While the female singers and girl groups on the British recording scene of the 1960's were typically in their late teens or early twenties, The Orchids were 14 year-old schoolgirls when they made their first record. Georgina Oliver, Pamela Jarman and Valerie Jones were in the same class at Stoke Park Grammar School For Girls in Coventry, where they used to get together in break times to sing the hits of the day together, and they often went dancing together on Saturday afternoons at the Locarno Ballroom in the central precinct, and later at the Orchid Ballroom in Primrose Hill Street. One day, having gone alone for once, Pam horrified the others by announcing she had entered them all into a talent contest at the Orchid, and they won the competition, singing Motown and Spector songs, and they shared the prize money of one pound sterling. Larry Page, then manager of the Orchid Ballroom, gave them the name The Orchids after the name of his ballroom, and this former pop singer would go on to achieve greater fame later, most notably as manager of the Kinks. Contracted to Decca and assigned in the studio to producer Shel Talmy, their first appearance on vinyl was as backing vocalists for 'School Is In' by Johnny B. Great and the Goodmen, with their own debut quickly following, and 'Gonna Make Him Mine' was an exuberant and upbeat offering with a sound that was a blend of UK beat and US girl group, with the Shel Talmy original 'Stay At Home' on the flip. The trio's schoolgirl status was relentlessly exploited, and their first publicity pics required them to wear school uniforms, much to their mortification.
The follow-up single 'Love Hit Me' went for the full Spector treatment, leading to a "Britain's answer to the Crystals" tag, and they appeared on 'Ready Steady Go!' to promote its release, as well as making an appearance on the children's show 'Five O'clock Club'. Mike D'Abo's first group A Band Of Angels (coincidentally, see last week's post) was also on the bill and there was a running gag between them and The Orchids that they couldn't stand each other, with D'Abo loudly complaining to hostess Muriel Young, "They're nothing but a bunch of schoolgirls!" as the girls brushed past him to the mikes. Their next single was a cover of Ray Davies' 'I've Got That Feeling', with 'Larry' on the b-side, and this wasn't a tribute to Larry Page but a cover of an American song written by the 'Bobby's Girl' duo of Hoffman and Klein. One last single was recorded, but 'Oo-Chang-A-Lang' was only issued in the US, and it had to be under the name of The Blue Orchids to avoid confusion with sundry other Orchids in the USA. As well as their TV appearances, the group appeared in the 1964 pop movie 'Just For You', singing 'Mr. Scrooge', and they also appeared in a comic-strip story in an issue of Judy, the popular girls' weekly. In 1965 they were finally allowed a change of image and the group was relaunched as The Exceptions, releasing just one single with 'What More Do You Want' on the A-side, and a Georgina Oliver original on the flip with 'Soldier Boy'. The girls have mentioned that they recorded a number of other songs, including some with Bert Berns, but none have ever come to light, and so the total output from the group was just these four singles, but they are remembered due to a combination of factors: their image, their sound, their association with Talmy, Page, Berns, and Oldham , and their standing as a rare example of a true British teenage girl group. An article on the girls in this month's Record Collector ended with a plea for a retrospective album, and so here it is, although obviously it's a short one at just 23 minutes, but it's full of great 60's pop and soul.
Track listing
01 Gonna Make Him Mine (single 1963)
02 Stay At Home (b-side of 'Gonna Make Him Mine')
03 Love Hit Me (single 1963)
04 Don't Make Me Mad (b-side of 'Love Hit Me')
05 Mr. Scrooge (from the soundtrack of the film 'Just For You' 1964)
06 I've Got That Feeling (single 1964)
07 Larry (b-side of 'I've Got That Feeling')
08 Oo-Chang-A-Lang (single 1964)
09 What More Do You Want (single as The Exceptions 1965)
10 Soldier Boy (b-side of 'What More Do You Want')
