TOMMYKNOCKERS BEAT CLUB VOLUME 21 - THIS IS KNOCK-A-RAMA! Beat me up, Scotty!!

More rare and uncompiled British sixties BEAT and R&B vinyl found in the archives of the unholy Lolly Pope and west-faust-er (aka sturclub). 7-inchers from the UK, USA, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Sweden and Italy, plus some unreleased stuff this time. The torture never stops...

01- Avron Knows - The Yardbirds (studio outtake,68)

02- Too Many Things - The Afex (Emidisc acetate,66)

03- Morning Dew - Sugar Shack (Tribune,68, released in Ireland)

04- Little Surfer Girl - Kenny & Deny (Decca,65)

05- Miss Queen Bee - The Poets (demo,64, unreleased)

06- Woman Woman - The Love Affair (unrel. studio recording,66)

07- My Love Goes On - The Lizards (Sheffield Students' Rag,65)

08- Search For The Sea - The Stoics (RCA,68)

09- Goodbye So Long - The Searchers (Live BBC Saturday Club,67)

10- Don't Let Me Down - The Candydates (Oak,65)

11- Why Has It Got To Be Me - The Gates Of Eden (Unrel. Emidisc acetate,66)

12- That's When I Need You - Shade Joey & The Night Owls (Parlophone,64)

13- Beware - The Odyssey (Strike,66)

14- You'd Better Go Home - The Hinge (RCA,68)

15- It's No Game - The Classmates (Decca,63)

16- Better Run Away - The Saxons (Decca EP,64, released in Spain)

17- Death Of A Kind - The Walham Green East Wapping Carpet Cleaning Rodent And Boggit Exterminating Association (Columbia,68)

18- Is A Blue Bird Blue? - The Baron With His Pounding Piano (Sue,65)

19- Doctor Rock - The Apple (Page One, 68)

20- I'll Never Regret You - Johnny & The Copycats (Cornet,67, released in Germany)

21- Pits Of Darkness - Don Shinn & The Soul Agents (Polydor,66)

22- Seven Park Avenue - The Mojos (Liberty,68)

23- I'm Coming Home - The Nomads (Grampian,64)

24- Club Of Lights - Oscar (Reaction,66)

25- True Love - Rick Brown & The Hi-Lites (Swe-Disc,66, released in Sweden)

26- Three Cool Cats - The Nocturns (Decca,64)

27- Psychologically Unsound - The Pink People (Philips,64)

28- New Directions - Dave Anthony's Moods (Parlophone,66)

29- Hello To Mary - The Motowns (Durim,69, released in Italy)

30- Steppin' Out - The Athenians (V.A. EP Edinburgh Students Charities Appeal,65)

31- Dirty Old Man (At The Age Of Sixteen) - Them (Sully,67, released in USA)

32- A Little Lovin' - The Hellions (Piccadilly,65)

33- Flying Assholes Beyond The Moon - Pete Townshend (67, no comment!)

Fasten seat-belts and lift off with The Yardbirds. An unreleased song from the last studio session in April 68. Right before Plant, Jones and Bonham boarded and made a heavy clumsy balloon of these swift hawks. Jimmy ?!? Nice legs, shame about the farce...

The Afex (read Effects) from Dagenham were very young when they released their only 45 "She's Got The Time" for the King label in 67, and even younger when they entered a studio the first time to record two songs which only survived on an acetate. Ahead of the time. Then and now...

Far as I know, Sugar Shack from Dublin only had this single with a heavy, but fine version of Bonnie Dobson's "Morning Dew" on one side and a less convincing execution of "Sunshine Of Your Love" on the other. Drummer Brian Downey was one of the founder members of Thin Lizzy a year later.

Don't know who Kenny & Deny were, but Jimmy , the everpresent Page in the bible, wrote, arranged and played guitar on both sides of the only 7". Well, writer's credits might be a bit undue, as "Little Surfer Girl" isn't much more than a faster "Farmer's Daughter" with the lyrics slightly changed. (Remember Zappelin? Howlin' Wolf? Muddy Waters? They obviously made a career of a writer's block...) Looks like I'm in an intense anti-Zep mood today...

You probably know all about Scotland's best band ever, The Poets. This is from an EMI audition tape they made as a demo for Mickie Most, before their record career with producer Andrew Loog Oldham started on Decca and continued on Immediate. Singer George Gallacher sadly died in August 2012.

Here is the projected first single of Love Affair, produced and co-written by Kenny Lynch. After quarreling about this and that and I dunno, the whole thing was shelved, Lynch was out of the game, and they debuted with a version of The Stones' "She Smiled Sweetly". Read more about them on vols. 15 & 16.

Remember flexi-discs? Delicate little bastards... But this one has been stored amazingly careful. The Lizards with one of these elusive, bendable (hard to break, but easy to ruin) records no-one knows anything about. From Sheffield, or studying there... The flip is a so-la-la tame folk-(rock ?) effort by The (New) Foresters. Love it or leave me...

Here's the only 45 by The Stoics from Glasgow. Singer Frankie Miller had a successful solo career in the 70s and recorded some fine albums, but his greatest hit was the lacklustre "Darlin'". I'm not quite sure... The voice doesn't sound much like Frankie. He may have joined them after this recording, and we have Hugh McKenna on vocals. The other side of this record can be found on "Fairytales Can Come True Vol. 3".

Even though the days of the hits were over for The Searchers in 67, they still were a great band. "Goodbye So Long" was recorded for BBC's Saturday Club, and as far as I know, no official recording for a vinyl release of the song exists.

Not to be confused with The Candy Dates, who had two dispendable 45s on Pye in 65, these Candydates are an unknown group with an EP on Oak Records. It's one of the "official" Oak releases, which means that someone, (probably the band), has payed for a pressing of about 200 records, instead of leaving R.G.Jones' studio with a handful of acetates.

While they had three singles on UK Pye plus an EP with an exclusive track on the French branch of the company, close to nothing is known about The Gates Of Eden, except that they were led by one Roger Mathews. Their best self-written song stayed unreleased, and only exists on this acetate.

Next is a Joe Meek produced one-off by Shade Joey & The Night Owls. Joey's Real name was Brendan Claypole, and The Night Owls reputedly came from the Essex coast.

Read more about The Odyssey in vol. 15, where you'll find out, that there are a lot of rumours about the origins of this group, but no confirmed facts. This is the other side of their only 7".

The Hinge came from Birmingham and were a duo consisting of Gerry Levene (ex-Avengers) and Chris Sedgwick, who released a "singer/songwriter" album in 73. The single flopped and they went separate ways again soon after. Levene sadly died in December 2011.

One more from one of our favourite groups, The (Medway) Classmates. (See vols. 1, 2 & 14) They had four 45s on Decca, this is the flip of the first "Let's Get Together Tonight".

We've already had a cut from The Saxons' LP "Meet The Saxons" on vol. 9. Here's another one, and it comes from the only 7" of the group, an EP which only was released in Spain, of all places. (The UK Decca 7" is by a different band of the same name.)

The Walham Green East Wapping... (no, I'm not gonna type this once more!) had about the longest bandname in history, and no-one seems to know who hides behind that mildly funny, but tiring moniker. Anyway, the a-side of their only effort has been compilated more than once, but nobody so far has documented the much better (in my humble opinion, that is) flip. Here it comes now now now...

Next is a mysterious release on Sue, and the only record I know (or remember) on that label, that was recorded in the UK. Produced by Guy Stevens, the man behind that somewhat doubtable record company (releasing lots of US artists in the Kingdom, but not all of them knew about it or were asked) later was the driving wheel in establishing Island Records, and made stars of Mott The Hoople, but not of Hapshash & The Coloured Coat. (Should have been the other way round, but as we know, there's no justice on this planet.) Don't know who The Baron is (nice allusion to the KILLER and his PUMPING piano, by the way) but the only nut I could suspect to cut a record like that back in England 65 would be Freddie "Fingers" Lee. Maybe just my imagination running wild. Tell us if you know better. Oh, and the song originally was a minor hit for US country popper Conway Twitty.

Tough their debut was a pedestrian version of Scaffold's "Thank U Very Much", which only was released in Holland and the USA, Larry Page took The Apple under his wings and gave them the chance to record one of the best (and most wanted by collectors) pop-psych albums of the decade. "An Apple A Day" was produced by Caleb Quaye, who had just released a fine example of the genre ("Baby Your Phrasing Is Bad") as Caleb himself. Two singles, both also on the LP, were released before the album came out - "Doctor Rock" was the second - and did nothing for this great band, who called it a day when the magnum opus went down unnoticed too. Both 45s sold much better in Germany.

Johnnny & The Copycats were four Scots led by John Stewart, who spent a lot of time 67/68 in Germany, where the recorded and released two singles on Cornet. We had the better one, "The Pain Of Love", on Prae-Kraut Pandaemonium Vol. 12, here comes the other one. Back home without John (who kept writing songs for them), they changed name to My Dear Watson and recorded two 45s for Parlophone and one for DJM.

For more of Don Shinn & The Soul Agents see vol. 15. This is the b-side of the last 45 of The Soul Agents, who recorded three of the best and wildest Brit R&B 7-inchers for Pye. Don always was the keyboarder of the group, but gets extra feature here on this single with two of his stunning instrumentals. Shinn re-recorded both titles for his 69 solo album "Takes A Trip", but "Pits Of Darkness" clocked out at 18 minutes. Ambitious and very commendable, but a far cry from his R&B roots. He's the guy with the glasses on the photo.

Seven singles plus an EP, all on Decca, by Liverpool's Mojos are well documented, but the final one on Liberty is hard to track down. Aynsley Dunbar and TV action hero Lew Collins ("The Professionals") were in the group, but left before this - rather untypical for the Mojos' sound - 45 was recorded.

We had The Nomads from The Orkney Islands on vol. 9 with "Hey Little Girl". Later on I found out that I've been a bit sloppy again with researches, as this has already been on "Return Of The Amphetamine Generation". So here's the other side of The Nomads' only 7", which we have here exclusively so far.

For Oscar see also vol. 16, where you'll find this Mr. Paul Beuselnick under his previous stage name Paul Dean. Four of five Oscar 45s were written by Pete Townshend, David Bowie, The Bee Gees and, in this case, Speedy Keen respectively, but none charted. After a last self-written flop in 68 he concentrated on his acting career and was very successful as Paul Nicholas.

You'll find the story of Rick Brown & The Hi-Lites from Southampton (and the other side of "True Love") on Tommy 10. They were big in Germany, but also recorded two singles in Sweden. The tougher to find is "Rock & Roll Machine". We've had it on Prae-Kraut Pandaemonium Vol. 13, but our old vinyl comps are even harder to find than the documented singles these days... (Check the old melodies blog. They've posted all 15 vinyl volumes of PKP as part of their series "Heimatliche Klaenge" last year.)

While some followers insist that The Nocturns came from Birmingham, they obviously were Merseysiders. The much better known group from Birmingham were The Nocturnes with an "e" in the turn. "Three Cool Cats", the old Coasters novelty, is the flip of their only 7" on Decca . See vol.10 if you want to listen to the a-side.

We had demands for more of the same on The Pink People's second (of two) 45s on vol.19. Now I've found the first, and it actually is more of the same. Quite similar, but still totally different. Way out weird are both, but again no chance to find out something about who they where or where they came from.

Dave Anthony, aka Tony Head, from Bournemouth started with The Ravers and was in The League Of Gentlemen with Robert Fripp in 64. In 65 he put his Moods together, and Bob Downes, another of our slightly atonal jazz heroes, was a member for a while. After this fine, but unsuccessful 7" for Parlophone, which we hereby duly present, the group relocated to Milan, Italy, where they released another two on Joker Records. Back home he had a solo single for Mercury in 68, before he joined the last incarnation of Fleur De Lys. He died in 2006.

Another UK group who found life easier in sunny Italy were The Motowns from Liverpool. They spent their entire recording career there with two LPs (see Tommy vol.1) and a lot of singles, on which they mostly sang in that foreign tongue. A wonderful exception is the flip of "Sogno, Sogno, Sogno" (no clue what that means, but probably something like "I dream of bunga bunga"), one of their last releases in 69. When they came home, singer and guitarist Lally Stott wrote (and recorded the original version of) "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep", which payed most of his bills during the following decades.

Now this must be he rarest track of Scotland's roughest, toughest 60s R&B group, The Athenians from Edinburgh. (See vols. 13 & 20) It's not the debut single of the band on Students Charity I'm still looking for, but a cut from a VA-EP on the same ESC label filled up with less attractive music apart from The Athenians. A rowdy rendition of one of Paul Revere & The Raiders' finest moments.

Well, Them's "Dirty Old Man" can hardly be called uncompiled, but it only showed up in the wrong context, i.e. US Garage comps which are tough to find these days. This part of the post-Morrison Them stayed in the States till 69 to cash in on the groups success there with "Gloria", "Here Comes The Night" etc. The other half who tried to sail on as Them had to change the name to Belfast Gypsies (see vol.18), but the history of Belfast's finest after Van is complex, bizarre, contradictory and disturbing enough to write a book about. Anyway, these Them also had a lot of line-up changes and recorded five US albums for Parrot, Tower and Happy Tiger. This 45 version of "Dirty Old Man" was the American debut for the tiny Texan Sully Label. It has been re-recorded for the 68 "Now And Them" album on Tower, but this here is the much better version. On Tommy 16 you can listen to their last US 45 "Dark Are The Shadows", but by then the only accordance with the 67 Them was the name.

The Hellions from Worcester not only had future Traffic members Jim Capaldi and Dave Mason in the line-up, but also Poli Palmer, later in Family, and when they changed name to Revolution (one single on Piccadilly) in 66, future Spooky Tooth Luther Grosvenor. A little later they were called Deep Feeling, but with nearly all them leaving for bigger things, this project was doomed to failure. Recordings exist, but weren't released until a couple of years ago. Page One and DJM releases by Deep Feeling are by an entirely different band. Guitarist Gordon Jackson had the wonderful, but underrated album "Thinking Back" on Marmalade in 69. As The Hellions they recorded three 45s for Piccadilly in 64 and 65. This was the last one.

Stay tuned and don't forget to write a comment, if you've got something to say. Ahhh, come on, do anything you wanna do... Knocker dir ein'n. More next month. Tommy & van knocker.

DIRECT DOWNLOAD: TOMMYKNOCKERS VOLUME 21

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