Lobby Loyde & The Coloured Balls: Sharpie Music

Melbourne, Australia sharpies circa 1971

One of these days I'm going to get around to chatting about about a subculture in the late 60's/early-mid 70's in Australia called the sharpies and posting some pics of this truly Australian only phenomena. They looked like a weird cross between skinheads/suedeheads/glam rockers and tacky 70's styles. They seemed to have a penchant for mullets and flares which made them look decidedly odd. But make no mistake from all I've read and the pics I've seen they were hard nuts. Unlike their British skinhead/suedehead cousins their musical tastes were pretty uncool, no reggae/rocksteady/soul for these bootboys, they were into some very heavy rock n' roll.

One of the few bands they championed that I do dig were Lobby Loyde and the Coloured Balls. Here's a clip of them playing some serious aggro music in the form of their single "Devil's Disciple" from 1973 that seems to anticipate the British Oi! movement by a good six years!

MONSTER U.K. Organ FREAKOUT!

JULIEN COVEY & THE MACHINE-A Little Bit Hurt/Sweet Bacon France Fontana 260.100 TF 1967

Awwwwlright, doesn't get any more happening than this monster two sided U.K. organ groover. On the A-side we have "A Little Bit Hurt" which sounds like Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels if they were a but more organ heavy. The band's soulful lead vocalist Julien Covey was also their drummer AND depped for The Who's Keith Moon on a few dates in early '67 while Moonie was recuperating from a hernia he got while throwing his kit around. His voice sounds a lot like Mitch Ryder and the organ playing is damned identical to Wynder K. Frog's stuff on Island (they both shared the same label and were both produced one of my fave knob twiddlers, the late great Jimmy Miller). "A Little Bit Hurt" benefits from a nice chanted main chorus and some (yes!) cowbell! But the flip is where it really gets out of hand (in a good way). "Sweet Bacon" will go down in U.K. 60's instro Hammond heaven (along with Wynder K. Frog's "I'm A Man", Stone's Masonry's "Flapjacks", The St. Louis Union's "English Tea" and The Small Face's "Own Up Time"). It's as, one man said, a stone gas from start to finish. Some Bluesbreakers-style lead guitar bursts and wailing, twirling ("and always twirling, twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom"-Kodos) organ that evokes The Spencer Davis Group Mark One at the end of their (B-3 heavy) days.

"A Little Bit Hurt" has appeared on many CD compilations, most recently on Psychic Circle's "New Directions:British Blue Eyed Soul" while "Sweet Bacon" has turned up on the "Instro Hipsters A Go-Go Volume Two" CD compilation.

"A Little Bit Hurt":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXykaE6qVIo

"Sweet Bacon":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud-HnVQjjE0

Foreign E.P.'s Part Two

THE EQUALS-Yugoslavian E.P. (I Won't Be There/Fire/Baby Come Closer/Baby Come Back/Hold Me Closer) Produkcija Gramofoskin Ploca EP 53259 Pr 1967

The Equals kicked ass, anybody not familiar with this amazing multi-racial U.K. 60's band needs to stop what they're doing and go order one of their CD's NOW! Known chiefly for the strength of their 1967 hit "Baby Come Back" and for being Eddie "Electric Avenue" Grant's first band, they chalked up a number of cool 45's/LP's from 1966-1970. Before Eddie dyed his fro yellow and the band got kitted out in clown costumes they were mod as hell as you can see above. Undeniably rhythmic, you can't hear their soulful numbers without at least tapping your feet!

Evidently "Baby Come Back" was a big enough hit to get released in Yugoslavia of all places on this nifty looking little E.P. that sports a photo presumably from the same shoot that provided the cover shot for their amazing debut LP "Unequaled Equals". They chose the band's first U.K. 45 (A and B side), the storming "I Won't Be There" and it's equally amazing but less common on compilation CD's "Fire" to round off side one. Side two was filled out by the "hit" the proto-rocksteady "Baby Come Back" and it's brass driven flipside "Hold Me Closer" (which utilizes almost the same riff as "Baby..").

(Below) The Equals live on German TV's "Beat Beat Beat" 1967 doing side two of this E.P. and two other cuts:

(Below)And lip syncing "I Won't Be There" on German TV's "Beat Club" 2/25/67:

The Kitsch Consortium Hall Of Heroes

FRANKIE RANDALL-"The Mods And The Pops" U.S. LP RCA Victor LSP-3941 1968

High camp! Cheese so thick it wouldn't melt in fondue! But I love cheese. This possibly explains why I'm so enamoured with the old "SCTV" skits like "The Sammy Maudlin Show" and my hero "Bobby Bitmann" (played with City of Brotherly Love borscht belt aplomb by Eugene Levy). I also love corny LP's by 60's artists covering contemporary hits in semi hip AND unhip ways.

From what I can gather Frankie Randall was/is a wanna be Sinatra from Passiac, New Jersey. His website hysterically boasts "everyone calls Frankie Randall the real deal because he is the last link to Sinatra's Rat Pack". Ho boy..... Anyway I'm not sure who's idea it was to have this crooner of no repute cover so many "hip" songs but the LP is full of some interesting ideas, namely inclusion of a version of The Move's "Flowers In The Rain". The Move were pretty much unknown in the U.S. (despite having a few of their early singles released on A&M) at the time so points for forward thinking go to some A&R man! Even more obscure is his take on Carter/Lewis creation, The Flowerpot Men and their U.K. answer to Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco(Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair)", "Let's Go To San Francisco". There are also versions of Donovan's "Lelainia", The Cowsill's "The Rain, The Park And Other Things", Jay and The Technique's "Keep The Ball Rolling" and a Donovan composition called "Be Not Too Hard" that I am not familiar with. Of course all of these numbers are delivered in the lifeless supper club crooner saccharine/cheeseball style that one would expect from a wanna be Sinatra. However the crown jewel of the lot is his version of The Who's "I Can See For Miles". It's so cheezy Rhino dug it up for inclusion on their very first "Golden Throats" compilation all those years ago. It's campy, over the top and he even get the words wrong, but it's worth it (providing you paid $5.00 for the LP like I did). There's some "Association" type "ba ba ba ba's" behind Frankie's lifeless delivery with some "Along Comes Mary" style flute and sawing symphony.

Hear "I Can See For Miles":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgcogT4CYNc

Frankie's "official" website:

http://www.frankierandall.com/index.html

Davy Jones & The Lower Third

DAVY JONES & THE LOWER THIRD, Marquee Club London September 1965

DAVY JONES (with The Lower Third)-You've Got A Habit Of Leaving/Baby Loves that Way U.K. Parlophone R 5315 1965

By August 20, 1965 David Robert Jones had been in two different bands, who released two records a piece encompassing two different styles (beat/r&b as Davie Jones and The King Bees with "Liza Jane"/"Louie Go Home" Vocallion Pop V 9221 June 1964 and r&b ala Georgie Fame/Zoot Money with The Manish Boys "I Pity The Fool"/"Take My Tip" Parlophone R 5250 March 1965). Neither record did anything. For his next venture he teamed up with three gentlemen he'd met in a coffee bar on Denmark Street in April of 1965 (then home to many of London's music publishing offices) called The Lower Third consisting of Denis "Tea Cup" Taylor (lead guitar), "Graham Rivens (bass) and Les Mighall (drums) . The quartet firmly embraced (though reluctantly for some of the group's members) the "mod" image and manager (ex-Moody Blues roadie Ralph Horton) duly took them down to Carnaby Street and got them kitted out in matching white Ben Sherman's, floral ties, grey trousers and crepe soled suede shoes. In May before any gigging could be undertaken Mighall was replaced by Phil Lancaster and the band set about gigging around, namely at London's Marquee and 100 Club, Bournemouth's Pavilion and the Isle of Wight's Ventnor Winter Garden's throughout the summer of '65. Jones used his contacts with the producer of his single with The Manish Boys, Shel Talmy to garner another Parlophone release for his new combo, whose debut he would produce further cementing the band's Who fixation.

"You've Got A Habit Of Leaving" would be Jone's first original "A" side (his debut composition "Take My Tip" was relegated to the bottom side of his previous 45 with The Manish Boys). The band's obvious Who/Kinks fetish is apparent from the moment Taylor's first chord strikes and the backing vocals bear the oft familiar Who-ish feel to them. Instead of a guitar solo there's an "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" styled "rave up" where Rivens does a series of swooping bass runs and Taylor elicits feedback and some wiggy Joe Meek sounding noodling while Jones blows some harp and then it all comes back to earth. The flipside, to me is the more powerful of the two as it tramps along at an almost Motown feel with it's mid tempo pace. The band provide shouting backing vocals and Taylor cranks out a brief blistering solo laden in volume and distortion.

Of course it failed to make any impact and the normally inept Horton did manage to get the band another record deal with producer Tony Hatch and Pye records, but first Davy Jones would change his name to David Bowie to avoid confusion with a diminutive Mancunian playing in the pre-fab four. Like the Parlophone release here, the Pye debut would not contain the Lower Third's name anywhere on the 45 label, hastening their disenchantment and immediate demise.

Both sides can be found on the excellent Rhino records CD "David Bowie: Early On (1964-1966).

"Baby Loves That Way":

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

"You've Got A Habit Of Leaving":

https://youtu.be/BgVfAkIOTOo

Foreign E.P.'s Part One (Via Portugal)!

THE BYRDS- E.P. Portugal CBS 6192 EP 0084 (Mr. Tambourine Man, I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better/Don't Doubt Yourself Babe, It's No Use) 1966

Here's an odd duck, a Portuguese Byrds E.P. Unlike most European traditions of combining two U.S. or U.K. singles by British or American acts with both their "A" and "B" sides Portuguese Sixties E.P.'s always seem to center around one "A" side and a miscellany of other tracks. Case in point they've taken Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and left off it's U.S./U.K. "B" side "I Knew I'd Want You" and included the band original composition "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better" (the U.S./U.K. "B" side of "All I Really Want To Do") alongside it on side "A" of this E.P. Side "B" takes two tracks from the "Mr. Tambourine Man" album, Jackie DeShannon's "Don't Doubt Yourself Babe" and band original "It's No Use". And unlike most of their homegrown 7"'s Portuguese pressings of foreign bands on major labels were always high quality affairs on solid vinyl with laminated, glossy hard stock E.P. picture sleeves (sadly my Byrds E.P. came without a sleeve and came in a stock CBS sleeve) that like their French counterparts offered colorful variations utilizing different photos and interesting artwork differing from American and British releases.

Indigenous Portuguese 60's rock n' roll releases are scarce, not just because there were very few and the country was economically depressed, but because the manufacturing quality was not up to the same standard as the domestic releases of foreign artists on labels like CBS or Fontana who had financial backing from their parent countries. Portuguese 60's rock n' roll singles/E.P.s often tend to come in almost tracing paper thin picture sleeves on brittle, light vinyl discs often bearing label work that in some cases was merely ink stamped (akin to some of the more rare obscure 60's Jamaican ska 45's ). This of course does not add up with general wear and tear to ensure that there will be many copies left in playable condition 40+ years on.

R&B Power:British Style

DUFFY POWER-It Ain't Necessarily So/If I Get Lucky Someday U.K. Parlophone R 4992 1963
British rhythm and blues legend Duffy Power needs no introduction. Born Ray Howard and like fellow Brit r&b icon Georgie Fame, received his new moniker care of British early 60's rock n' roll impresario Larry Parnes. Power cut a series of MOR crooner and rock n' roll records for the Fontana label before switching to EMI's Parlophone outlet and more importantly switching to playing r&b. Overnight Power's image, dress style and repertoire changed almost overnight. Speaking to "Record Collector's" John Reed in 1995 Power cited seeing the Graham Bond Organization live at The Flamingo and hearing "The Best Of Muddy Waters" over at Billy Fury's flat as being crucial to his new found makeover.
His Parlophone debut in February 1963 was the platter here in question. It would be pointless to try to catalog the number of British r&b artists who cut versions of Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So". Duffy's version, thanks to his soulful voice is a cut above them all (aided by some very sophisticated guitar work by session slinger Big Jim Sullivan and some very churchy organ). The flip, is far superior with the same session men employed making it a classic example of bluesy, moddy British Sixties r&b with the organ and guitar answering each other with little riffs while Duffy sings along like a Mose Allison acolyte. Best of all it's a Duffy Power orginal (credited to him utilizing his real name in the credits).
The record didn't chart, but Power built a solid reputation with further brilliant releases in the same vein. The next being a version of "I Saw Her Standing There" where he was backed by the mighty Graham Bond Quartet (Parlophone R 5024) in May 1963. But that, as they say, is another story for another time (watch this space for it).
Luckily both sides of this 45 are available on the highly recommended Duffy Power double CD on RPM "Leapers And Sleepers" and an alternate version of "If I Get Lucky Some Day" cropped up on the equally recommended British 60's r&b CD compilation "Take My Tip: 25 British Mod Artefacts From The EMI Vaults".

"If I Get Lucky Some Day":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kTpUEhWVnE

"It Ain't Necessarily So":

https://youtu.be/6GE9d9u1iCY