colin bell

SMART SOUNDS by Colin Bell reviewing Ruperts People: Dream In My Mind – Anthology 1967-1999, CD

by

RUPERTS PEOPLE  DREAM IN MY MIND ANTHOLOGY 1967-1999

For those not familiar with Ruperts People & my connection with them, I should probably start off by just briefly explaining the following. I first saw the guys play & met Rod, Ray, Steve, John & Dai in 1967 on Hastings Pier, not long after I started working backstage there. We have all been friends now for coming up to 60 years. After all of us doing our own thing over the years since 1969 when the band called it a day, in 1999 there was a re-union gig at the old Marina Pavillion, as it was then called, in St Leonards. The gig was driven by the resurgence of Mods & Mod culture. After the gig, & much reminiscing between Rod, Ray, Steve & myself (no John sadly & Dai was never a ‘core member’) I put forward the suggestion that there was probably enough recorded material to put together an album (it would be the first & only one) after much discussion it was decided to explore the practical possibility. There then ensued 2 long years, much work in tracking down tapes, finding the bands original manager & many other issues. Ray’s breakfast table in deepest Essex was the scene of much debate & planning. Eventually in 2001 after all the effort, the finished result was the release of the album ‘The Magic World of Ruperts People’ on vinyl & CD. I was delighted to pen the liner note on the release & tell the story of Ruperts People & how they played a big part in the launch of my own career in the music biz & thank them in black & white. Now here we are nearly 25 years on & Strawberry Records have released this new edition of the album, complete with an additional track not on the original release. The story of the band is told in a new interview with bassist Ray contained in the accompanying booklet. That story is long & often confusing, & I’m glad Ray is doing the explaining this time round! If you’re not familiar with the band at all, they released 3 excellent singles on Columbia Records in 1967-68. The first of which ‘Reflections of Charles Brown’ (written by Rod, as were all 3) was nearly a hit & gained significant airplay, unfortunately for Ruperts, Procol Harum released ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ & both records co-incidentally shared the same ‘Air on a G String’ melody as inspiration & Procol won the day. The second single ‘Prologue To A Magic World’ a beautifully constructed psychedelic song using Alice in Wonderland as its inspiration also inexplicably failed to become a hit, but has always remained my personal favourite, & is beloved by fans of psychedelia, as is it’s ‘B’ side ‘Dream In My Mind’ which has showed up on various psyche compilations over the years. The third single, & arguably the most commercial sounding, ‘I Can Show You’ (video at end of review) sadly made for a hat trick of singles that just didn’t break through to the charts. However, the 3 singles subsequently became ‘cult’ records & as the years passed started to command high prices for original vinyl copies. Ruperts People became this cult, almost mystical band, talked about by psyche fans & later the new Mod movement. These 3 singles & their ‘B’ sides form the nucleus of the anthology album & are complimented by 2 tracks from Rod & Steve’s first band Sweet Feeling, featuring the ambitious psyche single ‘All So Long Ago’ complete with backward taping & phasing effects, & the original version of ‘Reflections of Charles Brown’ which was/is radically different in its structure & simply entitled ‘Charles Brown’. Added to this are 4 live tracks recorded in London in 1969 & 4 tracks from the aforementioned St Leonards re-union gig of 1999, the latter includes covers of ‘My Mind’s Eye’ (Rod was a big Steve Marriott fan) & The Beatles ‘Rain’. The anthology concludes with the previously un-released track ‘Flying High in 67’ Sadly original RP member keyboard player John Tout who later joined Renaissance passed away in 2015 & is missed by us all. This has been a rather strange experience for me ‘reviewing’ an album I was instrumental in organising originally. Despite my love for the guy’s as people, I trust I haven’t let that fact influence my honest judgement when it comes to being impartial regarding the music. I believe now as I did all those years ago that on musical merit Ruperts People deserved greater success than came their way. Enjoy.

For more information go to https://www.cherryred.co.uk
Til next time….stay safe…take care….Colin

Larkin Maria Joanna… Love This

Mike Tobin… Got to know Rod really well when we worked together at John Sherry Enterprises and I managed the band Stackridge. Last time I saw him was just over 10 years ago when he came to see them play at The Half Moon ,Putney.

 

 

SMART SOUNDS by Colin Bell reviewing The Flower Pot Men: Midsummer Dreaming – An Anthology 1967-1970, 3CD Digipak

by

THE FLOWER POT MEN   MIDSUMMER DREAMING  ANTHOLOGY 1967-1970

Grapefruit Records have put together the ultimate release of all the material attached to The Flower Pot Men in this new 3CD package that covers the hit singles, alternate takes, radio sessions, singles released under different aliases & most importantly (for me) 2 ‘lost albums’ recorded in the late 60’s but never released. Over the years I have written so much about John Carter the main force behind the band & so many other projects, that I almost feel like he’s one of the family! If you are a regular reader of my reviews you will be acquainted with John’s work on the previous titles that have appeared in this slot. There was ‘The Walls Fell Down’ dedicated to all Johns different guises & more recently the anthology of The First Class of ‘Beach Baby’ fame, another of John’s creations. To say that John is prolific is a gross understatement. Music seems to pour out of him like perspiration from myself in this heatwave. For those not acquainted with John, a very brief introduction. Along with his longtime song-writing partner Ken Lewis, he started his music career in the 50’s playing skiffle, as he developed his song writing he formed Carter-Lewis & the Southerners (with Jimmy Page on guitar). When that came to an end John & Ken became The Ivy league with hits like ‘Funny How Love Can Be’ & ‘Tossing & Turning’ & provided backing vocals for many top acts, that’s them on The Who’s ‘I Can’t Explain’. By 1966 John, who was never fond of performing live, retired from The Ivy League to the studio to dream up the many projects he became responsible for. Ken initially stayed with the band but would later re-join John. With the prevailing musical climate emanating from the USA’s West Coast, John sat down to create & write an epic song in the manner of Brian Wilson, whom he had been reading about. The result in August 1967 was the release of the now classic ‘Lets Go To San Francisco Parts 1 & 2’ a long 6 minute piece occupying both sides of a single that reached No 4 in the charts in the ‘summer of love’, which was actually several places higher than the new release at that time of Heroes & Villains’ by the Beach Boys. The Flower Pot Men were born. Their success was swift & whilst they existed only as a studio concoction by John who sang the lead vocals, played many of the instruments, along with being aided by seasoned session guys like Clem Cattini on drums, the public wanted live performances by the ‘band’ so a touring band was quickly assembled, fronted by Tony Burrows to perform on TV & at live gigs. This left John where he wanted to be, in the studio, creating & expanding his musical talents. It is those prodigious talents that are now gathered together for the first time & form this splendid new anthology. Neatly spread over 3 discs it is split into Disc1 ‘Singles & Sessions 1967-70. Disc2 the 2 ‘lost albums’ unreleased at the time. ‘Peace’ recorded in 1968/9 & ‘Past Imperfect’ recorded in 1970. Disc3 is dedicated to singles & demos recorded between 1967-69. So to the music, as you might expect the anthology kicks off with the full (mono) version of ‘San Francisco’, sounding very fresh still. Followed by an absolute tour-de-force of a song in Mythological Sunday’ which shows in epic form the way John imagined the progression of TFPM. Its intricate, dreamy & quite wonderful (& did see a release under an alias) This is followed by the 2nd FPM single release ‘A Walk In The Sky’ which although not a hit in the UK fared much better across Europe. ‘Blow Away’ follows with its impeccable harmonies & psyche guitar flourishes, if I didn’t know this was the work of John I’d think I was listening to a dyed in the wool West Coast of America band, its a wonderful track. As are the likes of ‘Say Goodbye to Yesterday’ the compilations title track ‘Midsummer Dreaming’ & the rather exotic & experimental ‘E=MC2/Musha Hada. There are times when certain tracks remind me of Sgt Pepper, hardly surprising given the time frame. Disc1 also treats us to another take on ‘Mythological Sunday’ with Tony Burrows replacing John on lead vocal. The stereo version of ‘San Francisco’ & half a dozen tracks recorded as BBC sessions including takes on ‘Californian Dreamin’ & The Beach Boys ‘Don’t Worry Baby’. Now we get to Disc 2 & those 2 previously unreleased albums. Why were they unreleased? Well, basically whilst John was putting the first one ‘Peace’ together the phenomenon that was ‘flower power’ was already fading away. In reality although looking back it seemed longer, it really only lasted 6-9 months, Thus by the time ‘Peace’ was completed flower power & The Flower Pot Men were already passe & would shortly drop their name & morph into their next incarnation, pop/harmony band White Plains. So ‘Peace’ has sat in John’s vault all these years. Now however we can enjoy his vision of where TFPM would have gone musically if the climate hadn’t changed. There’s not a lot of point me throwing a lot of track titles at you as they aren’t going to mean a lot. I’d just ask you to trust me when I say its 10 tracks of sheer bliss, with so many interesting idea’s abounding, all written by John with a rare example of a cover, in this case Donovan’s ‘Colours’ which works well as a multi voiced number. I was also very struck by the track ‘Cooks Of Cake And Kindness’ a real gem. From the ‘prologue’ to the ‘epilogue’ the album hangs together very well & certainly rewards repeated listening’s. Turning to the second album ‘Past Imperfect’. Recorded in 1970 it is much less a dreamy FPM album, it’s more a collection of songs with John clearly exploring his own ideas about time. Unlike ‘Peace’ it’s not very cohesive as an album. Certainly there’s plenty to enjoy, but its disparate tracks don’t make for the dreamy experience as the aforementioned material already discussed does. It’s all perfectly pleasant, which sounds like I’m damning it with faint praise, I’m not, it just doesn’t reach those parts I personally enjoyed so much on the previous material. Disc 3 as aforementioned brings together 26 tracks of various singles & demo’s recorded between 1967-69, many released under various nom-de-plumes & featuring some present & future well known personnel. It also includes the 3rd FPM single ‘Man Without A Woman’ which effectively saw the end of the band when it failed to chart. With the members of the touring band becoming White Plains, John handed over future song-writing duties to well established hitmakers Roger Cook & Roger Greenaway’ who supplied the 4th & final FPM single ‘In A Moment of Madness’ which is included. Having divested himself of the FPM duties John went on to pastures new with many more successful compositions & ‘bands’ including The First Class as mentioned at the start. I’m so pleased to have this shining jewel of a 3CD collection in my possession. I believe John to be one of the unsung geniuses of pop music of the 60’s & 70’s who contributed so much, & yet by his own choosing, opted to stay out of the spotlight. I’m delighted to say he is still very much with us & no doubt still full of countless ideas! The excellent booklet that comes with the digipack is full of info & pictures with a detailed study of all things FPM & John. Enjoy.

For more information go to https://www.cherryred.co.uk
Til next time….stay safe…take care….Colin  

Andy Qunta… I don’t remember hearing any of their songs except for Let’s Go To San Francisco, which I love!

Samantha’s Club – New Burlington Street. What clubs and venues do you remember in London? Tiffanys Club and Gullivers People chat.

by

img245

All images supplied by Colin Bell

Colin Bell… I was looking for something in my archives (I must organise them one day!) and came across this. I was struck by the artwork and how creative it was then. Samantha’s was in a basement off Regent Street and I was introduced to it on a night out with Clem (from the Foundations) and Jimmy James, from memory  it was around late 1969 early 1970. A great place with soul bands appearing and the D.J. ‘booth’ was the body of an E Type Jag (very swinging sixties). Drinks 2/6d! You could get well pissed for a coupla quid! I was lucky enough at that time to have the use of a mate’s flat in Berwick Street Soho, ideally placed to go to all the great clubs. Many hours spent at the Marquee, Whisky-a-go-go, the Flamingo, Middle Earth and Hatchetts in Piccadilly, a great club over 3 floors with a chill out bar level, a restaurant with a glass wall overlooking the ‘disco’ floor. I’d be interested to hear any memories of this period from other Smart members? Great times and great memories…………..

Alan Esdaile… Happy days in Wardour Street at The Marquee. Also the Speakeasy. Also remember auditioning bands at Tiffanys nightclub in Shaftesbury Avenue and a club in Piccadilly with the disco on the top floor, mirrored lift and the club had records stuck to the wall. 100 club, Roxy, Ronnie Scotts etc.

Peter Fairless… Went to some dodgy, some good clubs in London. Some were very dodgy but very good! Can’t remember all the names but most of those listed above.

Steve Gage… My mate Ray was a bouncer at Samanthas where are you now mate??? 🙂

Mick O’Dowd… Went to The Q Club in Paddington after seeing James Brown at The Rainbow in the 70’s I think. JB turned up after we got there and jammed with the band. Awesome!

Wendy Weaver… I went to Samantha’s in the 70s, loved the E Type jockeys booth. I worked in offices above La Valbonne in Regent Street for a few years. It had a large glass tank where people went for a dip – sometimes with their clothes on !

Eugene Hughes… I went to the Valbonne Wen. And Skindles in Maidenhead. Louis Brown has them both. Kingley St was la Valbonne.

Lena Jansson… Tiffany´s in Shaftesbury avenue was my favourite disco in 1977-1979, I remember the live band Gullivers people and the two DJ:s Ken Norton and the other one I can´t remember the name of, Dave? David? Would be great to hear from someone else who used to dance the nights away at Tiffany´s!!

858262_10152541434135063_806465174_o

Gullivers People. photo source: http://paulrobinsondrummeronline.com/bio/

Lena Jansson… I only remember the female singer of  Gullivers People, I think her name was Kim or something like that, a name that both women and men use. She was quite tall with dark curly hair and a very strong voice. Their best cover was Alright now, a great song by Free.

Read more

SMART SOUNDS by Colin Bell reviewing Soul 66 – From The Vaults Of Atlantic, Atco, Calla, Loma, Reprise, Roulette, Stax, Volt And Warner Bros, 3CD Box Set

by

 

SOUL 66   Various Artists (3CD Set)
If you’re any sort of soul fan trust me you’re going to want to get your hands on this latest release from Strawberry Records. This 3 CD box set collects together some of the best soul/R&B tracks from the height of the genre’s popularity in the mid 60’s. The compilers have scooped up classic tracks from the vaults of classic labels Atlantic, Stax, Volt, Atco, Reprise & Warner & have mined the gold from the small specialist labels such as Calla, Loma & Roulette to bring you a 4 hour odyssey covering 91 tracks to get those feet moving & filling the dancefloor. For me, its just like being back in my early days as a mobile DJ & doing a gig. So many memories here. As you might expect there are some stellar names & tracks from top stars of the genre, like Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Wison Pickett, Booker T & The MG’s, Carla Thomas, Ben E King, Solomon Burke & Mary Wells to name just some. These sit alongside long lost gems & rarities from a whole host of forgotten names pumping out ‘B’ sides, obscurities, & tracks that crossed over later to the Northern Soul Scene. Afficanodos of the latter will be delighted to find tracks from established Northern Soul legends like Darrell Banks. The Marvellos, Charles Thomas & Bobby Womack. So what are some of the big mainstream hits coming your way? Well, there’s ‘Land of a Thousand Dances’ ‘Knock On Wood’ ‘Hold On I’m Coming’ ‘B.A.B.Y.’ ‘Try A Little Tenderness’ & much more. When it comes to the Northern Soul side there’s the aforementioned Darrell Banks leading the way with ‘Our Love Is In The Pocket’ The Marvellos ‘Somethings Burning’ Bobby Womack ‘Find Me Somebody’ & The Blossoms ‘That’s Where The Tears Start’ again to name but a few. Some of my own personal favourite picks come from Charles Thomas ‘The Man With The Golden Touch’  Ruby Johnson with the excellent ‘Weak Spot’ Paul Days ‘Wake Me Up Baby’ (an artist & song I wasn’t familiar with until listening to this compilation). And this is hardly scratching the surface. Disc 2 kicks off with one of my fellow DJ’s (& mine favourites) the wonderful Doris Troy, with the classic dancefloor filler ‘I’ll Do Anything’, I’d like a pound for every time I’ve spun that one! (you can hear it at the end of this review). It’s an example of what smaller labels were issuing, in this case the Callo label, which as I mentioned earlier is where this compilation scores over many previous issues of this type. A lot of trouble has gone into taking you on a journey of discovery into the lifeblood of the soul genre. With 91 tracks it’s impossible to mention them all, but adding to those I’ve already mentioned, I’d like to throw in cuts from King Curtis, William Bell, Johnnie Taylor, Lorraine Ellison, The Soul Shakers & the ever brilliant Darlene Love, who surely has one of the best soul voices ever committed to record. And again the compilers have done a great job with not just adding the ever & over compiled familiar tracks.  As I said at the beginning, any self respecting real soul fan will want this new release in their collection, & will know their stuff when it comes to the myriad artistes involved. For them & anybody new to the genre who has maybe just set out to explore the whole 60’s soul scene the accompanying excellent 40 page booklet provides you with potted biog’s & pictures of the guys & gals who brought us this wealth of great music which always remains timeless & never seems to date badly after all these years, as so many other genres do. Well done Strawberry Records, you have produced a fantastic set for fans & collectors alike. If I was still using my old 5 star rating system, this would get a solid 5 with ease. Enjoy.
For more information go to https://www.cherryred.co.uk
Til next time….stay safe…take care….Colin..

 

 

Jim McCarthy… say yeah

John Gale… That is a top class Soul compilation..

 

SMART SOUNDS by Colin Bell reviewing DEAR MR FANTASY – A Celebration for Jim Capaldi – Featuring the music of Jim Capaldi & Traffic (2CD/1BluRay)

by

DEAR MR FANTASY – A Celebration for Jim Capaldi – Featuring the music of Jim Capaldi & Traffic (2CD/1BluRay)

I was looking forward to this & boy was I not disappointed. Tribute concerts can be patchy affairs in my experience, but this one celebrating the life & career of Jim is absolutely wonderful from beginning to end. As I’m sure most people know Jim Capaldi was the co-founder with Steve Winwood of Traffic in 1967. He was also a solo performer & collaborated with many other stellar musicians over his lifetime. Sadly Jim passed away far too early at the age of 60 in 2005 of stomach cancer. This new box set from Esoteric Records contains 2 Cd’s & 1 BluRay of the concert that was held at The Roundhouse in January 2007 as a tribute to Jim. With the proceeds going The Jubilee Action Street Children Appeal. The 2 CD’s number 20 tracks between them, split roughly equally between Jim’s work with Traffic & his solo career. The 3rd disc in the package is a BluRay of the concert & as this contains the same 20 tracks (with a little extra) I decided to watch this & have the whole experience of sight & sound. The 2 CD’s are currently living in my car & probably will for some considerable time! A clearly excited and enthusiastic crowd are introduced to the evenings proceedings by the ever excellent Bob Harris who was serving as compere. Bob introduces the ‘house band’ for the night. And being perfectly honest of the musicians introduced I’ve only really aware of the excellent drummer Simon Kirke, co-founder of Bad Company, but no matter they are all clearly great musicians. After Bob’s introduction which includes Jim’s widow Aninha its time to open up with the first track. Fittingly its Traffic’s first outing with ‘Paper Sun’ sung by the evenings first guest in Paul Weller. He makes a pretty fair job of it too & we’re off to a good start. He’s followed by redoubtable session singer Stevie Lange who sings a storming version of ‘Lost Inside Your Love’ (a favourite of mine). When she’s completed her performance, one of the worlds greatest guitarists in the shape of the ever brilliant Joe Walsh treats us to some mesmerising guitar on ‘Living On The Outside’ where he makes that bluesy guitar wail & sing in fine fashion. Up next is Dennis Locorriere, best known as the voice of Dr Hook, a band I confess I’ve never been fond of. So it was a pleasant surprise to hear Dennis perform ‘Elixir of Life’ with such vigour reminding me of a more animated Joe Cocker, he’s also no slouch on the harmonica either, I shall give him more consideration in the future. One of Jim’s favourites is next with ‘Whale Meat Again’ sung by Simon Kirke on drums, I’m always impressed when drummers sing simultaneously. I can do one or the other (or though the ‘singing’ is debatable) but get lost doing both. There isn’t space for every track to be noted but other highlights of the first 10 songs are provided by Cat/Yusuf with ‘Man With No Country’ neatly dropping in a few bars of Wild World’ along the way. Joe Walsh is back for the classic ‘Forty Thousand Headmen’. The real surprise to me is when Steve Winwood comes on to perform Dear Mr Fantasy. I’m used to his excellence on the Hammond, or any keyboard, but was not ready for his blinding guitar work. I truly never knew he could play like that. See the video at the end of this review for the proof. The next 10 tracks kick off with the unmistakable blues guitar of Gary Moore & ‘Evil Love’ which is just sublime. Paul Weller is back following that with another personal favourite ‘Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush’ I’ve always loved that particular Traffic track. However whilst its a perfectly good version as Steve is at hand I must confess I was disappointed he wasn’t singing it, that would have been perfect. Other highlights come from Phil Capaldi, Jon Lord & Bill Wyman performing ‘Gifts of Unknown Things’. Joe Walsh again with ‘John Barleycorn Must Die’ simply bliss, & Pete Townshend who delivers an outstanding take on ‘No Face, No Name, No Number’ which I confess makes me a bit teary eyed. I don’t have room to name every track performed, but trust me at no time does the night flag. The whole evening is brought to a close with an ensemble rendering of one of Jim’s best ‘Love Will Keep Us Alive’ bringing the concert to a emotional close. I have only one or two tiny niggles, one I’ve already mentioned, regarding Steve singing ‘Mulberry Bush’. The other is that ‘Eve” one of my all time favourite records, & Jim’s debut solo single, didn’t feature in the concert, that would have made it total perfection for me. However, in conclusion, if you are a fan of Jim/Traffic treat yourself to this amazing concert, I promise you won’t regret it. The whole 3 Disc audio & visual quality is excellent, & the set comes in a sturdy clamshell box with an accompanying booklet, chock full of info & some great photo’s. Enjoy.

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

Til next time….stay safe…take care….Colin                                                                            

Chicken Shack, Ardon & Colin Bell – Hastings Pier Friday 25th May 1973

by

13330_369636718709_2586655_n

chicken shack

25th may 1973 - chicken shack

supplied by Mick Mepham

Phil Gill… Remember this one well. Had a talk with Stan Webb afterwards. He was a right miserable bugger.

Terry Huggins… I remember going to this one too. Can’t recall much about it as I met a young lady. Didn’t they make the support band play in front of the stage instead of on it, or am I thinking of someone else?

Alan Esdaile… Can’t remember Terry and can’t recall the band ‘Ardon’. I will see if Colin remembers.

Pete Prescott… The second gig I played was supporting chicken shack in Jan 73.i was in a band called village. It was at kemsley town hall. I was 16 and terrified ! Helen tap was there.

Joe Knight… great sound!!!

Eric Cawthraw… Yep, I was at this one. By then it was the ‘Stan Webb show’, the rest of the band didn’t really get much of a look in. Proper old showman guitaring and still a very enjoyable evening.

Pete Fisher… pretty sure I was there…Stan Webb had a specially long guitar lead back then, and used to make a feature of going walkabout into the audience…before the days of wireless systems (pioneered by Angus)…years later (1990) I saw Buddy Guy at the Albert Hall, and when Clapton annonced him, you heard his guitar but he was nowhere to be seen on stage…minutes later he stood up in the middle of the audience, where he’d been hiding, and walked up to the stage, playing via his wireless system…cool trick!

Nigel Ford… I remember seeing Ardon some time on the Pier (didn’t keep a diary until late ’73) and after playing a couple of numbers the frontman said “we’re ARDON….do you get it ?”

Jan Warren… Oh yeah, Chicken Shack.didn’t they do “I’d rather go blind”?! – love that song!! xx

Gerry Fortsch… Stan Webb, brilliant saw him gig with Canned heat great.

Colin Bell… I don’t remember myself ‘freaking out’ doing this gig, but then these days what i had for breakfast escapes me……

Pete Prescott… My 2nd gig was in January 1973 supporting Chicken Shack at Kemsley town hall (near Sittingbourne).I was 16. I had to be pushed on stage.

Iain Cobby… A few years ago I was depping in Lez Zep , which led me to somewhere in the the Sierra Nevada to do a gig in a what was a converted venue, from a moorish fort in a village high above Grenada ( no , not the TV station) . After 3 hours from the airport in a converted Transit with only olive groves to look at, we arrived at a dusty watering hole . walking in to a local hostelry by the road we dusted ourselves down and sat on a bench at the rear , not wanting to draw attention. There, standing at the bar was Stan in a white suit whos band were topping the next night’s show . Miserable git would only talk to Mr Kulke, our Robert P. We settled for a ham ( off the bone hung on a huge spike on the wall) sandwich. ahhh what goes on ,on the road ……….

Colin Bell… Stan Webb is a great guitarist, but he must qualify as one of the grumpiest, miserable guys I’ve ever done a gig with!

 

The Magic World of Ruperts People Album & rare video ‘I Can Show You’.

by

rupert

img821

img819img820

supplied by Colin Bell

A great write up from Colin, that should interest people from Hastings.

Andy Qunta…. Thanks for the great write-up, Colin, and thanks for posting, Alan

Mick Mepham… Reflections sounds just like Procul Harum ……

Mick O’Dowd… Ditto Mick. That was my fave and I always said it was a poor mans Whiter Shade.

 

Ez Allen with Colin Bell DJ’s – Vacuum Generators 14th May 1971

by

img146

Ez Allen with Colin Bell at the back. Vacuum Generators 14th May 1971 supporting Alamo.

Samuel Freeman…. It was a good night

Colin Bell… Bloody hell! Haven’t seen this before! Where did the years go….

Andy Knight… I just love that pic, where are they now?

Alan Esdaile… Great hair!

Factory & Effigy – Clive Vale Annexe. Fri 7th May 1971 & YMCA review 13th August 1971

by

Supplied by Jon McCallion

Andy Qunta… Ah! Good times!

Phil Gill… I was there, probably with young Carey, Meachen and Shirley, as they labelled us at school. Sarah Harvey might have enjoyed the evening too.

Sarah Harvey…. I did indeed Phil and I had. completely forgotten about Effigy and to be honest cannot remember seeing them at all other than a vague memory that I didn’t think much of them. Factory as ever were THE band of Hastings at the time.

Chris Baker… Hah! Flight of the Rat was one of my “Flashy” solos! Those were the days! We only did a few gigs.

Phil Gill… As I recall Chris, you showed me how to play the pedal note riff from Flight of the Rat, one night at an Effigy rehearsal that Roger Carey and I attended. Was it School Road in Ore? Roger was buying Iain Cobby’s speaker cabinet and we came along to look at it.

Brigitte Lee… Where was Clive Vale Annex?

Chris Baker… Ha! Phil! My arthritic old fingers can’t play it so fast these days! Fun to so though. Still got that analog Park Fuzzbox too and the old Hofner!

Geoff Peckham… I remember we (Factory) were really impressed with Effigy. Didn’t they do a couple of other Deep Purple covers? Speed King, and Child in Time? According to Andy’s diary we played with them twice in 1971. May 7th at Priory Road School. Andy said that school gigs have been “…really great. This was no exception. Bit of trouble from old ladies and police about the noise but never mind. Effigy supported (or did we support them?) – not bad for their first gig.” The second was at the YMCA on August 13th. Andy mentions the awful acoustics and that “Effigy (with Tom) supported.” Could that have been the legendary Tom Jones? (The one from Stoke, not S. Wales!)

Phil Gill… And Steve’s drumming was *never* too loud. End of.

John Wilde…. Tom Jones, any info on his history or where he is now?

Geoff Peckham…. I got to know Tom in ’69 when his dad had an electrical shop in Western Rd, Bexhill. He told me stories about being in a pre-Black Sabbath band called Horny Moon (!) and other tales. He was a great character and raconteur. Like you, he had great stage presence – a great blues singer and harpist. He moved back to Stoke, and around 73-74 turned up at a Factory gig in NE Staffs University. I think he put us up for the night. Haven’t seen him since. Anyone else know anything? Be good to see you again sometime.

Alan Esdaile…yes it was School Road Ore where the rehearsals took place, in the old church hall which was full of antiques and clobber and the band squeezed somehow in the middle. I think their was a giant stuff bear but maybe wrong? Geoff Peckham date is correct as Friday 7th May 1971. Clive Vale Annex was part of Priory Road School and the gig took place at Clive Vale. Jon McCallion sung with Effigy at this gig and glad you remembered Tom Jones. I got a review somewhere which I will post on the YMCA gig shortly.

Read more