New Year's Eve 1968 "Surprise Partie" with The Who, Small Faces, Booker T, Pink Floyd, Joe Cocker, Fleetwood Mac... Dawn of the Rock Revolution

“Surprise-Partie” (see clip below) was broadcast on French TV on December 31st 1968 from the ORTF Studios in Paris and features The Who, The Small Faces, Booker T and the MGs, The Pink Floyd, The Troggs, The Equals, Joe Cocker, Fleetwood Mac and French band Les Variations.

Nowadays New Year's Eve TV pop / rock specials are the norm - in the UK Jools Holland's Hootenanny has been running for nearly 20 years now - but back in the 60s Rock music was not accepted as mainstream family entertainment nor as prevalent on TV as it is now so this program is actually pretty cool and progressive for its time. Auntie BBC certainly weren't doing this kind of thing in the late 60s.

The Who

The Pipers at the Gates of Dawn
The program may have been a novel idea for its time but it also seems to show mid 60s pop culture in the last throes of its show-business trappings and on the cusp of the new age of rock. 1968 is remembered as a chaotic and revolutionary year - in France it almost brought the downfall of the government - but a musical revolution was also brewing which would affect all the bands here. 1968 can be seen as the last year in which rock'n'roll would still be seen as teenage "entertainment". The rock revolution of 1969 was about to turn it into an "art form" to be taken seriously and the hitherto "underground" hippy culture would go mainstream at Woodstock. The stage was set for change and some of the bands seen here, like The Who and Fleetwood Mac, would reinvent themselves and ride the new wave. Others, like The Troggs or The Equals, would soon find themselves cast adrift by the new rock cognoscenti who found their lightweight punk pop to be frivolous and ephemeral.

The transformation of The Who is perhaps the best example of the changes about to occur. They'd had a run of top 20 hit singles from 1965 to 1967 but had suffered a year long commercial dry spell in 1968. They were even starting to look washed-up. Yet at the time of this (mimed) performance of old hits they were just months away from releasing their rock opera Tommy, triumphing at the Woodstock festival and becoming one the great 1970s stadium rock bands.

It's also worthy of note that this show took place only 3 weeks after the band's stunning and show-stealing live performance in the Rolling Stones Rock'n'Roll Circus film. They didn't know it yet but The Who were about to have their most successful year ever in 1969.

The Small Faces

Unfortunately for the The Small Faces things looked bleaker. They were only weeks away from breaking up and this performance is possibly their last for TV. Singer and guitarist Steve Marriott, aware of the way rock was about to change and frustrated at being unable to shake off the band's Lazy Sunday / Itchycoo Park novelty "pop" image, went off to form rock boogie kings Humble Pie and conquer America. The Small Faces eventually cracked it by recruiting Rod Stewart and Ron Wood and reinventing themselves as the Faces.

Note - Look closely here, you can see Pete Townshend and Keith Moon sitting at the back of the stage - no doubt offering encouragement or the occasional acerbic witticism.

Fleetwood Mac were about to leave the blues behind and find considerable crossover success with chart hits like Albatross and Man of the World.

The Pink Floyd, however, were still finding their way after the loss of Syd Barrett 12 months earlier and were now on the way to becoming the premier live space rock band of 1969 - to which the live half of Ummagumma (recorded 5 months later) would be excellent testament.  

Joe Cocker, like The Who, was to find super-stardom the following summer when he put in a stunning performance at the Woodstock festival.  

The Troggs and The Equals, who might be about to find the new rock revolution a little tougher going, are certainly on fine form here and perhaps act as a portent of the late 70s punk era's return to the ethics of power and simplicity.

Fleetwood Mac

France's Les Variations are worth noting. This show was actually their TV debut and they soon left behind their rather splendid garage punk posturing here and started to write harder rock material that showed a strong north African and Moroccan influence. They became one of France's most successful bands of the early 70s and also the first French rock band to tour America and sign with an American label.

Booker T and the MGs

The Performances
All performances are live except The Who and The Small Faces who mimed for some reason. Did their gear get lost on the Channel ferry?

The Booker T and the MGs set is outstanding although there seems to be a bit of a mystery with regard to the date. The Stax / Volt tour of Europe with the MGs, Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Carla Thomas and Sam and Dave was in early 1967. Did the MGs return on their own the following year?

The Equals, who were one the UK's first racially integrated bands, perform a frantic set of soul stompers. Fleetwood Mac are also on fine form with Jeremy Spencer, in full-on Elmore James mode, taking the lead on two of the three songs.  

Les Variations are simply classic 60s garage rock. Playing before an, at times, wildly enthusiastic home crowd this is an impressive TV debut. I'm sure many of those present would even have claimed that they stole the show.

Les Variations

All in all, this is great stuff. Like Hugh Hefner's "Playboy After Dark" it is another classic example of late 60s grooviness from a glittering day-glo era which was just about to change into a darker shade of denim and take itself far more seriously...

See below for artist order and tracklisting.

The WHO
01 - I’m A Boy
02 - I Can See For Miles
03 - Magis Bus
Roger Daltrey : vocals
Peter Townshend : guitar, vocals
John Entwistle : bass
Keith Moon : drums

The SMALL FACES
01 - Odgen’s Nut Gone Flake
02 - Song Of A Baker
03 - Rollin’ Over
Steve Marriott : guitar, vocal
Ian McLagan : keyboards
Ronnie Lane : bass
Kenny Jones : drums

BOOKER T & The MGs live at “Bibelot", unknown date”
01 - Green Onions
02 - Hooker Loo
Booker T Jones : organ
Steve Cropper : guitar
Donald “Duck” Dunn : bass
Al Jackson : drums

PINK FLOYD live at “Bilboquet" - Paris, Sept 7, 1968
01 - Let There Be More Light
David Gilmour : guitar, vocals
Richard Wright : keyboards, vocals
Roger Waters : bass, vocals
Nick Mason : drums

The EQUALS
01 - Softly Softly
02 - Equality
03 - Baby Come Back
Derv Gordon - lead vocals
Lincoln Gordon - guitar
Eddy Grant - guitar
Pat Lloyd - bass guitar
John Hall - drums

Les VARIATIONS
01 - Around & Around
02 - Everybody Needs Somebody
To Love
03 - Satisfaction
Joe Lebb : vocals
Marc Tobaly : guitar
Jacques “Petit Pois” Grande : bass
Jacky Bitton : drums

The TROGGS
01 - I Can’t Control Myself
02 - Peggy Sue
03 - Somewhere My Girl Is Waiting
Reg Presley : vocals
Chris Britton : guitar
Pete Staples : bass
Ronnie Bond : drums

JOE COCKER live at "Tour de Nesle" - Paris, unknown date
01 - I Shall Be Released
02 - With A Little Help From My Friends

FLEETWOOD MAC
01 - Homework
02 - My Baby's Sweet
03 - Dust My Broom
Peter Green : guitar, vocals
Jeremy Spencer : slide guitar, piano, vocals
Danny Kirwan : guitar
John McVie : bass
Mick Fleetwood : drums



Bonus tracks
Other artists who performed on the show but are not included in the clip above: Davy Jones, Marie La Foret, Jaques Dutronic, Aphrodite's Child, Antoine, Herbert Leonard, Johnny Haliday, Francoise Hardy and PP Arnold. The latter two are worth seeing though PP Arnold suffers from a bad sound mix.

Francoise Hardy - À quoi ça sert / Où va la chance / Suzanne

PP Arnold - If You Think You're Groovy
The Small Faces played on the recording but, funnily enough, are not here to mime to it.

More stranger than known

Hugh Hefner's "Playboy After Dark" 

Peter Green - "A Mind To Give Up Living" - The Blues of Despair and Salvation

The Faces BBC Sessions - 5 Guys Walk Into The BBC...

Parallax - The Pink Floyd BBC Sessions 

Amazing Journey - The road to "Live at Leeds". The Who Live in Philadelphia 19/10/1969

Hugh Hefner's "Playboy After Dark" with The Byrds, BB King, Tina Turner, Grateful Dead, Country Joe, Fleetwood Mac, Deep Purple...

 

A compilation of live performances by Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly, Taj Mahal, BB King, Canned Heat, Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds, Sir Douglas Quintet, Steppenwolf, The Nitty Gritty Dirt band, The Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac, The Ike and Tina Turner Revue and Country Joe and the Fish on Hugh Hefner's late 60s Playboy After Dark TV Show.

Hugh Hefner plays
Ritchie Blackmore's guitar

Watch this while you can. It may not be on youtube for long.

In the late 60s Playboy founder and editor / publisher Hugh Hefner hosted a syndicated TV talk show with musical guests called Playboy After Dark. The show portrayed a "typical" party at Hefner's pad complete with Playboy playmates and celebrities. Hugh would chat informally and some pretty cool bands would turn up and play live in his mocked up tv studio "penthouse". Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, The Byrds (with Clarence White), The Grateful Dead (with Tom Constanten),  Deep Purple (with Rod Evans and Nick Simper), Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Canned Heat and Country Joe and the Fish are just a few performers seen in the compilation below  And all the while Hefner can be seen puffing on his pipe with a bunny or two on his arm looking like someone who, in 1969, would have passed for the epitome of square.

The Grateful Dead

BB King

To be fair, Hefner put these bands on TV when no one else was interested. To appear on Ed Sullivan you had to have a hit and be mainstream friendly. The Smothers Brothers show was pretty hip but again favoured bands like the Jefferson Airplane who'd had commercial success. This makes some of the clips here super rare and and gives Playboy After Dark a certain cool. This compilation is a joy to watch. Pure time trip. Sexy and fun. Fantastic Bands, great dancers, groovy clothes...
Classic 60s TV.

According to legend when the Grateful Dead appeared they dosed everyone with high grade acid and the cameramen ended up filming the ceiling. They weren't invited back.

Playboy After Dark
01. DEEP PURPLE (Oct. 23, 1968) And The Address, Hush. 02. IRON BUTTERFLY (Aug. 8, 1968) In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Iron Butterfly Theme. 03. TAJ MAHAL (Oct. 16, 1968) Everybody's Got To Change Sometime, EZ Rider. 04. B.B. KING (April 15, 1970) So Excited, The Thrill Is Gone. 05. CANNED HEAT (Jan. 20, 1969) Turpentine Moan, On The Road Again 06. LINDA RONSTADT (April 16, 1970), Lovesick Blues, Long Long Time 07. THE BYRDS (Sept. 28, 1968) You Ain't Goin' Nowhere, This Wheel's On Fire 08. SIR DOUGLAS QUINTET (Jan. 25, 1969) Mendocino, She's About A Mover 09. STEPPENWOLF (Dec. 17, 1969), Berry Rides Again, Monster-Suicide-America, From Here To There Eventually 10. THE NITTY GRITTY DIRTBAND (Dec. 11, 1968), Washington At Valley Forge, Alligator Man 11. THE GRATEFUL DEAD (Jan. 18, 1969) Mountains Of The Moon, St. Stephen 12. FLEETWOOD MAC (Jan. 8, 1970) Rattlesnake Shake 13. IKE AND TINA TURNER REVUE (Dec. 3, 1969), I Want To Take You Higher, Come Together, Proud Mary 14. COUNTRY JOE AND THE FISH ( April 16, 1970) Sing Sing Sing, I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag

Big thanks to the youtube uploader.

Bonus - 2 shows
If that is not enough for you here are two complete shows featuring Ike and Tina Turner and Sammy Davis Jr. Fascinating viewing. Tina Turner is sublime and Sammy Davis looks like he's been getting wardrobe advice from Jimi Hendrix. The rest is occasionally ridiculous but no more inane that what you get nowadays on the Graham Norton show. Also features The Checkmates, Anthony Newley and a young Bill Cosby

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1970 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival documentary

Fairport Convention Bouton Rouge Sessions   

Freddie King live on POP2 - September 1973

The Grateful Dead - 1969 Dark Star set to vintage film ...

Ten Years After - Swing In 1969 

The Pretty Things live on Pop 2 - 13th January 1971...

Peter Green - "A Mind To Give Up Living" - The Blues of Despair and Salvation

Peter Green, Chicago Blues Recording Sessions
Photo © Jeff Lowenthal

Peter Green is the most outstanding British blues guitar player to come out of the 1960s blues boom.

Clapton, Page, McLaughlin... yeah they were brilliant too but for me the art is in the soul and Peter Green had soul. Loads of it. Maybe even too much. BB King said "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats" and Green’s stunning solo on Fleetwood Mac’s officially unreleased live rendition of BB King's "I've Got A Mind To Give Up Living" (recorded live at The Warehouse, in New Orleans on 31st January 1970 - see clip below) demonstrates how really spot on the mark BB was.

But this is really not just a case of the cold sweats. This is the blues and if something can be described as "achingly beautiful" this is it. The 4 minute solo is an agonizingly moving, heart-aching, bare knuckled exploration of the despair the song’s stark lyrics only hint at.


I've got a good mind to give up living, and go shopping instead.
I say, I've got a good mind to give up living, and go shopping instead.
To pick up me a tombstone, and be pronounced dead.

When I read your letter this morning that was in your place in bed.
I read your letter this morning that was in your place in bed.
And that's when I decided, that I would be better off dead.

It read, there is no use you looking, or ever hoping to get me back.
Oh, there's no use you looking, or ever hoping to get me back.
Yes, because it's all over now, and baby you can bet on that.

(Songwriter: Carl B. Adams)


It’s bleak. The first line comes complete with a punchline that might bring a smile to your face but it's then forcibly removed by the following line which comes almost as a slap. It seems humour has no place here. There is only loss and despair and the final line is a killer. We’ve all been there, fleetingly if we are lucky, but this is a dark place and no one would want to stay for too long. Anyone who has experienced depression or the pain of loss knows that words are often inadequate yet the musicality, tone and development of Green’s solo seems to evoke and communicate that despair in a way that forces us to empathize and be moved by it. Around the 4:30 mark the solo becomes almost so unbearably intense, with notes scattering like firecrackers, that the listener is left stunned by the emotion it lays bare. Truly breathtaking. Take a listen.

And yet where does this ability to transform a situation so dark and painful into something we can all relate to and be moved by come from?

Peter Green had soul but it came at a price. He was a man who must have profoundly understood the song's despair. He was, by the time of this recording, a man beset by his own personal demons. In 1970 Fleetwood Mac were the most successful band to come out of the second British Blues boom of the late 1960s. They had even crossed over into mainstream success in the UK with hit singles like Albatross, Black magic Woman and Oh Well. They had put out three very successful albums and were building a strong reputation touring the USA. The Live in Boston box set (recorded in February 1970) and other unofficial recordings from this time show them to be a live band to be reckoned with. The Fleetwood / McVie rhythm section were rock solid and Green and second guitarist Danny Kirwin’s fiery duel leads on songs like Rattlesnake Shake and The Green Manalishi turned them into mammoth jamathons that, not only maintained intensity, pace and structure but also rocked liked merry hell. For me, Fleetwood Mac's Live in Boston ranks alongside The Who Live At Leeds and The Grateful Dead's Two From The Vault as one of the best live sets of the rock era. Hard rock with power, precision, and passion.

They looked like a band who were about to be one of the most successful international rock bands of the 70s. Another Zeppelin, Who or Stones. Yet five months after this New Orleans performance Peter gave it all up and Fleetwood Mac would have to wait until the end of the decade and with a very different line-up to achieve the success that seemed so close in 1970.

The first signs of Green's alienation from fame and success can be heard in the lyrics of 1969’s "Man of the World" single. "I guess I've got everything I need. I wouldn't ask for more. And there's no one I'd rather be but I just wish that I'd never been born."  Green was also consuming large quantities of LSD, had started to wear robes and appeared almost messianic on stage. He also wanted to give away all the band’s earnings. The monster in the 1970 single The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown) was money.

In late March 1970, a few weeks after the New Orleans Warehouse show, Green had some kind of LSD freak-out at a commune in Munich and according to Fleetwood Mac manager Clifford Davis his mental decline became far more pronounced from there on.

Green left Fleetwood Mac after a final performance at a festival in Bath on 23rd May 1970 where one audience member described him as looking lonely and dejected. There were a few live appearances after that. He appeared at the June Bath Festival with John Mayall, and also recorded a solo album which was pretty much just a long jam session (The End of the Game). There was also a brief temporary reunion with Fleetwood Mac in 1971 when Green helped the band to complete a US tour after guitarist Jeremy Spencer quit but nothing more came of it..

Green then became a recluse, was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and faded into obscurity for the rest of the decade.

He returned to recording in the late 70s and, as his health improved in the 90s, he even toured with his new Splinter Group but for me, those recordings, good as they are, come nowhere near what he achieved with Fleetwood Mac. As far as I know he has now retired from performing. The BBC made a documentary of his life called "Man of the World" in 2009 (see below).


The Blues of Despair.
That someone can create music of such delicacy and feeling from so dark a place does, I suppose, beg the perennial question - Is great art dependent on pain? Pfff... Maybe. Sometimes. If that is what drives the art but I'd like to think that is not always the case. There must be other forces at work. Imagination, a need for personal exploration, a desire to communicate....

And the salvation?
Depression is cruel and bleak and it can affect all of us to varying degrees. It’s a disease that one suffers alone in a kind of mental solitary confinement. "A Mind To Give Up Living" may be a just a song and a guitar solo but if the artist moves us and helps us to empathize with that suffering then he or she also helps us to understand it. It unifies us.
And that is a start...



Man of the World
2009 BBC documentary on the life of Peter Green directed by Steve Graham. It features archive performances and interviews with Carlos Santana, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green.

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