Here are some of my random thoughts and words about obscure and in-demand 1960s garage and psychedelic singles over the years.

BILLY J. KRAMER & THE DAKOTAS – ”Town Of Tuxley Toy Maker Part 1” / ”Chinese Girl” Polydor International Production NH-591014) April 1967

Obscure 1960s Garage Psychedelic singles: I bought this record recently from an Australian record dealer for the mod beat flavoured B-Side ’Chinese Girl’, which incidentally, is nothing like Billy J. Kramer’s usual pop efforts.

Maybe by 1967 Billy knew that his days as a successful pop singer were numbered if he didn’t embrace the new hip sound that was happening in Britain during the mid sixties.

His backing band were still The Dakotas who provide a crunching backbeat on ’Chinese Girl’ which was co-written by Mick Green and Robin MacDonald. Kramer’s vocals are perfect and really add to the killer mix of mod and freakbeat.

The A-Side is a beautiful toy-town psych interlude that is most interesting to me.

Someone calling himself ’twerptwo’ added the following comment on YouTube. I don’t usually do this but because the information provided is so good I’ll share it on my blog.

Bee Gees

”Town of Tuxley Toy Maker Part 1” was The Bee Gees first recording session in England after they had relocated from Australia.

The song, written by Barry, Robin and Maurice features all three on backing vocals with the recording taking place in March 1967 at IBC Studios in London.

The orchestra was arranged by Bill Shepherd with Robert Stigwood as producer who had merged his Agency with Brian Epstein’s company and both Billy J. Kramer and The Bee Gees were NEMS artists at this time.

The song had previously been recorded in late 1966 by Australian vocalist Jon Blanchfield LK 1662, with The Bee Gees also on backing vocals, prior to their move to the UK.

CURIOSITY SHOPPE – ’Baby I Need You’ / ’So Sad’ (Deram DM 220) November 1968

I bought a re-issue or bootleg of this the other day. It was offered for sale years ago then disappeared. I had it in my eBay search engine for years hoping that it would be re-listed, then suddenly it reappeared as a BIN for £7.

It sounds killer, really heavy vinyl too, labels are perfect – lovely solid centre. If it’s a bootleg it has been made with extreme care and attention to detail.

So what about the group? Curiosity Shoppe were a five piece, no-hit wonder from Liverpool and only released one single. According to the CD liners of Deram’s ’Psychedelic Scene’, Curiosity Shoppe played The Cavern and had a loyal following but were virtually unknown outside of Merseyside.

”Baby I Need You” is a Hammond organ driven pounder that builds to a rave-up ending and is similar to Deep Purple’s take on ”Hush”, intense.

The flip ’So Sad’ is non comp, which is very strange as it’s also a winner. The sound is a slow blues burner with Hammond and soulful vocals.

Over the years ’Baby I Need You’ has been compiled on Broken Dreams #1, Rubble #14 and The Psychedelic Scene.

Hardly anything has been written about them. The only ephemera I have where Curiosity Shoppe are highlighted is in the early 90s fanzine ’117’, issue #3.

TURQUOISE – ’Steel Glass’/’Hello Bill’ (Arcade ARC-101) 1967

Here’s an obscure Californian 45 by a group of outsiders from Oxnard, Ventura County. It was their debut record and also a first for the Arcade label.

Some information has surfaced over the past year or two about Turquoise after ’Steel Glass’ and ’Hello Bill’ were uploaded to YouTube.

FA&F advised that they were originally known as Captain Speed and went by this name for a longer period than that of Turquoise.

No reason was given as to why there was a need for a name change, perhaps it was one of the conditions after signing with Arcade Records.

Both sides are heavily influenced by The Doors with that eerie Ray Manzarek organ sound high in the mix.

Surprisingly, only ’Hello Bill’ has been compiled. This was years ago on a psychedelic collection titled ”Seeds Turn To Flowers Turn To Dust.”

Turquoise released a follow up single ’Beautiful Death Dealer’/’Sunflower Mama’ (Arcade ARC-102) which appears to be extremely rare.

Very few copies have surfaced but both have been uploaded to YouTube by a respected psych collector/writer.

Note that the legendary Kim Fowley has a co-production credit with Tom Ayres.

Members of Captain Speed / Turquoise at one time or another were:

Bill Payne (keyboards) he may not have performed on their recorded output and would later form Little Feat.
Bruce Barlow (bass) went on to a group called Commander Cody.
Dan Gustafson (drums)
Tim Pearson (vocals)
Steve Smith (guitar)
Luther Tatum (keyboards)
Howard Dumble (?) co-writer of ’Steel Glass’

Obscure 1960s Garage Psychedelic Singles

Reader comments:
I’m currently interviewing various ex-members of this group for a magazine article.

They adopted the name Turquoise for the 45s.

Because as Captain Speed was deemed too ‘druggy’ a name for radio airplay.

They were a popular group around Santa Barbara, and ‘Hello Bill’ was a minor hit in the area.

They were managed by Jim Salzer and appeared as opening act for many of the concerts he promoted at the Earl Warren Showgrounds, appearing with the Seeds, Love, The Doors, The Yardbirds, The Grateful Dead and many other big names of the day.

Howard Dumble wasn’t a member of the group, but was a friend of singer Tim Pearson, both of whom originated from Bakersfield. Luther Tatum was the keyboardist on the 45s, Bill Payne joined up later.

The later line up also featured Nick Hoffman on guitar, who had previously played with a later line up of The Dovers.

Luther Tatum is an artist, musician and the owner of Big Heart Slide Company.

THE PARAMOUNTS – ’You’ve Got What I Want’ (Edsel ED-112) 1983

The Paramounts were an underrated beat combo from Southend who formed during the early days of the beat era in Britain and actually released their first record on Parlophone during December 1963.

’Poison Ivy’/’I Feel Good All Over’ went top 40 and was the beginning and the end of chart success for them.

The best place to hear the group’s music is via the early 80s retrospective on Edsel Records called ”The Paramounts – White Shades Of R’N’B” – all of their single sides plus three unreleased cuts are represented.

One of these previously unreleased cuts is their pounding version of The Sorrows classic ’You’ve Got What I Want’, which really moves along at a blistering pace and has some cool vocals by Gary Brooker which he spits out in a savage way.

I don’t know why they decided not to do anything with ’You’ve Got What I Want’ as it’s clearly a killer version. Maybe the timing wasn’t right or something.

After their last studio recording during July 1966 at Abbey Road Studios in London, they broke up, then reconvened with a new sound and name….Procol Harum…’A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ was released during May 1967 on Deram Records.

DAVE DEE DDBM&T – ’Save Me’/’Shame’ (Fontana TF 775) November 1966

This was the seventh single by DDDBM&T and hot on the heels of the enormous #2 hit ’Bend It’…. ’Save Me’ is annoying pop written by Howard Blaikley, who also wrote many of the hits for The Herd…

Far superior is the mod beat pounder ’Shame’ on the B-side written by the group. Don’t know why they relied on so much outside material when their own songs are so far out.

CHRISTOPHER COLT – ”Virgin Sunrise” / ”Girl In The Mirror” (Decca F 12726) January 1968

This performer is a complete mystery to me and I suspect he was for the people who compiled Rubble #17 as their liners don’t reveal anything about Christopher Colt at all.

The B-Side ’Girl In The Mirror’ is equally compelling. I recently acquired this 45 and it’s currently valued at about £40 (Record Collector Price Guide 2014). As you know this is just a ’guide’ price, expect to pay a lot more if you ever find a copy for sale.

’Virgin Sunrise’ is a beautiful homage to a British Autumn morning and the evocative lyrics really colour the scene of a new or ’virgin sunrise’ superbly. The song is pure psychedelic period Donovan, full of charm and completely beguiling.

”I feel the breath of the morning
Tops of the trees are warmed with the sun.
Everything ’round me is waking,
Chimneys feeling the day has begun.”

I can confirm that Christopher Colt is indeed is Chris Simpson Of Magna Carta …….how do I know? He is a good friend and confirmed it to me.

Obscure 1960s Garage Psychedelic Singles

THE CALIFORNIANS – ’Golden Apples’/’Little Ship With A Red Sail’ (CBS 2663) April 1967

This is such a fantastic record by The Californians, an obscure and unknown group from Wolverhampton in the West Midlands of England.

They were probably unheralded during the late 60s but must have had enough about them as they released eight singles on three different labels between early 1967 to late 1969.

Most of these releases were harmony pop but on a few sides The Californians pressed the ’lift-off’ button and were elevated to the psychedelic clouds in the sky.

‘Golden Apples’ was their debut 45 from April 1967 and is an eastern tinged psych nugget with their beautiful harmonies. They were no doubt greatly influenced by The Association and The Beach Boys, not only in their band name but stunning music..

’Golden Apples’ was compiled on Rubble Volume 17 but the harmony pop of ’Little Ship With A Red Sail’ has not troubled the compilers. This record is not easy to find and is quite sought after amongst fans of the Brit psych genre.

THE BAROQUES – ’The Baroques’ (LP 660) originally issued on Chess Records 1967

I’ve been enjoying this album by The Baroques who were a hot new psychedelic group from Milwaukee and signed to Chess Records in 1967.

I bought this album back in the late 80s from Crash Landing Records, it’s not an original but probably a bootleg. There’s a sticker on both sides of the label claiming a ’limited edition collectors item.’

What is strange is that the front cover has mono printed bottom left of the sleeve, however, the record itself is a stereo pressing.

Looks like whoever put this out were playing some games. The music sounds excellent though so I can’t grumble at all.

The picture of The Baroques on the cover is pure acid with the eerie doll’s head a genius addition to the line-up.

The more I listen to this album the better it becomes, it’s a real grower with some very strong original material mostly written by guitarist and lead singer Jay Borkenhagen.

My pick from this disc is the folk-psych winner ’There’s Nothing Left To Do But Cry’ which I reckon would have made a stunning single backed with the impressive raga drone of ’Purple Day’.

This is what Jay Borkenhagen said on the back sleeve liners…

”Our songs are our own idea of not what is happening, but what we think should be happening.”

line-up:
Dean Nimmer (drums)
Rick Bieniewski (bass)
Jay Borkenhagen (guitar / vocals)
Jacques Hutchinson (guitar / vocals)

THE MASTERMINDS – ’She Belongs To Me’/’Taken My Love’ (Immediate IM 005) September 1965

This week I was really pleased to find a copy of this one and only 45 by The Masterminds – they were a beat group from Liverpool who were one of the first groups to be signed by Andrew Loog Oldham to his newly formed Immediate label.

Sadly, this record went to nowheresville and The Masterminds soon broke up. Guitarist/vocalsist Joey Molland then became a member of The Iveys who would change their name to Badfinger who were a bit more successful.

I’m not sure if Joey Molland was lead singer on this. It has been suggested that Jimmy Page played lead guitar on both sides.

It’s surprising that few English groups recorded Dylan’s songs in 1965/66…several American garage bands covered ’She Belongs To Me’ though – and others of course!

The other side ’Taken My Love’ is a slow moody beat number with a dramatic vocal ending…sounds like they were on the same kind of path as The Poets.

It’s a shame The Masterminds didn’t record any more music as their one and only release shows great promise…I wonder what could have been in ’66..

Both sides were compiled on a late 80s, early 90s CD titled ’The Immediate Alternative’ …I played it the other day and let’s just say that the digitizing technology wasn’t that great in 1990…the music sounds like it’s had the life sucked out of it.

Obscure 1960s Garage Psychedelic Singles

WIL MALONE – ’Wil Malone’ (Morgan Blue Town B.T. 5005) re-issue

Don’t let the lysergic lettering or the unbelievably garish outfit that Wil Malone is wearing on the album cover misguide you to think that tripped out psychedelia is housed within.

Granted, some of the songs have some clever psych studio FX but the music to my ears is introspective pastoral folk with baroque embellishments.

All of the songs have at least some acoustic guitar, oboe, cello, flute and euphonium. Wil Malone’s vocals are wistful and dreamy which paints each of his own compositions.

The album was originally released in July 1970 on Fontana but sold poorly, maybe only a few hundred were bought by collectors and as such an original copy commands upwards of £1,500.

Fortunately, Record Collector magazine here in the UK re-issued the album a couple of years ago in their Rare Record Club limited to 750 copies. It was only available to order via the magazine and sold out in months.

I’ve chosen ’Catherine Wheel’ to represent the long-player which comes highly recommended.

Soon after this release Wil Malone took up arranging full time and has been in hot demand for decades.

By the way he was a member of English pop psych outfit The Orange Bicycle who released several records on Columbia and Parlophone during the mid to late 60s.

THE GUN – ’Race With The Devil’/’Sunshine’ (CBS 3764) October 1968

The Gun evolved out of High Wycombe group The Knack, who incidentally released six singles on labels Piccadilly and Pye.

None of these proved successful but most sides are worth hearing especially the hard driving mod sound of ’She Ain’t No Good’ and the psych pop charmer ’The Lights On The Wall.’

Sometime during late 1967 The Knack changed their name to The Gun and over the course of the next six months or so had several changes in their line-up.

They appear to have decided to continue as a powerful three piece with brothers Paul and Adrian Gurvitz with drumming responsibilities by Louie Farrell.

Their first single for CBS was the hard rocking ’Race With The Devil’ that introduced a powerhouse approach tinged with prog especially with the weirdly wonderful screams from Paul Gurvitz.

It sounds like a strange combination of Cream and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown but it worked and ’Race With The Devil’ went Top 10.

Sunshine

The flip ’Sunshine’ is just as good with a more laid back acid rock vibe notable for an incredible lead guitar solo that brings the song to a close.

What an absolute killer debut 45. It proved to be one of those ’one hit wonders’ and despite other releases The Gun never again achieved any chart success, but that ain’t no big deal as The Gun rule and were one of the first groups to record what would be called ’heavy rock’.

Reader comment:

Looks like Adrian had that ginger Afro goin’ for him even then [:)]. And The Gun begat Three Man Army, then The Baker Gurvitz Army, and then (deep breath!) The Graeme Edge Band featuring Adrian Ben Gurvitz. Ya gotta love the 60s & 70s.

THE ACTION – ’Action Speaks Louder Than’ (Dojo LP03) 1985

The missing link between The Action and Mighty Baby were the five fully fledged recordings from mid 1968 that remained in the can for almost twenty years. That was until they were released as a mini LP by Dojo in 1985.

It’s still the best place to hear these recordings by the way. When Big Beat re-issued the first Mighty Baby album on CD back in ’94 they tagged on all five songs contained on ’Action Speaks Louder Than’ but believe me you need this Dojo vinyl to hear them in far superior sound.

It’s believed that The Action recorded these songs at Morgan Studios in Willesden some time during the Summer of 1968 and not long after singer Reggie King departed to pursue a solo career.

Rolled Gold sessions

By this time they had added two permanent new members, Ian Whiteman (keyboards, flute, vocals)…he also played on the ’Rolled Gold’ sessions, and blues guitarist Martin Stone who had earlier played with The Savoy Blues Band.

All five songs were written and probably sung by Ian Whiteman and despite the fact that they were demonstrations and not meant for release they’re full of sparkle and a late 60s vibe not unlike the late period Small Faces tunes. I don’t think they sound like demos at all, way too good.

Maybe they just needed some more mixing or something. I’m no expert but the songs sound ready for release to me or maybe I’ve just listened to raw 60s garage punk for 30 odd years so I know what ’rough’ really sounds like…

songs on ’Action Speaks Louder Than’

Only Dreaming Dustbin Full Of Rubbish
An Understanding Love
My Favourite Day
A Saying For Today

***** for some reason Dojo used a picture of The Action from 1967. The blond haired Reggie King (centre) was not part of these recordings. Having said that, their art Department made a splendid job with the image, tinting it pink on a black background giving the sleeve an almost blacklight luminescence *****

Obscure 1960s Garage Psychedelic Singles

THE ACTION – ’Rolled Gold’ (React CD-001) 2002

This CD is such an important document to fans of UK psychedelia and is also a must for those interested in The Action to fully understand that they were much more than just a Motown/soul cover band.

I’ve read several interviews by former members of The Action, usually in various fanzines (including the gloriously titled ”Brian Cant’s Pants”) that by mid 1966 they were experimenting with LSD and embracing the West Coast sounds from America.

This change of direction from the mod/soul sound to psych was evident in their final Parlophone single ’Shadows And Reflections’ and it’s flip ’Something Has Hit Me.’

Sadly, they were dropped by Parlophone and spent the second half of 1967 without a record deal, just when the world was going day-glo. It turned out that The Action would never release any further records as no record deal was ever secured.

For decades it was known that The Action DID record more music in late 1967 and early 1968 but these songs were merely demos that the band briefly used to try to get a record deal.

Mighty Baby

I’ve read that they hoped the recently formed Polydor label would be interested. Another label mentioned in Big Beat’s Mighty Baby CD was Marmalade Records which Giorgio Gomelsky was setting up – alas no takers.

Fortunately for fans these rare recordings finally achieved a release 35 years later on Reaction Recordings. This CD is now long out of print and quite hard to locate.

They have printed a photo of the MONO demo tape box that reveals a date of 3rd May, 1968.

There is no indication that the unreleased album would have been called ’Rolled Gold’ but all songs contained on this release are listed and are presented in their original running order.

In my opinion the music sounds fabulous as it is although I’m sure it would never have been released in this ’unfinished’ state in 1968 – they were just demonstrations and The Action were a professional group of musicians.

Abbey Road

It’s a huge shame that George Martin couldn’t have worked his magic on these songs at Abbey Road Studios at the time.

There’s not a bad track on the CD, everyone is a psych treat – the acid and new member Ian Whiteman certainly added to The Action sound making them far more of a potent force than they were as a soul group, they must have been amazing at gigs playing this kind of swag.

My pick is the stunning psychedelic rocker ’In My Dream’ which would have made a spectacular single.

”Wash my mind
I can see.
In my dream
What a scene”.

THE ACTION – ’The Ultimate Action’ (Edsel ED 101) 1980

I’m going through a huge Action phaze at the moment, a group who I’ve had a rather love/hate relationship with for many years.

I still much prefer their later material, such as their last UK single on Parlophone, that being of course ’Shadows And Reflections’/’Something Has Hit Me’ from June 1967, and their unreleased demos from 1968 which are WAY superior than most of their other records.

I’m not fixated with soul music, it’s just not my bag. That’s probably why I’m not that keen on the first four Action singles except for the songs ’Never Ever’, ’I’ll Keep On Holding On’ which I CAN listen to because it’s pop-art mod with crunchy guitars and in my opinion slays the original.

Edsel compilation

’Hey Sha-Lo-Ney’ is also superb with it’s cool 60s guitar riff….. but I can do without ’Land Of A Thousand Dances’, ’Since I Lost My Baby’ and the unreleased ’Harlem Shuffle’ which is compiled here on this Edsel collection.

I just wish The Action recorded more music like ’Hey Sha-Lo-Ney’ instead of the Motown/soul covers….if they had done, I think they would have broken through the underground and into the charts….the 60s mods probably preferred buying the original Motown releases than copies from a blue eyed soul group.

’Something Has Hit Me’ is a killer with Association style ’bah bah bah’s over a crunchy mod rhythm, scattergun drums and Reg King’s vocals are a treat….the slightlydelic fade out is a hint that The Action were moving into a much more trippy area and it’s a shame that they were dropped by Parlophone and George Martin’s AIR productions when ’Shadows And Reflections’/’Something Has Hit Me’ flopped.

The liners for this Edsel compilation were written by Paul Weller in 1980. If you can’t afford the original Action records this is the best place to find their 1965-1967 recordings on vinyl and in glorious MONO.

Obscure 1960s Garage Psychedelic Singles

THE BOYS – ’It Ain’t Fair’/’I Want You’ (PYE 7N.15726) 1964

I recently bought this sought after record by The Boys, although I usually don’t bother with records in only VG- condition I made an exception with this 45 for two reasons.

The first one being that it’s quite rare and secondly, soon after the release of this record The Boys changed their name to The Action and would eventually become the mod gods of London.

Both sides are neat 60s beat, the kind of sound that was dominating the charts in 1964. It was recorded then released a couple of months after The Boys returned from Hanover, Germany.

They had been there playing a local club for six hours each night, six days a week for several months.

Once back in England they recorded two Reg King originals both produced by Kenny Lynch.

The record came and went without any chart action but it did give them enough of a buzz to become the support band for The Who at The Marquee during 1965.

For a long time it was believed that Pete Watson, on guitar, did not perform on these recordings and joined the band when they became known as The Action, however it has been confirmed within the recent Action book ”In The Lap Of The Mods” that he did partake in the sessions.

This means the line-up on this disc was:

Reg King (vocals)
Alan King (lead guitar)
Pete Watson (rhythm guitar)
Mike Evans (bass)
Roger Powell (drums)

CALUM BRYCE – ’Love-Maker’/’I’m Glad’ (Conder PS 1001) 1968

This is such an AWESOME record but I feel like such a flake because I know nothing about Calum Bryce. I’m assuming that he was a solo performer but then again I see that ’Love-Maker’ has three surnames in the credit, including the producer of this disc, Howard Conder.

The latter, incidentally, probably coughed up the cash for the record to be manufactured and released on his own label, Conder Music.

Howard Conder was a drummer in various 60s groups including Joe Brown and the Bruvvers and The Baron Knights.

Love-Maker

’Love-Maker’ has that typically British mod backbeat with monstrous bass guitar lines, vaguely trippy guitar and some studio FX.

What a sound they created with this one. So powerful and above all else memorable. How was this not a hit record?…..you all know why of course…..small indie label with no promotion = a long lost rarely heard jewel.

An original of this 45 will now fetch anything between £400 to £600, they hardly ever get offered for sale though!

Recently, I found out that some enterprising soul has bootlegged a copy and this is what I’ve added to my collection. Sound quality and vinyl used is first class……just like ’Love-Maker’ itself.

Reader comment:
I really like this song and I’ve been told too that it apparently started out as an advert jingle for Woodpecker Cider, where the bit that became ‘Love maker love maker’ was originally ‘Woodpecker woodpecker’! Though I’ve never heard it!