UK 1960s JAN-FEB 2009

LAST OF THE STEAM-POWERED BRAINS From Muswell Hill to Madison Square Gardens. Sumptuous, goodies-laden box set charts the rise, rise, rise and fall of THE KINKS. By ANDY MORTEN. THE KINKS Picture Book Universal 6-CD box set Buy Picture Book from Amazon

Ahh, the age-old dilemma. How DO you fill six CDs of Kinks music without alienating curious novices, annoying diehard fans or neglecting even the murkiest stages of one of the most idiosyncratic thirty-year careers in popular music? Answer: you don’t.
Firstly, allow me to surrender the notion that The Kinks were just as important – if not more important – than The Beatles, Stones or Who. Furthermore (where’s me high horse?), I challenge anyone to find 28 songs recorded in frantic succession during the white-hot period between early ’66 and ’68 that first challenged, and then changed, the course of pop music like the contents of disc two of Picture Book did.
You want wry social observations, swinging London soundtracks, outsider garage rock nuggets, nervous breakdowns as yearning ballads, out-of-time Noel Cowardesque vignettes, deathlessly evocative snapshots, sepia-tinted odes to nostalgia, rough-hewn guitar workouts and quietly hilarious satirical put-downs? Try ‘Dedicated Follower Of Fashion’, ‘Sunny Afternoon’, ‘I’m Not Like Everybody Else’, ‘Too Much On My Mind’, ‘End Of The Season’, ‘Waterloo Sunset’, ‘Village Green Preservation Society’, ‘Big Sky’ and ‘Victoria’ for starters – every last one of ‘em a master class in song writing and storytelling still guaranteed to have 90% of The Kinks’ myriad illegitimate musical offspring quaking at the realisation that they’ll never come close to matching even the slightest of these timeless works of art. Not in their dreams.
Let’s just say I kinda like The Kinks and leave it there, OK?
Picture Book opens with ‘You Really Got Me’ which is a good idea as the clutch of early demos and single sides that follow wouldn’t make for the most engaging introduction. It ends with ‘To The Bone’, a fairly underwhelming mid-90s album track that confirms Ray Davies’ own, typically melodramatic suggestion that The Kinks were pretty much over when original bassist Peter Quaife split in ’68. So far, so so.
However, somewhere around the middle of disc one, something happens… and it continues to happen with mounting intensity until somewhere around the middle of disc four. Let’s face it; nobody’s going to spend 30-odd quid on a box set to hear a couple of tracks apiece from Schoolboys In Disgrace or Low Budget are they? The sausage in this particular Scotch egg is to be found in the music made by the brothers Davies and their friends Mick Avory, Peter Quaife, John Dalton and John Gosling during the glory years at Pye and the immediate fallout, before US stadiums and grim self-pastiche became the order of the day.
Down to the nitty-gritty. 138 tracks spanning 33 years over six chock-full CDs. Eighteen previously unreleased tracks – mostly demos like the widely covered ‘I Go To Sleep’ and ‘This Strange Effect’ – dropped into a democratically elected consortium of classic singles, album tracks and B-sides, presented in recording date order so ‘She’s Got Everything’ – a killer slab of garage rock originally slipped onto the back of ‘Days’ in ’68 but cut way back in early ’66 – appears between ‘Dedicated Follower Of Fashion’ and ‘Mr Reporter’ – undoubtedly Ray’s most hateful lyric (“I’ll kill you Mr Reporter, rather than let you distort my simple sound”. Yikes! Not exactly ‘We Can Work It Out’ is it?). This twist on conventional chronology puts a number of tunes into refreshingly new context.
Where the box fails is in its insistence to document the lulls almost as exhaustively as it does the peaks. By allotting the whole of discs five and six to the late ’70s onwards (and, to be fair, including two or three less than earth-shattering early demos and studio rejects) we lose the sparkling ’68 single ‘Wonderboy’, Face To Face’s signature tune ‘Dandy’ and Dave’s sublime ’69 B-side ‘Mindless Child Of Motherhood’. I would have gone for Lola vs Powerman And The Money-go-round’s ‘This Time Tomorrow’ over the same album’s ‘Strangers’ too but that’s splitting hairs and I can do that anytime with my fellow Kinks fanciers in the comfort of the pub so I’ll stop.
With the original band poised to play together for the first time in 40 years, the timing of this box is shrewd to say the least but ultimately it’s as close as you’re gonna get to a definitive overview of The Kinks’ music short of actually buying their first dozen or so albums. But then you’ve already done that, right?

THE MOVE
Move! Move! Move!: The Anthology 1966-1972
Salvo 4-CD box set
www.salvo-music.co.uk
After the recent deluxe reissues of The Move’s albums comes the titanic icing on the cake: four CDs chronicling the group from their earliest days, including a welter of rarities, alternative versions and live material. Not only that, the package includes an 11,000 word, memorabilia-stacked book by Mark Paytress which tells the whole fascinating story of this five-man Birmingham demolition squad who are now quite rightly placed alongside The Who and The Kinks as one of the great all-time British groups.
The Move might have swept in on a wave of lysergic anthems and outrageous antics but they were actually a great pop band in the old-fashioned sense rather than sonic explorers charting new realms like, say, Pink Floyd. In true Tin Pan Alley style, they realised a gimmick was necessary to get them noticed, or rather ruthless manager Tony Secunda did. This meant that, when their first single ‘Night Of Fear’ emerged in December 1966 with its ‘just about to trip your mind’ refrain, they were immediately tagged as acid rockers who became even more notorious for their ultra-violent stage act involving singer Carl Wayne taking an axe to TV sets (supposedly protesting about consumer society) and blowing up cars or Hitler dummies. With flower power in full swing they produced the fabulous ‘I Can Hear The Grass Grow’ (which actually took its title from naturist mag Health & Efficiency) but under the kaftans and beads beat a supernatural pure pop heart in genius songwriter Roy Wood. This and subsequent hits like ‘Fire Brigade’, ‘Blackberry Way’ and ‘Flowers In The Rain’, which created their biggest furore with the naked promotional postcards of then-PM Harold Wilson, were classic English songs up there with anything Davies or Townsend were producing in terms of provocative description and innovative music combined with instant hit appeal.
When I saw The Move at the 1968 NME Poll Winners Concert, despite recently scoring with ‘Fire Brigade’, their short set consisted of the not-yet-released Something Else By The Move EP, dominated by Wood’s wah-wah excursions on their version of Spooky Tooth’s ‘Sunshine Help Me’: much to the confusion of the screaming hordes.
As the book reveals, the band were plagued by direction problems, often switching styles according to trends, lost founder members ‘Ace’ Kefford and Trevor Burton over commercial sell-out issues [and maybe lysergic over-indulgence!], hopped from cabaret doom to Detroit’s underground mecca the Grande Ballroom within the space of a month and eventually mutated messily into ELO.
This superlative set, fittingly dedicated to Carl Wayne who sadly passed in 2004, is the best possible statement and souvenir this unpredictably great band could wish for, studded with classics (including personal fave ‘Cherry Blossom Clinic’, which would have put a song about a mental hospital in the charts had it been released as a single as originally planned). There’s their first ever recordings, painstakingly restored from crumbling acetates, the full Marquee set which yielded the live EP and untold live, demo and alternative curios. Something else indeed.
Kris Needs

HERMAN’S HERMITS & PETER NOONE
Into Something Good: The Mickie Most Years 1964-1972
EMI CD
One might take a gander at this collection and ask, “why would I need this when I’ve already got a greatest hits collection?” The answer is that a greatest hits collection will not suffice as a complete portrait of one of the most famous bands Manchester has ever produced. To be sure, there is a fair amount of fluff on this four-disc collection, but the deeper you look, the more you see (or hear). While there is a fair share of first-rate material on disc one and disc two, it’s on the latter two where you find most of the choice nuggets. Tunes like ‘It’s Nice To Be Out In The Morning’ will remind you of fellow Mancunians The Hollies, the psychedelic ‘Moonshine Man’ and the simply cool ‘Ace, King, Queen Jack’, among any others, are great. Disc four contains a bounty of previously unreleased material, with ‘The Colder It Gets’ being the best of that lot, as well as several solo tunes by Peter Noone, including the excellent ‘Walnut Whirl’, which may be the ‘Savoy Truffle’ of the ’70s.
Why should you shell out for this collection? Because if you want to call yourselves a Herman’s Hermits fan, you need it. Plain and simple.
David Bash

PAUL KOSSOFF WITH BLACK CAT BONES
Paul’s Blues
Sunbeam 2-CD
www.sunbeamrecords.com
The guys at Sunbeam aren’t to blame for making the only reason for releasing this so instantly obvious. If it wasn’t for the teenaged future guitar prodigy, it’s pretty unlikely that a bunch of covers of blues standards from rehearsal tapes, at best of transistor radio quality, would’ve been of much interest even to blues purists. Nevertheless, the whole package is an obvious labour of love, accompanied with a 12-page booklet, making this an interesting purchase for fans of Free and Paul Kossoff in general.
Two years and several more line up changes down the road, Black Cat Bones broke up after their sole album Barbed Wire Sandwich was released on Decca Nova in 1970.
Goran Obradovic
THE ROKES
Let’s Live For Today: The Rokes In English 1966-68
Rev-Ola CD
www.revola.co.uk
Whether it’s The Living Daylights, The Grass Roots (who had the biggest hit with it) or the sterling effort by Holland’s The Skope, ‘Let’s Live For Today’ will no doubt be familiar to many fans of ’60s beat. Some may know the original, sung first in Italian as ‘Piangi Con Me’, flip of a massive Italian hit version of Bob Lind’s ‘Cheryl’s Going Home’ (‘Che Colpa Abbiamo Noi’) and then recorded in English, by these here transplanted British beatmakers, The Rokes.
Although virtually unknown anywhere else during the ’60s, The Rokes were Serie A rock stars in Italy, with legions of fans, successful long-players, some outtasite guitars made for them by Eko, and umpteen television and pop chart appearances.
I can’t disguise my own admiration for this group and hopefully a few listens to this collection of their English-language material will reveal to you a few of the reasons why. For grit and blast, there’s ‘No No No’, an unbridled rocker sure to please even the cavest of teens! And for sheer incandescent grooviness, there’s the shimmering ‘Telegram For Miss Marigold’, the cheeky Carnaby-swing of ‘Regency Sue’ and their final UK disc from ’68, ‘The Works Of Bartholomew’. Psych-heads will find its flip ‘When The Wind Arises’ utterly compelling. An unissued, English-sung version of the title track, recorded as ‘Passing Through Grey’, is also a welcome inclusion. If the impeccable harmonies of The Hollies, Pretties and Zombies do it for you, then investigate further.
Lenny Helsing

PAUL AND BARRY RYAN
Two Of A Kind
Rev-Ola CD
www.revola.co.uk
The Ryan brothers recorded two albums of which this is the first (the second for MGM will also be reissued by Rev-Ola). Released in 1967 on Decca, this album kicks the ass of all but the best two or three Ryan brothers 45s.
This is as pocket sized an encapsulation of Swinging London at it’s possible to get; like an Austin Powers establishment scene, only in real time! None of the songs are Ryan originals but all are massively powerful and with the likes of Les Reed and Mike Leander writing, arranging and producing, you know it has to be good.
‘Silent Street’, ‘Progress’ (also cut by The Pretty Things), ‘Hey Mr Wiseman’ and The Yardbirds’ ‘I Can’t Make Your Way’ are but a selection of hip and happening tunes you’ll find here. How has this album escaped reissue until now? Just buy it!
Paul Martin

SUNFOREST
Sound Of Sunforest
Lion Productions CD
www.lionproductions.org
The grooviest track on this 1969 curio ‘Magician In The Mountain’ has become something of a choice sample and deejay spin over the past few years. The rest of the LP however, is somewhat different. Essentially the work of three female friends, who supplied and sang the songs, Vic (Coppersmith) Smith who majestically controlled the proceedings from his mixing desk, and top instrumentation from a whole host of session giants (including Herbie Flowers and Jim Sullivan), the album flits between swinging ’60s psychedelic-pop, folk and classical influences with some rather jarring comic pieces. UK residents will know the highly annoying ‘Lighthouse Keeper’ from the current Marks & Spencers TV advert with Twiggy. (The movie director supremo Stanley Kubrick was also a fan, so much so that he got the group to re-record both ‘Lighthouse Keeper’ and the classical sounding ‘Overture To The Sun’ for the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange). ‘Peppermint Store’ also reminds this liberally minded, fun loving critic of something from The Muppets or Fraggle Rock. Well, I did say this is a curio didn’t I?
Although, often too silly for its own good, this album still has its fair share of quality pieces and combines groovy pop, folk, psych and grooves in a unique manner. Maybe not worthy of it’s “cult acclaim” but kooky and enjoyable all the same.
Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills

VARIOUS ARTISTS
She’s A Heartbreaker: UK Floor Fillers Volume 4
Psychic Circle CD
More obscure UK blue-eyed soul strutters boogaloo down Ealing Broadway for our aural edification. Amongst them are a clutch of covers which although ubiquitous by title, are somewhat different; Dave Hunter’s take on the Gene Pitney title track, Kris Ife’s ‘Hush’, James’ Royal’s ‘I Can’t Stand It’, Kenny Bernard’s ‘Ain’t No Soul’ and Una Valli’s ‘Satisfaction’.
Chief amongst them is the intriguing take on ‘Nowhere To Run’ by Tina Harvey which elongates the femme backing vox as a sound bed over which Ms Harvey recites half the song lyrics before the tune kicks in. A very original treatment.
Amongst the wealth of “new to me” tracks, Current Kraze’s ‘Lady Pearl’ is a beautiful orch-soul number a la Huff & Gamble, Kevin ‘King’ Lear’s ‘Pretty Woman’ (no, not that one) comes replete with bendy psych guitar throughout and The Slam Creepers (Swedish were they not?) please with a throaty ‘Hold It Baby’. A solid club soul comp throughout.
Paul Martin

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Sunday Sunshine: The World Of SNB Records
RPM Retrodisc CD
www.rpmrecords.co.uk
Mention the name Simon Napier-Bell to ’60s music aficionados and they will remember him as manager and producer of The Yardbirds and/or John’s Children. ’70s/80s buffs might think of his stints managing Japan and Wham! But not many will remember that Napier-Bell actually ran his own label, SNB Records, for a period of roughly 18 months between ’68-69. A venture shared by hipster/actor David Hemmings and mostly a ploy to escape an old EMI contract Napier-Bell was saddled with, SNB nonetheless released some memorable material during its short run.
Many of the 20 tracks assembled here are of the baroque pop variety, making the compilation something like a mini-Nuggets if some of the minor acts were trying to be The Left Banke instead of The Stones and The Who, et al. The most notable name from the rag-tag bunch on SNB’s roster is Mellow Candle, whose ’72 album Swaddling Songs is now a rediscovered acid-folk treasure. The song that will make you howl is Andy Ellison’s (former singer for John’s Children) fey, camped-up version of The Beatles’ ‘You Can’t Do That’. Hubert Thomas Valverde & The HTs (who?!) do a number called ‘Genevieve’ that sounds like a drag performer tarting up Scott Walker. A lot of this stuff is throwaway but almost all of it is at least interesting (if not just for its oddness), and a few tracks are downright jewels.
Brian Greene

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Treacle Toffee World: Further Pop Psych Sounds From The Apple Era
RPM CD
www.rpmrecords.co.uk
The third volume of RPM’s fascinating excavation of the Apple Publishing vaults turns up several gems.
By saving some of the best ’til last we get to enjoy such familiar favourites as Fire’s gloriously gonzo mod-psych anthem ‘Fathers’ Name Is Dad’ (not to mention its equally fabulous flip ‘Treacle Toffee World’ and both sides of the scrapped follow-up) and Sands’ sprawling ‘Listen To The Sky’, possibly the only example of that most ’60s of sub-sub-sub genres: bubblegum/ freakbeat/classical/anti-Vietnam propaganda.
On the “what the?” side, you get no less than three previously unreleased studio cuts from Shindig! darlings Grapefruit and similarly delicious demos by gifted unknowns Rawlings & Huckstep, pre-Badfinger hopefuls The Iveys and cult scousadelics The 23rd Turnoff. Add lost sides from Dennis Couldry, Legay and a staggering slice of acid-infused folk by Gallagher & Lyle called ‘Goodbye Mozart’ and you’ve got another winning set.
Wonder if there’s enough stuff left for a fourth…
Andy Morten