U.K. 1960s


THE JOHN DUMMER BLUES BAND


Cabal/John Dummer Band BGO CD www.bgo-records.com


While few would regard these two 1969 albums as milestones of British blues, the participants include guitarists/ vocalists Dave Kelly (Blues Band) and Tony


McPhee (Groundhogs), a rhythm section of Thump Thompson and Dummer himself (Darts), noted blues pianist Bob Hall, and even cameo appearances by DK’s sister, the late, great Jo Ann Kelly. Somewhat like Bryndle (which included Karla Bonoff, Wendy Waldman, Andrew Gold and Kenny Edwards), the Dummer band could be termed a pre-fame supergroup. The main protagonist here is Dave Kelly


who not only contributes predictably excellent slide guitar but is also the lead vocalist and wrote, arranged or co-wrote half the tracks over the two albums, the compositional balance largely belonging to Messrs. Waters, Dixon, Fulsom, Hooker, Burnett and their ilk. This is probably best described as a


reasonably listenable historical curio rather than a masterpiece. John Tobler


THE EYES The Arrival Of The Eyes Acme LP www.acmerecords.co.uk


Admittedly like many gents in my position I am open to all manner of new ’60s comps and – through no fault of my own – rarely return to the old ’uns.


Revisiting The Eyes’ four singles all these years on, they still pack a punch. 1965 debut ‘When The Night Falls’ still


seems like it was recorded 15 years in the future while second single ‘The Immediate Pleasure’ had pop commerce written all over it. Indeed, for a fleeting moment it really did look like The Eyes could be pop stars. Best of all they were funny, as their goofy re-interpretation of ‘My Generation’ (‘My Degeneration’) so aptly mixed mod cool with teenage stupidity! Maybe The Everly Brothers and Beatles


covers were silly, but B-side ‘You’re Too Much’ shows The Eyes’ nihilistic world view, not heard since their debut. Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills


CHRIS FARLOWE 14 Things To Think About/The Art Of Chris Farlowe BGO CD www.bgo-records.com


Was it really almost 45 years ago? OK, it’s easy to take it for granted that our favourite decades are long past, but harder to register when albums


like these, although undeniably of their time production wise, still sound so fresh and youthful. Leaning heavily on covers (Stones, Dylan,


Beatles, Motown, Gershwin) of similar pedigree to those recorded by PP Arnold around the same time, they offer little in the way of


groundbreaking musical exploration, but why should they? Dave Greenslade’s orchestrations complement that voice perfectly, and the version of ‘Paint It, Black’ on offer here may even be (if only just slightly) superior to the original. Close your eyes and you’ll immediately


(ha!) find yourself transported back to some sweaty mod ballroom in Richmond circa ’67 – which, for some Shindiggers, is surely the ultimate ambition. Classic blue-eyed soul from a true master in all his youthful exuberance. Darius Drewe Shimon


PETER HOWELL & JOHN FERDINANDO Tomorrow Come Someday OST Acme LP www.acmerecords.co.uk


It’s a dead cert that a number of Shindig! readers (who will be among the few that do) recognise the names Peter Howell and John Ferdinando for their


Alice Through The Looking Glass, Agincourt, Ithaca and Friends concepts. Like Alice… which was folkish, psychedelic-pop composed for amateur dramatics group The Ditchling Players’ production of Alice Through The Looking Glass, this effort from 1969 was written and recorded as the soundtrack for a local comedy film about the effect of a motorway bypass on a small village. The results consist of short but sweet cheerful Zombies-esque pop nuggets, incidental flute pieces and folky passages, all of which complement each other. Enshrouded in a lo-fi charm that acts like Belle & Sebastian strove for, rather than being twee for the sake of it, this is twee because of its genuine innocence. If Forever Amber and similar quality homemade artifacts entice you, then this well played and sang concoction will delight. Now when can we see the film? Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills


PHILAMORE LINCOLN The North Wind Blew South Grapefruit CD www.cherryred.co.uk


Recorded in London in 1969 but issued only in the US in January ’70, the sole album by the mysterious English singer/songwriter Philamore Lincoln is an


unexpected treat with most of the tracks being ’60s sounding orchestrated pop. As could be expected from an album of this vintage, there are the requisite blues and funk mis-steps as well as Lincoln’s poppy original version of his ‘Temma Harbour’ (a Top 10 hit for Mary Hopkin). But the majority of the album is comprised of brooding baroque-pop gems like the title track and ‘Early Sherwood’. And while the Chris Dreja cover photo and Jimmy Page guitar solo on ‘You’re The One’ led to conjecture of extensive Yardbirds involvement on this record, those two cameos are the full extent of any Yardbirds participation. Due to licensing restrictions, Lincoln’s ’68


single for NEMS, ‘Running By the River’, could not be included, but that minor omission does not detract from this very welcome reissue that can be filed snugly alongside early Duncan Browne, Piccadilly Line and other fine obscurities of the time. Stefan Granados


THE MINDBENDERS A Groovy Kind Of Love: The Complete LPs And Singles 1966-68 RPM 2-CD www.cherryred.co.uk


Mindbenders fans rejoice! This two CD, 37-track extravaganza contains the Manchester trio’s two albums, six EPs and ten singles cut post


Wayne ‘Game Of Love’ Fontana in their entirety, beginning with their out-of-the-box, international smash beat ballad ‘A Groovy Kind Of Love’. Although they only managed two further hit


singles – the sumptuous break-up song ‘Ashes To Ashes’ and the fluctuatingly rhythmic ‘Can’t Live With You, Can’t Live Without You’ – it wasn’t for lack of trying. In addition to creative covers of R&B material (‘One Fine Day’, ‘Shotgun’, ‘Cool Jerk’ and ‘Don’t Cry No More’ among others) they give The Zombies and The Box Tops a run for their money on ‘I Want Her, She Wants Me’ and ‘The Letter’ respectively, along with more than a few mod-pop band originals like ‘Coming Back’ and ‘Yellow Brick Road’. In the early ’70s, members Eric Stewart and


Graham Gouldman put together 10cc but this is where it all started. Gary von Tersch


THE SORROWS You’ve Got What I Want: The Essential Sorrows 1965-67 Grapefruit CD www.cherryred.co.uk


For latter-day collectors of roaring Yardbirds/Pretties- style rocket-fuelled R&B, The Sorrows are the answer to a sincere and fervent


prayer. This terse, sinewy Coventry quintet stuck their heads above the parapet for about seven seconds in 1965 – as long as it took for the strikingly saturnine ‘Take A Heart’ to chart at #21 and disappear again – but the band achieved the status of minor deities in Italy in ’66 despite the public profile of a dust outline in their home country. ‘Take A Heart’ still sounds incredible today:


a glowering, pulsing cave stomp that explodes into an ecstatic lattice of reverberant twangs. ‘You’ve Got What I Want’ is better still, a blazing proto-freakbeat thrash with the urgency of a tracheotomy. Elsewhere, Don Fardon’s stern vocals and Bruce Finlay’s convulsive drumming on ‘Baby’ and ‘Let Me In’ provide a thought-provoking template for the stop-time bravura and testosterous disdain of Sean Bonniwell’s Music Machine. Marco Rossi


VARIOUS ARTISTS Big Sound: Ember Soundtracks & Themes Fantastic Voyage CD www.futurenoisemusic.com


One of the major players on the ’60s UK indie scene, Ember dabbled in jazz, pop, beat, lounge, and soul and Fantastic Voyage has


released compilations highlighting each. But


they also provided mood music and TV themes for Elstree studios, and this compilation gathers hip, finger-popping TV and film themes from International Detective, The Liars, World Of Tomorrow, The Penthouse, Cactus In The Snow and many others from the likes of Edwin Astley (groovy), Armando Sciascia (bubbly), John Hawksworth (sultry) and Joe Parnello (great guitar themes). The legendary John Barry was briefly head


of A&R and brought the label into the spotlight with his Bond themes (including ‘007’ and ‘From Russia With Love’) and there are a few Parliament Brass big band blowouts and a couple of sexy Mark Wirtz mood mosaics. Not exactly DeWolfe, but still recommended to swinging Space Age bachelors everywhere. Jeff Penczak


VARIOUS ARTISTS Mod Meeting Volume 6: 16 Exciting Rare British Mod & Soul Beaters Style LP


This latest volume’s subtitle is an accurate description of its contents. Discounting a few generic covers (‘Show Me’, ‘Think’, ‘Tell Her’) it has a lot


of un(der) heard blue-eyed mod soul, covering the spectrum from the infectious pop stylings of The Gamblers’ ‘Now I’m All Alone’ and Lloyd Banks’ excellent ’Look Out Girl’ with it’s tricky false ending to the throat shredding rasp of New Formula’s frenetic ‘Can’t You See That He Loves You’. Ever tried listening to the neighbours


through a wall with a glass tumbler? Well The Hammers’ ‘Baby And Me’ was clearly recorded that way.They can’t get any more obscure surely? The standout for me though is O’Hara’s Playboys ‘Goodnight Mr Nightfall’ – sublime to a fault. No name given to the band on the cover


this time, but I reckon it’sTen Feet (who feature with ‘Losing Game’). Paul Martin


VARIOUS ARTISTS Steppin’ Through The Empty Time: Fairytales Can Come True Volume 5 Psychic Circle CD


Here we have, apparently, the final CD to be issued by Psychic Circle – emphasis instead now being placed on the Past & Present


imprint. Fairytales Volume 5 continues in the same style as the previous four. I recognised a number of the inclusions from Rifkin, Rokes, Crown’s Clan and Mec Op Singers but there are a good number of new discoveries, which make this set worthwhile even so. The Pattersons’ ‘I Can Fly’ is a Fading


Yellow orchestrated-pop beauty, Dutch band Spacetrack provide the atmospheric and crunchy title track whilst Malcolm Holland’s 1970 opus ‘Dawning Of The Day’ is a plaintive slow orchestrated-pop burner. The Wishful Thinking’s ‘She Belongs To The Night’ is an uncharacteristically tough propelling number for them as is Katch 22’s ‘Baby Love’. It’s a good and varied collection overall and


not a bad way to finish the series. Paul Martin


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