October 2016 – Page 4

Busy busy, a great turn out for our 31st meet. Among the newbies this time were Doug Prentice, Lee Merry, Steve Fitzy and John Williams. Lee was reminiscing about the many bands he has promoted at The Carlisle. Steve was talking about the groups he has been involved with including Ghostriders and currently popular rock n roll band Ricochet. John Williams popped in and had some great photos of his 1980’s bands Hot Pursuit and P.L.C. Sarah Harvey was compiling a list of popular 1970’s progressive rock tracks for her Tuesday radio show on Slammin Tunes. Andre was trying to find out if Georgie Fame definitely played the pier on the 14th October 1966, as he is yet to find anyone who remembers going. Colin Bell had some interesting stories to tell of Georgie Fame when he was working with Alan Price and also Colin had some photos of himself with Denny Laine. Chris Sambrook had with him a rare poster of John Martyn from the beach concert in 1992. Paul Dove had a photo of a band he was in with Tony Ford and Nigel Dance around 1971/72 from the Regent Hotel. Roger Carey brought along a very rare photo of him playing with Liane Carroll and Dave Trigwell. The band were called ‘The Upstarts’ and was taken in The Pig In Paradise in 1987. Tony Qunta was talking about the time he met Eddi Reader of Fairground Attraction. I had with me well worn and battered copies of Easy Rider LP and The Kinks Sunny Afternoon LP, Mick O’Dowd had with him a new cd of the Melbourne Ska Orchestra which he throughly recommends and Pete Prescott was talking about the Brooke Sharkey forthcoming gig with Poppy and Claire Hamill at The Azur on the 4th November. Wasn’t time to get round and chat with everyone but this is just a small bit of what I remember. Anything interesting that you were talking about that I missed, then please feel free to add.

Josie Lawson… Hope you all had a good chin wag at the meeting

Mick O’Dowd… Wow! What a great Meet Alan. One of the most interesting yet. Good newbies and a slimmed down Linda Day. What more could you desire. Had really interesting chats with 2 of the newbies and hope to see them in future. Well done Alan you pulled it off again! Well done!

Eric Harmer… Sorry I couldn’t make it Alan catch I next time. If you want a jam anytime I am up for it mate X

Darren Johnson… Great to catch up. I should have some more reviews for you soon Alan.

Linda Day… Was great to see everyone Paul Dove Brian and Rowena Wood Pip Adams and not forgetting Mick O’dowd plus Alan of course x

Mick O’Dowd… Check out the Melbourne Ska Orchestra album. They are a 26 piece Aussie outfit who really no how to get on down! Recommended.

PICKETTYWITCH/POLLY BROWNE/SWEET DREAMS – THE ANTHOLOGY 1969-1976 (2CD)

This 52 track compilation covers the complete recordings made by Pickettywitch, Polly Browne’s solo album and her Sweet Dreams collaboration with Tony Jackson. Best remembered for the January 1970 top 5 hit ‘That Same Old Feeling’ and for those with long memories the follow up ‘Its Like A Sad Old Kinda Movie’ Polly and Co made some breezy sunshine pop. At this distance 46 years on (where did the time go!) listening to this compilation the Pickettywitch material, apart from the aforementioned hits is not particularly memorable to be fair, its all a little too samey, although the album did sell well at the time. However Polly’s solo album is far more satisfying with some nice takes on ‘To Love Somebody’, ‘The Composer’ and especially ‘Amoureuse’ which Polly recorded months before Kiki Dee but didn’t release til after Kiki had hit with it. Her voice given more free rein from the confines of PW has a breathy quality very reminiscent of the great Dionne Warwick which is very appealing.
The last half of disc 2 is devoted to Sweet Dreams. Polly teamed up with Tony Jackson ex Skatalite and lead singer of Gullivers People, co-incidentally there has been recent discussion of GP elsewhere on SMART, Abba had yet to release their ‘Honey Honey’ track in the UK, Polly seeing its potential was quick to record it and was rewarded with a return to the charts with a Top Ten hit. I actually prefer this version much as I admire Abba. Although not included on this comp she also recorded ‘Up Up In A Puff Of Smoke’ on the same day as HH, which was also to become a hit, a good day in the studio for our Polly. The combination of Polly and Tony’s vocals blend very well and a nice surprise for me is the inclusion of their version of ‘I Just Want To Stay Here’ the Gerry Goffin/Carole King song made famous by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme and a guilty favourite for this old reviewer! So in conclusion overall a good package, excellent sleevenotes and great sound quality. Now if RPM would be kind enough to do the same with PYE labelmates The Paper Doll’s i’d be a happy bunny!

For more information go to http://www.cherryred.co.uk

Til next time…………. Colin colin-head-111x150-111x150

Dave Nattress… Remember the single “Same old Feeling” very well – good old TOTP”s!!!So long ago…..

SMART 31 coffee meet report

SMART SOUNDS by Colin Bell – reviewing Pickettywitch/Polly Browne/Sweet Dreams the anthology 1969-1976 (2cd set)