stranger than known: Beatles

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Saturday, 16 April 2016

The Flamin' Groovies at the Gijon Sound Festival 15/4/2016

I have always had a soft spot for the Flamin' Groovies.

I bought their classic Shake Some Action as soon as it came out in the spring / early summer of 1976 on the strength of the review in the NME. That album, along with the first Ramones (which I bought exactly one week later - also on the recommendation of the NME) seemed to be the fast forward button into punkish things to come.

By 1976 there was change in the air. Punk was about to happen and the Groovies album, along with the similarly retro first two Dr Feelgood albums, appeared to point to the way forward, away from all the excess of early 70s glam and prog rock and back into a new refreshingly stripped down, black and white world of skinny ties, drainpipe trousers and the three chord trick.

In fact it's arguable that the Groovies were the first band to see 60s retro as a way forward - in the USA anyway. .At the time its resolute re-affirmation of the values of 1965 - three minute songs with catchy hooks and jangly guitars - can be seen as both a forerunner of, as well as an influence on, the likes of late 70s Mod revivalists The Jam, and also the later psychedelic Cosmic Amerikana bands of the early 80s - The Rain Parade, The Long Ryders et al.

Shake Some Action is a classic album brimful of some seriously catchy self penned songs (and a few covers) that still sounds fresh some 40 years later.

But it wasn't just that it had some great songs on it - I Can't Hide, You Tore Me Down, I Saw Her, Teenage Confidential are all classics - but it also appealed to my own teenage 60s mod nostalgia obsession and I spent the latter months of 76 I trying to track down their previous albums Teenage Head and Flamingo - not easy in those days, as neither album had sold especially well and they were, by that time, long deleted.

However, due probably to the hype around the burgeoning UK punk scene and the Groovies evident influence on it along with other similar purveyors of high energy rock like the New York Dolls, Stooges and MC5 - whose albums I was also eagerly trying to track down at the time - both Teenage Head (1971) and Flamingo (1970) did get a surprise reissue as a double album package on the UK Kama Sutra label in late 1976.

And when eventually I found it - in, of all places, Boots the chemist who, in those days, sold vinyl albums as well as cosmetics and aspirins - and took it home, I was staggered to hear a completely different band (Cyril Jordan and bassist George Alexander being the only two musicians Teenage Head and Shake Some Action had in common) and musical approach; one that owed far more to the raunchy R'n'B of the Stones, and even 50s Rock and Roll, than to the jangling mid 60s poppery of the Beatles and Byrds.

Teenage Head is in fact a classic hard rock album - comparable to the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers. Flamingo is no slouch either. On both albums singer Roy Loney swaggers and leers in best Jagger mode and guitarist Cyril Jordan also proves a dab hand at coming up with memorable chunky block chord riffs à la Keith Richards. Lead track Teenage Head being a prime example.

As a guitarist Cyril should not be underestimated. Groovies albums are packed with some killer riffs - Slow Death, Heading For The Texas Border, High Flyin' Baby all come to mind and Shake Some Action (co-written by him and Loney's replacement, Chris Wilson) is a glorious pop song that really should have been a massive hit.

Strange to say though that despite being one of my favourite bands of 76 I never got to see them live.

So when I heard the reformed band - Roy Loney, Chris Wilson, Cyril Jordan, original founding member and bass player George Alexander, plus drummer Victor Penalosa - were coming to the Gijon Sound Festival on their 50th Anniversary tour, I was seriously looking forward to seeing them.

They did not disappoint. It was a blasting white hot set chock that drew on "hits" from both the early Roy Loney era and the later Chris Wilson band.

Cyril is still a very tasty picker and the years have given Loney's voice a power and confidence which I think he lacked as a younger singer.

Check these clips from Youtube for proof.

So, 50 years on from when they formed and 40 years on from when I bought Shake Some Action, this is how good they were...

Better than ever?

Shake Some Action!

More stranger than known

The Rolling Stones' finest hour - "Get Yer Leeds Lungs Out"...

The Sadies - This Week's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World live...

The Tarnished Gold - Beachwood Sparks

The Ugly Beats and Peralta live in Gijon 11/12/2014 - Sublime Nineteen-Sixty-Sixicity

Friday, 27 June 2014

The Birth of the British Voice in Rock. British Psychedelia 1967 to 1974 - A Radio Kras podcast (in Spanish)

Last Friday I had the pleasure of appearing again on Gimi's show "In Campo Aperto" on Gijon's Radio Kras in Spain.

We decided to put together a program about British late 60s / early 70s psychedelia and the birth of the "British voice" in rock music.

One of the notable things about late 60s British psychedelia is that for the first time British rock bands stopped the pretense of singing in American accents and started to sing about more homegrown themes in an English accent - albeit quite a middle class one. British psychedelia gave the Brits a chance to take American music and really make it their own.

It should be remembered that right up until the mid 60s everyone, including the Beatles, was singing American inspired pop and R'n'B in their best fake American accents. The true "British voice" in rock was born with Ray Davies and the Kinks singing about London's dedicated followers of fashion and well-respected men but then, around 1967, under the stewardship of Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd, Traffic, Caravan and quite a few others, it emigrates from the city to "get it together in the country" and explore the idyllic sultry summer afternoons of hazy childhood reminiscence in a manner that seemed quite heavily influenced by Lewis Caroll. British pop music of this period seems to take on a much hazier and greener hue as if to reflect the countryside itself. As I have observed elsewhere I can't help but think Jonathan Miller's (somewhat psychedelic) 1966 film interpretation of Alice In Wonderland may have had an influence on this new exploration of the pastoral but anyway, by the summer of 1967, a new interest in all things arcadian in British pop can plainly be heard in the addition of a new palate of instruments, such as flutes, mellotrons, harpsichords and horns, to create a kind of bucolic English baroque 'n' roll. Traffic and the Pink Floyd may have led the way but even the Rolling Stones sidestepped their usual R'n'B to make Ruby Tuesday and Dandelion - two of the finest examples of the new sound. The Beatles, as usual, topped everyone with Strawberry Fields Forever - a song and production which, in my opinion, is a kind of impressionist pop classic. In fact, considering its themes, perhaps this period can even be seen as a kind of British musical version of 19th Century French impressionism.

It has been criticized as an ephemeral and rather naive stage in British rock but some glorious music came out of it. So here is the show we put together as a kind of celebration of British pop's impressionist psychedelic baroque'n'roll period and its first attempt at a uniquely "British" sound. It is a mixture of the popular and well-known with a few unreleased rare things like the Traffic and Pink Floyd BBC concerts from 1970 and 1971 respectively.

Enjoy. The commentary is in Spanish.

Pink Floyd - See Emily Play / Paintbox / Kinks – See My Friends / Victoria / Shangri-la / Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever / Rolling Stones - Goodbye Ruby Tuesday / She’s a Rainbow / Traffic – Paper Sun / 40 Thousand Headmen / Traffic BBC in Concert (April 1970) - Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring? / Every Mother's Son / Medicated Goo / John Barleycorn Must Die / Pink Floyd BBC Concert (September 1971) – Fat Old Sun / One of These Days / Yardbirds – Happenings 10 Years Time Ago / Tomorrow – My White Bicycle / Pretty Things – Defecting Grey / Zombies - Beechwood Park / Hung Up On A Dream / Caravan - And I Wish I Were Stoned / Don't Worry / Robert Wyatt – A Last Straw / Little Red Riding Hood Hits The Road / Kevin Ayers – Stop This Train / Religious Experience / Rolling Stones - Dandelion

Download here
https://archive.org/details/Aperto200614

http://radiokras.net/index.php?id=2162

More stranger than known
Jonathan Miller's Psychedelic Alice in Wonderland

Parallax - The Pink Floyd BBC Sessions

The Intergalactic Sofa - A Radio Kras Podcast

My Radio Kras Podcasts - From Punk to Funk

Ten 21st Century Summer Psychedelic Nuggets

Tuesday, 18 June 2013

Jonathan Miller's Psychedelic Alice in Wonderland

Shown on BBC TV just after Christmas 1966 Jonathan Miller's Alice in Wonderland caused a similar media furor to that of the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour exactly one year later. The Daily Mail called the film X rated and it was even seen as an attack on family values. This is not therefore the Alice in Wonderland of Disney or more recent adaptations for children. This was made for adults and most of the characters are played by actors in standard Victorian dress. It also explored some of the more philosophical and existentialist themes that are often ignored in other versions of the story. Alice asks "Who am I?" and is lost in world where nothing is real.

In other words, this is 1966 and Alice is going down to Strawberry Fields...

Seen now, this film can be viewed as an evocation of the same ethereal spacey English summer afternoon that The Pink Floyd would explore on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, or The Beatles on Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds and Strawberry Fields Forever. A multitude of other British psychedelically inspired bands were also about to trip through these same fields during 1967's "summer of love" which was just round the corner. The soundtrack features the sitar of Ravi Shankar which also imbues the film with a humid air of psychedelic sensory abandonment.

US band Jefferson Airplane probably recorded the most famous ode to Alice and the psychedelic exploration of inner space with their White Rabbit but, unlike their American counterparts who took acid and headed off into both inner and outer space, British hippies took hallucinogenics and were transported back to a kind of idealized magical summer afternoon of childhood innocence. There is a very strong pastoral influence in British psychedelia which can be heard in many recordings from this period. Try watching this film with the sound off and listen to the first couple of Traffic, albums or Donovan, The Zombies, The Incredible String Band, Sgt Pepper, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, The Rolling Stones' 1967 singles Dandelion and Ruby Tuesday as well as parts of Satanic Majesties, or any decent late 60s psychedelic compilation; Mojo magazine's Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers for instance, and you will hear the mood that is evoked by the film is also that which is explored by the music of this era

As this film was shown on TV in late December 1966 it's no stretch of the imagination to suggest that this film must have had an influence on the development of British psychedelia in the months that followed.

Miller's directing style is slow and photographic. Scenes appear at times to be staged for a Victorian photo album.The film also features some of Miller's acting friends and acquaintances and can perhaps also be seen as part of that surreal strand in British humour that was prevalent in the 60s. Peter Sellers is the King of Hearts and two of Miller's fellow cast members from Beyond the Fringe, Peter Cook and Alan Bennett are the Mad Hatter and the Mouse. Steptoe and Son's Wilfrid Brambell plays the White Rabbit, Leo McKern (who would go on to play No.2 in The Prisoner) is in drag as the Ugly Duchess and even Malcolm Muggeridge (the journalist and broadcaster famous for accusing Monty Python's Life of Brian for blasphemy) is in it as the Gryphon. Coincidentally, it also features Monty Python's Eric Idle as an uncredited member of the Caucus Race.
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So if you are in the mood for a trip back to the pastoral psychedelia of Grantchester Meadows or Strawberry Fields Forever then follow the white rabbit below.
But make sure you're home in time for tea...

Jonathan Miller's Alice in Wonderland (1966)

Directed by: Jonathan Miller
Produced by: Jonathan Miller
Written by: Lewis Carroll (novel); Jonathan Miller (teleplay)
Music by: Ravi Shankar
Cinematography: Dick Bush
Editing by: Pam Bosworth
Release date: 28 December 1966

Note on location

The scenes of Alice running down corridors of wide open windows at the beginning of the film were shot at the now demolished Royal Victoria Military Hospital in Netley near Southampton. Part of the building still exists as a museum and the stairs Alice runs down can be seen from the entrance. The museum commemorates the old hospital which was originally built in 1863 and was used for military personnel during various wars of Empire and the 1st World War. Psychiatrist R.D. Laing worked there in the 1950s when he was in the army.

The grounds are now a country park. I've often been down there walking the dog. There is a duck pond and fields and woods at the back. And on humid soporific summer days, when there's no one else around, it can still cast a spell...