TOMMYKNOCKERS BEAT CLUB VOLUME 20: TWENTY FLIGHT KNOCK! KNOCKED OUT LOADED again with rare and yet uncompiled vinyl from the UK, plus some continental-only 45s: Nuggets of BRITISH SIXTIES BEAT!

Another priceless compilation you can't buy. It wunderbarerweise only exists hic et nunc on this here and now blog. Top of the Popes this time:

01- I Got To Know - Unknown Group (Regent Sound Studio acetate, approx.64)

02- Mix It Up -The Denvers (EP, s.t., Polydor,64, released in France)

03- She's My Girl - Another Unknown Group (Oak acetate, approx. 65)

04- Love Me Please - Mike Sarne & The LeROYS (Parlophone, 64)

05- What's All This - The Shamrocks (LP: Liverpool Beat, Ariola,65, released in Germany)

06- Little Things You Do - The Redcaps (Decca,63)

07- Sing This All Together - The Orange Bicycle (Columbia,68)

08- Too Much In Love To Hear - The Tornados (Columbia,66)

09- In Time - The Size Seven Group (Mercury,66)

10- Love Will Shake The World Awake - Richard Kent Style (MCA,68)

11- Girl in A Bus Queue - The Unauthorised Version (CBS;69)

12- If You Need Me - Jim Pembroke & The Boys (RCA,65, released in Finland)

13- What a Memory Can Do - The Rustiks (Decca,64)

14- Amen - Danny King's Mayfair Set (Columbia,65)

15- I'll Pretend I'm Happy - The Rikki Allen Trio (Decca,63)

16- If You're Goin' To Leave Me - The Lancastrians (Pye,66)

17- There's Just No Pleasing You - The Epics (Pye,65)

18- Too Many Lovers - The Scorpions (CNR,66, released in Holland, and in Germany on Columbia)

19- True To You - The Deerstalkers (No label, Dutch private pressing, manufactured by Philips,65)

20- Naughty Boy - Simon's Secrets (CBS,68)

21- I Want You - Rey Anton & The Peppermint Men (Parlophone,64)

22- I Got Love If You Want It - The Athenians (Waveley,64)

23- Two Minds In Tune -.The Tomcats (Unreleased, dubbed from Spanish movie Operacion Secretaria,66)

24- Walking - The Second Thoughts (64, unreleased till 97. EP, Essex)

25- Molly Anderson's Cookery Book - The Artwoods (Decca,66)

26- On My Mind - The Ivan D. Juniors (Oriole,63)

27- Pretty Thing - The Clique (EP, s.t., private release,64)

28- Lucille - The Jay Bee Four (EP, s.t., Barclay,65, released in France)

29- I've Been In Love Before - The Checkmates (Parlophone,65)

30- Try Again - Jaymes Fenda & The Vulcans (Unreleased studio recording,64)

31- Is It Really What You Want Me To Do - The Interns (Parlophone,66)

32- Fat Marie - The Pied Pipers (Columbia,66)

33- Wait Till Tomorrow - The Aces (Parlophone,63)

A blank acetate recorded at Regent Sound by an unknown group as a starter. Scratchy, but great.

The Denvers from Stockton look like the first intersexual beatgroup of the 60s, but they only added a second femal (backup) singer to the one they already had. They went to France in 62, where they were successful from the very start, and released a couple of 45s and an LP called "Liverpool Party" on Polydor. None of these had a UK release.

And another unknown group, this time on an Oak acetate, recorded by R. G. Jones in Morden, outskirt of London.

Mike Sarne was born as Michael Scheuer (sounds like German ancestors) in 1940. He had seven singles in the usual UK solo artist style of the early 60s (Elvis clone, Cliff clone, Billy Fury, Mike Berry, Adam Faith, you name it...) and had a hit with "Come Outside" in 62. When the British Invasion invaded Britain, all these guys had a serious problem overnight, and tried to jump on the bandwagon with, yep, a band as opposed to the usual mock-Spector studio trickery and "orchestration". More often than not such efforts were the kiss of death to a declining career, and indeed, we listen to Mike Sarne's last record here. But what a thriller, due to the fantasic LeROYS, who are criminially overlooked with their own four singles. Except on Tommykockers. (See vols 10 & 12, and 25 if we'll get that far.)

Even if this may be old hat for German followers, I just couldn't resist: Here's the only self written song on the German-only LP of The Shamrocks from The Isle Of Wight. (See vol. 17)

For Birmingham's Redcaps check vols. 4 & 2, where we had their second and third 7". This is the b-side of the first

London's Orange Bicycle used to be known as Robb Storme & The Whispers aka The Robb Storme Group (see vols. 7 & 16), before they turned softly psychish. Nine 45s and an LP from 67 to 70 for Columbia and Parlophone, all pleasant Paisley Pop/Psych with a couple of real highlights.

Joe Meek's creation The Tornados ("Telstar") were second only to The Shadows, when it came to successful British instrumental combos. That style was hopelessly out of fashion in 66, and a new line-up with some ex-members of The Saxons, another Meek produced group, sailed on under that name. The new Tornados insisted on doing at least one vocal track on their singles, and this is one of two. After Meek's death the case was closed.

Although they had four 45s from 64 to 66, no reliable information about The Size Seven Group has been handed down to posterity.

This is the other side of the MCA 7" by Manchester's Richard Kent Style. You'll find "Crocodile Tears" on vol. 2. Before that they had three on Columbia, and a last one for Mercury followed in 69.

The Unauthorised Version: Robin Barda, Tony Seddon, John Toll, Nick Thorne, John Saunders, Bill Robinson and David Roy. Not exactly a band, but seven singers from Oxford University, where they all were members of The Maudling College Choir. Don't know how they managed to talk CBS into letting them record an album, but the resulting "Hey Jude" was released in 69. It's a mixed bag, to put it euphemistically, from the execution of "Surfin' USA", here called "Puntin UK", to Shakespeare's "Take Oh Take Those Lips Away" in Swingle Singers style. Produced and arranged by John Hawkins and Alan Caddy for Reflection, a 45 with a terrible version of a terrible McCartney composition (the title track) coupled with by far the best song, "Girl In A Bus Queue", was released, but the world didn't listen. Here's your chance. They had a second, non-LP 7" the same year, but I haven't heard it yet.

We've documented Jim Pembroke's 60's adventures in Finland with The Pems on vols. 2 & 13 and with Blues Section on vols. 6 & 10. Here's his debut single with another Finnish band, The Boys.

More of Plymouth's Rustiks on vols. 16 & 17. "What A Memory Can Do" is the a-side of "Hello Anne", the first of the two Decca 45s they made.

Rumour has it, that Roy Wood was a member of Danny King's Mayfair Set from Birmingham. If so, he didn't stay longer than Eric Clapton in Casey Jones' Engineers. But with Trevor Burton they had a future Move member, and the Ball brothers Dave and Denny later were in The Ace Kefford Stand and formed Big Bertha after that. Like the related Sorcerers, they toured a lot in Germany, where they released a 7" as The Mayfair Set in 66 ("It Was Easier To Hurt Her" on Paletten), that still is widely unknown in the UK. Danny King had two or three German-only solo singles in the early 70s, but nothing to write home about. Anyway, here we have the third and last of their UK 45s on Columbia (the first two have been credited to Danny King alone, but The Set were present), and "Amen" is not a version of Otis Redding's gospel-soul hit, but a Danny King original.

This is the other side of The Rikki Allen Trio's only 7". See also vol. 9. The group came from Wales to London. and Rikki's real name was Alan Smith. His brother Gerry and Mark Goodwin completed the trio. In 64 they added Mike Parker to the line-up and became The Interns (See track 31 here.)

Read about The Lancastrians from Altrincham, Manchester on Tommy 13. "If You're Goin' To Leave Me" is the flip of the second of six singles for Pye.

The Epics recorded two 45s for Pye and one for CBS, before they mutated to Acid Gallery and released the marvellous "Dance Around The Maypole". In 1970 the remaining members joined forces with Jeff Christie and made it big with Brit bubblegum like "Yellow River" and San Bernardino".

For The Scorpions from Manchester see vol. 5. Based in Holland, they also were quite popular in Germany, and thus their last 7", like many others, but not all, was released in both countries.

Probably, but not necessarily a British combo: The Deerstalkers. They don't sound very Dutch, the name might be a sign of British origin, and both sides of the record are credited to E & B Hilton. The record without a label name however was obviously pressed in Holland by Philips' pressing plant on behalf and account of the band. But many British and Continental official Philips releases were also manufactured there, so draw your own conclusions. Maybe someone out there in the blogosphere can shed some light on this issue.

Simon's Secrets, formerly Martin Raynor & The Secrets and then simply The Secrets, had six singles under these three monikers for Columbia and CBS between 65 and 68. "Naughty Boy" was the last, and after that mastermind Clifford T. Ward went solo. See also vols. 12 & 14.

And another overlooked 7" by Rey Anton, this time again with The Peppermint Men. It's the fourth of Rey's ten singles 62 to 66 for Oriole and Parlophone, accompanied by The Batons, The Peppermint Men and The Pro Form. We've already had him on vols. 4, 13 & 14, and I guess we'll meet him at least one more time.

The Athenians from Edinburgh had a first appearance on Tommyknockers 13. Here's the second of three 45s. Slim Harpo's "Got Love If You Want It" is probably more familiar in the versions of The Kinks and The Yardbirds.

Read about The Tomcats from Ealing in vol. 13. They only recorded and released records in Spain, where they were very popular before they returned home and formed July. (See vol. 13.) Strange enough "Two Minds In Tune", one of their finest moments, never was released on vinyl, and only used in a sequence of a Spanish spy movie called "Operacion Secretaria". Lucky chance that the director decided to let them play the whole song without someone babbling over.

The new Tomcats were made up of the remains of two groups from Ealing: The old Tomcats and The Second Thoughts. The Second Thoughts never had a record until the reissue label Essex released the whole Spanish output of The Tomcats (except "Two Minds In Tune") on an LP. The first 500 copies came with a free EP containing four surviving demo recordings of The Second Thoughts. All are great, but you'll have to be content with "Walking", or go out and search for the real thing.

You'll hardly need an introduction to The Artwoods. (If you do check vol. 15.) Here's another astonishing, wondrous b-side that didn't make the cut when Edsel released the fantabulous best of-album "100 Oxford Street" in 1983. (Oh, boy, that's 30 years ago...)

The Ivan D. Juniors from Burnley only recorded one 45 for Oriole. Ivan was Ivan Dixon, the Juniors were Pete Burton, John Robertshaw and Bernie Calvert, who joined The Hollies in 67. We'll have the other side on a future Tommy.

Before London's Clique signed with Pye and released the two killer 45s "She Ain' No Good" and "We Didn't Kiss, Didn't Love..." they recorded an EP which was privately pressed in small quantity and included a version of Bo's "Pretty Thing".

The Jay Bee Four, a serious R&B group from Hitchin, Hertfordshire, was led by John Lord, who called himself Jeff Bond (Jay Bee, got it?) in these days. Why their only record, an EP on Barclay, was only released in France? I really don't know. Lesser talents have been immortalised in The Kingdom back then. "Lucille" isn't the old Little Richard warhorse, but an adaption of a John Lee Hooker song. We'll have a group composition from this record on one of the next Tommyknockers.

Read more about The Checkmates in vol. 15. This is the fourth of six singles.

As announced on vol. 19: Here comes one of the unreleased studio recordings of Jaymes Fenda and The Vulcans.

For The Interns see vols. 8 & 14, and track 15 here in this issue by The Rikki Allen Trio, who were the predecessors of The Interns.

The Pied Pipers from London (Islington) were known as The Conspirators before they got bold (or pissed) enough to change the name to Psychologically Unsound. (Unreleased recordings exist. Stay tuned.) When Columbia decided to give them a chance, they were told that there's no way to release and promote a record with "Psychologically Unsound" written all over, and they were The Pied Pipers overnight. The plugside of the only 7" is a pretty good instrumental called "Raggamuffin", but here we go for the flip "Fat Marie". Sounds like a Downliners Sect outtake... But you cun't believe everything you see or hear, can you? Might be as well a fake, a coax or a Steinlaus... Haven't got the record, must be on my way ... but whatever it is, it sounds great.

The Aces from Hull were Eric Lee, Brian and Adrian Gatie and John Paterson. They had two 45s on Parlophone 63/64. You'll find the other one on Tommyknockers 10.

Now go out and enjoy Armaggedon before xmas comes along again inconveniently ad nauseam like every year. Urbi et orbi. 

And if the world goes down the drain on December 21, we will reload it next year. Either his way...

...or another...

The Lolly Pope & westfauster!

DIRECT DOWNLOAD TOMMYKNOCKERS #20

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