Tag Archives: British Invasion

Gerry & The Pacemakers: It’s Gonna Be All Right – 1963-1965

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Winning documentary of early British Invasion hit-makers

It’s Gonna Be All Right: 1963-1965 is one of four documentaries released as part of a five-DVD British Invasion box set by Reelin’ in the Years Productions. Of the four artists profiled (which also include Dusty Springfield, the Small Faces and Herman’s Hermits), Gerry & the Pacemakers might seem the most lightweight. But like all of the artists in this series, what U.S. audiences saw were just the tip of a larger artistic iceberg, and this collection of seventeen vintage musical performances and interviews, television and stage appearances, and contemporary interviews with Gerry Marsden and Bill Harry (founder of the Mersey Beat newspaper) tells more of the band’s story beyond their oft-anthologized hits. The Pacemakers emerge as early exponents of Liverpool’s beat rock, and an act that vied with the Beatles for the seaport town’s music fans.

The parallels between the Pacemakers and the Beatles are many. Both were Liverpool bands with Skiffle roots that turned to covering American R&B. Both honed their live performances in demanding Hamburg gigs, played the Cavern Club, were managed by Brian Epstein, wrote some of their own hits, were produced by George Martin, starred in their own film (Ferry Cross the Mersey), toured America and appeared on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. The Pacemakers’ music wasn’t as edgy as the Beatles, and Marsden never really varied from his smiling, sometimes hammy, showmanship as a front-man. The group broke in 1963 with “How Do You Do It?” and “I Like It,” and crossed the Atlantic the following year with “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying.” Their earlier U.K. singles would find later success in the U.S., though “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “I’m the One” (#1 and a #2, respectively) remained UK-only hits.

The group was on the front-lines of the British Invasion, appearing in the 1964 T.A.M.I. Show, but like many of their peers, they never really evolved. Their success in the UK tailed off in 1965, they charted their last single in the States with 1966’s “Girl on a Swing,” and disbanded a month later. Unlike the Small Faces and Herman’s Hermits volumes, this film provides little documentation of the band’s musicians, and few details of their time in the studio or on the road; this is more a nostalgic pass through their catalog (including a nice anecdote about “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying”) than a revelatory document of the band’s history. In addition to the 72-minute documentary, the full individual performances can be viewed via DVD menu options. Bonuses include additional interview footage with and extensive liner notes by Bill Harry. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Gerry & The Pacemakers’ Home Page
Gerry Marsden’s Home Page
Reelin’ in the Years’ Home Page

Herman’s Hermits: Listen People – 1964-1969

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Stellar documentary of endearing British Invasion hit-makers

Listen People 1964-1969 is one of four documentaries released as part of a five-DVD British Invasion box set by Reelin’ in the Years Productions. Like the other three, it’s a terrific collection, spanning twenty-two complete vintage performances, period promotional footage, television and stage performances, and contemporary interviews with Peter Noone, Karl Green (bass), Keith Hopwood (guitar) and Barry Whitwam (drums – sitting in front of his awesome gold-sparkle Slingerland drum set). Noone was – and is – one of the most charming front-men of the British Invasion, and the documentary reveals the band to be much more than a backing unit for their vocalist. Their hits were often the lightest of pop songs, but written, played and sung exceptionally, and the group was a charming live act.

The group’s hit singles were brought to them by producer Mickey Most, who had a golden ear for material and arrangements. Their first single, a 1964 cover of Earl-Jean’s “I’m Into Something Good,” was a worldwide smash and followed by a string of singles, some unreleased in the UK, some unreleased in the US, that kept the group at the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic well into 1967. The unusual release strategy left U.S. audiences with a different picture of the group than those in their home country; in particular, “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat,” “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” “I’m Henry VIII, I Am,” “Listen People,” “Leaning on the Lamp Post,” and “Dandy” were all stateside smashes that went unreleased as singles in the UK.

The documentaries’ interviews reveal the unorthodox story behind the recording and release of the music hall styled “Mrs. Brown,” and recollections of the band’s first NME Poll Winners Concert are born out by a winningly nervous performance. The group looks more comfortable with their up-tempo cover of Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World,” with the young Noone in his schoolboy suit playing the part of the song’s protagonist. It’s easy to see why he was the sort of heartthrob who induced Beatlemania hysterics in young girls. An early performance of “Fortune Teller” at the Cavern Club shows the group to have had a grittier R&B side that was mostly unused for their hits. The liner notes and commentary mention a hot version of Chuck Berry’s “I’m Talking About You” that unfortunately didn’t seem to make the final cut of the DVD.

The group’s hits rarely strayed from polite pop, failing to navigate many of the changes wrought by the latter half of the 1960s. Their recordings of songs by P.F. Sloan (“A Must to Avoid”), Ray Davies (“Dandy”) and Graham Gouldman (“No Milk Today”) took them towards folk-rock and more poetically crafted lyrics, but even as their clothes took on the fashions of 1966 and 1967 their singles remained “romantic, boy-next-door stuff.” They continued to record through the psychedelic era, having a Top 40 hit with Donovan’s “Museum” (not included here) and thickening their productions with strings and a hint of country twang on “My Sentimental Friend,” but the heavy sounds emanating from San Francisco and elsewhere spelled the end of their hit-making days.

Herman’s Hermits were a feel good band whose chipper music became anachronistic in the face of Monterey Pop and Woodstock. Their singles weren’t trendsetting (though Noone suggests his over-the-top English accent on “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” freed other British bands to abandon their faked Americana), but they were catchy, sold extremely well, and to this day remain memorable. In addition to the 78-minute documentary, the full individual performances can be viewed via DVD menu options, and bonuses include a 24-minute concert filmed for Australian television, a commentary track, and fifteen minutes of interviews that recollect the Hermits’ 1967 tour with the Who. This is a great documentary for both fans and those who only know a few of the group’s hits. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Herman’s Hermit’s Home Page
Herman’s Hermit’s UK Home Page
Peter Noone’s Home Page
Reelin’ in the Years’ Home Page

The Small Faces: All or Nothing – 1965-1968

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Stellar documentary of British Invasion giants

All or Nothing 1965-1968 is one of four documentaries released as part of a five-DVD British Invasion box set by Reelin’ in the Years Productions. It is a spectacular collection of footage that spans twenty-seven complete vintage performances, interviews with the principle band members reflecting on their time as seminal mod and psychedelic rockers, and superb vintage clips of the band creating in the studio, shopping on Carnaby Street and gigging at iconic clubs like the Marquee. The producers have performed miracles in digging up rare television and film footage, and archival interviews with Steve Marriott (from 1985) and Ronnie Lane (from 1988, his last filmed appearance) are complemented by contemporary interviews with Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan.

Though the Small Faces had only one chart hit in the U.S. (1968’s “Itchycoo Park”), their fame in the UK and Europe, not to mention their style, sound and musicianship, were in league with the Who and Stones. The band members post-Small Faces gigs brought a greater helping of stateside fame (Marriott with Humble Pie; Lane, McLagan and Jones with the Faces; and Jones with the latter-day Who), but this 101-minute documentary shows the Small Faces were a group to be reckoned with. Marriott was a ferocious front-man with an aggressive vocal delivery, hot guitar licks and a songwriting partnership with Ronnie Lane that matured from derivative R&B to original tunes that wove pop, rock and psych influences into their bedrock soul. The interviews trace the group’s original influences, the pop sides forced upon them, and the turning points at which they made artistic leaps forward.

Among the biggest events in the Small Faces’ development was a change in management and label from Don Arden and Decca to Andrew Loog Oldham and Immediate. The mod sounds and styles of their early singles quickly became psychedelic, but not before launching their new phase with the 1967 ode to methadrine, “Here Comes the Nice.” Their hair and fashions in the accompanying television performance find the band in transition between the dandy style of the mods and the floral and flowing elements of the hippie revolution. The influence of LSD can be heard in “Green Shadows” and the band’s U.S. breakthrough, “Itchycoo Park,” which McLagan suggests was a rebuttal to England’s formal system of higher education. The group’s pièce de résistance, Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake, is essayed here with a lip-synched clip of the title tune and a seven-song live-sung (but not played) set from the BBC’s Colour Me Pop.

The progression from the hard R&B of “Whatch Gonna Do About It” to their crowning concept album is impressive, but that it happened in only three years is amazing. The story of the Small Faces is told here in the band’s words and music, with interview footage woven among the music clips. The full performances, including four not featured in the documentary, can be viewed separately via DVD menu options. Lane’s full interview and a photo gallery are included as extras, along with a 24-page booklet featuring detailed credits and song notes. This disc will strike a deep nostalgic chord for UK fans, and will be a voyage of discovery for Americans familiar only with “All or Nothing,” “Itchycoo Park,” “Tin Soldier,” and “Lazy Sunday.” [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

The Small Faces’ Home Page
Reelin’ in the Years’ Home Page

OST: Pirate Radio

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OST_PirateRadioThe better-known sounds of 1960s UK pirate radio

Ever since George Lucas built American Graffitti around its ever-present soundtrack, filmmakers have used vintage music as a shorthand to quickly evoke a specific period. In this film’s fictionalized version of 1960s UK pirate radio, the nostalgic selections are in many ways the central character. Driven by monopolistic, government controlled radio’s narrowness, daring entrepreneurs anchored ships outside territorial waters where they could beam their signals back to the Emerald Isles. Those radio waves were stocked with fresh, daring new artists that the BBC wouldn’t touch. Forty years later, the music on this 2-CD, 32-track collection may seem quaint and familiar, but it caused quite a stir at the time.

While the Beatles-led British Invasion suggests that musical travel was all in one direction, the heavy dose of U.S. rock and soul sides heard here suggests otherwise. There are many U.K. flag bearers among the pirate radio favorites, including the Kinks, Who, Troggs, Hollies, Tremeloes, Procol Harum and Moody Blues, but also a rip tide of U.S. acts whose impact returned the favor, including the Turtles, Beach Boys, Martha and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and Otis Redding. Star acts like the Rolling Stones are missing (no doubt due to licensing cost), but more importantly are the lesser known British acts that gave pirate radio its local flavor. The one nod in this direction is the Bystanders’ version of “98.6,” which shadowed the bigger international hit by Keith on the UK charts.

British favorites like Sandie Shaw, the Pretty Things, Small Faces and Ivy League, and dozens of other acts that never made a big dent in the American charts would have given this set a deeper feel for the pirate radio charts. The stations’ breadth is suggested in Herb Alpert’s “This Guy’s in Love With You,” but even that doesn’t capture the freedom of a station like Radio Caroline that used Jimmy McGriff’s version of “Round Midnight” as its theme song. The lead-off cover of “Stay With Me Baby” by the throwback vocalist Duffy seems to be an attempt to draw attention to an album of 45-year-old music, but with Lorraine Ellison’s searing period original also included, the flavor-of-the-month cover is superfluous.

The track selections stay too close to the mainstream to really demonstrate pirate radio’s unique contribution to the airwaves. The lack of radio continuity – jingles and DJs – further obscures the actual sound of the pirates. There are moments of musical discovery here, such as Chris Andrews’ ska-influenced “Yesterday Man,” Jr. Walker and the All Stars’ dark instrumental “Cleo’s Mood,” and aforementioned tracks by the Bystanders and Lorraine Ellison, but the core tracks are well-worn totems of mid-60s rock and soul. For U.S. audiences, these songs American top-40 hits, so while they’re great listening, they don’t really say anything particular about UK pirate radio of the 1960s.

If you enjoyed the songs in the movie, and you don’t already have a deep collection of ‘60s classics, you’ll like this soundtrack. If you want to hear a broader, more Eurocentric range of pirate radio music, get a copy of 101 Pirate Radio Favorites, Rockin’ With the Pirates, or We Love the Pirates. Or better yet, create your own compilation from the vintage playlists on Caroline and London’s websites and add some continuity from the CD Pirate Radio Jingles Sixties. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

The Smithereens: Meet the Smithereens

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smithereens_meetthesmithereensSharing the thrill of the Beatles’ arrival in the U.S.

Though no one could ever capture the visceral thrill of first hearing Meet the Beatles, the Smithereens have waxed a record that shares the feeling U.S. fans get every time they crank up the fab four’s Capitol debut. The songs, vocals, harmonies and guitars all resound with the wave of energy brought to U.S. shores in 1964, and though Meet the Beatles was neither the Beatles first album (the UK Please Please Me holds that distinction), it was very much the record that introduced the Beatles to the U.S. The album isn’t even an album in the conventional sense of having been produced in a single, related set of recording sessions. Instead, Capitol manufactured Meet the Beatles by trimming away cover versions, collecting originals from the Beatles second album (the UK With the Beatles) and adding U.S. singles sides. In doing so they squeezed the essence of the Beatles originality into twelve tracks.

The Smithereens’ recreate the album’s original twelve track running with faithful cover versions. Pat DiNizio’s voice is thicker than McCartney’s and Lennon’s, and it keeps him from breaking free with the youthful exuberance that could elicit deafening shrieks from 15-year-old girls. On the more wounded numbers, such as “This Boy,” “All I’ve Got To Do,” “Not a Second Time,” and George Harrison’s “Don’t Bother Me,” he finds a fit. Paul McCartney’s obsession with music hall tunes rears its head with “Till There Was You,” and though the fifty-something Pat DiNizio isn’t as starry-eyed as the 20-something McCartney, it still hurts. There’s no denying the love and craft in this tribute, but with the original so readily available, this is mostly the province of Smithereens loyalists. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

OST: Gonks Go Beat / I’ve Gotta Horse

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ost_gonkshorseGems sparkle on obscure mid-60s UK film soundtracks

Gonks Go Beat and I’ve Gotta Horse were low budget British musical films released in 1965, with soundtrack albums even more obscure than the celluloid from which they sprang. A DVD of Gonks Go Beat turned up in 2007, and the film’s soundtrack now appears on this two-fer CD. For better or worse, an official DVD of the companion I’ve Gotta Horse is still to be produced. Both films were intended as cheapy cash-ins, with Gonks the more successful in corralling artists such as Lulu, Graham Bond and the Nashville Teens to provide some mid-60s relevancy.

I’ve Gotta Horse, on the other hand, was a vehicle for pop star Billy Fury, and the purpose-written songs are in league with Elvis’ lesser film works (“Do the Clam,” anyone?). As the liner notes explain, this was the “alternative to change in 1965.” In addition to thematic songs expressing Fury’s love of animals, there are string-laden ballads, offensively inoffensive harmonies from The Bachelors, and stagey show tunes “Do the Old Soft Shoe,” “Dressed Up For a Man” and “Problems.” This may be fun for the whole family, perhaps even passable filler at a variety show, but it’s hardly the sound of ’65. The album’s one rock ‘n’ roll tune is the Gamblers’ garage-blues “I Cried All Night,” which sounds remarkably out of place amidst the rest of the soundtrack.

In contrast, Gonks Go Beat splits its time between rock and ballads, much as the film’s story line pits the inhabitants of Beat Land against those of Ballad Isle, with a Romeo and Juliet subplot that weaves in elements of The Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life. The soft pop of Ballad Isle is mostly forgettable, but even the softies manage the excellent country-tinged folk of Elaine and Derek’s “Broken Pieces.” Better are the soundtrack’s opening salvo of Lulu’s go-go “Choc Ice” and Graham Bond’s blues-drenched “Harmonica.” The Titan Studio Orchestra offers up a galloping guitar-and-sax instrumental, and a quartet of skinsmen compete in the epic “Drum Battle.” Lulu returns for the soulful “The Only One” and the Nashville Teens show they had more than “Tobacco Road” with the rave up “Poor Boy.”

The film’s ballads play better on film (where the colorful sets and pretty faces provide distraction), but the pop, rock and blues cuts from Gonks are simply terrific on CD. Kieron Tyler’s liner notes provide a short history of British pop cinema, suggesting these films were sadly within the tradition and that A Hard Days Night was the artistic aberration. Gonks Go Beat is not as unwatchable as reviews suggest, and the opportunity to see Lulu, Graham Bond and The Nashville Teens (and their vintage instruments and amplifiers) is worth a rental. This soundtrack two-fer (mono for Gonks, stereo for Horse) is a must-buy for the handful of superb tunes from Gonks and the charmingly banal tunes by Billy Fury. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

RPM Records’ Home Page

Gonks Go Beat

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gonksgobeat_posterOut-of-time and of-its-time 1965 British musical fantasy

This mid-60s British pop musical is quite the obscurity, and though the story of strife between neighboring Beat Land and Ballad Isle, and the Romeo and Juliet subplot aren’t particularly original, there’s a lot to love here amidst the cheap studio sets. Sure, the soft-rock pretty boys of Ballad Isle would get their asses kicked by American Graffiti’s John Milner, but the R&B played by the inhabitants of Beat Land (and the bikini-clad dancers they inspire) are top gear. The soundtrack (which is just now being reissued on CD) features some gems by Lulu, Graham Bond, The Nashville Teens and more.

The film’s awash with wonderfully off-beat British characters, starting with a Clarence-the-Angel styled flunky named Wilco Roger sent by the Space Congress of the Universe to settle the inter-island dispute. There’s an Oz-like “Mr. A&R” who lives in “The Echo Chamber” and explains that he’s “… the sole survivor of a race of people who used to be employed throughout the world by business known as recording companies.” Ballad Isle features clubs like the Boom Bar, The Diminished Seventh and Diskey A Go Go, and the island’s prison sentences it inhabitants to a term of drumming. The latter leads to a fantastic scene of nine drummers playing in unison on full kits! The drums themselves are luscious in their vintage sparkle and faux-finishes.

The opening rave-up with Ginger Baker and Graham Bond is superb, as is the staging of an instrumental played by band members driven in a fleet of mid-60s British top-down sports cars. Elaine and Derek redeem Ballad Isle with the Everly Brothers styled “Broken Pieces,” Lulu and the Luvvers groove to “The Only One,” the Nashville Teens show they had more than “Tobacco Road” up their sleeves, and the climactic musical battle between the two islands pits literal guitar armies against one another. There are some great ‘65 fashions and vintage instruments (check out Bond’s orange-and-black Vox Continental organ), and even the buttoned-down Ballad Isle has policewomen wearing black tights.

Much like the Lawrence Welk show of the late-60s and AIP’s Beach Party films, Gonks Go Beat, is a time capsule of an idealized world that was a couple of strides out of step with its own times. The real-life rock musicians cast as inhabitants of Beat land seem quite bemused by the cultural scrubbing, but as anachronistic this was even at the time, it’s now itself part of the historical record. Anyone who loves the British Invasion will enjoy this nostalgic bit of fluff. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]