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

Spear Of Destiny - March Or Die (1988)

Spear Of Destiny was formed by Kirk Brandon and Stan Stammers from the wreckage of Theatre of Hate, and named, with characteristic grandeur, after the weapon with which the Roman centurion Longinus pierced the body of the crucified Christ. Much of the group's debut album was already in place before Lasette Ames and Chris Bell joined, and 'The Grapes Of Wrath' was released on the band's own Burning Rome label in 1983. The original quartet did not survive for long, and the album had barely hit the street when Ames and Bell quit, the latter citing both personal and religious reasons, and Theatre of Hate's Nigel Preston, fresh from a stint with Sex Gang Children, and Diodes' saxophonist John Lennard were drafted in for live work. By the time the band began recording their second album, both had been replaced, by former Stiff Little Fingers drummer Dolphin Taylor, sax player Nick Donnelly, Neil Pyzer, and guitarist Alan St Clair. This became the definitive band aggregation, and they toured constantly, with three outings during 1984 alone, but this did not carry over to studio success, with none of their three singles from 1984's 'One Eyed Jacks' - 'Rainmaker', 'Prisoner Of Love' and 'Liberator' - breaking the UK Top 50. The failure of 'One Eyed Jacks' did much to knock Brandon back, dealing a blow from which he would not recover, even after 1985's 'World Service', a less cohesive, but occasionally superior album just missed the Top Ten. Two further singles, 'All My Love' and 'Come Back', were barely noticed, and when attempts to record a new album on the Manor Mobile collapsed in bad-tempered disarray, Brandon sacked the entire group. Spear Of Destiny vanished for much of the next two years, and when the band did return, it was with a completely new lineup of Brandon, bassist Chris Bostock, drummer Pete Barnacle, former Adam & the Ants guitarist Marco Pirroni, and keyboardist Volker Janssen. Ironically, it was now that the band finally achieved the destiny which had evaded them for so long, with 'Outland' being released on Virgin's 10 subsidiary in 1987, and spawning their biggest hits to date, with 'Stranger In Our Town', 'Never Take Me Alive', 'Was That You', and 'The Traveller' all performing well in the UK charts. 

The group also toured with U2, an outing which culminated at Wembley Stadium in June 1987, but before the group could capitalize on their sudden success, tragedy struck. Literally on the eve of an appearance at the Reading Festival, Brandon was diagnosed with Reiter's Syndrome and ordered to bed, where he spent a year flat on his back, barely able to move at a time when Spear Of Destiny's commercial stock had never been higher. 'Outland' was their biggest seller yet, and their first tour of America was beckoning, but Brandon's main concern was learning to walk again. He struggled back into action just in time to see Spear Of Destiny fall apart, with their 1988 album 'The Price You Pay' and single 'So In Love With You' foundering in the face of their inability to promote them. Brandon bravely tried to relaunch the group in 1990, reuniting with Stan Stammers alongside drummer Bobby Rae Mayhem and guitarist Mark Thwaite, but his future drifted even further out of reach when sundry legal problems meant he couldn't even continue using the band's name. Two largely unsatisfying albums document this era, the comeback 'Sod's Law', released in 1992, and 'Live At The Lyceum' 1993, but in the face of these set-backs the band drifted apart, with Brandon relocating to Philadelphia. While they were active, Spear Of Destiny amassed a devoted following, and it was just bad luck that they couldn't capitalise on their biggest success with 'Outlaw', but we can relive their early days with this collection of non-album singles and b-sides from their first incarnation.   

Track listing

01 The Wheel (single 1983)
02 The Hop (b-side of 'The Wheel')
03 Rosie (b-side of 'Prisoner Of Love' 1984)
04 Last Card (b-side of 'All My Love (Ask Nothing)' 1985)
05 Walk In My Shadow (b-side of 'All My Love (Ask Nothing)' 1985)
06 Cole Younger (b-side of 'Come Back' 1985)
07 Young Men (Return Of) (b-side of 'Come Back' 1985)
08 Somewhere Out There (b-side of 'Strangers In Our Town' 1987)
09 Times Of Our Lives (b-side of 'Strangers In Our Town' 1987)
10 Late Night Psycho (b-side of 'The Traveller' 1987)
11 March Or Die (b-side of 'So In Love With You' 1988)
12 The Jungle (b-side of 'So In Love With You' 1988)
13 Life Goes On (b-side of 'Radio Radio' 1988)

Nola York - I Can Hear You Calling (1985)

Nola York was born in Liverpool, and in the 1960's she attended Webber Douglas Drama school in London. While there she was invited to a party by a friend whose father was high up in the American Embassy, and she ended up singing and playing guitar. Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood heard a song that she written called 'I Don't Understand', and wanted her to record it, and so she secured a recording and publishing contract with Johnny Franz, Dusty Springfield's producer at Philips Records, where she met actor and lyricist Michael Richmond, who shared a similar passion for writing a musical. 'I Don't Understand' was released as a single in 1964 on the His Master's Voice label, and a couple of years later she released 'Whole Lotta Lovin'', backed with 'You Just Didn't Wanna Know', on Philips Records, both of which she co-wrote with Glen Stuart. 1967 saw the release of three more singles, the first of which comprised two songs co-written by her, on the 'I Can Hear You Calling'/'Clown Face' single, which was followed by 'Photograph'/'He's Looking At Her', once again co-written by York, and she closed the year with 'There's So Much Love All Around Me', backed with her co-write 'Sleeping Boutique'. In 1967 she worked all over Europe. singing in the Concert Hall in Belgrade, and performing at the Montreux Festival in Switzerland, as well as appearing on TV and radio shows in Holland and Norway. 

Once back in the UK she recorded 'Ciao Baby', which was released in 1968, and in 1969 she collaborated with Michael Richmond and wrote lyrics and music for the musical 'The Knight Of The Burning Pestle', which ran at the Swan Theatre, Worcester, and then later at the Greenwich Theatre, directed by Sam Walters. In 1970 she joined The Chantelles all-girl singing group, replacing Jay Adams, and touring all over Europe and working American Air force bases, although she never recorded with them. When her tour with The Chantelles ended she joined up with Richmond again and they wrote the musical 'The Lady Or The Tiger' in 1975, which Sam Walters put on at the Orange Tree Pub in an upstairs room, before it transferred to The Fortune Theatre, making York the first woman to write a full-length score for a West End musical. Over the next few years she carried on writing musicals, including 'People' and 'Wild, Wild Women', and then in 1985 she unexpectedly returned to pop music when she wrote and recorded the song 'Hi Fantasy', which was released in Holland on a Dutch label, and which made the Dance charts in the UK. Most of her best songs were released in the late 60's, although she did cut a couple of records in the early 70's, before 'Hi Fantasy' took her into the charts, and so this collection brings together the best of her 60's and 70's output, including an unreleased acetate from 1975 that I've edited to give it the intro that was missing from the only available version, and with her 1985 single closing the album. 

Track listing

01 I Don't Understand (single 1964)
02 Here I Stand (b-side of 'I Don't Understand')
03 Whole Lotta Lovin' (single 1966)
04 There's So Much Love All Around Me (single 1967)
05 Sleeping Boutique (b-side of 'There's So Much Love All Around Me')
06 I Can Hear You Calling (single 1967)
07 Photographs (single 1967)
08 He's Looking At Her (b-side of 'Photographs')
09 Ciao Baby (single 1968)
10 Cowboy (single 1973)
11 Purple Flowers (b-side of 'Cowboy')
12 Noises (unreleased acetate 1975)
13 City Of London (unreleased acetate, incorrectly credited to The Chantelles 1975)
14 Hi Fantasy (12" single 1985)

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

Design - Sign The World A Song (1976)

Design was a British six-piece vocal harmony group from the early 1970's, comprising Tony Smith, Barry Alexander, Gabrielle Field, Kathy Manuell, John Mulcahy-Morgan and Geoff Ramseyer. Singer/songwriter Smith formed Design while he was working at the BBC in London in December 1968, and the group then signed a recording contract with Adrian Kerridge of Lansdowne Studios, recording their first self-titled album during the summer of 1969. Their music has been described as 'sunshine harmony pop with a light hippy vibe' and 'melodic folk-pop with a shimmering, almost psychedelic, West Coast feel', and this might have helped them gain a two-album deal with Epic Records in the USA following the UK release of 'Design'. In November 1970, shortly before the first album was released, Smith left the group and he was replaced by guitarist Jeff Matthews, who had been with Ramseyer and Mulcahy-Morgan in the group Free Expression. This was Design’s most successful line-up, and after their appearances on The Morecambe and Wise Show in 1971 they became one of the most televised groups in the UK, guesting on dozens of programmes with The Two Ronnies, Val Doonican, Benny Hill, Tommy Cooper, and many others. They toured with Gilbert O'Sullivan, starred in cabaret and at the London Palladium, and released three more albums,  'Tomorrow Is So Far Away' in 1972, 'Day Of The Fox' in 1973, and 'In Flight' in 1974, before Field and Ramseyer left the group in October 1974. The other members carried on as a four-piece, and recorded one more album, 'By Design', before finally splitting up in October 1976. Unusually for the time, the group tended to release singles which didn't then appear on their albums, and so this collection of non-album tracks is a great round-up of their career which can sit nicely alongside their original albums.   

Track listing

01 Colour All The World (single 1972)
02 Lazy Song (b-side of 'Colour All The World')
03 Day By Day (previously unreleased 1971)
04 Mayday (single 1972)
05 One Sunny Day (single 1973)
06 Jennifer (German single 1973)
07 Traume (b-side of 'Jennifer')
08 Once Upon A Time (b-side of 'Second Love' 1974)
09 Sing The World A Song (single 1974)
10 Won't You Say You Love Me (b-side of 'Banging On The Old Piano' 1975)
11 As It Was (previously unreleased 1975)
12 Calais (previously unreleased 1975)
13 You're So Good To Me (single 1976)
14 Never Been A Love Like This (b-side of 'You're So Good To Me')

Victoria Justice - Love Zombie (2013)

Victoria Dawn Justice was born on 19 February 1993, and at the age of 10 she made her acting debut with a guest appearance on the comedy drama series 'Gilmore Girls', and after this her family moved to Los Angeles, when Justice began to pursue a career in acting. The following year, she guest-starred on the second episode of the Disney Channel series 'The Suite Life of Zack & Cody', in which she played a young pageant contestant named Rebecca, and later she was cast as Stella, a young girl who begins seeing visions of Mary Magdalene, in Aaron Ruell's 2005 short film 'Mary'. In 2005 she was accepted into the musical theatre program at the Millikan Performing Arts Academy in Los Angeles, and started appearing in advertisements for companies such as Ralph Lauren, Gap, and Guess, as well as landing a main role in the Nickelodeon series 'Zoey 101' as Lola Martinez, a new student who is an aspiring actress. 'Zoey 101' ended its run on 2 May 2008, and the following year she announced plans to guest star on an episode of Nickelodeon's series 'The Naked Brothers Band', portraying herself. Also in 2009, she starred in the Nickelodeon musical 'Spectacular!', in which she performed three songs, and it became one of Nickelodeon's most popular movies, attracting an audience 3.7 million viewers on its premiere night. In 2010 she confirmed that she would be starring in her own musical show on Nickelodeon called 'Victorious', recording several songs for the series throughout its run, which lasted until February 2013. In a 2010 interview with the Associated Press, she stated that she was recording an album, but planned to take her time with the process, and in October 2012 it was given a release date of 2013. Her debut single 'Gold' was released on 18 June 2013, but in August 2014 Billboard revealed that Justice had left Columbia Records, although she was still recording new music to be released in 2015. In December 2020 she announced that her first single in over seven years would be titled 'Treat Myself', and it was her first as an independent artist. This was followed by 'Stay', released in February 2021, and 'Too F*ckin' Nice' in May. While Justice continues to progress with her acting career, her music appears to be on hiatus, and her 2013 album is now highly unlikely to ever see the light of day, so here it is for us to judge if it should have been released at the time. 

Track listing

01 Love Zombie
02 Solo
03 We Make The Weekend
04 A.D.D. Love
05 Girl Up
06 Caught Up In You
07 Favourite Song
08 Perfect
09 Our Little Secret
10 Priceless

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

Loudest Whisper - The Wheel Of Life (1976)

Loudest Whisper grew out of an earlier band called The Wizards, who were formed during the 60's in Fermoy, County Cork in Ireland by singer/guitarist Brian O'Reilly. Around 1970 they changed their name to Loudest Whisper, to reflect their wish to mix their earlier folk-rock with the heavier music of the time. After a few years on the circuit they performed a folk-rock musical that they had written, entitled 'The Children Of Lir', and from it's first performance in January 1973 it was a huge success, leading to more performances and a feature on 'Tangents', an RTE Television current affairs programme. Spurred on by this success, O'Reilly wrote a second musical entitled 'Perseus', which featured a new member of the band, Gerladine Dorgan, who was still at school at the time, and it premiered at the Fermoy Youth Centre at Christmas 1973. Following the success of these performances, Loudest Whisper were signed to Polydor Records, and set about recording 'The Children Of Lir' album, and they also recorded their first single at the same time, with 'William B' being a tribute to W. B. Yeats. Both the single and the album were released in 1974, and 'The Children Of Lir' has since become one of folk-rock's most highly-regarded and sought-after albums, despite Polydor's lack of faith in it at the time. The following year was taken up with a third musical, 'Maiden Of Sorrow', although this was never recorded as a studio album, and so the only way to hear it is on a bootleg recording which was issued by Kissing Spell Records.

1977 saw some line-up changes, with bassist John Aherne leaving as he was unable to balance the live work with the band with his day job, but it also saw the release of the 'Rock 'n Roll Child' single, which was a hit in Ireland. In 1978 work began on building a recording studio, which was a joint venture between O'Reilly and a local music shop, and Fiona Studios opened it's doors in 1979, where the band recorded their next Irish hit single 'Magic Carpet'. In 1980 Polydor agreed that they could record a second album, as long as it included their hit singles, and so in 1982 they released 'Hard Times', featuring new co-lead-singer Bernadette Bowes, although they seemed to have got one over on the label, as it included all new material. However, between 'The Children Of Lir' and 'Hard Times' the band had been recording demos which they stored away, and since these have appeared on a recent box set we now find that they had more than enough material to release their second album a good six years before they actually did. By including a couple of b-sides, a track from the 'Perseus' musical, and some 1974/1975 demos we end up with a great folk-rock album, mixing some lovely folky moments with lashings of heavy guitar, just as they set out to do following their change of name. I think it hangs together really well, and it certainly proves that 'The Children Of Lir' was not a one-off, and that they had much more to offer if only their record label had shown a bit more faith in them.    

Track listing

01 Wrong And Right
02 Danae's Song
03 Lord Have Mercy
04 The Wheel Of Life
05 You Said You Loved Me
06 Come Back Paddy Reilly To Ballyjamesduff
07 Children Of The Wild Wind 
08 Wouldn't It Be Fine?
09 William B
10 Silent O'Moyle

Burt Bacharach - Burt Bacharach's Greatest Misses (1962)

While Burt Bacharach did score some early hits in the 1950's, and wrote songs recorded by some of the biggest stars of the day, as well as some of the more obscure ones, it wasn’t until Dionne Warwick's slew of hits with his and Hal David's tunes that he became a ubiquitous name in pop music. His early attempts at song-writing were recorded by a variety of artists, including Connie Stevens, Jack Jones, The Wanderers, The Exotics, Jane Morgan, and Vic Dana, but simply put, these are songs that didn’t make it; none of them charted at all. The vast majority of these tracks were written by the Bacharach/David team, but there are some exceptions, with 'Dreamin' All the Time', for example, being written by Bacharach and Bob Hilliard. Although these are early examples of Bacharach's work, they are still lushly orchestrated, dreamy pop songs with traces of his melodic trademark, as well as his sweeping harmonies. One interesting cut is the Shepherd Sisters' 'Deeply', written with Norman Gimble, which was an early girl group rock tune that featured the marimba sound from 'Do You Know The Way To San Jose'. There were a few duds along the way, of course, proving that Bacharach is human after all, but they tended to be songs from the late 50's and very early 60's, and by 1962 he and David had started to produce music that would point the way to their biggest hits, such as 'Anyone Who Had A Heart' and 'Walk On By', just a year later.

Track listing

01 Manpower (The Exotics 1962)

02 And This Is Mine (Connie Francis 1961)
03 Don't Envy Me (Joey Powers 1962)
04 Dreamin' All The Time (Jack Jones 1962)
05 Forever My Love (Jane Morgan 1962)
06 Sinner's Devotion (Tina Robin 1961)
07 The Answer To Everything (Sam Fletcher 1962)
08 Joanie's Forever (Buddy Clinton 1960)
09 Waitin' For Charlie To Come Home (Jane Morgan 1962)
10 You're Following Me (Jimmy Breedlove 1962)
11 I Could Make You Mine (The Wanderers 1960)
12 Call Off The Wedding (Babs Tino 1962)
13 Deeply (The Shepherd Sisters 1961)
14 For All Time (The Russells 1962)
15 The Story Behind My Tears (Vic Dana 1961)
16 Somebody Else's Sweetheart (The Wanderers 1961)
17 Come Completely To Me (Steve Rossi 1960)

Jamie Hawkins - JH (2001)

Jamie Hawkins comes from a musical family, and at the age of 16 he was already working with such gospel legends as his parents, Walter Hawkins and Tramaine Hawkins, and his uncle, Edwin Hawkins, leader of the Edwin Hawkins Singers. At the age of 19 he was was the assistant musical director for MC Hammer's 1992 Too Legit to Quit Tour, and from there he became the musical director for Jodeci's Forever My Lady Tour. in addition to all this, he was the musical director for the extremely successful MTV Unplugged TV show, featuring Uptown recording artists Jodeci, Mary J. Blige, Father MC, Christopher Williams, and Heavy D & the Boyz. In 1998 Hawkins served as musical director for Lauryn Hill's Miseducation Tour, and for 18 months preceding this, he was musical director for Boyz II Men. He has consistently set his sights high, and started a career as a recording artist with Monami/Elektra Records, with his first single being the catchy 'Lost My Mind' in 2000, taken from the album that he recorded for Elektra Records in 1999. Despite his eye-catching live performances attracting rave reviews, the album was cancelled in 2001, and so his hoped-for singing career came to nothing, which is a shame as he definitely had something, being compared favourably to Stevie Wonder. Luckily some promo copies of the album were pressed, and so we can now enjoy yet another album where the record company had no idea of just what they were giving up. 

Track listing

01 Lost My Mind 
02 Next To You  
03 More And More  
04 Tell Me  
05 Spend My Life With You  
06 I Saw You (Interlude)
07 It's Over Now  
08 Thought You Should Know  
09 Just Friends 
10 Just Jamie (Interlude)  
11 Do You Remember  
12 You're The One For Me  
13 Prelude  
14 By My Side  
15 The Story  
16 Just Jamie - Outro

Rick & The Ravens - Rampage (1965)

Rick & The Ravens was an American surf rock band founded in 1961 by Rick Manczarek on guitar, Jim Manczarek on organ and harmonica, Patrick Stonier on saxophone, Roland Biscaluz on bass, and Vince Thomas on drums. The drummer and bass player were initially not permanent members, but asked to join whenever a gig was upcoming, and the name stemmed from leader Rick Manczarek. In 1962, Ricks' brother Ray moved to Los Angeles from Chicago, and joined the band on vocals and occasional piano. The band performed on weekends for college crowds, mostly from UCLA Film School, at a bar called the Turkey Joint West on Santa Monica Boulevard, and they played their own original songs, padded with covered versions of blues standards such as 'I'm Your Doctor, I Know What You Need' by Muddy Waters, 'Louie Louie' by Richard Berry, Barrett Strong's 'Money', and Willie Dixon's 'Hoochie Coochie Man'. Jim Morrison did perform with Rick & the Ravens, when Ray Manzarek (now using a different spelling) invited his former college colleague on stage, much to everyone's surprise. Morrison was reportedly not prepared for this, and sang himself hoarse. Rick & The Ravens released three singles in 1965, two on the Aura label and one on Posae Records, with the 'Soul Train' single being released under the name of Ray Daniels featuring Rick & The Ravens. This was an attempt by the record label to promote Ray Manzarek (under the name Ray Daniels) as the lead artist in the group, but these plans were discarded when Morrison joined the band. 

On 2 September 1965 the band entered World Pacific Studios in Los Angeles and recorded six songs that would eventually be re-recorded for Doors albums, with two as late as 1968 when Morrison suffered writer's block: 'Moonlight Drive', 'My Eyes Have Seen You', 'Hello, I Love You', 'Go Insane' (known simply as 'Insane' on the acetate), 'End Of The Night', and 'Summer's Almost Gone', The recording session was a relatively quick affair, only lasting three hours in total, and five acetate were made, one of which is still owned by Ray Manzarek. The 1965 demo features Jim Morrison on vocals, Ray Manzarek on piano and background vocals, John Densmore on drums, Rick Manczarek on guitar, Jim Manczarek on harmonica, and Patricia "Pat" Hansen on bass guitar. Both Morrison and Rick Manczarek were disappointed by the response the demo received after attempting to promote it, and Manczarek and Sullivan were additionally not impressed with Morrison's songs, leading to both Rick and Jim Manczarek later quitting the band. At Morrison's suggestion, they changed the name of the group to The Doors, and in October 1965 Robby Krieger joined on guitar, having earlier performed with Densmore in the Psychedelic Rangers. The Doors were initially a quintet, but when Manzarek decided to handle the bass duties with the newly introduced Fender Rhodes Piano Bass, Sullivan was dropped from the line-up in December 1965, ultimately ending up with the classic Doors line-up of Morrison, Manzarek, Krieger, and Densmore. To hear how they reached that stage in their career, here are the three singles recorded by Rick & The Ravens, plus the 1965 demos, including two previously unreleased recordings.

Track listing

01 Just For You
02 Hello I Love You
03 Rampage
04 Moonlight Drive
05 Summer's Almost Gone
06 Big Bucket 'T'
07 My Eyes Have Seen You
08 Circle Twist
09 End Of The Night
10 Henrietta
11 Insane
12 Geraldine
13 Blow Top
14 Soul Train

GUNK - Bloomdido (2024)

On 25 November 2024 the BBC hosted the Young Jazz Musician 2024, celebrating the competition’s tenth anniversary, and which featured four talented young performers competing for the title BBC Young Jazz Musician 2024. Hoping to take the coveted title were 19 year-old saxophonist George Johnson, 22 year-old bassist Ursula Harrison, 22 year-old pianist Nils Kavanagh, and 18 year-old trumpeter Klara Devlin. They each performed a set in front of a live audience and a formidable judging panel, consisting of pianist, bandleader and educator Nikki Yeoh, saxophonist, producer and MC Soweto Kinch, award-winning trumpeter Laura Jurd, bassist, composer and band leader Jasper Høiby, and vocalist and composer Zara McFarlane. They were backed by three of the UK's leading jazz musicians, Zoe Rahman on piano, Alec Dankworth on bass, and drummer Sophie Alloway, and while Thompson performed one single self-composed piece, the other three musicians offered a mix of their own compositions and their takes on some of their favourite classics, from artists like Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver and Chick Corea. Because the finalists were a pianist, bassist, saxophonist and trumpeter, they were able to form a quintet with drummer Alloway for an ensemble rendition of Charlie Parker's 'Bloomdido' to close the show, naming the group GUNK after the initials of their first names. Ursula Harrison eventually won the competition, but even as I was watching it I heard a couple of pieces that I really wanted to hear again, in particular Kavanagh's lovely 'Hazelwood Home', and so when it was over I recorded the whole thing and compiled an album of my favourite performances. If you are into jazz in any way then give this a listen, as these four musicians could be at the forefront of British jazz in a few years, and you can then say that you heard them here first. 

Track listing

01 For Sean (Nils Kavanagh)
02 Peace (Klara Devlin)
03 Golden (Ursula Harrison)
04 Hazelwood Home (Nils Kavanagh)
05 Who Shall Guide Me (George Johnson)
06 Speak No Evil (Ursula Harrison)

07 Bloomdido (GUNK)

08 Litha (Klara Devlin)

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