NOVEMBER PLAYLIST

1.  The Lon-Genes – ‘Dream Girl’ (1964)

Featured on Kent’s new Northern Soul’s Classiest Rarities Volume 6 which is an utterly essential purchase – best soul comp I’ve heard in a long time. This bunch of army lads cut this lovely ballad for Romark in Los Angeles.

2.  Alton Ellis – ‘Black Man’s Pride’ (1971)

Title track from a new Soul Jazz Records compilation “from the transitory phase in reggae at the start of the 1970s, after the exhilaration of Ska and following the cooling down of Rocksteady.”

3.  John Gary Williams – ‘The Whole Damn World Is Going Crazy’ (1973)

Williams recorded for Stax with the Mad Lads, served in Vietnam, then returned to Memphis. This is what he found. 

4.  Bottom and Company – ‘Gonna Find A True Love’ (1974)

Bottom and Company? Really? Bottom and Company Gonna Find A True Love? Was that the best name they could find? Fab stab of crossover Motown regardless.

5.  Bob Dylan – ‘Saved’ (1980)

Just don’t go near that Born Again Christian stuff was the refrain when I first found Bob Dylan. Was reasonable advice to a young novice but Trouble No More, the latest instalment of The Bootleg Series, shows what a rousing period that was. This live version of ‘Saved’ would’ve had them rejoicing in the aisles.

6. Daniel Romano – ‘There’s The Door’ (2013)

Just watch Romano sing this George Jones hit. Go on.

7.  The Pretty Things – ‘The Same Sun’ (2015)

Released a couple of years ago on their clunkily titled but impressive The Sweet Pretty Things (Are In Bed Now, Of Course…), this gets a 7 inch EP release in January on Fruit de Mer Records along with their version of ‘Renaissance Fair’ plus two late-60’s live cuts: ‘She Said Good Morning’ and ‘Alexander’.

8.  The Galileo 7 – ‘Live For Yesterday’ (2017)

“Today is just tomorrow’s nostalgia,” sings Allan Crockford. As someone who’s played to packed venues by dusting off memories in reformed Prisoners, Prime Movers, Solar Flares and cranks out oldies in Graham Day and the Forefathers you know where Allan’s coming from and wonder if in years to come his current band will achieve similar better-in-retrospect acclaim. Based on the Galileo 7’s new pop-psych offering Tear Your Minds Wide Open it’s a distinct possibility. Crockford has now cracked this song writing lark and with the Mighty Atom, Mole, moved to his rightful place behind the drumkit, the whole thing swings with justified confidence. Don’t wait until 2040, check them out now.

9.  The Lovely Eggs – ‘Dickhead’ (2017)

Donning their new magical cloaks, The Lovely Eggs were on tour this month. Two things became apparent: they have so many great singles they can afford to drop ‘Don’t Look At Me’ without it being unduly missed and new songs featured from forthcoming album This Is Eggland, including the supersonic, drive-by abusing, ‘Dickhead’ will only add to that impressive score.

10.  Mavis Staples – ‘If All I Was Was Black’ (2017)

Mavis tells us she’s got love to give. She sure has. Oh God, this is wonderful.

THE PRETTY THINGS at SHINDIG! 50th ISSUE PARTY, ROUGH TRADE EAST, LONDON

The Pretty Things, Rough Trade East, Bethnal Green (Thanks to Gray Newell for photo).

Booking midnight to six men The Pretty Things for an event billed as running from seven to nine always had the potential for confusion and so it proved. As I sauntered into Rough Trade East off Brick Lane at 7.25pm to celebrate the 50^th issue of Shindig! magazine the star attraction were already halfway through their set and into ‘SF Sorrow Is Born’ followed by ‘She Says Good Morning’.

It’s a slightly weird sensation watching a band in what feels like the late afternoon, in a record shop, stone cold sober so it took a while to acclimatise but after a couple of tracks from their new LP – ‘The Same Sun’ and Turn My Head’ – they had me clicking a Cuban heel in appreciation to the rhythm and bruise hat-trick: ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’, ‘Midnight To Six Man’ and ‘Rosalyn’. Founding members Phil May and Dick Taylor cut familiar figures. Dick, hunched over his guitar, playing searching solos, spectacles perched on the end of his nose, never seeming to age having looked his 72 years since 1971; and maraca shaking Phil still wearing his hair long, only with a wider centre parting. The pair were joined by Frank Holland on guitar, George Woosey on bass and Jack Greenwood giving it some youthful stick on the drums. They can still pack a punch.

The lights came on briefly before Pretties manager Mark St. John jumped on stage to say they’d love to do another song, if we wanted. We did. St. John also used the opportunity to plug the new album, The Sweet Pretty Things (Are In Bed Now, Of Course…), saying it was available on vinyl and that was still the correct way to purchase music; “everything else is just storage”. His argument might need tweaking but one gets the gist. A feisty version of ‘Roadrunner’ was dispatched and the Pretties set up shop to sign a long queue of LP purchases and chat to admirers. Phil, from previous experience, loves to gas and was bang on form as usual. 

I’m listening to my (signed, obviously) copy of the album now and enjoying it. It sounds like the Pretty Things, a good thing, and not a million miles from SF Sorrow. Fifty years from their debut LP it must be said they make a better fist of new material than, say, The Who. Eight original tracks - 'And I Do' and the aforementioned 'Turn My Head' standing out after first few plays - plus covers of The Byrds’ ‘Renaissance Fair’ and an obscure 1972 Sky Saxon/Seeds song ‘You Took Me By Surprise’. They get a bonus point for that last one. Rest Sky's soul. 

Anyway, after the Pretties left the limelight, tipsy Shindig! editors Jon Mills and Andy Morten grabbed the mic to say a few words. Well, Andy said a few words, Jon said plenty more, thanking contributors and readers alike in a speech pitched somewhere between a milked Oscar acceptance, a censored Derek and Clive routine and a tenth pint you’re-my-best-mate-you-are session in a Salisbury pub. With hirsute seven-foot Jon clutching his little pal Andy under his arm he looked like a big mama bear protecting baby bear. Fifty issues of Shindig! celebrated with fifty years of Pretty Things albums. Congratulations to them both. 

THE FACES' KENNEY JONES INTERVIEW in SHINDIG! ISSUE 50

The 50^th birthday issue of Shindig! is now in the shops and, if you excuse me whilst I play a quick little flourish on this here trumpet, includes my article on The Faces and interview with Kenney Jones as the cover story. Toot-toot-ta-toot.

I’d love to say Shindig! editor Jon Mills and I rocked up at Kenney’s country mansion in Surrey for beers on the lawn (which was a possibility at one stage) but the interview eventually took place, five weeks ago, at the offices of Universal Music in Kensington. We sat in one of their swish meeting rooms drinking coffee out of china cups and dunking biscuits whilst chatting for over 90 minutes. We decided beforehand to concentrate on the early days of The Faces with the focus being their first album and stuck to that quite firmly although obviously there was overlap with the Small Faces and later success. Wasn’t entirely sure how much there was to say but ended up with over 4000 words and the mag devoted over ten pages to the band (with some cracking photos). It did mean though I didn’t get to ask about Kenney’s time with The Who and drumming on “You Better You Bet”. One day.

One unexpected bonus was Kenney happening to mention The Action in glowing terms. Stick me within ten yards of anyone who was around the 60s music scene and it’s evitable I’ll ask them about my favourite band but Kenney’s tribute – “They should have been the biggest thing since sliced bread” - was completely unprompted, which made it sound all the more welcome and genuine.

There’s a new five-LP/CD set of the Faces’ four studio albums and a disc of rarities out now entitled You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything. For a two week period I don’t think I listened to anything other than The Faces (with a side helping of early Rod).

And finally, to help Shindig! celebrate their 50^th issue, they’re holding a knees-up at Rough Trade East down in Bethnal Green with The Pretty Things playing a live set on Thursday 8^th October. Free entry, can’t be bad.

A TECHNICOLOR DREAM

Saturday 29th April 1967 and thousands of teenage freaks, performers, artists, musicians, poets, movers and shakers from the underground, and a few bona-fide pop stars, trooped up the hill from Wood Green to the Alexandra Palace for the 14-Hour Technicolor Dream. Fourteen hours of truly legendary psychedelic shenanigans.

Who were these people? Where had they come from? And what had led to the UK’s most famous “happening” of the Sixties? Stephen Gammond’s DVD documentary delves into the underground and attempts to glean insights from, amongst others, Barry Miles, Joe Boyd, Kevin Ayers, Phil May, half of Pink Floyd and, most significantly, John “Hoppy” Hopkins.

The story of the UK underground is also Hoppy’s story. As Pete Jenner, the early Floyd manager, says: “Without Hoppy there would have been no underground”. In tracing the trip from the CND marches of the early ‘60s; to the foundation of the London Free School (a gallant attempt to educate and integrate the new communities around Notting Hill); to packing 7000 people in to the Royal Albert Hall for a drunken Beat poetry reading; to establishing the International Times newspaper; to running the weekly UFO Club; and to the inevitable sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, Hoppy was the one constant throughout.

It’s the coverage of these events in A Technicolor Dream that provide the most rewarding parts of the film; mixing old footage, new interviews and a stirring soundtrack by the Pretty Things and the Pink Floyd. Although a familiar tale to anyone who’s read the memoirs of Barry Miles or Joe Boyd, it is well told and captures the essence of a wonderfully idealised period where music and literature and politics and poetry were all equal parts of a magical mix. An ebullient Pete Jenner still has trouble containing his excitement. “The ‘60s marked that break with the Victorian heritage. Piss off, Victoria!”

As the film continues it increasingly becomes the Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd story. They were, of course, an intrinsic part of the underground, performing at benefits for the London Free School at the Roundhouse and for International Times at the 14 Hour Technicolor Dream but, for me, they get a disproportionate amount of screen time. Much of it is near identical to the BBC’s 2001 Barrett documentary and neither Nick Mason nor Roger Waters offer anything of particular insight. Mason is ambivalent about their contribution to any scene; whilst Waters claims, at best, to not recall anything (“I have no memory of the underground at all. When people talk about it, I have no idea what anybody’s talking about”) or, at worst, is dismissive (“I couldn’t give a shit who Love were. I really wasn’t interested in music”). But it’s easier to sell a Syd Barrett story than a John Hopkins story. Still, the Floyd looked great, sounded great, and I could watch footage all day long of Barrett skipping through the fields playing with a scarecrow.

But as the spaced-out flower children blinked into the Sunday morning of 30th April, the party was almost over. The summer of love would soon turn to winter; imprisonment removed Hoppy from circulation; Barrett could no longer function in his own band; and the bright mood of ’67 darkened throughout ’68. But for one brilliant, technicolor moment, there could not have been a better place to be in the world than high on the top of a North London hill.

A Technicolor Dream is an Eagle Vision release. See www.atechnicolordream.com