More U.K. Obscurities On U.S. Labels: Tommy Quickly

 

TOMMY QUICKLY-The Wild Side Of Life/Forget The Other Guy U.S. Liberty 55753 1964

Liverpool's Tommy Quickly (and his uncredited backing band The Remo Four) were one of the more obscure band's that were swept in when the big men in London cast their nets on the "Mersey Sound" or "Merseybeat". Quickly managed quite a prolific career on vinyl in the U.K. with four singles on Piccadilly and two on Pye from July 1963 to December 1964 (even the Beatles didn't release as many singles during that period!). Tommy was originally born as Thomas Quigley. His career was overseen by Brian Epstein who rechristened him as Tommy Quickly in the Larry Parnes style of renaming your charges.  Having Epstein as a manager gave him access to an unreleased Beatles composition as his debut in July 1963 ("The Tip Of My Tongue", Piccadilly 7N 35137) which unfortunately failed to chart. 

Today's release was his last of two American singles. In the U.K. it was his fifth (and first on the Pye label) where it was launched as Pye 7N 15708 on October 2, 1964. It was issued here the following month. In England it gave him his only hit (#33). The Remo Four are uncredited on the label here despite backing him and being credited on the British release. 

"The Wild Side Of Life" dates back to an old US country music performer named Hank Thompson in 1952 and was revived by Ray Price in 1962, which is probably where Quickly heard it.  It's an interesting choice of a song to cover but it works surprisingly well as a beat ballad and The Remo Four provide a solid, edgy backing as the number is delivered in an uptempo style. The record did nothing here in the States despite Quickly plugging the number on the "Shindig!" TV show here where he performed it live. 

The flip side, "Forget The Other Guy" is a mundane beat ballad that's really nothing special. Next.... 

Both tracks were collected on a now out of print CD collection of all his work as well as other beat artists from '64-'65 that The Remo Four backed. 

Hear "The Wild Side Of Life":

https://youtu.be/JOy9QeEJdWg?si=WkISfg435JdFulCf

Hear "Forget The Other Guy":

https://youtu.be/TxkuuBLYBtc?si=y20dhnk_X8-RuRcs

More Last Gasps From Liverpool

THE REMO FOUR-"Smile" Germany Star Club 158 034 1967

SIDE ONE:

Heart Beat

The Skate

No Money Down

Rock Candy

The 7th Son

SIDE TWO:

Roadrunner

Brother Where Are You?

Jive Samba

Nothin's Too Good For My Baby Baby

Back in the day (mid/late 1980's) my 60's music guru Ron Rimsite used to recommend records to me when I'd swing into the old Venus Records on West 8th Street in NYC where he worked (or as my pal Larry Grogan once observed "from his perch behind the record counter where he'd dispense insults and advice", or something to that affect).  Most of the time I'd adhere when financially possible.  Once he flung an original copy of a German only LP by a Liverpool band I was vaguely familiar with from a Star Club compilation LP (I was quite mad over the "Liverpool beat group" sound in '86) called "Smile" by The Remo Four. "Mod-man" he said in his nasal North Jersey accent, "you need this".  "What's it like?" I said. "Like Georgie Fame but 100 times better and worth more than all of his records.  It's $25, it's like stealing at this price".  For whatever reason I passed, probably because back then I wasn't yet insane enough to spend that sort of money on records.  Years later I not only sat down and heard it but kicked myself for passing on such a high dollar LP.  Such is the life of a music mod anorak I digress.

The Remo Four would've been just another nameless Liverpool beat group who backed the likes of Johnny Sandon and Tommy Quickly hade they not shuffled a few members and moved to Germany in 1966. They became a hot live commodity there and the un-official house band for the TV show "Beat Club" (where they can be seen in many episodes).  Most notable of these are them kicking the guts out of The Little Boat Race's "Whatcha Gonna Do About It", smoothly delivering Oscar Brown Jr.'s "But I Was Cool" and doing their stunning, raw version of "Peter Gunn", among others.  With their guitar, bass, organ and drums four piece set up they had, by '66 widely embraced jazz/r&b/soul leaving their "beat group" image in the dust of their back pages (leaning heavily on material by my personal favorite, the late/great Oscar Brown Jr.).  Their records did fairly well in Germany.  They were all pretty much covers and after the 1966 issue of "Peter Gunn"/"Mickey's Monkey" (Star Club 148552 STF) they set about recording their debut German only long player "Smile". The personnel in the band at this time were: Colin Manley-guitar/vocals, Tony Ashton-keyboards/vocals, Phil Rogers-bass and Tony Dyke-drums.

Though it contains no originals the album is one of my favorites, not only because of their arrangements and playing but because of the diversity.  By all accounts I've read in 1967 mod was as good as dead in most of England except the provinces and small hold out scenes like Manchester. It was still swinging on the Continent and the Remo Four's choices of material on the LP shows that they were still flying the flag over in Germany.  Kicking off with a jazzy version of Gloria Jone's "Heartbeat" (from her Tower LP "Come And Go With Me") is no bad way to start and the LP just gets better from there.  The band then offer their take the Dean Parrish track, "The Skate" (with plenty of groovy organ)  before sliding into a version of Chuck Berry's "No Money Down" that's been turned into a blues number with Mose Allison styled-laid back vocals. Jack McDuff's "Rock Candy" is next delivered at a breakneck speed before the Mose Allison tribute continues with a fairly note for note version of "7th Son".

Side Two opens with Junior Walker and The Allstar's "Roadrunner", not much different from the original but with some nifty guitar licks. From the album "...Goes To Washington" comes a soulful reading of Oscar Brown Jr.'s "Brother Where Are You", a creative choice in both material and arrangement. A version of Nat Adderley's "Jive Samba" is next with some very tasty drum work c/o Roy Dyke and is delivered in a Booker T & The M.G.'s style and an amped up, amphetamine driven version of Stevie Wonder's "Nothin's Too Good For My Baby" closes the LP.  It's not terribly soulful, vocal wise but still well done thanks to again, the stellar 4 piece musicianship that carries the whole LP.

The band released one last 45 after the LP in Germany, an original written by Colin Manley called "Live Like A Lady" (more on that one soon) b/w Oscar Brown Jr.'s "Sing Hallelujah" (Star Club 148577STF) , though they later composed/recorded a track, "In The First Place" for the film "Wonderwall".  "Smile" got a CD reissue by the Repertoire label with their two Star Club singles, alternate mixes and an unreleased number as bonus tracks.

Hear "Jive Samba":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5-Vax2muTI


Hear "No Money Down":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WDItWbl7tc


Hear "Brother Where Are You?":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iurugYrspEM


Hear "The Skate":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMi7v5P7Jtg


Hear "Heart Beat":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMi7v5P7Jtg