night – by and large, though, we felt removed from the scene that we were so desperate to be part of.”
Perpetual suburban outsiders, The Snobs found themselves isolated from the pop mainstream because of Spencer’s insistence on booking them to play society functions.
Combining the Medmenham hall live recordings with the results of the Hampstead studio sessions, Decca released The Snobs’ first single in 1964. The A-side, ‘Buckle Shoe Beat’, was an irresistible canter with excellent lyrics (“like in the time of Nelson’s fleet/everybody’s dancing to the buckle shoe beat”), while the flip, ‘Stand And Deliver’ was a raucous instrumental with a title inspired by highwayman Dick Turpin, himself a resident of Thornton Heath in the 18th Century.
With their record riding high in the charts and a new booking agency, Paramour, the band were sent out onto the road. “There were a few dance venues in the regions which the same bands would play on rotation,” remembers Eddy. “So they’d get Screaming Lord Sutch one Saturday, then Lulu & The Luvvers the next and us the following week. We’d occasionally all meet up at various transport caffs on the M1 in the middle of the
In April 1964, though, the band found themselves following in the wake of The Beatles when a producer for America’s The Red Skelton Show got in touch after seeing a picture of The Snobs in a magazine. At that time The Red Skelton Show was the third most-watched programme in the US and the band were offered $500 dollars each plus expenses for an appearance on the show, an offer which in turn lead to a licensing deal with London records. Still all only 17, The Snobs were flown to Los Angeles to spend a week rehearsing for their appearance on the show. London also put them into the studio with producer Gary Paxton, then still riding high from the success of his 1962 hit ‘Monster Mash’.
“One of the tracks we recorded was ‘Love Potion Number Nine’,” says Eddy. “I’ve still never heard the Drifters’ original, but not knowing the lyrics to a song was no obstacle in 1964 so we recorded it. On our return to England we presented this recording to Decca for our next single but they knocked it back. Instead they gave us a demo of a song called ‘Giddy Up A Ding Dong’. The band playing on the demo version? The Rolling Stones.”
‘Giddy Up A Ding Dong’ was originally recorded by Freddie Bell & The Bell Boys for the soundtrack of 1956’s Rock Around The Clock, but The Snobs’ pacey version updated it for a
(Top) The Snobs with their, ahem, man servant. (Above) In Hollywood, ’64.
post-Beatles world. Paired with a creditable take on ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, it was to be the band’s second and last single, released only in Sweden.
By Autumn 1964, The Snobs were huge in Scandinavia. ‘Buckle Shoe Stomp’ made number two in the charts in Sweden in September, so the band were sent out to tour there and in neighbouring Denmark. While at home The Snobs spent their time in M1 transport caffs or up-market supper clubs, here everywhere they went they were mobbed by autograph-hungry Scandanavian teenagers. “I still can’t believe how big that record was,” says Eddy. “When we toured there we were treated like royalty. Our largest audience was over 6,000 in a venue that The Beatles had played to a smaller crowd earlier in the year.”
It was to be a short-lived thrill. Returning to the UK The Snobs gradually found their live bookings starting to dwindle as the public’s taste moved on from rock ’n’ roll covers played by men in periwigs. The final straw came early in 1965 when the band were so desperate for a gig that they accepted the offer of an audition to become the house band at a fashionable Chelsea nightclub. “In between sets we got talking to a young businessman sitting on his own at a table,” recalls Eddy. “It turned out to be Chas Chandler. He explained that were being taken for a ride – this club auditioned two bands a night, every night of the week.” The band split soon after.
As an aside, Ivor Spencer went on to become Royal Toastmaster and now runs the Ivor Spencer International School for Butler Administrators and Personal Assistants. His website is keen to make it clear that he did not train Paul Burrell, and mentions nothing of his brief career as a musical svengali.
Thanks to Eddy Gilbert. 39
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