A PASSPORT TOHEDONISM B
Former Sounds scribe, Zigzag editor and all-round rock ‘n’ roll hound KRIS NEEDS remembers the group that changed his life.
LAME IT ON PETE FRAME, patron saint of fanzines: apart from getting me published for the first time in Zigzag then dunking me in the volcanic music scene of the mid to late
’70s by handing me the editor’s post, he introduced me to one of the best bands I’ve ever seen, heard and hung with: the fabulous Flamin’ Groovies.
By the mid-70s the Groovies were a law unto themselves, a unique one-off, unleashing musical bombs which no-one else could have got away with as they plugged into the undiluted essence of rock ‘n’ roll’s original spirit from the ’50s and ’60s with a power and intensity which not only kept the music alive but turned them into the best party band on the planet. They appreciated the studio genius of the Stones, Beatles and Byrds at that time and unashamedly used their talent and fire-power to not only homage and recreate it but soak it into their own loony tune psyche and spit it out as a highly- personalised wall of sound which often hit jaw dropping levels of monolithic power. The like of which I have never heard another band approach. Then there was the fact that Cyril Jordan is one of the best guitarists on the planet: lean, deadly and boasting a sound which took James Burton’s blueprint, leant it to mid-60s Keith Richards then snatched it back spitting pure rock ‘n’ roll daggers. Even playing the albums for these memoirs I’m struck by how fresh, invigorating and just plain HUGE they still sound around 30 years later.
I’d been a fan since hearing Flamingo and Teenage Head, witnessing the satin-clad Groovies supporting Bowie in June 1972, but this particular ball started rolling with the sublimely Byrds-influenced ‘You Tore Me Down’ single on BOMP! before early ’76’s Shake Some Action album got me frothing at the mouth.
Pete let me review it in the May ’76 issue of Zigzag and I held nothing back, gushing stuff like, “I still can’t
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believe this album! This is the masterpiece you always knew and hoped The Flamin' Groovies could and would make to lift them to the lofty pinnacles of acclaim they've deserved ever since bursting into a sea of apathy during the latter half of the ’60s.” My blithering stream of superlatives had been inspired by this marvellous album which saw producer Dave Edmunds applying a Spectoresque sheen to their widescreen beat boom wallop which, in pre-punk ’76, was like a beacon of innocent fun shot with the depth and emotional roller-coaster of classic pop with rock ‘n’ roll’s primal beast unleashed to boot. The title track remains one of the perfect rock anthems.
It was inevitable that I’d meet the group when they were in town for The Independence Day show at London’s Roundhouse on July 4th. Pete wanted to look up manager Greg Shaw and took me to meet them with the plan of doing an interview for my first Zigzag feature. Thus began a three-year adventure as I accompanied the Groovies on tours, studio sessions and horizontal goofball sessions; a passport to the wonderful world of rock journalism, hedonism and some of the best music I’ve ever heard.
We met the Groovies at a tacky tourist hotel called The Kennedy near Euston station. Cyril Jordan was instantly friendly: hilarious company but intensely passionate about the music while pretty bitter about the treatment the Groovies had received over the years by press and the music business. I would never tire of hearing his tales about anything from gate crashing Stones gigs in the mid- 60s to San Francisco’s golden age.
Cyril Jordan and George Alexander on stage at Aylesbury Friar’s, Nov ’76., as snapped by Kris Needs,
This should have been a dream interview, especially when the
group discovered their producer Dave Edmunds was my second cousin, but the strangest thing happened when I turned on my tape recorder after one of Cyril’s lethal Thai sticks, looked down and swear blind I went through some sort of momentary cartoon barrier affair. Now Cyril looked like Daffy Duck and I felt like Bugs Bunny so Frame did much of the talking at first before I adjusted to Cyril’s wavelength and started warming rapidly to this passionate soul. After one lengthy rant about the current state of music he concluded, “I guess you could say that the Groovies are just trying to bring a little innocence back.”
After the “work” bit was done it was party time as the rest of the Groovies arrived with Greg Shaw, a lovely man with more
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