PIE IN THE SKY


The surprise return of ’60s Britpop heroes THE FLEUR DE LYS. ANDY MORTEN goes round and round and round and round…


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dunno. You wait ages for a Fleur De Lys news item and then three come along at once! Best remembered for their


uncompromising 1966 recording of The Who’s ‘Circles’, their collaborations with South African soul siren Sharon Tandy and a befuddling revolving door of line- ups responsible for singles on the Immediate, Polydor and Atlantic labels between ’65 and ’69, The Fleur De Lys’ complex history promises to be finally unravelled in a new book scheduled to hit the shelves on November 11th courtesy of the Acid Jazz imprint. Paul “Smiler” Anderson and


Damian Jones have tracked down as many of the original band members as possible in order to trace their roots as an R&B/mod band through their incarnation as raw psychedelic beat merchants to their final days as seasoned pop/soul veterans and session band for hire. In addition to the book, Acid Jazz


will releases The Two Sides Of, a four- track vinyl EP of previously unreleased recordings. Demos of ‘Gotta Get Enough


Time’ (with Sharon Tandy) and scrapped single ‘Yeah, I Do Love You’ appear alongside an alternate version of ‘Wait For Me’, the flip of their ’65 debut ‘Moondreams’ written and produced by Jimmy Page, and a ’66 live recording of the perennial ‘Circles’. Not content with the book and EP,


those cheeky sausages at Acid Jazz have also managed to convince the band (though it’s not clear at this stage which members) to take to the stage for the first time in over 40 years for a show at London’s 100 Club. Sharon Tandy will make a very special guest appearance, no doubt for a rendition of freakbeat floor-filler ‘Hold On’, while we can expect the band to treat us to ‘Circles’, ‘Mud In Your Eye’, ‘Stop Crossing That Bridge’ and maybe – if they really want to spoil us – ‘Gong With The Luminous Nose’. Time will tell. Circles: The Strange Story of the Fleur De Lys, Britain’s Forgotten Soul Band by Paul ‘Smiler’Anderson and Damian Jones and The Two Sides Of The Fleur De Lys EP are released on Acid Jazz on November 11th. The Fleur De Lys play at The 100 Club on the same date. Tickets from www.the100club.co.uk.


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