“Stanley spent a few days with each of us and then said, ‘I want to get to know you all individually’. He’d pick up on our
mannerisms – like ‘blow your cool, man’. We’d say things like that”
released in those first months of ’68 included The Move’s self-titled debut, a psych pop tour-de-force, The Bee Gees’ Horizontal, beautifully orchestrated pop gems which stands up to comparison with The Beatles, and The Zombies’ Odessey And Oracle, an album so gorgeous that the band can be, and have been, worthily described as an English Beach Boys.
So that was the competition – some enduring pop masterpieces, as well as the odd duffer. It was into this musical climate that Immediate released a couple of 45s in January ’68. PP Arnold’s ‘If You Think You’re Groovy’ was written and produced by Steve and Ronnie and features backing from The Small Faces. Arnold was a former Ikette who had signed to Immediate as a solo artist. “Steve and me, we hooked up straight away,” she fondly recalls today. “We really liked each other as people and as artists and as singers. We used to jam together – he was amazing. I got along
66
Glyn Johns (right, with Mick Jagger), “keen to
experiment”; ‘Lazy Sunday’ (below), the single that brought on the band’s downfall
with everybody but my [real] relationship was with Steve, there was a connection. During that first six to eight months in England, that was the first time I had any friends in my life. My kids were with my mom so I was like a teenager. It was the first time I had
that kind of freedom and to be a part of this whole revolution that was going on was really fantastic.” The band reportedly recorded their own version of ‘Groovy’, with one newspaper preview of Ogdens’ including it in the tracklist (along with ‘Be My Baby’ – The Ronettes classic the band often played live) but has yet to surface in any form.
The week after the PP Arnold single came Billy Nicholls’ ‘Would You Believe’. The 18-year-old Nicholls had been signed to Immediate primarily as a songwriter so it’s odd that somebody else penned his debut outing. Billy explains: “‘Would You Believe’ was brought to us at Immediate by a
songwriter called Jeremy Paul and it blew us all away. I was just about to record the album so Steve suggested we just go and do it. We recorded it pretty much on the spot. Although I was having the song, Steve had to put his stamp on it. The backing vocals and shouts you hear were very much his way
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