KNICK-NICK, WHO'S THERE? IT'S THE TOMMYKNOCKERS' BEAT CLUB AGAIN! VOLUME 5 OF THE UNCOMPILED UK SIXTIES BEAT SAGA.

KNOCK IT IN AGAIN! KNOCKING NAILS INTO YOUR BRAINS AGAIN: MORE NOISE FROM THE VAULTS OF THE VATI-KANN-ARCHIVES. DON'T LET YER KNOCKERS DOWN! AMEN!! (caught with trousers down: peter frampton, daniel boone, tom jones and the troggs before they knicked presley)

listen to:

01.:Some Other Guy - The Scorpions (CNR,64, released in Holland) 2'39

02.:Dimples - The Deejays (Polydor,65) 2'01

03.:Jump Back - Paul Williams & The Zoot Money Band (Columbia,65) 2'16

04.:Understand Me - The Herd (Fontana,67, US-only b-side) 2'26

05.:Baby I'm In Love - Tom Jones (Tower,64, US-only 7") 2'13

06.:Where Have You Been - The Gobbledegooks (Decca,64) 2'29

07.:My Baby's Not There - The Poor Souls (Decca,65) 1'52

08.:My Love Is Yours - The Minets Of England (DCP,65, US-only 7") 2'17

09.:Sweet And Lovely - Dave Lee & The Staggerlees (Oriole,63) 1'45

10.:Sho' Know A Lot About Love - Dave Davani & The D-Men (Decca,64) 2'05

11.:She - The Frame (RCA,66) 2'20

12.:Let Sleeping Dogs Lie - Page Five (Parlophone,66) 2'42

13.:Wild Love - Herman's Hermits ( EP "Hold On", Columbia,66) 2'20

14.:Progress - Paul & Barry Ryan (LP "Two Of A Kind", Decca,67) 1'58

15.:I'm Lost Without You - The Mighty Avengers (Decca,65) 1'57

16.:Love Me Two Times - New York Public Library (MCA,68) 2'50

17.:Little Baby - Alexis Korner's Blues Inc. (Parlophone,65) 1'59

18.:Don't You Believe Them - The Echoes (Philips,64) 2'09

19.:Blow My Blues Away - Mark Leeman Five (Columbia,65) 2'53

20.:Bye Bye - Billy Fury (Parlophone,69) 2'16

21..She's In Love - The Jynx Pack (Mercury,65, US-only 7")

22.:I Love The Way You Walk - Tony Rivers & The Castaways (Columbia,65) 2'00

23.:You're My Number One - The Tony Jackson Group (CBS,66) 2'20

24.:Ball And Chain - The Anteeeks (Philips,66) 2'00

25.:Shake Some Time - Ronnie Gordon (R&B, 63) 2'30

26.:I'm Looking For Someone To Love- Peter Lee Stirling & The Bruisers (Parlophone,64) 1'57

27.:Most Exclusive Residence For Sale - Los Cincos (Philips,66) 2'55

28.:Send Me No More Lovin' - Ten Feet Five (Fontana,65) 2'42

29.:Good Good Lovin' - The Merseybeats (Fontana, 65) 2'12

30.:Baby Jean - The Country Gentlemen (Decca,63) 1'37

31.:It Was You - The Naturals (Parlophone,64) 1'59

32.:Wire Wheels - The Three Good Reasons (Mercury,66) 2'00

33.:Short Fat Fannie - Denny Seyton & The Sabres (Mercury,64) 1'56

34.:The Shake Spear - The Shake Spears (Ronnex, Belgium and Ariola, Germany 7",65) 2'45

35.:Leave Me Alone - Nanker Phelge & The Ian Stewart Memorial Church (outtake, 65) 1'50

(7"ers except tracks 14 & 35)

Manchester's SCORPIONS hardly left a trace back home, but made it big on the Continent, especially in Holland, where they recorded 11 singles and 3 LPs for CNR, most of these also released in Germany and Scandinavia. (Just couldn't resist to put a version of Ritchie Barrett's "Some Other Guy" on one of our Tommyknickers.) ///

Nearly identical story for THE DEEJAYS. It's been Sweden, not Holland, and even more vinyl, but the rest is the same. Except for the fact that they actually had 2 licenced releases on UK-Polydor. The second, "Black Eyed Woman", was prominently featured on Rubble 13, but "Dimples", a heavy version that eclipses The Animals' try of the John Lee Hooker standard, has been overlooked so far. ///

PAUL WILLIAMS, bassist and part-time vocalist in Zoot Money's Big Roll Band, had a change to record a first 45 as a leader, but blew it with a tedious ballad on the plug side. He'd hardly have made the charts with Rufus Thomas' "Jump Back" in 65, but as so often, the flip is much more to our taste. Williams tried again with the Paul Williams Set, but is best remembered as the singer in Juicy Lucy 70-72. ///

The story of THE HERD should be familiar, if not, google yourself. "Understand Me", written by Peter Frampton and Andy Bown, was the US-only b-side of "I Can Fly". /// TOM JONES!?! I must be joking... No, just listen to this early US-only release and tell me if I'm out of my mind. And we've got Ritchie Blackmore on guitar here, if you need another justification. /// THE GOBBLEDEGOOKS? Hilarious name(=Kauderwelscher oder Dummschwätzer), but nothing else known about this one-off produced by Mike Smith. The song is better known in the versions of The Searchers and Wayne Fontana's Mindbenders ///

As I announced in the last volume, here is THE POOR SOULS' (from Dundee, Scotland) first 45. /// THE MINETS OF ENGLAND again: British band resident in Boston for a year. See volume 1 and 2. This is the flip of "Wake Up". The fourth and last song they recorded there might show up on a future volume. ///

DAVE LEE & THE STAGGERLEES, Cornwall: see volume 3 for the debut. This is the second and last of their singles. /// DAVE DAVANI is much better known as the Hammond wizard who fronted something like a British equivalent to Booker T & The MGs in the 60s. Before that he recorded two 45 with his D-MEN in a straight Rhythm & Beat style. The song is another obscure American original popularized by The Searchers. ///

THE FRAME from Birmingham are best remembered for a frantic version ot The Who's "Doctor Doctor", comped on English Freakbeat and Perfumed Garden. Here is their debut, a much tamer, but still enjoyable piece of folkrock with some beatlesque "ooh-la-la"s. ///

PAGE FIVE were another of the few Cornish bands with a record in the mid-60s. ///

HERMAN'S HERMITS are one of the best hated bands of the genre, and admittedly they mostly sucked. But no rule without exception... ///

Same is true for PAUL & (especially!) BARRY RYAN. But again, they seemingly had a surpressed second side. Spread over their two albums you'll find pretty decent covers of The Yardbirds, Bo Diddley, The Vagrants ("I Can't Make A Friend") and, in this case, The Pretty Things. ///

THE MIGHTY AVENGERS from Rugby belonged to Andrew Oldham's stable, and he gave them three Jagger/Richards compositions to land a hit with their four singles on Decca. They put a dent in the Top 50 with "So Much In Love", but that was it. Guitarist Tony Campell showed up again by the early 70's in Jigsaw. ///

Inspite of the name, NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY came from Leeds and were formed from the remains of The Cherokees. All three sixties 45s are pretty good, and this cover of a Doors classic, turned into jangling folkrock, sounds particularly nice to me. Under the name Raw Holly they recorded an album of Buddy Holly-covers in 1970 that was only released in Germany and the States. Believe it or not, they're still active today. ///

Another one from ALEXIS KORNER, although he stays in the background here, while Herbie Goins demonstrates the difference between black- and blue-eyed soul. ///

With seven singles for Fontana and Philips, THE ECHOES from London were quite prolific, but had no hits and are totally forgotten nowadays. Very good musicians, but they didn't have the looks and the attitude. They had a "dayjob" as Dusty Springfield's backing band, so you can imagine their image. Some fine records, though...///

THE MARK LEEMAN FIVE were one of London's best R&B bands, floorfillers in the clubs, who could have made it big, hadn't Mark been tragically killed in a car crash in 65 after the second single. Two more 45s were released under the established name, but with Roger Peacock singing, which wasn't the same. "Blow My Blues Away", like the first one produced by Manfred Mann and Mike Hugg, is the last one of the original line-up, and has Brian Davison, later in The Nice, on drums. /// BILLY FURY?!? Yeah, knocked me out too, to find such a straight Brit R&B-punker on the flip of one of the boring old crooner's usual whining offerings ("I Call For My Rose"). And it was released, absolutely out of time for such sounds, as late as 1969! Strange things are happening, but I guess this must be an old studio outtake that never fitted in somewhere, and while no-one listened to a Billy Fury a-side in 69 anymore, who would care for the flip...///

THE JYNX PACK from South Essex (no relations to The Jynx on Columbia) are another case of a Brit band who recorded in London, but the projected release was shelved forever, and the guys found out decades later, that they've had a US-release of the only two songs they ever put to tape. "She's In Love" is a Jackie Edwards composition, but it didn't storm the charts like "Keep On Running" or "Somebody Help Me". ///

With perfect four-part harmonies, TONY RIVERS & THE CASTAWAYS from Dagenham were some kind of British Beach Boys, and in fact, a lot of their material were Brian Wilson compositions. Crossbreeding John Lee Hooker and Ian & Dean? Well, why not. Nice results on "I Love The Way You Walk". ///

TONY JACKSON was the original bassplayer of The Searchers and left them under dubious circumstances in 64, when they were high in the charts. He formed his own band, The Vibrations, in London and recorded some singles for Pye, which included everything from great to crap. He later changed to CBS and again made very various 45s. "You're My Nr. One" is one of his best, and here he takes late revenge, showing The Searchers how to blend a bit of Byrds, Beatles and Searchers to great effect. A shame that this marvellous piece of plastic didn't chart. But it seemingly made some impression on Neil Innes and the guys. Just compare it to The Rutles' "Number One" from 1978, and you'll know what I mean. ///

THE ANTEEEKS from Kilmarnock, Scotland, only had this one 45, but, man what a scorcher. The a-side is wider known through exposure on Psychedelia Vol.3. "Ball And Chain" was originally written by later country star Eddie Rabbitt for his (US) garage band The Great Scots. /// Nothing known about RONNIE GORDON, who had another of these early one-offs on a label usually specialized in ska and bluebeat./// PETER LEE STIRLING from Birmingham had some helping hands from Tommy Bruce's backing band THE BRUISERS on his first five 45s. While writer's credits on the label go to one Mr. Schulman, "Looking For Someone To Love" is a Buddy Holly-Norman Petty composition. When he went solo in 66, he mutated to a rather mundane pop crooner, but never made the charts until he changed his name to Daniel Boone in the 70's and polluted the airwaves with schlock like "Beautiful Sunday" and "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast". ///

LOS CINCOS sounds Spanish, and indeed, some of them were. The leader was London-born Albert Hammond (remember "It Never Rains In Southern California"?), who grew up in Gibraltar, and came back to London with his friends. They recorded two singles as Los Cincos Ricardos and abbreviated the name for the last, a very pleasant version of another of my favourite Kinks album tracks. Guess Ray Davis was duely impressed when he heard the mariachi trumpets on one of his compositions. ///

From Andover were TEN FEET FIVE, and their lone 7" doesn't really blow down the door of your garage (hard to do in 3/4 time anyway), but historically it's an interresting record, as we almost have here The Troggs without Reg Presley. O.K., half the Troggs, as Reg and Ronnie Bond already were hyper-active in The Andover Troglodytes since 64. ///

No need to tell the story of THE MERSEYBEATS again, but if you wrote them off after the string of awful ballads they released after very promising beginnings, you should turn some of them over. For instance "I Love You, Yes I Do", where you find "Good Good Lovin'", one of the best Brit Beat interpretations of a James Brown song. ///

Manchester's COUNTRY GENTLEMEN backed Billie Davis and Little Frankie on various 45s, but only had one try of their own, and God only knows, why it didn't chart in 63, when rowdy R&B still was an exciting exception. ///

THE NATURALS from Harlow had a hit with The Beatles' "I Should Have Known Better", but their other three singles flopped. (See vol. 1 for "Shame On You"). Rumour has it, that "It Was You" is the first Pete Townshend composition that made it to vinyl. /// The totally obscure THREE GOOD REASONS also tried it with a Lennon-McCartney song ("Nowhere Man") on one of their three singles for Mercury. We present the b-side here. ///

For DENNY SEYTON & THE SABRES (Liverpool) see vol. 2 (just scroll down...) "Short Fat Fannie" was one of Larry Williams' greatest hits, and the second of four Denny Seyton singles in the 60s. ///

THE SHAKE SPEARS came together in Rhodesia and settled down in Belgium 1964, from where they occupied Germany, Holland and France in 65/66 as one of the most exciting live acts. Among the British members in these days was singer Gene Latter from Wales, who later had a long, but not too successful career in the Kingdom. They had picked him up during a stint in London, where they recorded a 7" under the improbable name of Teeny & Tony & The Bushbabies for Parlophone in early 65. "The Shake Spear" (one of the first 7"s I ever bought) was only released in Germany and Belgium as a 45, but later showed up again on a (obviously a tax write-off) Dutch LP in 1977. After lots of line-up changes they ended up in Great Britain, where they released a 45 and an album in 1970 on RCA under yet another strange moniker: Flynn McCool--- Unreleased Stones as a bonus dreck and ab dafür... More next time. Stand by and stay tuned: Lolly Pope. (tech-ad-vize-versus: westfauster)

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