TOMMYKNOCKERS' BEAT CLUB VOLUME 9 - KNEELIN' AND A-KNOCKIN' TILL THE BREAK OF DAY

Diggin' deeper again for more rare and uncompiled UK sixties beat. And you'll get down on your knees and don't pay. Here we go-go-go-go numbernine-numbernine-nu-mba-nein und ab dafür:

01-Too Many People - The Mountain Men (EOS,67)

02-Little Man In A Little Box - Barry Fantoni (Fontana,66)

03-Flames - Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera (Direction,67)

04-You Can't Do That - The Jaybirds (Embassy,64)

05-'Deed And 'Deed I Do - Gary Farr & The T-Bones (EP "Dem Bones...", Columbia,65)

06-I've Got A Message To You - The Rokes (Italian-only LP "Volume 2", ARC,67)

07-Hey Little Girl - The Nomads (Grampian,64)

08-Guess Things Happen That Way - Earl Royce & The Olympics (Parlophone,65)

09-Sometimes They Say - The Mighty Avengers (Decca,64)

10-Dream - The Noel Redding Experience (unreleased acetate,67)

11-Hog Tied - Mike Stevens & The Shevells (Polydor,68)

12-Farmer's Daughter - The Summer Set (Columbia,66)

13-She - Tony Rivers & The Castaways (Columbia,65)

14-Sometimes You Stumbled - Steve Croall (Select,66, Swedish-only 7")

15-Got To Find A Way - The Profile (Mercury,66)

16-She'll Never Be You - A Band Of Angels (United Artists,64)

17-I Don't Believe It - The Swinging Blue Jeans (only on Canadian LP "Don't Make Me Over", Capitol,66)

18-Alright Baby - The Quotations (Decca,64)

19-I've Never Been So Much In Love - The Kirkbys (RCA,66)

20-Like Nobody Else - Los Bravos (Decca,66)

21-I Just Can't Go To Sleep - Formula 1 (UK-Warner Brothers,65)

22-Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye - Danny Adams & The Challengers (Philips,64)

23-Little Bit Of Lovin' - The Shell (Columbia,66)

24-Poor, Poor Plan - The Brooks (Decca,64)

25-I'm Gonna Tell Everybody - The Saxons (LP "Meet The Saxons", Ace Of Clubs,63)

26-Beachcomber - Wayne Gibson & The Dynamic Sounds (Decca,63)

27-The First One - The Rikki Allen Trio (Decca,63)

28-Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day - The Legends (Parlophone,67)

29-My Honey Bunny - The Mad Classix (Storz,65, German-only 7")

30-Bo Diddley - Fleetwood Mac (unreleased 68)

31-Don't Play That Song (You Lied) - Kris Ryan & The Questions (Mercury,64)

32-Baby It's Too Late Now - The Konrads (CBS,65)

33-I Don't Want You - The Ingoes (International, 66, Italian-only 7")

-----45s except where noted-----

Here's one from Gilfach Goch, Wales. The Mountain Men with their one and only... Sounds like a tough US-garage band, but "Too Many People" has nothing to do with The Leaves' classic of the same name. It's up on ebay right now. You can buy this private pressing, if you've got € 600 too much. Or take it here for free. +++

Barry Fantoni was another prominent radio-DJ, who tried to start a career as a singer. He also was a well respected writer, and a friend of Ray Davies. This is the first of his two 45s, and probably the least known Ray Davies composition ever carved to vinyl. Actually Barry manages to sound so close to Ray, that I was tempted to believe that it's Ray under pseudonym after he caught a cold, when I first heard it. +++

Rumour has it, that The Five Pound Walkers turned psychedelic under the impression of a support gig for Pink Floyd, and changed name to Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera. On the debut single "Flames" they still sounded pretty mod. The song has already been compiled somewhere from a BBC session tape, but here's the real thing. When Gantry (aka Dave Terry) left, they recorded a second album as Velvet Opera, but John Ford and Richard Hudson soon joined The Strawbs and later made some waves as pseudo-punks The Monks in the late 70s. By that time Elmer was in the charts with his band Stretch ("Why Did You Do It"). +++ As we've learned from a kind follower of this blog, The Jaybirds on Embassy were not the pre-TenYears After outfit of the same name. But pretty good they were, anyway. Couldn't say why, but I like this version better than the Beatles original. +++

Managed by Giorgio Gomelsky, (Gary Farr &) The T-Bones from Brighton were one of the sharpest R&B-bands from the South Coast. (Others were The Beat Merchants and The Untamed.) Most famous members were Keith Emerson and Lee Jackson, both later in Nice, but I doubt that they already are present on the EP with this less known Bo Diddley composition on it. Farr later recorded LPs for Marmalade, CBS and Atco, before he - meanwhile living in the USA - vanished from the scene in the mid-70s. +++

The story of The Rokes, who went to Italy in 64 and made it big there for the following decade, can be found elsewhere. Recently a CD has been released, which supposedly collected all their English language tracks. But far from it. Here's one that's missing, more will follow. +++

The Nomads are the only known beatgroup from The Orkney Islands. To record this sole single they had to travel to the Scottish mainland. It sounds as charming amateurish as much of the stuff that's been recorded for tiny labels in Germany back then. (Check the Prae-Kraut Pandaemonium-series.) +++

Earl Royce (=Bill Kelly) & The Olympics from Liverpool had two singles. On the second they deliver this amazing Merseybeat rendition of a Johnny Cash song. Cool idea in 1965! +++

For The Mighty Avengers see vol. 5. This is the flip of their only charting (peaking at 46) 7" "So Much In Love". +++ The Experience is of course Jimi's. But as Noel Redding was a damn fine guitar player in his own right, they occasionally swapped instruments and Noel could sing some of his own songs in the studio. Half a handful of these recordings made it onto albums, "Dream" didn't. Here you have it, better late than never. +++ We had The Shevells on vol 2. Here they are again with Mike Stevens credited as the leader. Although they reputedly came from Wales, he seemingly wasn't the well-known Welsh singer/songwriter Mike Stevens, who had a Decca single in 65 and later spelled his first name Meic.+++

The Summer Set were Les Humphries' English band for a short while, before he went back to Hamburg to join Wonderland. A little later he polluted the airwaves with his Singers. In the UK they only had two 45s, in Germany two more. The moody version of The Beach Boys' "Farmer's Daughter" was the plug side of the debut. The wilder flip can be found on "Red With Purple Flashes Vol.2", other tracks are on "Circus Days Vol.3" and "Syde Trips Vol.6". The picture cover is the Dutch release. +++

Tony Rivers & The Castaways, originally from Dagenham, again. (See also vol.5) "She", a Paul Jones composition, did quite well in Germany, where Manfred Mann released it as a 7" in a German language version as "Sie". +++

Steve Croall went to Sweden as something like an ersatz -Dylan in the early 60s, and reportedly he still lives there. He later found wider recognition in Scandinavia, but his first two 45s didn't sell. Here's his only (slightly) elecrtric side from these days. +++

Not much known about The Profile, who probably came from the Greater London Area and recorded a single and a half (yes, indeed!) as Karl Stuart & The Profile, and a single and a half as just The Profile, all three on Mercury. +++

A Band Of Angels from Harrow are best remembered for being the group that fell apart in 66, when singer Mike D'Abo was lured away to replace Paul Jones in Manfred Mann. But after four non-charting singles... +++

The Swinging Blue Jeans hardly need introduction. But here's a great track that exclusively was released on a Canadian LP, and where but here could be a better place to humbly direct your kind attention to rarities like that. +++

Liverpool's Quotations seemingly were some kind of side project, or one that was shelved for four years after the debut, before two more (rather disappointing) singles were released in 68 and 69. The permanent factor in the group was Johnny Gustafson, but luminaries like Gordon Haskell and Mickey Waller also were involved, though no-one seems to remember in which respective line-up. +++

Another great Merseyside group were The Kirkbys (See also vol.4.) Here's the flip of the only official UK release "It's A Crime". The Kirkbys had two more 7"'s in Finland. +++

Los Bravos: not very British... A Spanish band with a German singer, but already the hit "Black Is Black" was produced in London by Ivor Raymonde, and they stayed from 66 to 68 and recorded 45s and LPs here. One of the best singles was "Like Nobody Else", written by the three Brothers Gibb. It sold well in Germany, Spain, Australia and then some, but didn't do much for them in the UK during the years of Bee Gee-mania. +++ Ho, ho, ho, we've got a second Kinks cover here on volume 9. Released on the British branch of Warner Brothers, this only sign of life by a band called Formula 1 sometimes is considered to be an American group, but Great Britain had two bands of that name, one from Birmingham, the other from Cumbria. The 7" had a US-release as well, but so had many, and both labels don't show any information. Draw your own conclusions, and give us a hint in the comments please, if you know more. +++

Reputedly from Yorkshire, but that's all about this one-off on Philips by Danny Adams & The Challengers. +++

Another one-off by a group from southend: The Shell. You guessed it, that's all I know. +++

The Brooks from Winchester were better known as The Brooks Brothers, an early 60s duo with a couple of singles not unlike The Dowlands, i.e. another attempt to create the British Everly Brothers. On the last 45 they abbreviated the name and payed tribute to the beat boom of 64. +++

Here comes one of three self-written songs from the tough to find LP by The Saxons, a solid early British beatband of whom is little known, except that they most likely are not the same group that recorded a Joe Meek produced 7" for Decca in 65. +++

This is the first record of Wayne Gibson (=Bill Allen) & The Dynamic Sounds fom London. Five more for Decca, Pye, Columbia and Parlophone followed, before Wayne went solo and had a minor hit with a version of "Under My Thumb", a record that was re-released in 74 because of growing popularity in Northern Soul circles. +++

Before the Welsh Interns (see vol.8) became a quartet, they were known as The Rikki Allen Trio, and recorded this 7" for Decca. +++

Not much known about The Legends, who most probably were from London. They reportedly recorded a 7" for Pye as The First Impressions, before the change of name. As Legends they had one on Pye and two on Parlophone. "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day" was one of many fine tracks on The Monkees' first album. +++

The Mad Classix were a band from Coventry, who recorded their only 7" during a tour through Germany in 65 on the small (but famous for rare beat singles) Storz label. +++ Fleetwood Mac were THE British bluesband, but not only Jeremy Spencer had a soft spot for rock n' roll, even if they used to hide that passion under names like Earl Vince & The Valiants. Here comes an unreleased recording of Ellas McDaniel's signature song. Sounds like beat enough for me... +++

Kris Ryan & The Questions might be known from vol. 7. This is the a-side of their last 45, a cover of a minor hit for Ben E. King in 62. +++

The Konrads were London boys, who had a very juvenile David Bowie in the first line-up in 63. There's lots of rumour, gossip, words untrue and wishful thinking about the two singles of the band. (Strange enough, the second was only released in the USA on Decca.) But there's no trace of Bowie on either of them. He was long gone by the time The Konrads recorded, and, moreover, he wasn't the singer, but the saxophone player of the group, and you'll find no sign of brass on these sides. +++

The Ingoes changed name to Blossom Toes soon later, but Giorgio Gomelsky still promoted them under the old name, when he made them a minor attraction by sending them to France and Italy, where they recorded singles, while he paved their way to oblivion in the homeland with a fantabulous, but still not understood album of the century. Ahead of the millennium, that was... More next time. Keep the faith, we'll keep preaching to the converted and to the perverted. The Schlimmer Twins: Lolly Pope & Westfauster.

TOMMYKNOCKERS VOLUME 9
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