970, by which time Honeybus was no more. 'Story' is a fine album, and is now rightly regarded as a classic of the era, but it was too little too late, and Honeybus were consigned to the vaults alongside other one-hit wonders of the 60's. The 'Story' album didn't include any material recorded before 1970, and so the band never released the cash-in album that the record company so desperately wanted after the success of 'I Can't Let Maggie Go'. If they had succumbed to the pressure and put something together then it might have sounded something like this.    

Track listing

01 (Do I Figure) In Your Life
02 Tender Are The Ashes
03 The Right To Choose
04 Maxine's Parlour
05 Arise Sir Henry
06 I Can't Let Maggie Go
07 She Sold Blackpool Rock
08 She Comes To Me
09 The Breaking Up Scene
10 Would You Believe
11 Delighted To See You
12 Girl Of Independent Means
13 Francoise
14 Throw My Love Away

The Sorrows - Pink, Purple, Yellow & Red (1968)

The Sorrows first came together in 1963 in Coventry, England, and was formed by lead guitarist and singer Philip "Pip" Whitcher, rhythm guitarist and singer Terry Jukes, and bassist Philip Packham, all of whom were veterans of the Coventry music scene. Looking for a lead vocalist, they recruited Don Fardon, who has been frontman with a combo called Rocking Lord Docker & the Millionaires, and with the addition of Bruce Finlay on drums, the first edition of the Sorrows was complete. The band spent weeks trying to come up with a suitable stage name for Fardon; he was briefly billed as Will Pity and Don Maughn before he decided to use his real moniker, and after making a name on the local club circuit, the band honed their skills playing a month-long engagement in Germany, where the punishing schedule of playing as long as ten hours a night made them an estimable live act. Eager to make a record, the group recorded some sessions with legendarily idiosyncratic producer Joe Meek, but the material was shelved, and they had better luck when John Schroeder, an A&R Man with Pye Records, saw them in concert and quickly signed them to a deal with Pye's subsidiary Piccadilly Records. Their debut single, 'I Don't Wanna Be Free', was issued in January 1965, and led to several television appearances and more live work, though sales were slim. Recently married rhythm guitarist Terry Jukes left the band looking for a more dependable career, and he was replaced by Wesley "Wez" Price, formerly of the Autocrats, but this didn't change their fortunes, and a second single, 'Baby', was another disappointment. 

The third single, however, was the success that they'd been after, and August 1965's 'Take A Heart' became a chart hit, in large part thanks to extensive pirate radio airplay, and it reached Number 21 on the U.K. singles charts. In October the band followed up their hit with 'You've Got What I Want', which was a strong release, but which still failed to live up to the success of its predecessor, peaking at a disappointing chart placing of Number 47. However, the success of 'Take A Heart' led to Piccadilly releasing an album of the same name, appearing in stores in time for Christmas 1965. Disappointingly, the album bombed on the charts, and after another two singles came and went without notice, bassist Packham resigned, and vocalist Fardon soon followed. The rest of the group soldiered on, with Whitcher taking over lead vocal duties as well as being the guitarist, and Price moved over to bass, while Finlay continued as drummer. As the Sorrows plotted their next move, good fortune came their way, as the group had recorded phonetically translated foreign versions of 'Take A Heart', and the Italian version belatedly became a hit in Italy in June 1966, bolstered by a much-talked-about appearance at the Cantagiro Song Festival. 

The group was offered an extensive Italian tour, and they hit the road as a quartet, with the addition of second guitarist Roger Lomas, who was known in Coventry for his work with the R&B outfit The Clouds. RCA, who handled the Sorrows' recordings in Italy, was enthusiastic about them, and soon brought them into the studio to cut a pair of tunes for a movie starring Anita Ekberg, 'Come Imparai Ad Amare Le Donne' (aka 'How I Learned To Love Women') in 1967. They would also appear onscreen in a youth-oriented feature, 'I Ragazzi Di Bandiera Gialla' (aka 'The Lads Of The Yellow Flag'), and while in Italy the band continued to cut material for Italian and British release, but Whitcher missed British life and opted to go home. Lomas then announced that he was heading back for a short visit, but later sent his band-mates a letter saying he wasn't coming back to Italy and asking them to sell his gear and send him the money. As the Sorrows had paying gigs booked in Europe, Price and Finlay needed to round up replacement players quickly, and through a friend they found a pair of British musicians staying in Italy, guitarist Chuck Fryers and bassist Geoff Prior, who had been working with a group called the Warren J. Five. 

With Price moving back to rhythm guitar and taking on lead vocal duties, the band did live work and cut a single issued only in Italy, 'Zabadak', but they were reduced to a trio again when Prior moved on, and in early 1968 they returned to England, where they located a new fourth member, keyboardist Chris Smith. They demoed a handful of new songs written by Fryers for Pye, but the label wasn't impressed with the tracks, and the Sorrows were cut loose from their contract. Now that they were free agents, Whitcher returned to the line-up and drummer Mick Bradley replaced Finlay, and they headed to Milan and signed with an Italian label, Miura. The group cut a pair of singles for the label, one of which, 'Per Una Donna … No!', would fare well on the Italian charts, and the label asked them for an album. 1969's 'Old Songs New Songs' lived up to its title as a mix of new material, covers, and new versions of tunes from their back catalogue, but by the end of 1969, constant personnel changes and diminished interest in the group was taking its toll, and after honouring some European nightclub engagements, the band finally called it a day in January 1970. Although the band's second album didn't come out until 1969, they'd easily amassed enough material to release one by 1968, by just using the best single tracks, b-sides and those Pye demos, and if the label had been interested enough to back it, then this is what it could have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 Pink, Purple, Yellow And Red
02 Gonna Find A Cave
03 I Take What I Want
04 Ypotron
05 Which Way
06 Don't Start Me Talkin'
07 Zabadak
08 Baby All The Time
09 My Gal
10 Hoochie Coochie Man
11 You Got What I Want
12 My Way Of Thinking
13 Let The Live Live

The Smoke - Jack's Back (1972)

The Smoke were formed in York, where bassist Zeke Lund and lead guitarist Mal Luker began

 playing together in a band called Tony Adams & the Viceroys, whose line-up eventually came to include drummer Geoff Gill. Though the band was successful locally, enjoying a decent fan base with a solid, basic rock & roll sound, they could hear the changes going on around them in music, with the rise of Merseybeat and the blues, R&B, and soul-based music coming out of London. They eventually decided to strike out on their own, playing a more ambitious repertory, and so linked up late in 1964 with singer Mick Rowley and rhythm guitarist Phil Peacock, refugees from a band called the Moonshots. The resulting band, the Shots, played a hard brand of R&B, similar to contemporaries The Small Faces, and they were taken on by London agents Jack Segal and Alan Brush, who fronted them money for rehearsals and equipment. They signed with independent producer and music publisher Monty Babson, who cut four sides with the group, two of which were issued as a single under license to EMI-Columbia in 1965, with 'Keep A Hold Of What You've Got' being backed with 'She's A Liar'. Around this time Peacock left the band, as he wasn't comfortable with the more complex sounds the rest of the group were interested in generating, and so the rest of the band decided to carry on as a quartet, with an edgier single-guitar configuration. 

After losing their financing, they were offered a rescue by a pair of twin London-based entrepreneurs, Ron and Reg Kray, renowned today the world over as notorious gangsters, but at the time they were also trying to engender a facade of respectability, and as they already had an interest in a few clubs, they thought that a more direct participation in the entertainment business might prove lucrative. They therefore signed the group and became The Shots' managers, but as they were never able to do anything with them in terms of bookings, the band decided to abandon the contract, and when they were served with an injunction, they were left unable to perform. As luck would have it, however, they still had a publishing and recording contract with Babson, and access to his studio, and so they took advantage of their ban on performing by writing and making records, and it was at this time that decided to change their name, dropping The Shots in favour of The Smoke. One of the songs they came up with was 'My Friend Jack', a mod-flavoured psychedelic number written by Rowley and Gill, although its drug references were so potent that the song had to be rewritten before EMI would touch it. EMI/Columbia did release it in February 1967, but almost immediately it was banned by the BBC due to its drug references, although this didn't stop it from becoming a massive hit in Europe, particularly in Germany, where the group performed on the German television show Beat Club, alongside Jimi Hendrix and The Who. 

The single charted high in Switzerland, France, and Austria as well, and suddenly there was demand for a Smoke LP in Germany, so they delivered this in the form of 'It's Smoke Time', comprised of the best of the year-old tracks recorded for Babson during 1966. The band actually relocated to Germany, while continuing to release records in England, and they cut some fine psychedelia, crossing paths with the members of Traffic in the studio during this period. After five years of work they were summoned back to the UK by their new manager Chris Blackwell, but they ignored his request, and so that was effectively the end of the band. Mick Rowley remained in Germany, where, as the voice and frontman for the band, he had a natural following, while Luker, Gill, and Lund did finally return home and went to work for Babson's Morgan Studios, working in various bands within Babson's orbit, including Blue Mink, Orange Bicycle, and Fickle Pickle. A latter-day version of The Smoke surfaced in a distinctly mid-70s mode, but made no great impression on anyone, although the reputation of 'My Friend Jack' continued to grow, being featured on any half-decent compilation of 60's psychedelia. Not everything that the band recorded in 1966 found its way onto 'It's Smoke Time', and so there is enough leftover material from then, plus a few tracks from their early 70's incarnation, to produce a passable follow-up to their 1967 debut.  

Track listing

01 Playing With Magic
02 That's What I Want

03 It Could Be Wonderful
04 Ring Me
05 Jack Is Back
06 Victor Henry's Cool Book

07 Have Some More Tea
08 Sweet Wilfred

09 Utterly Simple
10 Blown Away
11 Sydney Gill
12 My Lullaby
13 The Girl In The Park
14 Ride Ride Ride (Dick Turpin)

The Overlanders - Sing A Song Of Sadness (1966)

The Overlanders were formed in 1963 by Paul Arnold on piano and guitar, Lori Mason on piano and harmonica, and Peter Bartholomew on guitar, with all three singing in a vocal trio style. They focussed on the American folk/country style of music, and they were influenced by the likes of The Kingston Trio, The Brothers Four and The Four Freshmen. The group were signed to the Harold Hammond agency, who also handled The Settlers, and for a while The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and they were picked up by Pye Records in the Spring of 1963, who assigned recording manager Tony Hatch to the group. Their first release was 'Summer Skies And Golden Sands'/'Call Of The Wild', with both sides self-composed by the three members, and it could have been a hit single with a bit more luck. With the success of Lennon and McCartney as songwriters, group members were encouraged to write their own material, and so The Overlanders composed many of their own songs. The follow-up 'Movin'' also failed to chart, but their third release, a cover of Chad And Jeremy's 'Yesterday's Gone', managed to attain a high of No. 75 in July 1964 on the US Billboard chart. Their next single release was 'Don't It Make You Feel Good', which was written by Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch and had originally appeared on the album 'Dance With The Shadows', but it followed the same fate as their first two, as did the next five single releases. 

Their producer Tony Hatch obviously believed the group had hit potential, and gave them chance after chance, but after nine releases, with none of them charting in the UK, The Overlanders decided to bring in a rhythm section, and added Terry Widlake on bass and David Walsh on drums, which allowed the group to expand from a folk based trio to a more pop sounding quintet. In 1965 Hatch announced that he had procured The Beatles' 'Michelle' for recording, and immediately booked a session at Pye Studios for the band to record it. The single was rush-released on 31 December 1965, ahead of any potential competing versions, and the gamble paid off with the record peaking at No. 1 in the UK, remaining at that spot for three weeks. Pye capitalised on the hit single by releasing an EP and an album of the same name, but none of the material was new as it consisted of songs from their previously failed singles. It was hard finding a successful follow-up single, and both Hatch's 'My Life' and a cover of The Mamas and The Papas 'Go Where You Wanna Go' failed to chart, and so Arnold left to take his chances on a solo career, being replaced by vocalist/guitarist Ian Griffiths. The revised group carried on for a further twelve months, with the only release being 'Go! With The Overlanders And The Settlers', an album issued by Pye in a vain attempt to revitalize the careers of two of its floundering acts. 

The Overlanders finally parted ways in October 1967, with Widlake and occasional member Vic Lythgoe turning up in The Cuppa T for two singles on Deram. Paul Arnold reformed the band in April 1968 as The New Overlanders for two singles on RCA, but their time had passed, and nothing more was heard from them after they failed to chart. The band had continued to record following 'Michelle' becoming a hit, and if Pye hadn't wasted some of these recordings by pairing them with songs from The Settlers for the 'Go!...' album then they could have released a record of new material in 1966, which just might have shown the public that they weren't just a one-hit wonder. However, that didn't happen, and so we can only speculate on what such an album could have sounded like, and it could have been something like this, which adds a couple of their singles which didn't make the 'Michelle' album to tracks from the 'Go!...' album, plus some other unreleased recordings.  

Track listing

01 If I Gave You
02 My Life 
03 Anna Marie
04 Sing A Song Of Sadness 
05 Don't Let It Happen Again
06 Go Where You Wanna Go 
07 Rainbow
08 Girl From Indiana
09 Circle Line Blues
10 Movin'  
11 This Land
12 Cradle Of Love 
13 Delia's Gone
14 I Wonder Why
15 Shanghai Rooster

The Remains - All Good Things (1966)

The Remains formed in 1964 at Boston University, where all four members were first-year students living in the same dorm in Kenmore Square. Comprising singer/guitarist Barry Tashian, keyboardist Bill Briggs, drummer Chip Damiani and bassist Vern Miller, they began playing r&b and rock'n'roll covers, as well as some Tashian originals, at a tavern across the square from their dorm, and soon fans were lining up from Kenmore Square to Fenway Park to see them. The band became a popular live act throughout New England, and after signing with Epic Records they enjoyed local hits with a catchy Tashian original, 'Why Do I Cry', and their hard-driving version of the Bo Diddley/Willie Dixon classic 'Diddy Wah Diddy'. In 1965 they relocated to New York City, and then after about a year they moved on to California, where they recorded a self-titled album, and released the soulful, hard-rocking single 'Don't Look Back. In 1966 came the opportunity which might have broken the band nationally, but proved instead to be their last hurrah, when they were offered a three-week stint as an opening act for the Beatles, on what would turn out to be the Fab Four's final tour. Immediately before the tour, Damiani quit the band, to be replaced by future Mountain drummer N.D. Smart, which meant that the band had to play a major tour with a new drummer who didn't have the same feel that they were used to, and so when the tour was over the band broke up in late 1966, and Epic finally released their debut album to little fanfare. Years later, however, it is now recognised as a classic of its genre, packed with great songs from Tashian, and boasting exciting, fiery performances. Luckily they recorded enough material during the album's sessions to release some non-album singles during 1965 and 1966, and if we take those songs and add in some of those other session recordings there are actually enough tracks available to make up a creditable second album, which could have been released as a posthumous tribute to them, after they'd broken up in 1966.    

Track listing

01 Me Right Now
02 I Can't Get Away From You
03 Ain't That Her
04 Like A Rolling Stone
05 When I Want To Know
06 But I Ain't Got You
07 Mercy, Mercy
08 Baby I Believe In You
09 I'm A Man
10 My Babe
11 I'm Talking About You
12 Gonna Move
13 All Good Things

The Misunderstood - End Of Time (1966)

The Misunderstood were formed in Riverside, California, and had their roots in the Blue Notes, an instrumental combo featuring George Phelps and Greg Treadway on guitars and Rick Moe on drums. Despite living in a landlocked town, Phelps and his friends developed a passion for surfing, frequently road-tripping to Encinitas to ride the waves, and a shared love of the beach brought Phelps together with Rick Brown, whose family had recently moved to Riverside. After the demise of the Blue Notes, Phelps, Treadway, and Moe decided to form a new band, and brought Brown on board as their lead singer. Billing themselves as Treadway & Company, they invited Steve Whiting to play bass, and began putting together a repertoire steeped in blues and covers of the tougher British Invasion groups, in particular the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, Them, and the Yardbirds. They also began writing songs of their own, and by mid-1965 they had enough material to cut a demo at a local recording studio, by which time they had dropped the name Treadway & Company and branded themselves The Misunderstoods, a reference to the Animals' hit 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood'. After a few months of rehearsing, playing teen clubs, and appearing at school dances, another recording session took place in December 1965, this time under the revised name of The Misunderstood. 

After recording some more material in January 1966, Phelps dropped out of the band, preferring to get a day job, and after seeing Glenn Ross Campbell playing steel guitar with his group the Answers, the members of the Misunderstood were certain his unique style was the right fit for them. Campbell had been playing in country and rock bands for years, and his use of a fuzzbox to add a beefier tone to his refashioned blues licks gave the Misunderstood a sound unlike any other group at that time. Not long after Campbell joined the act, they played a show at a shopping center in Riverside, and they were spotted by John Ravenscroft, a British disc jockey who had recently landed a job at a local FM radio station. Ravenscroft was blown away by what he heard, and he took the group under his wing, offering them advice and filling their ears with different musical influences. It would not be the last time the DJ helped a band get a break, as years later he would adopt the name John Peel, and became one of the most influential radio personalities in the U.K. In March 1966, Peel arranged for the band to record a session at Hollywood's Gold Star Studio, famed as Phil Spector's favourite recording facility, and the tapes showed a band who were moving beyond blues-rock into a more expressive and experimental sound that would anticipate psychedelic rock. 

Peel and the musicians became increasingly convinced that if they wanted to find the right audience for their work, they would be better off in England than California, and after pressing a single of two of the Gold Star tracks as a calling card, 'You Don't Have to Go' b/w 'Who's Been Talking', they began blocking out plans to relocate to the U.K., with Peel's brother acting as their representative in England. They staged a final show in Riverside, and left for the U.K. in June 1966, but to their dismay they discovered that Peel hadn't contacted his mother, who was supposed to let the band stay at her home when they arrived in London, and his brother had done little to lay groundwork for their mission to conquer Great Britain. They also lacked work permits, but they were still able to land gigs and began finding an audience for their bold sound, especially after they acquired a manager, Nigel Thomas. However, in August 1966, homesick Treadway quit the group and returned to California, and the band replaced him with new guitarist Tony Hill, who proved to be an excellent foil for Campbell's steel work, and who also wrote new material in tandem with Brown. A new demo was cut at London's I.B.C. studios, which Thomas took to Fontana Records, and they signed the band and issued the single 'I Can Take You To The Sun' b/w 'Who Do You Love' in December 1966. 

The group bowled over the press in a media event staged by Fontana and they were being talked up by the British music weeklies, but a dark cloud appeared on the horizon, as Brown had been called up for the military draft, and after ignoring numerous letters from America's Selective Service System, he was informed he would be officially indicted on charges on draft evasion if he didn't return home to meet the draft board, so he flew back to California. Brown hoped that his commitments to Fontana in England, as well as a letter from his doctor saying he was unfit for service, would permit him to return to London relatively soon. However, his pleas were rejected, and he was given the option of serving two years in the Army or five years in prison. Brown chose the Army, and though The Misunderstood found a new singer, Steve Colyer, their management had lost confidence in the band after Brown left. They were booked to play shows in France in early 1967, only to discover that Campbell's, Moe's, and Whiting's visas would not permit them to return to the U.K, and so they had no choice but to go back to California, which spelled the end of the group. 

After returning to America, Campbell was befriended by blues artist Rod Piazza, and he joined Piazza's group the Dirty Blues Band, appearing on their self-titled debut album, issued in 1967 by Bluesway Records. Meanwhile, Peel continued to champion the Misunderstood even after their breakup, and at his urging, Fontana released another single from their recordings of the band, 'Children Of The Sun' b/w 'I Unseen'. The single generated enough attention that Campbell returned to England and assembled a new edition of The Misunderstood, but rather than trade on his old band's reputation they named themselves Juicy Lucy, and signed with Vertigo Records, who put out their first album in 1969. In spite of their relatively small output, they were considered to be influential pioneers of the acid style of rock music, and many of these tracks sound like they could have been recorded about two years later, showing how far ahead of their time they were. There have been a number of compilation albums issued over the years, but none have tried to show what an actual 1966 album by the group could have sounded like, and I hope that this post fills that gap. 

Track listing

01 Children Of The Sun
02 I'm Not Talking
03 I Unseen
04 End Of Time
05 I Can Take You To The Sun 
06 Why
07 My Mind
08 Find The Hidden Door
09 Who Do You Love
10 Bury My Body
11 Who's Been Talking
12 Got Love If You Want It
13 Don't Break Me Down
14 She Got Me

The Mojo Men - Times Like These (1966)

As mentioned in the previous post from the Mojo Men, Dennis DeCarr left the group in 1966 and was replaced by drummer/vocalist Jan Errico, formerly of the Vejtables. This signalled a change in direction for the group, and they ditched their previous British Invasion-influenced garage rock for more of a pop/folk sound. They also left Autumn Records and signed with Reprise Records, where their first single for the label was a Baroque cover version of Buffalo Springfield's 'Sit Down, I Think I Love You', which became the band's first and only top 40 single. Despite releasing half a dozen more singles between 1966 and 1968, they could never regain the popularity of that first record, and so in 1968 Metchick left the band, and the remaining trio shortened their name to The Mojo, and then just Mojo, before they released their lone studio album, 'Mojo Magic', on GRT Records in 1969. Later that year the group disbanded, but after 'Sit Down, I Think I Love You' was included on the seminal 1972 'Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era' compilation album, the band's earlier output was re-examined and found to contain a number of fine recordings. There have been three Mojo Men compilation albums released between 1995 and 2003, but the most interesting of them was a collection of recordings made after Errico joined in 1966, but which were never released. There is a lot of duplication on it, with the inclusion of alternate takes and demos, but by stripping all of those out we are left with an excellent collection of music which shows the transition of the group's sound into the pop/folk for which they are most known, and which could have been released as an actual album in 1966.

Track listing

01 Is Our Love Gone
02 What Kind Of Man
03 Another World
04 Sure Of Your Love
05 Look Into My Eyes
06 Times Like These
07 You Didn't Even Say Goodbye
08 Happiness Is You
09 Not Too Old To Start Cryin'
10 'Til I Find You
11 What's The Answer
12 They May Be Right
13 Remember Me
14 Don't Leave Me Crying Like Before

The Creation - Ostrich Man (1968) **UPDATED**

While posting my reconstructions of albums by 60's band that never appeared at the time, I've revisited some of my earlier posts which were not part of this series, and with this one in particular I found that I was just as guilty as the compliers that I've criticised, throwing in every single track that I could find from the band. That included duplicate takes and early live recordings just to make up the time, and yet I didn't need to as it ended up as a 45-minute album, which was more than long enough. I've therefore revisited this post and updated it, which includes removing one of the duplicate tracks - I've chosen to keep the raw version of 'Life Is Just Beginning' as no other tracks are orchestrated and so it fits better with the rest of the album - and re-jigging the track listing, as I now think that starting with an instrumental was an odd choice. I've also looked at the live tracks and done a bit of editing to 'I'm A Man', but I felt that 'That's How Strong My Love is' was too much of a soul song to fit with the psychedelia of the rest of the tracks so that's now gone. Finally I've updated the cover, as I never really liked the old one. If you already have this then it's up to you if you grab this update, as you already have all the music, but I just feel that with this running order it now sounds better as an actual album. One last thing that I've done is to tag all of these albums as '60's psyche' so that you can see them all together and check if you've missed any earlier ones.

Track listing

01 Life Is Just Beginning

02 Ostrich Man

03 I'm A Man

04 Instrumental #1

05 For All That I Am

06 I Am The Walker

07 Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
08 The Girls Are Naked

09 Uncle Bert

10 Sylvette

11 Bonney Moroney

12 Midway Down

13 Sweet Helen

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