THE ACTION: UNRELEASED RECORDINGS - IN MY LONELY ROOM (10 INCH EP)

A new release featuring previously unreleased recordings by The Action. I can't think of a sentence I'd sooner type for you, and there it is, in all it's glory. A few words which read sweeter than Reggie King tackling an Impressions song. In a few short weeks, on 8th December to be precise, discerning turntables will spin in unison as ears catch their first listen to these miraculous discoveries. I don't usually reproduce press releases but will make an exception here whilst I have a lie down....

Four previously unreleased tracks by the ultimate ACTION recorded during 1964 and 1965, on both vinyl and CD EP.

“We all tried our hand at getting that Motown sound you know... all the bands in the mid ‘60s. 
The best ones at it were the Action... They were an amazing band.” - Steve Marriott, 1987.

Alongside the Small Faces and the Who, London’s ACTION were undoubtedly Britain’s premier mod band during the mid 1960s, and their chain of five singles for Parlophone from October 1965 to June 1967 are venerated as one of the finest runs of 45s of the period (or indeed of any period really). Subsequent releases of the group’s material such as The Ultimate Action, Rolled Gold, Uptight And Outasight and CD repackages of the band’s EMI output, plus the Action’s period of reformation, have endeared the group to a huge swell of post 60s fans and the band command a level of respect and adulation rarely bestowed on many other groups of their era. Sadly with the aforementioned slew of records and CDs the well of archive Action material appeared to have run dry...until now that is!

The excellent book on the Action In The Lap Of The Mods, published in 2012, shed light on a previously rarely documented aspect of the Action’s recording career, specifically their audition for the Decca record company in May 1965. Indeed some copies of the book included a limited edition vinyl 45 extracted from an acetate recently discovered from that audition, which was a supreme version of the Temptations ‘Why You Wanna Make Me Blue’. That recording, taped six months before their EMI debut, makes a welcome re-appearance here and also emerges on CD for the first time. Unbelievably since the book came out another acetate from that Decca session has surfaced, one side of which features a wonderful interpretation of one of many people’s favourite Action tracks ‘In My Lonely Room’, which incredibly surpasses the later recording for Parlophone and has a real ‘live’ feel to it. Coupled with ‘In My Lonely Room’ was a fine rendition of the Impressions’ ‘You’ll Want Me back’, which finds the Action in a more mellow blue eyed soul groove and showcases perhaps the most Reggie King’s leap in vocal prowess in the comparative short space of time since the band’s recordings for Pye as the Boys barely six months previous.

Not that the Boys’ single for Pye was a slouch – far from it – and Top Sounds round off the EP with another previously undocumented recording. Committed to acetate during their time as the Boys was one of Reggie King’s earliest compositions, and ‘Fine Looking Girl’exposes further the pre-emptive Action in rather good form indeed.

Restored to the best possible standard from the original acetates, the four selections on In My Lonely Room are a fascinating, important and invaluable document of the emergent Action during late 1964 and 1965, and Top Sounds are justifiably elated to place these portentous recordings together for the first time. With the blessing of Action drummer Roger Powell, help from In the Lap Of The Mods authoress Jane Shepherd and delivered in full vintage 60s style packaging courtesy of Bruce Brand, In My Lonely Room is sure to excite Action fans everywhere and in all probability – unfortunately – may well be the final release of ‘new’ vintage Action recordings. Your last chance to catch some new unbelievable ACTION!

THE ACTION - ISLE OF WIGHT SETLIST

After a break of thirty years The Action reformed – with all five original members – in 1998 to play two shows at the Ryde Theatre in the Isle of Wight for the New Untouchables August Bank Holiday Mod Rally.

“We weren’t quite sure what to expect and the place was jam-packed! The queues were going both ways from the box office around the whole building.” – Reggie King from In The Lap Of The Mods by Ian Hebditch and Jane Shepherd.

This set list from the afternoon show, when they added "Cool Jerk", is a nice piece of memorabilia obtained by DJ Lee Miller (before winding its to me) and was written out by Reggie King and signed by the entire band: Reggie, Alan King, Mike Evans, Roger Powell and Pete Watson. It's interesting to note how they focused on the songs they performed in their original club days rather than those recorded for Parlophone; only six out of the eighteen appeared on the seminal collection, The Ultimate Action, and the young Mod crowd had to wait until song nine to hear one. A bold move. What I'd give for George Martin produced recordings of The Impressions' "Meeting Over Yonder" and "People Get Ready" to turn up one day. I can hear them in my head already. 

THE ACTION - THE SINGLES BOXSET (2014)

In principal, Record Store Day is an incentive to get behind. Anything which supports and creates income for the rapidly dwindling collection of independent record shops is surely a good thing. It does though every year throw up plenty of gripes and dissatisfaction: from the cost of items, the barrel scrapping and standard of unissued material, the constant repackaging of others, the distribution, the black market it creates and the unscrupulous practices of some dealers.

Demon/Edsel Records were crafty in their advertising of the latest repackaging of their Action catalogue. By releasing The Singles Boxset on Record Store Day, 19^th April 2014, as a limited edition they created instant demand (I can’t honestly criticise that too strongly, it makes good business sense). Shops ordered in a few copies each and in most cases sold out within hours which meant 48 hours after going on sale for around £60, one was sold on eBay £138. The eBay sellers always get castigated for queuing up at the crack of dawn to hoover up the in-demand items and flog them at inflated prices meaning the genuine fan misses out. Record Store Day then gets a reputation of being “just for people to make money on eBay” but that’s no different from concert tickets or anything where demand outstrips supply. And this is my beef here. Demon/Edsel did not, to my knowledge, say in what quantity these boxsets have been produced. If 300 then yes, that’s going to make them difficult to acquire, 3000 would still be limited but a big difference and whilst still desirable wouldn’t have seen the panic buying of desperate collectors lining the pockets of the eBay sellers.

I’m always more than interested in anything to do with The Action but there was no way I was either going to queue up outside Rough Trade East at stupid o’clock in the morning nor was I willing to pay over the odds for what, when all said and done, is a collection of songs I already own in a multitude of different formats and editions: original singles, reissue singles, LP, CDs, even ripped to my laptop and on my phone. Three weeks since the release and copies this new edition are still obtainable from shops that have restocked or from major online retailers.

The Action don’t need any introduction from me here - you know the songs as well as I do - so it’s not the songs anybody is paying for here, it’s the packaging. Seventeen tracks spread across eight 7 inch records, a 28-page booklet promising unseen and rare photos and memorabilia, an A2 double-sided poster, sticker and a download card. Curiously Amazon have copies listed as including a 40-page booklet and boasting “a replication of the note from super-fan Paul Weller” and The Action stub ticket. These are either the figment of someone’s imagination, items Demon intended to include and pulled, or I’ve been short-changed.

The singles are housed in individual picture sleeves made from nice thick card (it’s come to this, reviewing the thickness of paper). The five 45s The Action originally released in the UK only came in green and white Parlophone company sleeves so the art department at Demon have used a mixture of picture sleeves that crept out in various corners of the globe or have designed new ones. I would’ve preferred straight reproductions where possible but here we just get the front cover – with a big Edsel logo plastered on it – and the back sleeves are in a basic, unimaginative, uniform design. More importantly, the mastering of the vinyl is good. I went straight to “Since I Lost My Baby” and it does have the lovely warm feel of the originals and of the Ultimate Action LP (which later CD versions stripped away).

The booklet features Dean Rudland’s potted history of the band cribbed from Ian Hebditch and Jane Shepherd’s flawless In The Lap Of The Mods book although I don’t suppose Jane will be best pleased to see her name spelt wrong here. It’s an attractive book, especially the colour photos, but features only one image I’ve not seen before: a different shot from the Scotch of St James session, this time with Mike Evans holding a dog lead attached to Bam King’s wrist!

The poster is a two-sided reproduction of the one with Reggie King’s silhouetted face which was used to advertise Action gigs in clubs, and the sticker names The Action as Marquee Artists. Nothing wrong with either but I would’ve preferred a badge, preferably enamel - there was a fab one in a Yardbirds boxset about 20 years ago which I still wear regularly – but plain old button-badge would’ve done. Maybe I’ll run up a side-line in Action badges.

And there you have it. I don’t regret buying it. It’s a lovely thing to have but it was very much a gratuitous purchase. It’ll sit on the sleeve now as an ornament and rarely get touched. Music is to be played, to be enjoyed. Record collecting for collecting sake is rather pointless and there’s a significant part of me that feels a bit grubby and used by throwing money at stuff “just to have it” when I could’ve bought other music. I've been suckered, partially against my will. But ultimately, it’s The Action, and if there’s one band I’d give my last pound to, it’s them.

The Action – The Singles Boxset is out now (in an unknown quantity) on Demon/Edsel Records. 

FLASHBACK ISSUE 3 - MIGHTY BABY: FROM MODS TO MECCA

Across a mammoth thirty seven pages in the new issue of Flashback, Richard Morton Jack recounts how mod superheroes The Action evolved into bearded underground spiritualists, Mighty Baby. Picking up the story in 1967 with The Action's introduction of Ian Whiteman and Martin Stone; on to the Rolled Gold period; the departure of Reggie King; the making of their wiggy psychedelic Mighty Baby album; the mellower A Jug of Love; and finally how their religious believes became incompatible with their lives as gigging “rock” musicians.

Members of the band are interviewed as are some who worked with them and the article features rare photographs and press cuttings. It’s the first time, to my knowledge, Mighty Baby have been covered in depth and it’s long overdue. Covering the changing mood of time well there’s also good little snippets of information that’s new to me such as Marc Bolan’s reaction when Ian Whiteman played him the Action Speak Louder Than... tracks. “So what? I can do better than that.”

The Mighty Baby piece is the big selling point and I wouldn’t have forked out £9.99 without it but Flashback and an impressive publication. At 210 glossy colour pages with in-depth articles (Malcolm Jones on producing Syd Barrett and Pete Brown on the recent Graham Bond box-set being another two highlights) plus incisive and honest reviews it feels more like a book to keep than a disposable magazine. 

For more information and ordering details visit Flashback.

REGGIE KING AND BB BLUNDER - NEVER RELEASED RECORDINGS and INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN GODDING

Reggie King is the gift who keeps on giving. Whenever it seems everything has been seen or heard, something new crops up, like these two never released recordings he made in 1970 with BB Blunder for Brian Matthew’s Top of The Pops show on BBC Radio 1. Huge thanks to Pete Bonner (psychotron9) for posting them on YouTube.

BB Blunder was formed in 1970 from the ashes of the Blossom Toes - who made two albums We Are Ever So Clean (1967) and If Only For A Moment (1969) - and consisted of ex-Blossies Brian Godding (guitar), Brian Belshaw (bass) and Kevin Westlake (drums). Blunder would release one album, Workers’ Playtime, in 1971 and worked around the same time with Reggie as he pieced together his Reg King album using a mixture of them and his old Action colleagues to make the record. When BB Blunder began to play gigs Reggie was drafted in and for a short time was part of their set-up.  

The YouTube clips date these BBC sessions as 1970 and Brian Matthew said they formed part of the band’s live act. For that reason I’m inclined to believe they were more likely from 1971 but I’m happy to be corrected if anyone can confirm the transmission date. The soulful "You Go Have Yourself A Good Time” was one of Reggie’s best songs on his album, albeit in a slightly different form and using Mighty Baby rather than BB Blunder, whilst the heavy rocker “Sticky Living” was written by Brian Godding and was the opening track - with added horns - on Workers’ Playtime (which only featured an inaudible Reg on one song, “New Day”).

In 2005 when working on the liner notes for the Circle Records reissue of Reg King I spent an enjoyable Sunday afternoon at Brian Godding’s house chatting about his time with Reggie. I'd previously sent him a few questions to start things off and this is what Brian wrote back about that period.

Can you remember when and where you first met Reggie and what your first impressions of him were?

I first met Reg in the late 60's when he was with the Action, I didn't get to know him personally then but was very impressed with the band and of course his voice and vocal style, great phrasing and feel coupled with superb pitch control. 

Can you give some idea how you started working together?

We stared to get to know each other and think about working together with the advent of the Sahara music venture (1970?) Us with the BB Blunder project and Reg being given the opportunity to make his first solo album. BB Blunder basically started by helping him - along with the guys from The Action - to demo his material.

How did Reg end up joining BB Blunder and what material were you doing: his own songs or yours?

Reg did sort of join Blunder, or you could say we sort of joined him! It was a short lived collaboration (1970-71) and the loose idea was promote his music and ours so the material was a mixture plus some things we wrote together. It seemed to me, at the time, a good idea as I wanted to concentrate on the guitar and Reg was a bloody sight better singer than I was.

BB Blunder backed Reggie on some of the tracks on Reg King and The Action/Mighty Baby did the others. Was there any real reason for this or just who was available at the time?

Reg had been given total control over the making of his album by Peter Swales from Sahara which was not really a good idea in retrospect. There was a good deal of confusion as to who was doing what and when so it ended up as a bit of a barmy cooperative with Reg doing rather a lot of versions of his songs with a lot of different musicians and costing Sahara a bloody fortune in the process.

What was Reg like to work?  Was he open to suggestions or did he have a firm idea how the songs should sound?

Reg was great fun generally to work with but at the time, totally disorganized and a bit prone to the drink and other things so we did waste a lot of time (and more importantly, money) in the studio. It was really easy to lose the plot. But in fairness, most people at that time were recording in this loose and spontaneous way but they had rather larger budgets than us. I think in the case of the Reggie album it would have benefited greatly with a George Martin type producer slamming down the iron fist of reason in large doses.   

What were the expectations for Reggie’s LP?  Did he think he'd break through with it?

I don't personally know what the expectations of the finished album were by either Reg or Sahara at the time as we BB Blunder were more tied up with Worker’s Playtime and replacing Kevin Westlake on drums who'd had enough. I think that by the time the album was going to press, Reg had lost the plot in a big way and Sahara was effectively bankrupt. To me, the great thing about Reg and his music was the obvious potential and the sad thing is it was never quite realised.

What do you recall of Peter Swales and Sahara Records?

I recall a great deal about Peter, the company and this period of time. Peter (who was an old friend of Kevin Westlake from his home town of Haverford West in North Wales) was working in PR in the Rolling Stones organisation. Peter really wanted to start a company to help us lot and various other artists to carry on making records so he managed to blag a substantial amount of money from the Stones to fund Sahara. An extremely bright and energetic guy who gave it his best shot.

“Little Boy”/“10000 Miles” was released as a single and credited to Reg King & BB Blunder.  What did you think of it?  Did it receive any attention?

These are probably my favourite and most finished/ accomplished cuts from the bunch. I like them but cannot remember what attention they may have received at the time but there was little or no money left for promotion of anything. We weren't directly involved with the promotion of Reg's album but we did play most of the songs in one way or another during the short space in time we worked together.

What are your favourite memories of working with Reg?

As I've already said, I always believed that Reg was potentially up there with the likes of Rod Stewart, Lennon, McCartney etc  as a singer and was definitely at his best in the Action days (kept in his place by Bam, Mike and Roger). I remember him with a lot of affection as he was an extremely funny guy who was sadly losing it by the time we were working together. I remember one moment during a gig at the Country Club in London when during one of my guitar solos a whirring sound started up from the side of the stage - Reg had found a hover and proceeded to hoover all the dog ends up for the next ten minutes. Happy days!

On your website, Lotsawatts you mention Reggie going “into the local nuthouse”.  Can you explain this a bit further? 

Reg was basically heading for a nervous breakdown and it's not for me to speculate as to the whys and wherefores but I’m sure drink and drugs played a big part in this process. As I've said Reg was always really outgoing and generally a lot of fun to be with but he was in retrospect clearly hiding a lot of serious personal problems which would end up in him having to receive a prolonged period of mental care and supervision which was very, very sad. A huge talent nearly but not totally wasted.

   

How and when did you lose touch with Reg?

In the years after his breakdown Reg was, I believe, under close supervision  and moved out of London but I did hear from him about a year ago when the Action reformed. I really wish him well.

Don't forget Reggie King's Looking For A Dream LP/CD is out now as well as Ian Hebditch and Jane Shepherd's beautiful book The Action: In The Lap of the Mods. I can't recommend either of these highly enough.   

LETTER FROM THE ACTION’S REGGIE KING: “I REALLY DID DISCOVER JIMI HENDRIX”

After years of being so far off the radar that many people believed he’d died, The Action’s Reggie King was spotted in 1994 by a member of the band Dog in their local pub. They told omnipresent mod about town Dave Edwards (who now writes the Aggravation Place blog) who phoned me with news of this mind blowing discovery. The process of then trying to interview Reggie for my Action-titled fanzine, Something Has Hit Me, began. Reggie didn’t own a telephone so the approach and arrangements were conducted by letter, which was slight pain at the time but now I’m thankful as I received two name dropping letters from him, the first shared here (I can’t find the other at the moment). If you click on the pages they should become readable.

It’s a revealing little insight into "Reginald King" and even these few words captures his personality well. When I finally got to visit him at his flat we spent an hour and a half chatting before he was itching to get to the pub across the road. He was good value and I'm still pleased with how the interview turned out  (here if you've not read it before), although we didn’t discuss his claim to have discovered Jimi Hendrix. 

It’s a terrible shame Reggie isn’t here today as he’d be chuffed with how the recent collection of his unreleased recordings Looking For A Dream has been received to universal acclaim. If you’ve not yet got it, do so. 

REGGIE KING'S LOOKING FOR A DREAM - OUT TODAY!

At long last, Looking For A Dream, the collection of previously unreleased demos Reggie King recorded with his former Action band mates circa 1968/69 is available to purchase from Circle Records. I reviewed it here and for Modculture last month so if you need any further persuading have a read but suffice to say it’s at least equal to The Action’s Rolled Gold.

I know a lot of people don’t like paying for music these days and there are other ways of hearing these songs but the quality of the vinyl and CD editions is far superior to online streaming and without small dedicated independent labels where would we be? If you can spare £12.99, buy it direct from Circle. You won’t be disappointed.      

REGGIE KING - LOOKING FOR A DREAM (2013)

This is truly the stuff of dreams. An album of unreleased Reggie Kings tracks, the majority backed by his old band mates from The Action. These aren’t scrappy demos of familiar songs but twelve songs never heard before with an additional three on the CD previously only available on the limited edition 10 inch EP Missing In Action.

Full recording details aren’t available but these were made after Reggie officially left the band in 1968 until the end of 1969. During this period The Action kept the name (only changing it to Mighty Baby in time for their A Jug of Love LP) and the box to the master tape containing eight of the songs which form the heart of this collection is clearly marked “Reggie King and The Action, Screen Gems demos, March 1969”. To call these songs demos is to do them a disservice; they are full blown recordings and to my ears finished and of releasable quality. I don’t know how they could’ve been improved. I’m going to assume readers are fully aware of The Action and their “unreleased” 1968 album Rolled Gold. That record subsequently added much to the band’s legacy, demonstrating their ability as a song writing unit no longer content or reliant on interpreting the music of others. I know many listeners prefer their second phase and for those in particular Looking For A Dream is essential. Albums of demos are often of such sub-standard quality it does little to enhance the reputation of the artist and is merely an item for fans to buy out of curiosity and loyalty rather than something that warrants repeated plays; none of that applies here. It is among the very best work Reggie King ever made and raises his stock even higher.

Plenty of the tracks feel like a natural progression from Rolled Gold (some, not even a progression, they could sit there without revealing the join). Songs like “Let Me See Some Love In Your Eyes” with its harmonies, bongos, Roger Powell’s beating rhythm and Ian Whiteman’s flute is pure Action, as is the fantastic “Picking Up Nancy’s Grin” and others. Although all band members contributed ideas to Rolled Gold they concede it was mainly Reggie’s songs. Whiteman at the In The Lap of the Mods book launch said to me the band after that point needed to break from Reg (and vice-versa) as their interest in playing drawn-out and experimental pieces was not compatible with his more traditional and firmly structured song writing. That is very apparent here as Reggie was writing from the position of a singer of songs. They are tightly constructed pieces that skip along and could just as easily be played on an acoustic guitar or piano in the way Reggie wrote them. If you ask me to choose between Reggie King’s ideals and his instrumentalist colleagues’ jams extending beyond half an hour there’s only one winner.

Reggie thought the band couldn’t get a deal for Rolled Gold as record bosses couldn’t hear a hit single. I’m not convinced all record buyers in the late 60s only wanted material that sounded like singles but perhaps that fate fell on these recordings too. It’s a mystery to me why they’ve languished in total obscurity especially when Looking For A Dream is far superior in every respect to his Reg King LP which trickled out with no fanfare in 1971. I was lucky enough to write the liner notes to the Circle Records reissue of Reg King and although I genuinely like it I acknowledge that’s more on account of its creator than his creation. It doesn’t do Reggie many favours as a vocalist or, to a lesser degree, a songwriter. Looking For A Dream brightly highlights both attributes. Listen to his tender, soulful voice on the beautiful “Suddenly” or “In and Out”. This should’ve been the real Reggie King album.

Most of the audio quality is faultless but allowances need to be made for one acetate and three tracks which came from a different source (thoughtfully placed at either end of the compilation so as not disturb the flow). One of these is in such stark contrast to the upbeat cheerful nature of the others it needs a special mention. People who knew Reggie are all very protective of him. When talking to them they almost all readily admit – with a smile - he could be a real pain in the arse at times but offer little more when it comes to him “losing the plot”. Reggie introduces “They Must Be Talking ‘Bout Me” by telling those gathered in the studio “This is a song about a mental home” which elicits a giggle by a couple of people. As he pads then pounds a piano he recounts doctors whispering when he’s near, drinking tea from a broken cup, eating bread with a spoon, frowning doctor’s telling him to lie down and not worry, and having to take 400 micrograms at breakfast time. The next time The Most Harrowing Songs Ever list is drawn up, check for this; extremely uncomfortable yet darkly spellbinding. It would be wrong to take the content as entirely autobiographical yet Reggie is utterly convincing and no one is laughing when he finishes the song.  

As Kevin Pearce writes in his accompanying notes, “It’s always dangerous to succumb to the temptation of playing ‘could’ve, should’ve, would’ve’” when talking about Reggie, so I won’t but it is nothing short of criminal these amazing recordings remained unheard during Reggie’s lifetime. That said, I’ve nothing but huge admiration (and gratitude) for Peter Wild at Circle for his persistence and patience in finally getting this out. What started as a straight forward project around the time of the Reg King release in 2005 turned into drawn out affair getting the tracks cleared by all relevant parties and then cleaning up some of the tracks. As always with Circle releases the packaging and meticulous attention to detail is apparent. The vinyl edition is beautifully done (although if you don’t have Missing In Action then I recommend the CD to get the extra tracks). I’ve had to secretly sit on these and not even play them to anyone since Peter shared them with me eight years ago when working on Reg King. Listening to them again constantly over the last three weeks I love them more than ever. They serve as a final and worthy tribute to an astonishing talent. I’m loathe to award anything full marks but Reggie King will always score highly in my book and for a collection as wonderful as this I couldn’t justify not giving it 10 out of 10.

Tracks: Get Up Get Away, Let Me See Some Love In Your Eyes, You Gotta Believe Me, All Up To Heaven, So Full Of Love*, Merry Go Round*, Suddenly, Picking Up Nancy’s Grin, In and Out, Put Something Together, Live Forever, Magenta*, Thinkin’ ‘Bout Getting Out, They Must Be Talking ‘Bout Me, You’ll Be Around    *CD only.

Looking For A Dream by Reggie King is released by Circle Records on 18^th February 2013

MONKEY PICKS HIGHLIGHTS OF 2012

Seeing how everyone else is doing one I’ll follow suit with a review of the year; after all it’s a quiet week and easier than writing anything new. Think of it as one of those television shows cobbled together from previous episodes after a main character dies or someone has a dream remembering – in soft focus – all the fun times they had. Cue hazy screen…

The uncovering of only the second piece of film footage of The Action – doing "I'll Keep On Holding On" outside the Royal Albert Hall – was the start of fruitful year for fans of this most treasured band which culminated in the long awaited publication of Ian Hebditch and Jane Shepherd’s superb biography The Action: In The Lap of the Mods and the release of a previously unheard recording. In between those landmarks I was lucky enough to interview drummer Roger Powell and we spent a couple of hours chatting about the band. I was especially interested in the way he compared the mod Action period with the underground Mighty Baby period that followed. If the launch party for the book felt like the final chapter in the Action story, fear not: I can reveal that Circle Records will on the 18^th February 2013 release Reggie King’s Looking For A Dream, a fifteen track compilation of recordings he made circa 1969, mostly with his ex-Action bandmates, which will elevate him even higher in people’s estimation. Mark that date on your diary now.

The Action were firmly established at the top of my loves but 2012 saw a new name, Rodriguez, enter high on that list. Somehow he’d evaded my radar until the Searching for Sugarman documentary hit cinema screens in July but now he’s up there as a firm favourite. The film has this month been released on DVD and I can’t urge you enough to watch it. It’s brilliant and incredibly moving, as are the best tracks from his two albums Cold Fact and Coming From Reality. It was a real privilege to see Rodriguez at the Royal Festival Hall.

This week has seen the passing of soul sisters, Marva Whitney and Fontella Bass. I don’t usually mark these events as new entrants to the Rock and Soul Heaven Choir are so frequent it would make Monkey Picks read like the back pages of the Eastbourne Church News but I was genuinely saddened by the death of Michael Davis of the MC5 and the indomitable Etta James. The MC5 with Primal Scream show in 2008 is one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to and back in 2004 myself and friend were in New York when we saw that Etta was due to play B.B. King’s club in a couple of weeks’ time. We seriously toyed with the idea of returning especially to see her. We didn’t and I’ve regretted it ever since. Special mention here to the Independent newspaper for making her front page news with a massive photograph. If you’ve not read Etta’s autobiography Rage To Survive you’re missing out.

On the subject of books, Dougal Butler’s ludicrously funny Moon The Loon, telling of his time with Keith Moon, saw print again as Full Moon and also made it as a “talking book” read by Moonie’s mate Karl Howman. Dougal, forever the storyteller, entertained us – quite candidly at times - one Sunday morning as we conducted a long interview with him about Keith Moon and his role in attempting to keep his employer out of too much trouble. We (Mrs Monkey and I) met with Dougal a couple of other times, most notably at Pete Townshend's Q&A session down Brick Lane to promote his autobiography Who I Am (still not read it). That night turned out to be a mod episode of Stella Street with Pete, Dougal, Richard Barnes and  supporting cast of us who followed in their desert boots.

On the hobnobbing front it felt slightly surreal talking to Public Enemy's Chuck D and Flavor Flav in my local record shop but a chance encounter with the Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield was something of a dream come true and Mr Bradfield was as lovely a man as I always thought/hoped he’d be.   

Every band you’ve long forgotten has reformed during the last few years but the one I’ve been most taken with is the gradual re-emergence of The Primitives. No big fanfare, just a gentle easing back into view with a gloriously infectious and upbeat album Echoes and Rhymes and a a terrific gig at the Borderline.

The Primitives didn’t in any way feel nostalgic but the same couldn’t be said for early 80’s mod favourites The Truth who played the same venue. It did though give me an opportunity to recount my young mod story and judging from the reaction it received it was an experience shared by many. A rare UK appearance by Todd Snider ("Who?" you ask) was a gig highlight but although I’m always searching for new bands its apparent most of the gigs I saw was by acts over a certain age so I need to make a concerted effort to check younger bands next year. One especially young band I did see was The Strypes and all eyes will be on them during 2013 to see if they make the transition from outstanding covers band to creating something of their own.

One new band who made a huge impression on me were Kontiki Suite and I’ve already banged the drum loudly for their stunning debut album On Sunset Lake which gets a full release in the next couple of weeks. Shrag’s Canines album is the other one which has most impressed me. It’s difficult to describe but it’s a grower and once under the skin stays there. I caught Shrag with The Lovely Eggs at the London Palladium when DJing during a memorable night put on by Idle Fret records.

For twenty of the most memorable songs of 2012 check the 2012 Spotify Playlist.

Roll on 2013.

THE ACTION - IN THE LAP OF THE MODS by IAN HEBDITCH and JANE SHEPHERD (2012) BOOK LAUNCH & REVIEW

Twenty years ago a chance meeting by members of pop dreamers The Wilsons led to us sitting on Pete Watson’s bed in his digs interviewing him about his days in The Action for my fanzine Something Has Hit Me. It was the first time anyone from the band had given their account since they ceased to exist in 1968. In 1992 their story still held an air of mystery, especially to fans such as us too young to have seen them in their mod glory days. We were all chuffed to meet Pete and more so that amongst his few possessions on display was his original 12-string Rickenbacker, such a vital component of their sound.

Buoyed by this discovery fellow interviewer Darren Brooker hatched an idea for us to write a book about The Action. I was always secretly sceptical how we’d achieve this although we did spend a day at the British Library pouring over every issue of the NME and Melody Maker published between 1965 and 1968 for any scrap of information; of which there was precious little. Although we’d set our sights low (a slim John’s Children book and Paolo Hewitt’s Small Faces magazine All Our Yesterdays being our main inspiration) there didn’t appear to be a huge amount to say nor much in the way of a pictorial record to be found. I asked in Something Has Hit Me for contributions which garnered slim pickings but I did receive a nice letter from one Ian Hebditch.

After interviewing Reggie King a year or so later our book idea was quietly shelved. I, for one, had no idea how to proceed with such a project and we weren’t the right people to attempt it. However, those interviews did in a small way plant the seed which led to the reformation of the band for occasional gigs for Rob Bailey and The New Untouchables between 1998 and 2004.

It was at that first reunion gig that Ian Hebditch wandered backstage and enthused how he followed the band at venues like the Birdcage in Portsmouth and the Marquee in the capital. As a friendship developed so did the idea to produce a book. Finally, after a decade of hard work and graft by Ian and Jane Shepherd, The Action: In The Lap of The Mods has been published after a launch party in London last month.

The event was held in two rooms; the first with a bar and DJs and the second with an exhibition of photographs from the book. It was in this room that most of the chat and mingling took place and it was fascinating to hear of people’s introduction to The Action. Some, like Darren's parents Gwyn and Ray, were original mods; others were Ultimate Action post-revival mods and fans; some had journeyed backwards from Mighty Baby and even The Habibiyya; whilst others had their first taste at the reunion shows. It was great to catch up with original members Pete Watson and Roger Powell, and meet for the first time later recruits Ian Whiteman and Martin Stone. Alan King now lives in New Zealand and of course Reggie King and Mike Evans are no longer with us nor, sadly, is Ian Hebditch who died before the completion of the book work leaving Jane to work tirelessly to complete the project.

In The Lap of The Mods is stunning. It looks beautiful and is obviously born out of a deep love and respect for the band. The hardback cover, quality paper and high-end production values are top quality and the design is first class. Flicking through it’s incredible to see so many previously unseen photographs and items of memorabilia. I go dizzy whenever I see a single piece of “new” Action related material; on first look this had my head spinning. The main 176 glossy-paged book is supplemented (in the special edition of 400 individually numbered copies) by a 96 page A4 sized diary compiled by Jane giving details of their gigs and movements and features hundreds of press cuttings. Finally, all housed in clothbound presentation slipcase, is a 7 inch single of the acetate they recorded of The Temptations’ “Girl Why You Wanna Make Me Blue” for their Decca audition on 31^st May 1965. This is the earliest known – and previously unreleased - Action recording and although they get off to a wobbly start, once they settle down it gives a clearer idea of how the band would’ve sounded live than their George Martin produced singles that the band have claimed didn’t capture them properly. With Reggie’s vocals, the three-part harmonies and Pete’s 12-string, it’s real hairs on the back of the neck stuff and The Action to a T.

Now, all that would be quite enough. I was bouncing off the walls just holding the thing in my hands but once I got to read the text it took it way beyond a purely visual and audible nicety. I if thought there wasn’t enough to say, I was wrong; if I thought I wasn’t the person to write it, I was right. Ian Hebditch’s narration is superb. He was a mod who saw The Action 40-50 times in their heyday and they couldn’t have asked for a more understanding and articulate biographer. Ian vividly explains how the band’s path was inextricably entwined with the mod movement and how, as they developed in tandem, one subtle shift followed another until they both came to the end of the road. Contributions range from all band members to big names like Pete Townshend (“we were genuine fans of the band”), Sir George Martin (“to this day I am baffled they didn’t achieve superstardom”), Phil Collins (I know, but he has never missed an opportunity to champion the band and there’s no doubting his sincerity) to mods from the clubs but Ian’s own sharp analysis and recounting of prevalent attitudes is the key. His is the best first-hand account by a true mod of the era I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. In addition, Ian's frequent descriptions of The Action playing the clubs are highly evocative and draw a clear distinction between them as a gigging band (who mods adored) and a recording group (who mods ignored).

The issue of the “superstardom” that eluded them – a frequent topic of discussion amongst admirers – is attributed to a combination of the material released; their focus on being a great club band; ineffective management; and the band’s unwillingness to compromise their principles. There was reluctance – a refusal even – to “play the game”. There was nothing contrived about The Action, everything was very natural. Their “image” wasn’t an image, it was who they were. If you look at their clothes, even when they flowed from mod to a more underground scene, there was never any sign of trying too hard and that was how they were as people and that’s how their music comes across; as genuine and honest. They didn't case any bandwagon and didn’t have a succeed-at-all-costs mentality. Ian draws an interesting comparison with The Move. When Tony Secunda failed to overthrow The Action’s management he turned his attention to a fledging Move who, initially, according to Mike Evans “he created in our image” (ever noticed how Carl Wayne nicked Reggie King’s hand-over-the-ear singing technique?) but were happy to do whatever it took, and it paid off commercially.

Over the years we’ve been blessed with so much additional Action material and to bolster the paltry five singles they released at the time: the extra songs Edsel uncovered; the Rolled Gold album; the Uptight and Outasight BBC collection on Circle Records; their live film; archive footage; the reunion concerts etc. Now, with Reggie and Mike’s passing in 2010; presumably no further recordings to discover; and Pete recently selling his beloved Rickenbacker, In The Lap of The Mods feels like the final chapter, but what a chapter it is with loads of new revelations. What a story, what a book, and what a band.  

To order In The Lap of The Mods click here. 

The Action: Reggie King, Mike Evans, Alan King, Pete Watson, Roger Powell

Pete Watson, Monkey, Roger Powell

Ian Whiteman, Monkey, Martin Stone

In keeping with the spirit of The Action - and to keep a few Goldhawk mods dancing - these were the 45s I played at the launch:

Sam & Dave - You Don't Know What You Mean To Me (Atlantic)
Rufus Thomas - Can Your Monkey Do The Dog (Stax)
The Bar-Kays - Knucklehead (Stax)
BB King - The Hurt (ABC-Paramount)
Jackie Wilson & Count Basie - Uptight (Coral)
Bob & Earl - The Sissy (Chene)
The Ronettes - Do I Love You? (Philles)
The Impressions - Meeting Over Yonder (ABC-Paramount)
Marvin Gaye - Baby Don't You Do It (Tamla)
Kim Weston - Take Me In Your Arms (Gordy)
The Action - In My Lonely Room (Parlophone)
Barbara Lynn- Oh Baby (We Got A Good Thing Going) (Jamie)
Etta James - Pay Back (Argo)
Gene Chandler - Nothing Can Stop Me (Soul City)
Major Lance - The Monkey Time (Okeh)
The Temptations - Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue) (Gordy)
The Impressions - I Love You (Yeah) (HMV)
Maurice & The Radiants - Baby You've Got It (Chess)
The Lownley Crowde - Shadows and Reflections (MGM)
The Action - Since I Lost My Baby (Parlophone)
Marvin Gaye - Pride and Joy (Tamla)
The Spinners - Sweet Thing (Tamla Motown)
Barabara Randolph - I Got A Feeling (Soul)
Kim Weston - Helpless (Gordy)
Isley Brothers - This Old Heart Of Mine (Tamla Motown)
Four Tops - Baby I Need Your Loving (Motown)
Shorty Long _ Out To Get You (Soul)
Sam Cooke - Shake (RCA Victor)

THE ACTION: ROGER POWELL INTERVIEW (2012)

If ever an excuse was needed to chat about the life and music of mod’s favourite sons The Action, the forthcoming biography of the band In The Lap of The Mods by Ian Hebditch and Jane Shepherd surely provides it.  A decade in the making, the book features contributions from all original band members: Reggie King, Mike Evans, Alan ‘Bam’ King, Pete Watson and Roger Powell; over 200 images including many previously unpublished photographs, flyers, posters and press cuttings; first-hand testimonies from fans and musical contemporaries; a complete guide to their gigs; and an examination of how the band’s mod following at clubs like The Birdcage in Portsmouth and The Marquee in London informed their decision making as a band.  In addition, this year also finally sees the release of an amazing new album on Circle Records of Reggie King’s post-Action demos, Looking For A Dream, recorded with his ex-band mates during the late 60s.

With these hugely exciting projects nearing completion it was a real honour and privilege to be asked by The New Untouchables to share a coffee and croissant with The Action’s drummer Roger Powell.

It was a wonderful surprise to recently see on the In The Lap of The Mods website footage of The Action outside the Royal Albert Hall performing “I’ll Keep Holding On” for the Dick Clark Show.  What do you remember about it?

Not a lot.  It was a bit embarrassing to be honest.  There were all these people throwing paper airplanes and generally just being shitty and we were miming and we used to hate miming.  You couldn’t hear anything and had to pretend you were really getting in to it.  We didn’t really like anything like that; we were pretty anti-social, anti-establishment. 

Do you think that might have been why you didn’t go as far as you could’ve?

Oh yes.  When we played with The Move they were saying you’ve got to do all these outrageous things, tie yourselves to railings and wear outrageous clothes, and we thought that was moving towards show business. 

Did your manager Rikki Farr try to push you into a more commercial market and get a hit? 

Yes, we knew we needed a manager as we needed publicity to get gigs.  We’d built up a really good following on the circuit and could’ve carried on just doing that but Marquee Artists and Rikki obviously wanted to make money and get the right record for us because we were on £100 a night and once you had a hit record you’d be on £500 or more and go to gigs in cars, have roadies and stay in nice hotels.   But none of the records I felt were anything near a hit record or anything edgy enough people would remember.  We never felt comfortable going after a hit even though we went along with it putting records out but they weren’t really doing anything.  I think “I’ll Keep Holding On” got to number 39 in the charts.

Was it disheartening to keep putting records out that didn’t hit?

It wasn’t disheartening because we were there for the music; we weren’t there for the hit record although all the people around us were getting them: The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Who, Spencer Davis Group, Manfred Mann.  It seemed everyone we played with at the Marquee had a hit record except for us.

Why do you think that was?

I think because they were doing original stuff and we were doing covers.  And we never got an original cover.  Something like “Ride Your Pony” would come out in America and someone else would do it in England.  At the time we didn’t consider writing our own songs as there was so many cool records to explore we just enjoyed playing them.  If we’d had an original cover first we might have had a hit record.

“Shadows and Reflections” was a very original cover. 

Yes but it didn’t get played, it didn’t get marketed, no machine behind it.  It was who you know not what you know.  You needed the right contacts, like The Who had with Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp.  They had the contacts, the money, and were right in with all the faces of the time, although I think they would’ve hit anyway.

Having George Martin as your producer must’ve helped.

Being with George at Abbey Road helped but although “I’ll Keep Holding On” was alright and “Never Ever” was okay, you couldn’t do it without the machine behind you.  You needed the publicity, to know people at the BBC to plug it.  And a lot of people bought their records in to the charts.  They’d get a little sniff into the charts, once it was there, the DJs would play it, you’d get on the telly and you’d be away.  So from an initial investment of say ten grand you could make it back.

Mike Evans said when “I’ll Keep Holding On” got to number 39 that was when you needed to start buying up all the records.

At that point there was a bit of a woo-hah about it. Early on you had a list of all the shops they took the chart returns from so you could send boys and girls in to buy a copy of this, two copies of that.  There was many twenty or thirty record shops in London where they took the charts from, so if you knew the shops…

You still managed to get on Ready Steady Go a few times.

I think we did it three times.  We did it with Pete Stringfellow who was bought down from the Mojo Club in Sheffield to compere it and we played a couple of songs live on there.  It was the first time anyone played live on Ready Steady Go and it gave us that appeal for the mods on the circuit and we got a really good following from it.

The book is titled In The Lap of The Mods, is that how it felt?

Someone said it to me that we were in the lap of the mods and I thought it was great, so we used it as the title.  That’s how it felt.  They’d meet us on their scooters and we’d meet them in the pub before the gigs.  We were like mates; there was no differentiation between us and the audience.  We were all regular guys; we didn’t put on any airs and graces.  It was all, “You got any leapers?  Yeah, great”. 

We refer to The Action nowadays as a mod band but did you consider yourselves mods?  Did you think in those terms?

No, I don’t think anybody did.  I don’t think people had this idea early on of being this thing called mod.  It was just smart blokes.  We used to like mohair suits and very smart Italian clothes.  We never really had a concept of what it was.  I would say we were a sort of soul band. 

  

The Small Faces had accounts the length of Carnaby Street for their clothes, where did yours come from?  Did you buy them yourselves?

Yeah, John Stephens, Carnaby Street, all those.  We bought them ourselves.  There’s a picture of us in the book outside Harry Fenton’s, once we’d put the clothes on and had our photograph taken we had to put the clothes back.  “The Action supplied by Harry Fenton” but they never gave us anything.  It was the same with drums.  If I wanted to play Premier drums I had to buy them, you needed a hit record before they’d give you anything.  Keith Moon got a contract with Premier.

Were you mates with Keith Moon and The Who?

Sort of because we did a lot of gigs with them and used to support them for quite a while so we were sort of friendly but they were always a bunch of piss takers so I didn’t really want to spend too much time around them.  I remember at the press release at the Marquee for “Never Ever” Moonie was throwing peanuts at us.   

Your drum kit had a two bass drum set-up which others also used, where did that idea come from?

A lot of people may tell you otherwise but I was definitely the first person to get two bass drums at the Marquee.  Definitely.  Then Moonie got two, Ginger Baker got two, Mitch Mitchell got two, and then most of the other drummers got two.  So then I took mine away and just had the one.  Buddy Rich had two bass drums and I thought it looked really smart, but it was nice with the tambourine as it gave that off-beat.  We didn’t have someone playing the tambourine so when I was playing I didn’t use the hi-hat, just used the bass drum for the off-beat with the tambourine, which was important for The Action’s sound.  You could do some amazing things with the two.

It gave you that good Motown sound.  Where were you hearing those records?

We got them through Mike’s mum who worked for EMI so she used to get us all these obscure records.  We weren’t really into the mainstream Tamla, we were into Stax and really obscure stuff.  There was also the DJ at the Twisted Wheel in Manchester.  We used to go back to his house after the club to hear them and Guy Stephens used to give us stuff.  That’s where we got a lot of the info.  Then we’d learn them and try to put our own little spin on them. 

When you did the all-nighters how many sets were you playing throughout the night?

Sometimes we’d do three sets.  Three quarters of an hour each and usually you’d be the only band.  They’d be records, we’d do a set, more records, another set. 

There must be a lot of songs you played live but didn’t record.

In the book there is a playlist of every song we ever played.  We didn’t repeat songs in a night.  We might occasionally do one twice if it was really popular.  We wouldn’t repeat “Land of a 1000 Dances” or anything but “Needle In A Haystack” we might do twice or “Heatwave” as people loved that.  We had a good lot of songs and we used to rehearse all the time.

The collector’s edition In The Lap of The Mods includes your audition disc of The Temptations’ “Girl (Why Do You Want To Make Me Blue)” you made for Decca.  What do you remember about that and Decca turning you down?

Nothing!  I remember going in to this big executive office at their studios.  We played three songs but only one was taped which was that one.  Jane bought it on eBay.  Mike knew it was genuine but was saying it wasn’t to put off other bidders.  

Did you stay for the all-nighters after you’d played them?

Yes it wasn’t worth going back. They’d finish at six in the morning and we’d stay up and drive back with a little help so we weren’t falling asleep at the wheel. 

Were you taking many drugs?

We were all on leapers most of the time because we were doing all-nighters and otherwise you just couldn’t keep going.  We got busted at the Birdcage for amphetamines.   We were all in the dressing room when suddenly all these policemen came in.  Everyone was dropping stuff.  I think they found some amphetamines in Mike’s pocket and took him away to the police station so we had to go and try getting him bailed out so we could finish the gig. 

How did LSD enter the scene?

In the early days we were one of the first people to take acid because it had just come over from America and we knew people in Pond Street who had gallons of LSD.  These people came over just to turn on London.   And when we were staying with Nick Jones in Bognor this guy came down to turn us on and that was our first acid trip.  I couldn’t believe it.

Was the trip arranged beforehand?

Yes, it was a party and it was about twelve o’clock and this guy was about to arrive.  We didn’t want to trip with all these people around so we thought we’d better try and get rid of them so we put on a crazy Albert Ayler LP and everyone said “I gotta go now”.  He gave us this stuff, I think it was me and Mike, maybe Bam, but not all the band wanted to take it.  I remember sitting there about half an hour later and looked at Mike and he looked at me and we just started laughing and laughing and laughing.  It made life so funny and so stupid.  We tripped all night and went out to the beach.  To be honest it did destroy people, I know a lot of people who didn’t make it. You needed a strong inner core and need to be comfortable with yourself.  We tripped actually on Ready Steady Go, me and Mike and then got spiked afterwards.   We’d gone back to this guy’s house and were coming down from the trip and he gave us some toast and we started freaking out again wondering what was happening. He’d put more LSD on it.  It was only when he told us that we thought thank goodness for that. 

There seemed such a huge shift from the mod days once 1967 arrived.

By ’67 all the underground stuff started happening in London with the UFO Club in Tottenham Court Road.  A lot of the psychedelic bands were self-indulgent nothing.  I didn’t like Pink Floyd or any of those bands, I couldn’t get into it.  The all-nighters at the Roundhouse people were all over the place.  The drugs had changed.  With the old amphetamines everyone liked a chat, wanted to be your mate, it was brilliant.  When people were taking acid it was totally different.  It’s an important thing drugs and culture, they’re a totally interlinked thing.  I mean, but even if the mods weren’t taking uppers they were very chatty, friendly people.  At the Roundhouse people were isolated in their own heads, doing their own thing.   It was like chalk and cheese.   Mod gigs and the Roundhouse, unbelievable difference.  I didn’t like the Roundhouse, it was too self-indulgent. 

So what was it like when you were then playing one song for 45 minutes?

I wouldn’t call it psychedelic by any means.  It was more jazzy, rock-jazz, but I liked the three minute things.  In the space of half an hour you could get loads of brilliant records rather than one long thing.  We lost touch with the club scene after a while, at the end of The Action, and got a bit disenchanted with it.  The early days of The Action were the most exciting, when we were playing the Birdcage and stuff like that.  That was an incredible time in the clubs.  

When The Action got back together in 1998 it was great it was all original members, which is very unusual.  How did that feel?

It had to be.  We wouldn’t have done it otherwise.  It was exciting and it felt like there was unfinished business, that somehow we hadn’t really closed the circle.  We knew it wasn’t going to be the same as we weren’t twenty anymore, so we knew it was going to be different but it was still worth doing as it was nice for people to see us again.  It was awesome.  I’m really pleased we did it as we got to meet people like Jane and Ian, Rob Bailey, yourself.

On some of the reunion shows you included a sax player and percussion; would you have liked to have had a Hammond player or a sax player back in the day?

I think so, it would have been great.  That’s what I liked about Jimmy James and The Vagabonds; they had a nice big fat sound with an organist and a sax but the vocals were the main thing with The Action. 

Did you help arrange the vocals harmonies? 

Oh no, I wasn’t musical at all.  Reg used to say, “Just shut up and bang the bloody drums!”  People used to call him Reg, and he’d say “Mister King, to you”.

Reggie was quite a character.

Reg was always a bit of wild card.  He just started going funny, a bit out of control, towards the end of The Action days.  We were playing a gig at the Blue Lagoon and all of a sudden Reg started climbing up this palm tree.  The bouncers came up, Reg jumped off the tree, we’re still playing and the bouncers are chasing him around the audience whilst he’s still singing.  “You’ll never play here again!”  Then he got arrested on the M1 at the Blue Boar services.  We’d eaten and had come out and were sitting in the van, ready to go, and it was “Where’s Reg?”  We looked around, couldn’t find him and twenty minutes later this policeman comes up and knocks on the window.  “Do you know Reg King?  He’s just been arrested for threatening someone with a plastic knife”.  I don’t know what it was about, something about where he wanted to eat his egg and chips.  Eventually we just decided, a sort of mutual thing, to move on.  But he got his head together a bit and we worked with him on his album.  The trouble was once we started doing stuff like John Coltrane’s “India” what was he going to do while we played that for half an hour?  Stand there and go “Elephants… Elephants”?     

Did you think Reg leaving would give the band more freedom or did you think that was going to be the end?

No, you just go through a transition you don’t think “oh I’m changing now into something else”.    It was very subtle.  It’s only when you look back in retrospect you realise you’ve changed from A to B.  So it didn’t affect us that much.  After Reg, Rod Stewart was going to join The Action at one point.  We knew him quite well and when Reg didn’t make a gig at the Twisted Wheel Rod sang a few songs with us.  But it didn’t materialise as he then got into the Faces as they’d had some hits and were bigger than we were.  We also tried to get the organist Keith Emerson.  I went round to his flat to ask him if he’d be interested and he said he would’ve been but was just joining The Nice.  We got Ian Whiteman and Martin Stone in and become more of a jazz-funk-jamming band.

How did that go down with your audience?

It depended where we played.  Some people were bored with it; some people sort of liked it.  We got to point where we didn’t know where we were and the audience didn’t know quite what we were doing.  It took us a bit of time to find our direction with Mighty Baby when we started writing our own stuff.

How long did you keep The Action name after Reg left?

About six months I think.  It was a bit of a mess really.  We wanted to somehow change.  Pete Watson left, even when Reg was still with us people would come up to us at gigs and say “Oi, you’re not The Action”, which was fair enough really because we were doing new stuff we’d written and all wearing Granny Takes A Trip suits.  It was a transition period.  We started getting into West Coast, Captain Beefheart, Love.  Things like “Dustbin Full of Rubbish” which Ian Whiteman wrote was still The Action, but it wasn’t The Action.  We didn’t have a new name basically until we went with John Hurd at Head Records and we said we had to change the name and he came up with Mighty Baby, which I wasn’t that keen on as it felt a bit silly but in retrospect it was all right and we did a couple of albums.

Do you look back at the periods of The Action and Mighty Baby differently or is it one continuous thing?

No, as different lives, definitely.  The Action was very exciting.  The whole scene, the music, the atmosphere in the clubs was brilliant. As soon as you walked in those clubs, the Marquee, the Birdcage, you could feel people were really into it.  With Mighty Baby you had to create an atmosphere with the music, you really had to win them over, which was more difficult.  With Mighty Baby we were searching, it was a time of introspection and because we’d all downed massive amounts of LSD what we thought was real wasn’t real.  Once you’d taken acid, tables were like vibrating with energy and flowers were absolutely stunning, you know.  You have to rethink totally who you are and what life’s about.  We became like travelling philosophers.  I was listening to one of the Mighty Baby tracks on the train coming down, “Tasting The Life”, which is all about seeking, searching, holy islands.  Whenever we’d do gigs as Mighty Baby if there was a castle we’d go there, Stonehenge we’d stop there, so we were always seeking some meaning in life through our music.  In Mighty Baby we were analysing life, who we were.  In The Action we weren’t, we were just being the life.  

For other MonkeyPicks interviews with The Action see:

Reggie King, Mike Evans, Pete Watson

MARCH PLAYLIST

Every day I try to discover new music. These are among the ten best things to turn up this month.

1. The Reuben Wilson Quartet – “Rod Run” (1961)
Taken from the new Mod Jazz Forever compilation. Some of the tracks in the Mod Jazz series are a bit too lightweight but that’s not an accusation I’d level at “Rod Run” which, becoming of a former professional boxer, packs a mean Hammond and horns one-two.

2. Alex Chilton – “All We Ever Got From Them Was Pain” (1970)
Last month’s playlist featured a post-Big Star track by Chris Bell, this is a pre-Big Star one by Chilton and equal to anything they did together. It'll stop you in your tracks. Discovery of the month.

3. Andrew Leigh – “Magician” (1970)
Between stints in Spooky Tooth and Matthews Southern Comfort, Leigh cut an album with his buddies including Kevin Westlake, Gary Farr and Reggie King who plays piano and contributes clearly audible backing vocals on this title track, a looping folksy rocker. For an album sounding like it was made by people wearing collarless cheesecloth shirts, it’s a very good one.

4. The Temptations – “Zoom” (1973)
By this point they should’ve been called Norman Whitfield and The Temptations; a fact which disgruntled the Tempts so much it ended the relationship with their producer after the 1990 LP. This closing track is pure street-funk Whitfield.

5. The Clash – “1-2 Crush On You” (1978)
I’m guessing the politicised “Tommy Gun” was predominately the work of Joe Strummer whilst this innocent 60s Tin Pan Alley style B-side was more Mick Jones.

6. Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – “Arthritis Blues” (2006)
Nicky Wire wrote this month that the arthritis in his knees has made his stage jumps a thing of the past. Listening to Jack’s painful account, that’s the least of his worries.

7. Sissy and the Blisters – “We Are The Others” (2011)
I miss the goth-garage days of The Horrors. Sissy and the Blisters missed them so much they formed a band.

8. Hooded Fang – “Clap” (2012)
There are illustrations of Mexican wrestlers on the sleeve of their 23 minute LP Tosta Mista. I so wanted that to be the band. It’s not. I’ve seen a picture of these limp indie kids and wouldn’t fancy their chances folding a letter let alone executing a quebrador con grio.

9. Jagwar Ma – “Come Save Me” (2012)
If Brian Wilson hears this on the wireless he'll wonder if he’s due any royalties. It'll certainly confuse him.

10. Paul Weller – “Green” (2012)
Not very long ago it was possible to dismiss Weller’s music in a single word: Dadrock. He was so much older then, he’s younger than that now. Or, to use one of Monkey Snr.’s phrases, he’s not as green as he’s cabbage looking.

FEBRUARY PLAYLIST

Current spins in Monkey Mansions.

1. Bo Carter – “My Pencil Won’t Write No More” (1931)
A right old saucy one was Bo. He recorded 110 songs during the 1930s and from his lyrics I’m surprised he had the time. Some sample song titles: “Your Biscuits Are Big Enough For Me”, “Don’t Mess My Digger So Deep”, “Please Warm My Weiner”, “Mashing That Thing” and, my personal favourite, “Banana In Your Fruit Basket”. Little wonder he eventually ran low on lead.

2. Clyde McPhatter – “Thirty Days” (1957)
A year before he died, aged just 39, as a result of heavy drinking, a bitter McPhatter claimed he had no fans. Oh Clyde, you did and you do.

3. Eddie Holland – “True Love Will Go A Mighty Long Way” (1962)
Not an early Holland-Dozier-Holland cut but a Holland-Holland-Mickey Stevenson one before he fully hit his stride at Hitsville. Ace Records have beautifully put together a new Eddie Holland compilation It Moves Me: The Complete Recordings 1958-1964 of which this is a highlight.

4. The Ballroom – “Baby Please Don’t Go” (1967)
There are hundreds of versions of this blues chestnut but none as audacious as this mind blowing piece of pulsating West Coast psychedelia.

5. Chris Barber and His Band – “People Get Ready” (1969)
Giorgio Gomelsky at Marmalade/Polydor wouldn’t give The Action a recording deal yet whisked the considerable vocals talents of Reggie King away with the promise of production work. The pair and Chris Barber are credited as producers on Barber’s Battersea Rain Dance, an album of instrumentals bar this track with a pub style vocal. Reg presumably sat behind the mixing desk and pressed the record button. What a bloody waste.

6. Chris Bell – “You and Your Sister” (1978)
Chris Bell left Big Star after their first album yet his solo work, posthumously released as I Am The Cosmos, sounds to me like a perfected version of Big Star with “You and Your Sister” the sibling of “Thirteen”.

7. The Rolling Stones – “No Spare Parts” (1978)
Mick and Keef probably thought “Faraway Eyes” was enough to fill their country quota on Some Girls so this has only seen light since the recent two-disc reissue. I can’t think of an instance when the Stones used a pedal steel without great results and this is no exception.

8. Gang of Four – “I Found That Essence Rare” (1979)
The liner notes of the CD include testimonies from Michael Stipe and that Flea fella from Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Don’t let that put you off.

9. The Boo Radleys – “Wish I Was Skinnny” (1993)
This still sounds good but, please lads, don’t take it as encouragement for you to get back together.

10. Johnny Cash – “For The Good Times” (2003)
A Kris Kristopherson song but like so many of his later recordings Cash convinced the listener it was his own and sung from profound personal experience. Breaks and warms ones heart in equal measure.