The World of DECCA Post 14 England, Fifties Rock 'n' Pop Stars, Country and Folk, Hard Rock Music

Foreword

So as promised, the old jalopy finally pulls into an English lay-by and we find ourselves, in the first instance, in Melton Mowbray. After a bit of a tour around, we have, on our itinerary, a trip back in time to the music of the fifties then we'll detour to some Country and Folk before ending up between a Hard Rock and bedtime … but not before I introduce you all to a happy Swede - nope! not cheerful supper but a kind contributor from Gothenberg, Sweden. Four or so years ago I posted a query at discogs.com regarding the performers on THE WORLD OF HEAVY HITS (SPA 209) and was very pleased to receive a reply from Mr Bosse Larsson. Read on through to the end of this post to receive the wisdom supplied.

ENGLAND THE WORLD OF ENGLAND AND THIS IS LONDON SIR MALCOLM SARGENT Sir Malcolm Sargent began his career in music as an organist in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire whilst also conducting but his well-documented big break came when eminent conductor, Sir Henry Wood performed in Leicester and during his visit, as was the custom, requested that local composer, Sargent, write a piece for Wood himself to draw an interpretation of from the orchestra as its inaugural presentation. Unfortunately (perhaps fortunately) Malcolm Sargent failed to complete the work in time for Henry Wood to learn it to his satisfaction, resulting in him asking Sargent to conduct his work himself. As is often the

way with this sort of story, an impressive performance was achieved and Sir Malcolm, as he was to become, was invited by Wood to conduct it once again, at his annual season of promenade concerts, soon to become known as (did you see this coming?) the Proms! If you guessed correctly, help yourself to the green triangular sweetie from the tin of chocolates left over from last Christmas. The piece was called Impression on a Windy Day and was presented at the same Prom that Gustav Holst gave the audience his Planets suite. Sargent, though a competent composer was encouraged to concentrate on conducting and so began an impressive career. Sir Malcolm Sargent conducts three pieces on THE WORLD OF ENGLAND (SPA-R 190) including Elgar’s ‘Pomp and Circumstance March’, a stalwart Prom song, and one on THIS IS LONDON (SPA 593).

VICTOR OLOF Though born in London, Victor Olof Ahlquist was of Swedish descent. He was a Decca man for 13 years from 1943 working with, though overshadowed by, John Culshaw. Whilst he was a trained conductor, his main wage accrued from his position of record producer and in fact, he preceded Culshaw and has many fine recordings to his name. Let’s run through a few names from Decca of old. It was chief recording engineer, Arthur Haddy, who noted Victor

Olof’s appreciation of orchestral balance during a recording session. He suggested that, with Decca looking to ramp up its classical arm, Decca Head, Edward Lewis should find a way to attract Olof to the team. This would have been around the time of the establishment of the radically new ffrr system covered earlier. Olof’s early production sessions found him working with engineer Kenneth Wilkinson and WORLD OF’s Kathleen Ferrier, amongst others, receiving the attention of the boys. Olof it is, however, who conducts four consecutive tunes on Side 1 of SPA-R 190 ably assisted by contralto Marjorie Thomas on ‘O Peaceful England (Merrie England)’ and tenor Alexander Young on ‘The English Rose (Merrie England)’. Another composer whose music Victor Olof produced, incidentally, was Eric Coates who also has a tune on SPA-R 190.

ERIC COATES ‘Knightsbridge March’, the third movement of the London Suite, was written, as well as conducted, by Eric Coates on SPA-R 190 and THIS IS LONDON (SPA 593) and this piece was used by the BBC for its radio show, In Town Tonight. Don’t remember the show? Well, it DID begin in 1933 so you’d have to be a certain age to know it. Perhaps you might know of another of his works, ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’ is, even today, used as the theme for the very long-running Desert Island Discs. In fact, the BBC plundered the Coates port-folio for several pieces for their radio and TV programmes including Music While You Work on the wireless

and The Forsyte Saga on the telly. Eric Coates was a viola player, conductor and composer of light music and as well as providing music for radio and TV, wrote tunes for movie scores. Possibly his most well-known work for film was the title piece for The Dambusters but maybe the most pleasing to the composer was that his specially written ‘Television March’ was the

first piece of music heard on television on the re-start of BBC TV after the Second World War. ‘The Dambuster’s March’ can be heard on THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS: POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE (SPA 419). Though his work was largely poo-pooed by the music press of the time as being too light and inconsequential, Sir Edward Elgar held it in high regard, reserving all new records by Coates at an Oxford Street record shop for his own collection. He would certainly have reserved SPA 419 because Side 1 was taken up by his Pomp and Circumstance Marches!

THE GEORGE MITCHELL CHOIR The George Mitchell Choir are heard on SPA-R 190 singing ‘The Eton Boating Song’ with the orchestra conducted by WORLD OF icon of easy listening, Stanley Black, of whom, a few words can be found elsewhere. George Mitchell’s main claim to fame (infamy?) however, was the BBC TV’s The Black and White Minstrel Show which carried a little baggage with it in its later years. For most of its 20 year run, starting in 1958, it drew massive audiences when little malice was perceived in the gentlemen of the choir blacking up in order to depict the old-time minstrel shows of the so-called ‘Swannee River’ type which had black performers. It is difficult to think that there was absolutely no dissention but these were different times and it’s a shame that, after all of the work that George Mitchell is associated with, the issues of racism over this show has sullied his reputation. He has, after all, worked with such eminent notables as WORLD OF’s Vera Lynn, Gracie Fields and Anne Shelton!

ANTHONY COLLINS Anthony Vincent Benedictus Collins was a conductor and composer whose Decca-related fame includes having conducted all seven of Sibelius’ symphonies for the label. He has composed two symphonies, two violin concertos and four short operas amongst a fine portfolio which also includes several film scores of which, he received Academy Award nominations in the early 1940s for Nurse Edith Cavell, Irene and Sunny. Anthony Collins is probably best known for his piece ‘Vanity Fair’ but the work we have here on SPA-R 190 is Vaughan Williams’ ‘Fantasia on Greensleeves’ for which Collins conducts.

Marianne Faithfull, Robert Farnon, The Band of the Grenadier Guards and Frank Chacksfield also have tracks on THE WORLD OF ENGLAND and these artists are considered elsewhere. In fact, the Guards Band has two medleys and Chacksfield has one tune on THIS IS LONDON as well along with such as Clive Dunn.

CLIVE DUNN As well as being an actor, Corporal Jones in the BBC half hour comedy Dad’s Army, Clive Dunn was also a comedian, author, artist and, of course, a singer as evidenced on SPA 593. Here he enhances all of our lives with a rendition of ‘My Old Dutch’. This is the song with the lyric, ‘We’ve been together now for forty years an’ it don’t seem a day too much’ in case you didn’t recognise it. A bit mawkish maybe but in keeping with other songs of his; tunes such as ‘Grandad’ which got to the top of the UK charts in 1970 and was one of 13 singles (11 if you don’t include reissues of ‘Grandad’ – mind you, all three had different b sides so that’s one for the collectors amongst you) released in his name. No others, however, appear to have roused from his bed, the man that compiles those charts. Dunn starred with Tony Hancock, of WORLD OF fame, in his television show along with his Hancock’s Half Hour as well as contributing comedic performances to several other TV shows including Bootsie and Snudge, My Old Man and, of course, Grandad. It was in films, however, where he picked up most of his work. He took part in over 20, his first, Boys will be Boys in which, one source has it, he plays a ‘schoolboy watching rugby’. Well, at fifteen, he WAS a schoolboy. His penultimate film was Dad’s Army which stemmed from the TV half hour comedy that really made Clive Dunn a household name playing fragile and frail Corporal Jones. Ironic really as he was one of the younger participants and ended up with most of the more vigorous knock-about moments that may have finished the acting careers of some of the others in Captain Mainwaring’s crew.

HETTY KING Hetty King was the stage name of music hall entertainer, Winifred Emms who took the name on her first stage appearance at the age of six following the lead of her comedian father who was known as Will King. Her main calling was as a he – that is, Hetty impersonated men which, during the two World Wars through which her career ran, involved dressing as soldiers and sailors. Her song on SPA 593 is ‘Piccadilly’.

ROBIN HUNTER An actor who performed and wrote comedy for the stage as well as songs for musicals and has a go at ‘Wot Cher (Knocked ‘em in the Old Kent Road)’ on THIS IS LONDON. Robin Hunter’s filmography includes Carry on Matron which tenuously links him with his second wife, Amanda Barrie who played in Carry on Cleo and Carry on Cabby. They separated after many years but did not divorce. Now, here’s a thing. They separated in the 1980s and Hunter died in 2004 but in her book published in 2002, It’s Not a Rehearsal, Barrie came out as bisexual. I wonder if he knew. Oh, what a Carry On!

FLORRIE FORDE Over 30 years, Florrie Forde (born Flora Flanagan) cut around 700 records and her first big hit was ‘Down at the Old Bull and Bush’ as can be found on SPA 593. She also has a couple of songs on THE WORLD OF MUSIC HALL (SPA 81). The Old Bull and Bush is an actual pub in Hampstead Heath and it was awarded the writing of a song after gaining a music

licence in 1867 when a Mr Henry Humphries was the incumbent landlord. Florrie also had hits with ‘it’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ and ‘Pack up your Troubles’ during the First World War. So, you can see that if Florrie was a stick of seaside rock she’d have ‘England’ written through and through. Shame she was Australian!

Florrie Forde spent much of her performing life in and around London and produced an annual pantomime, in one of which was a young comic called Robert Winthrop who Forde took under her wing. You may not know of a performer by the name of Winthrop but how about Bud Flanagan, for it was he taking the rejected surname of his mentor.

KIM CORDELL & IDA BARR

‘Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner’ (written by WORLD OF’s Hubert Gregg) sung by Kim Cordell on THIS IS LONDON and ‘Oh, You Beautiful Doll’ by Ida Barr both feature on an LP on the Ace of Clubs record label called Look in at the Local: From Dan Farson’s Waterman’s Arms. Ace of Clubs is another of those labels that Decca founded especially as a budget range. Anyway, Dan Farson was a TV personality of the late 1950s/early 60s who fancied running a kind of music hall all of his own down by the Thames River. Music Hall soon became unfashionable and the venue only lasted a few years, unfortunately. If you should find yourself searching for information on Ida Barr, you may be disturbed to find that there are more than one person of this name associated with the music hall stage. If you want our WORLD OF Ida Barr look out for ‘the original ragtime gal – the real Ida Barr’. If you’re not fussy, you may find yourself learning all about a fellow named Chris Green, an Ida Barr impersonator who posed as a music hall/rap star pensioner specialising in artificial hip hop!

RALPH READER’S GANG SHOW

Ralph Reader was an actor and songwriter with a penchant for theatre production and choreography and is known particularly for putting on the original Gang Show, an entertainment laid on by the Boy Scouts. It was back in 1932 that Ralph organised the first Scout show, calling it The Gang’s All Here, repeating the gig a year later, this time naming it The Gang Comes Back. Soon, the press were referring to the ‘Gang Shows’ and the name stuck. The Gang Show Scouts were the first amateur artists at a Royal Variety Performance appearing on the billboards with WORLD OF stars, Gracie Fields and George Formby. On our record, SPA 593, the Gang Show run through a Ralph Reader-penned tune, ‘London Town’ which begins, ‘London Town is a magic town and it all belongs to me …’. A little confused perhaps but heck, it’s just a song! Also featuring on THIS IS LONDON are Stanley Holloway, Billy Cotton, Anne Shelton and Jim MacLeod, all who are WORLD OF luminaries in their own right and so can be found discussed elsewhere.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare was solely an actor and playwright until 1593 when he was about 29 years of age. At this time, though, plague kept people in their homes and the theatres were necessarily closed. Unsure of the future of more plays, Will changed tack and went in for a bit of poetry writing and soon came up with the famous sonnets though it was not until 1609

that these were published with Shakespeare then aged 45. He would be 410 years of age before Decca released the first of two LP records in his honour, these being THE WORLD OF SHAKESPEARE (SPA 167) and THE WORLD OF SHAKESPEARE VOL. 2 (SPA-R 558). His work also crops up on THE WORLD OF ENGLAND (SPA-R 190) where the record opens with ‘This royal throne of kings’ from his Richard II and THE WORLD OF SCHUBERT (SPA 426) which showcases Shakespeare’s words made into song by yer man Franz

Schubert. Schubert composed the tune for Eduard von Bauernfeld’s German translation of ‘Who is Sylvia?’ from Scene II of Act IV of one of Shakespeare’s earlier plays, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. There is a story (unproven to be any more than this) that goes something like … Schubert wandered into a beer garden in Vienna with friends and there just happened to be a copy of a volume of words by Shakespeare left casually on

one of the tables there. As he was reading, he was overcome by a persistent melody running through his head and, with no paper to hand, began scribbling on the back of a menu, the melody heard right there and then. Originally called simply ‘Gesang’ it became ‘An Sylvia’ which, together could roughly be translated as ‘A Song to Sylvia’ but has since been commonly known as 'Where is Sylvia'. In all, William Shakespeare knocked up 38 plays.

AMBROSE Bert Ambrose got his break in band leadership at age 20 by serendipitous means. On his very first engagement playing violin for Emil Coleman in New York, the bandleader was taken ill and with the whole band to choose from, it was Ambrose who was asked to take Coleman’s place at the rostrum. Well, you know how these stories pan out by now – he did so well, that he was invited to form his own 15-man band. A few years later in London, Ambrose was asked to form a 7-man band to play at the Embassy Club and was appreciated so much, even when the management changed, that whilst he was fulfilling work in New York, his London manager drafted in the Prince of Wales, Edward VIII, to join him in asking Ambrose to please get back to London. In the mid-fifties, rock ‘n’ roll was on a surge and big bands such as Ambrose’s were under some pressure. It was a good time, therefore, to discover the next big thing. And so it was, that Kathy Kirby’s career took off with her own WORLD OF beckoning. It is, however, another WORLD OF starlet, Anne Shelton, who accompanies Ambrose on the classic tune, ‘A Nightingale Sung in Berkeley Square’ on SPA 593. FIFTIES ROCK ‘N’ POP STARS

KATHY KIRBY

It was bandleader Bert Ambrose who plucked 16 year old Kathy Kirby from relative obscurity back in the mid-fifties and after seven years under his tutelage, Kirby found herself successfully auditioning for a singing residency on ATV television show, Stars and Garters. Being seen weekly in homes around Britain in this popular variety show soon meant that

Kathy Kirby was, to use a cliché, a household name. Incidentally, two years after Stars and Garters began, and after a change of name (simply adding a prefix of ‘The New’ to the established name) WORLD OF railway hero, Willie Rushton, co-hosted. Moving on to THE WORLD OF KATHY KIRBY (SPA 84), which contains three of Kathy’s big hits in ‘Dance On’, ‘Secret Love’ and ‘Let Me Go, Lover’, ‘Secret Love’ getting to no. 4 in the UK charts. A couple more songs on SPA 84 crop up on Decca LP Kathy KirbySings 16 Hits from Stars and Garters, the only Kirby LP to enter the charts, at all. In 1964 she was given her own BBC show and had an appearance on the Royal Variety Show and then in ’65 Kathy sang for the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest finishing as runner-up. In 1971 Bert Ambrose died, taking Kathy Kirby’s career with him as she struggled to manage without her mentor and, it turned out, her lover. Sadly, the rest of the Kathy Kirby story features a good deal of anguish and sorrow but how about we just remember her happy, ever-ready smile as we listen to her record.

RONALD WYCHERLEY When Ron was born in 1940, his parents were going to call him Kenneth but changed their minds in favour of Ronald and when little Ron was about three years old, he was bitten by a dog on his right cheek and carried the battle scar all his life. In his youth, he began suffering from rheumatic fever which eventually resulted in his death due to a weakened heart. His singing career was initially inspired by hearing country and western songs and he first performed in local cafés as part of the humorously named Formby Sniffle Group. As his singing and song-writing improved, he came to the attention of music supremo Larry Parnes who changed his name – not to Stean Wade as Ron would have preferred but to, and if you know the answer, award yourself one house-point, Mr Snakehips Fury!

BILLY FURY

The onstage gyrations of Billy Fury caused a little fury themselves. About a year into his singing career he was playing at a theatre in Dublin when the curtain was dropped mid-set by the management who was offended by his sexy moves. I’m guessing that there were no ladies on the board.

In those days he was more of a rock/rockabilly artist and it was Decca who decided that his career should head more towards ballads such as Halfway to Paradise. The Tornados (SPA 253) were, for a short time in 1962, Billy Fury’s on-stage backing band. There are two WORLD OF LPs in his name: THE WORLD OF BILLY FURY (SPA 188) and THE WORLD OF BILLY FURY VOL. 2 (SPA 575).

JOAN REGAN Joan Regan had ten songs enter the UK charts, the first five of which were on Decca. ‘Wait for me Darling’, a collaboration with The Johnson Brothers, does not make it onto THE WORLD OF JOAN REGAN (SPA 472) but ‘Ricochet’, ‘Someone Else’s Roses’, ‘If I Give You My Heart’ and ‘Prize of Gold’ all do. LP opener ‘If I Give You My Heart’ was her top seller, getting to No. 3 whilst the other three went Top Ten as well. Her first professional

engagement came following a successful audition to replace Lita Roza who was fronting Ted Heath’s big band thus keeping it in the WORLD OF family. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out as Regan couldn’t commit to being away from home touring with the band. Playing on stage took a little getting used to – shortly after her debut, she took her bow a little too far forwards and the safety curtain came down onto the back of her head, knocking her unconscious. Joan was friends with WORLD OF stars, the Beverley Sisters but her cabaret debut smacks of a hint of opportunism as the sisters were double-booked. At the same time as being on stage they were due to star in the first episodes of their television series and Joan Regan offered to do their stint on the stage whilst they tended to TV duties and Regan soon had her own telly show, BBC’s Be My Guest. Joan was born Siobahn Bethel.

TOMMY HICKS Thomas William Hicks was born in 1936 and at age 15, he took a job on the Cunard Line for the merchant navy during which he learned to play the guitar and entertained his colleagues leaning more toward country and western songs in those days but he also introduced a little comedy into this routines. In 1956, whilst on shore leave, Thomas formed a band called Hicks and the Cavemen and played Soho’s coffee joints. Larry Parnes crops up again and with his penchant for changing people’s names, also changed that of Mr and Mrs Hicks’ little boy. Our newly named star headed a trio whose first record was Rock with the Cavemen … Ooh, did that clue give it away? Here’s one more for those still guessing … He had what has been described as a toothy smile. Now, if you gained a housepoint during the Billy Fury bit earlier, but failed to spot this one coming, kindly return said housepoint! Of course the Hicks boy was transformed into …

TOMMY STEELE

The EMI record label had first dibs at Tommy Steele but turned down his services so, in 1956, Decca nabbed him. He is largely considered to have been the label’s first rock artist and he turned in several hits for the label. Seven of these went Top 10 and six feature on either THE HAPPY WORLD OF TOMMY STEELE (SPA 24) or THE WORLD OF TOMMY STEELE VOL. 2 (SPA 137) though one of them, ‘A Handful of Songs’, was actually a B-side to the Happy tune ‘Water Water’. Other Happy Top Tenners were the soft rocker, ‘Singing the Blues’, which was sung with a bit of a slur and turned out to be Steele’s only Number 1, and a couple of fun songs, ‘What a Mouth’ and Little White Bull’. Both of the latter were delivered with a cockney disregard for the letter ‘T’ except for the boy choir who supplied backing to ‘Little White Bull’, pronouncing the ditty title in perfectly enunciated falsetto. Two songs from Vol.2 also went Top 10; there was more soft rock with ‘Come On Let’s Go’ and the slow tempo pop of ‘Butterfingers’.

COUNTRY MUSIC There is a seven LP series within the WORLD OF series which calls itself THE WORLD OF COUNTRY MUSIC featuring stars such as Frank Yonco, Johnny Duncan, Carl Gibson, Ritchie Bull, Patsy Peters, Lee Brennan and a bunch of others on the sixth volume which is more of a compilation. Country music has its origins in the southern states of America becoming particularly popular in the 1940s. Barn dances, the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, singing cowboys called Hank and Tex; all very United States of America. So, come on y’all! Let’s git on down to the Nashville Room!

FRANK YONCO That’s right, the first record is sub-titled FRANK YONCO AND THE EVERGLADES LIVE

AT THE NASHVILLE ROOM (SPA 215). Not exactly Hank but hey, Yonco. That’s got something of a Yeeha! about it. After a brief introduction by, wait for it, Tex Withers (Whoo hoo! Now, there’s a name all the way from the Southern States), Frank picks his way through a cotton-pickin’ instrumental before he sings, ‘I was born out in the country, ‘neath the tall green Georgia pines’. Classic! Come on, everyone, let’s whoop ‘n’ holler. WHOO … Huh? … hey! Frank was born where? Manchester? England?? Well, there’s an image shattered. And whilst Tex Withers may have been born in the US (there even appears to be some doubt here) it was in the British country music scene that he enjoyed a little notoriety, compering at the Nashville Room in (you may be ahead of me here) London. Oh well, at least that could explain why Yonco’s impersonations of Johnny Cash and Dean Martin during ‘The Last Thing on My Mind’ are quite appalling. Still, the album entertains and Frank Yonco is accompanied by competent Tammy Wynette sound-alike, Kit Connor.

JOHNNY DUNCAN VOL.2 JOHNNY DUNCAN & THE BLUEGRASS BOYS RECORDED LIVE AT THE NASHVILLE ROOM, LONDON (SPA 295) is, to my ears, a more satisfying country record. Johnny Duncan is American but settled in the UK after marrying an English Rose whilst

stationed in Blighty with the US armed forces in the 50s. He had some success in the UK singles chart in 1957 with ‘Last Train to San Fernando’, ‘Blue Blue Heartaches’ and ‘Footprints in the Snow’ which all feature on the LP. ‘The Last Train to San Fernando’ actually got to no. 2, kept off the top by Paul Anka and ‘Diana’, the other two tunes getting no higher than 27. Curiously, these tunes crop up more often on Skiffle compilation albums these days and there is certainly a skiffleness about them. Also, for a short time in his early UK career, Duncan played with WORLD OF jazz monster, Chris Barber who, you may remember had skiffle maestro, Lonnie Donegan, in his ranks.

CARL GIBSON

The next record in our country music sub-series has none of the bluegrass/cowboy YeeHa! of the previous volumes. What we have on VOL. 3 FEATURING CARL GIBSON (SPA 329) is country folk and very pleasant I find it, too. Not my first choice of music to listen to but if one must do country music, one could do worse than the boy Gibson. Carl handles a wide range of songs; songs that we more easily associate with other more acclaimed voices such as those owned by Kris Kristofferson (Help Me Make it Through the Night), Andy Williams (Can’t Help Falling in Love), John Denver (Rocky Mountain High) and Roy Orbison (In Dreams) but these are all easily within the effortless vocal spectrum of Gibson, ballads and upbeat tunes all.

RITCHIE BULL Did you know that some sources list more than 60 different subgenres of country music?Amongst more common types such as Cajun, swamp and zydeco, you may find truck-driving, red dirt and country en Español versions. With VOL. 4 FEATURING RITCHIE BULL (SPA 330) we are right back into our bluegrass and, in the case of Brit Ritchie Bull, with a heavy lean towards the banjo. You get your money’s worth here, too because there are 20

tracks all told. Mind you, some such as ‘Fosters Reel’ and ‘Leather Breeches’ are only a few seconds long but then you get longer workouts like ‘Duelling Banjos’ and ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’. The back cover notes tell us that this exclusively instrumental LP is Ritchie Bull’s first release and is great fun to listen to. One irritation, however, is the way that some tracks end quite abruptly with fast fade-outs rather than a respectful climax and wind-up. It’s a little difficult to find very much conclusive information on Ritchie’s career path but it seems like he may have played with the Kursaal Flyers in the mid-seventies on banjo, also contributing bass guitar duties. One path that I really want to be fact is that he played backing to Jehosaphat and Jones, the alter-egos of the nineteen seventies and eighties comedic duo the Two Ronnies (Barker and Corbett). Hillbillies Jehosaphat and Jones were a singing combo of long-haired, rustic bumpkins who sat with guitars or banjos on their knees whilst singing pseudo hayseed country comedy tunes. Anyway, if it was Bull participating in either of the above enterprises, he had dispensed with the ‘T’ in his name and was calling himself Richie. If you are at all curious, check out the video for the Kursaal’s hit, ‘Little Does She Know’ and compare the appearance of the bass player with that of the banjo player on the cover of our record – I reckon it could, indeed, be our man.

PATSY PETERS As discussed elsewhere in this blog, elements of music and its performance are the preserve of personal opinion so, at the risk of upsetting someone, here is my two penn’orth. I believe

Patsy Peters has an irritating foible on VOL. 5 FEATURING PATSY PETERS (SPA 340); she has a warble. A dictionary definition of a warble is: a lumpy abscess under the hide of domestic mammals caused by larvae of a botfly or warble fly. Oops! No. That’s not the one! Ah, here it is: to warble is to sing with trills alternating with the half note above or below. For a demonstration of this phenomenon simply listen to this record. Irish Patsy pits herself against John Denver and Olivia Newton John when she takes on ‘Take Me Home Country Roads’ and Tammy Wynette with ‘Stand By Your Man’; strong distinctive voices, all. As is the case with Bobbie Gentry and Janis Joplin. One song, ‘My Man’, was a single release which doesn’t seem to have charted.

JON DEREK, TERRY EDWARDS, SUZANNE HARRIS and PHIL BRADY THE WORLD OF COUNTRY MUSIC VOL. 6 (SPA 370) catches an evening at the New Montrose Club in Liverpool with a four-act concert laid on for the enthusiastic audience. Of these British acts, first up are Jon Derek and Country Fever. Jon Derek was the first country artist from Britain to perform on the BBC radio in stereo. Soon afterwards, Derek joined the touring band for Jim Reeves. It wasn’t long before they were under contract to Don Arden, a giant in music management, who was the father of Sharon Osbourne and, therefore, by

matrimonial convention, the father-in-law of Black Sabbath frontman, Ossie Osbourne. This was not Jon Derek’s only brush with fame; non-other than Chas (Hodges) and Dave (Peacock) saw the band playing one time and suggested a mate of theirs might like to take his guitar along and soon, Albert Lee (massive country guitar hero) was sitting in helping out the band. Country Fever emerged following the evolution of a handful of different bands in 1968, the original line-up of which boasted Albert Lee as full-time member. The Fever went on to tour with several of the big names in country; names such as Hank Locklin, Chet Atkins and George Hamilton IV. Sometime after our LP, Jon pursued a successful solo career before reforming Country Fever.

Following the performance of Country Fever’s tight delivery of their three tunes, Jon Derek introduces the next act, Mr Terry Edwards, a singer with a penchant for the yodel. No complaints here. If you can’t let loose on a song called ‘I’m Casting my Lasso Towards the Sky’, when can you? Enough’s enough, though and happily he was able to control himself during ‘Help Me make it Through the Night’. Terry was known as the Welsh Slim Whitman to his friends, largely, I imagine, because of the afore-mentioned yodelling.

Suzanne Harris takes up the reins on Side 2 with just two songs which are delivered with a hint of nerves. Her voice sounds a little thin and tremulous and not always in tune so one wonders if she may have been fairly new to the game. I would say that her two songs ‘Silver Threads and Golden Needles’ and ‘I’m Gonna be a Country Girl Again’ require a more confident approach than Suzanne could seem to muster and as a result, I feel that the performance suffered.

To close out the session, Phil Brady is given four songs beginning with ‘Good Time Charlie’s got the Blues’ which, along with ‘Help Me make it Through the Night’ makes its second appearance in THE WORLD OF COUNTRY. This is good pedal steel guitar-type country music played by a band on form. Now, here’s a nugget for you die-hard record collectors out there. Phil Brady recorded his first single on Liverpool label, Cavern Records of the Cavern club, made famous by the Beatles, of course. The Cavern went into liquidation soon after the record’s release resulting in most copies being forwarded to the official receiver and this means that ‘An American Sailor at the Cavern’ by Phil Brady and the Ranchers is the most scarce, and therefore, most collectible British country single. Go find!

LEE BRENNAN Finally in this section, we have THE WORLD OF COUNTRY MUSIC VOL. 7: A TRIBUTE TO JOHNNY CASH FEATURING LEE BRENNAN (SPA 389). Brennan evokes the spirit of

Johnny Cash and I should think that Cash fans would have some fun with this record. All of the old favourites are here; ‘Ring of Fire, ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, ‘A Boy Named Sue’ amongst them. Lee began performing in the pubs of Liverpool in 1969 but had stopped doing the Man in Black by the mid-seventies in order to pursue a more conventional country music career. He was unable to resist the lure of the man, however, and there is evidence on-line of him performing Johnny Cash songs as recently as 2013. His main claim to fame, however, was his appearances on TV and the stage in funny man Ken Dodd’s Laughter Show.

FOLKIES THE WORLD OF FOLK There are three LPs dedicated to folk music in the WORLD OF collection; THE WORLD OF FOLK (SPA-A 132), THE WORLD OF FOLK VOL. 2 (SPA 307) and THE WORLD OF CONTEMPORARY FOLK (SPA 156). There is a folkie look about THE WORLD OF THE COUNTRYSIDE (SPA 304) as well so let’s park that bus here, too. Featured amongst these four LPs are the great and the good of British folk music, of whom, the Yetties and Julie Felix have their own WORLD OFs and have been covered earlier. The Druids and Cyril Tawney have five tunes over this mini-collection whilst Bob Arnold, Barbara Dickson and Archie Fisher have three though the latter two folkies share one song and such notables as Davy Graham, Rab Noakes, Gerry Fox, Bread, Love and Dreams, Barry Skinner, Frankie Armstrong and Sandra Kerr appear twice.

EWAN MACOLL and PEGGY SEEGER

Ewan MacColl began life as James Henry Miller and was brought up in a politically aware environment due to his parents strongly held and argued interests amongst which were the songs of Scotland. After leaving school he jumped from job to job but, with performance in his bones, singing and the theatre with revolution in mind were beckoning. The first group he brought together were the Red Megaphones, a bunch of street performers with political leanings and, in those days, MacColl was very much politician first, musician second. In 1934, he married actress Joan Littlewood and together, they set up the Theatre of Action and a couple of years later, the Theatre Union, in order to visit political awareness onto willing audiences. It was also around now that MacColl became involved in radio work, political acting and writing music documentaries. Both MacColl and Littlewood were arrested for disturbing the peace by publicising their views on the Munich Agreement. This was an agreement between Nazi Germany and France to agree not to assist Czechoslovakia militarily during the WWII Nazi take-over of ‘Sudetenland’. Almost ten years later, the pair were forming Theatre Workshop but were soon divorcing only for MacColl to marry again, this time producing Kirsty MacColl and brother Hamish with Jean Newlove (who thinks of these names?!). It wasn’t until 1952, when Ewan MacColl was about 37 years of age, that he began concentrating more on music, playing a large part in the revival of traditional folksong.

He was also breaking with his wife (Jean Oldlove??) and taking on another in New York born, Peggy Seeger with whom he inaugurated a successful, life-long singing partnership. Peggy was rubbish at playing instruments – she tried to learn the fiddle but was unable to manage it. That left only piano, guitar, five-string banjo, autoharp, Appalachian dulcimer and the English concertina! Seeger was singing professionally in her college years and after bumping into MacColl, it wasn’t long before Ewan was back to his group-forming habits when he and Peggy founded the Critics Group comprising members trained in folk-singing and the theatre who annually produced, for a few years, anyway, a drama and music review of the news from the year just gone. Most of us will know him more for his popular folk songs such as ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ which was written for Peggy Seeger, and ‘Dirty Old Town’ both of which feature on THE WORLD OF EWAN MacCOLL & PEGGY SEEGER (SPA-A 102). A second record, THE WORLD OF EWAN MacCOLL AND PEGGY SEEGER VOL. 2: SONGS FROM RADIO BALLADS (SPA-A 216) extols the virtues of a radical new form of recording the ways of folk; real folk and their real lives. Field recordings were made pretty much anywhere that folk were living out their lives; in homes and pubs, in the cabs of bulldozers and helicopters and cabins of herring drifters; anywhere that hard lives were being lived by hardened people. Indeed, the radio ballad Singing the Fishing deals with the life and times of the men of the herring fishing industry and won awards but none more important than the accolades afforded it by the herring fishers of Britain. There are two pieces from this radio ballad but pride of place must go to The Travelling People which provides four songs about the lives of the UK’s nomadic travellers. Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger also feature on THE WORLD OF FOLK VOL. 2 (SPA-A 307) whilst MacColl crops up on his own on THE WORLD OF FOLK (SPA-A 132).

THE DRUIDS It was Ewan MacColl and third wife, Peggy Seeger who brought The Druids to the attention of producer Kevin Daley (see elsewhere for more on Mr Daley) at Decca Records via the

Argo imprint. Look out for their inaugural LP, Burnt Offering as it is long deleted and so the vinyl version is a bit of a collectors’ item. Failing a successful search, you could make do with SPA-A 132 which contains ‘The Boar’s Head Carol’ from the lost album. This is a carol traditionally sung on Christmas Eve and, at Queen’s College, Oxford at least, the choir used to bring the song, along with the aforementioned boar’s head, into the banquet hall, stopping each time to sing the verse. At the end of this procedure, the soloist is presented with the orange from the boar’s mouth. Incidentally, Queen’s (taken to mean Queen’s College, Oxford) is referred to in the lyrics of the third verse via the Latin ‘In Reginensi atrio’ which apparently translates as ‘In the hall of Queens’.

CYRIL TAWNEY Whilst in the Royal Navy, Cyril Tawney became the only full-time serviceman to have his own TV show, in this case, showcasing folk music on the BBC. It wasn’t long before Cyril decided on a change of vocation and so jumped ship (pun intended) to become a pro folk singer. Though many of Tawney’s songs have links to his time as a sailor, if not for this change of tack, there would be no ‘Oggie Man’ as presented on SPA-A 132. An oggie, or tiddy oggie, is Cornish slang for a Cornish pasty and the oggie man might be waiting, a-crying out of his wears, at, for example, Plymouth docks for hungry sailors to come off the ships. The song is quietly sung as a lament for a tradition that is no more.

BOB ARNOLD More of a radio actor than a folk singer, Bob Arnold will likely be most well-known as Uncle Tom Forrest, an Ambridge gamekeeper. And where’s Ambridge? Why, it’s where the Archers live in a tiny place called Radio. Don’t bother putting that in your sat nav, incidentally. Mind you, I’ve entered perfectly rational data into my satellite navigation system and still ended up in a place not too far from Ambridge in Radio, I reckon. Any road up, folk music was something of a hobby for Bob but he was back at the BBC doing his bit for programmes such as Folk on 2 and his last performance as old Tom had him singing folk songs in the local pub. Nice one.

BARBARA DICKSON

You may remember Barbara Dickson’s hit tunes ‘Answer Me’, ‘January February’ and ‘Caravan Song’ along with her No. 1 duet with Elaine Paige, the song from Chess, the musical, ‘I Know Him So Well’ which is still the most successful female duet according to the Guinness World Records. Before her pop career (and stage musicals, acting in stage plays and acting on TV) Barbara was singing folk and early on, she was doing it with Archie Fisher and all three of her songs on SPA 156 are taken from the album recorded with Archie, Thro’ The Recent Years. With a song like ‘The Frolicsome Alcoholic Mermaid’ on the same album, I can’t help but feel a little let down that it wasn’t chosen to grace the WORLD OF collection.

ARCHIE FISHER Both Barbara Dickson and Archie Fisher have been inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame. Fisher is a household name around his home country due to his many years presenting the award-winning BBC radio show, Travelling Folk. Folk music first attracted Archie when he heard WORLD OF stable-mates, Lonnie Donegan and Johnny Duncan and he began working with Barbara Dickson in 1969. When Dickson turned towards the pop, theatre and television worlds, she turned away from that of folk music but its lure’s call became irresistible and soon she came back to the fold and it was Archie Fisher to whom she turned to resume their finely oiled working partnership.

RAB NOAKES Another folkie that Barbara Dickson has a long-established professional partnership with is Rab Noakes with whom she performed and recorded. Rather than ‘musician’, he prefers to be known as the ‘Fife-born performer’ so it was said Fife-born performer who began playing skiffle whilst still in primary school and was a momentary member of Stealers Wheel leaving them prior to the release of their first LP and, therefore, their first monster hit, ‘Stuck in the Middle’. Part way into his career he opted to try working on the radio presenting on Radio Clyde before producing on BBC radio but, after returning to the cutting edge of performance, he has been busier in his later years than ever before. The two songs on SPA 156 hark back to Noakes’ first LP, Do You See the Lights? DAVY GRAHAM Graham, who later preferred ‘Davey’ with the extra ‘e’, was known more for his guitar approach to folk music than folk itself. His fusion of regular folk stylings with that of blues and Indian raga, a mode of improvisation around a basic melody similar to the Western jazz that Davy Graham also blended into the mix. He also experimented with alternative guitar tunings that only a handful of other players at the time were bold enough to try. Like so many other guitar players around this time it was the skiffle of Lonnie Donegan that turned Graham on early doors but to get a taste of his foibles, try ‘Both Sides Now’ on SPA 156 to see how our man set this well-known Joni Mitchell tune. You’ll find a complete, but musically acceptable, disregard for the original form as it begins with two or so minutes of whining vocalisation over uncomplicated Indian style bent string guitar with a hint of flamenco which, with no discernible warning, switches to a rapid strum and voice. Naturally, being Davy Graham, the verses get sung in a contemporary unfamiliar sequence. Enjoy.

GERRY FOX

Gerry Fox has two tunes here; one each on SPAs 132 and 307. The latter sports ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’ and in lieu of information on the singer which is scarce, I’ll tell ‘ee of the song. It is a gloomy tale of a couple, the lady of which, whilst in a lovers’ clinch, suffered a bit of bad luck. The bullet that sped from the nearby woods could have gone anywhere but, you guessed it, it pierced the singer’s true love’s side. There is scant information in the song lyrics but I suspect that the bullet actually pierced something a little more important to a living body than just her side because there and then, she died bloodily and all over his shirt, as well. And all the while, the wind shook the barley just the same as ever it did. The end. Told you it was gloomy.

BREAD, LOVE AND DREAMS That’s ‘Pane, Amore e Fantasia’ a te … I mean, ‘to you’ because the name of this band came from the Italian film of the same name. Bread, Love and Dreams have two songs on SPA 156, one of them a seven minute tune with a seven minute title. Cover me. I’m going in … ‘The Strange Tale of Captain Shannon and the Hunchback from Gigha’ … made it … and the LP that it comes from has the same name. Well, you might as well get your money’s worth, I suppose. The cover depicts, I assume, Captain Shannon (an ancient mariner) sucking on his trusty clay pipe whilst recounting the jumbled thoughts which are visible in his head: a salty gull of the sea, a peacock butterfly, buttercups and daisies, bluebells on Bluebell Hill, and, in the relative distance, a slack-sailed boat drifting, apparently, aimlessly. Oh, and a hunchback that ate small boys. Hmmm … that spoils the mood a bit. Still, I’m sure that it all ends well. I must clear my diary some time and listen right to the end.

FRANKIE ARMSTRONG

There is an establishment called the Natural Voice Network and the President of this network is Ms Frankie Armstrong, a singing voice teacher. The natural voice, should you be

wondering is one used free of inhibition and, therefore, the mind’s censorship. Joyful singing in the company of others sounds fantastically therapeutic, developing camaraderie and ‘human connectedness’1. Frankie’s appreciation of music began, like so many other folk singers, with the lure of skiffle and British folk which soon led to her developing The Female Frolic where songs are sung of the issues of women. Armstrong, who has been blind since her twenties, uses her voice for vigorous, so-called ‘hard’ singing as evidenced by the two traditional examples, ‘Gossip Joan’ and ‘Love Down in the Broom’, on SPA 304.

SANDRA KERR Sandra is also a voice teacher and involved with The Female Frolic along with Frankie Armstrong above but for all the good works both of these ladies do, I reckon Ms Kerr has the trump card. Along with John Faulkner, with whom she shared ‘Song of Choice’ on SPA-A 132, Sandra wrote the theme music for Bagpuss, a well-loved children’s BBC TV programme. Wow! She also directs folk choirs and is a respected tutor of folk arts. Further, she can play the dulcimer, autoharp, concertina as well as guitar AND she has written books but WOW! Bagpuss! Anyway, On SPA 307, Sandra Kerr sings ‘Gilderoy’, a traditional tune, the name of which is anglicised Gaelic for ‘red-haired lad’ and tells of the Scottish highwayman of that nick-name and his unhappy fate. The singer celebrated her wedding to this young man with ‘mirth and joy’ and stood up for him despite his crimes trying to convince us that he wasn’t a bad lad and everyone loved him really … yeah, except his victims and every other potential victim, that is … but still, BAGPUSS!!

BARRY SKINNER He was a bit of a butterfly was Barry Skinner, flitting from one amusement to another. He was climbing mountains one minute, painting them the next then starting up folk clubs the next … and all before breakfast! After breakfast, he did a bit of instruction in life on a canal, designing dolls’ houses and so it goes but hey, let’s get back on track. Two tracks, actually. ‘Turpin Hero’ on SPA-A 132 and ‘John Barleycorn’ on SPA 304, both traditional songs coming from his album Bed, Battle & Booze. Turpin and his plight along with that of similarly-minded mischief makers is a popular theme for traditional folk songs and up he crops again. Skinner’s busy, repetitive guitar underlays his urgent vocal, once more acquainting us with what may befall naughty boys.

THE SETTLERS

Originally calling themselves the Birmingham Folk Four, they were renamed The Settlers on

the strength of the relative success of their first single, ‘Settle Down’. Their only chart success was ‘The Lightning Tree’ which got to No. 36 and was released on the York record label, of which, Decca was the parent company. This label was reserved for releases associated with Independent Television Company, Yorkshire Television such as the half hour horse-related serial, Follyfoot from which the Settlers’ theme song obtained a little fame. ‘The Lightning Tree’ finds itself closing procedures as the last of seven tracks on Side 2. For me, THE WORLD OF THE SETTLERS (SPA 343) isn’t folky enough. Taking on seventies pop songs like, ‘Streets of London’, ‘Help Me make it Through the Night’ and ‘Snowbird’ and sounding a little stilted, just doesn’t do it for me. We all have different ears, however, so why not give The Settlers a listen, yourself. If you can’t find SPA 343, look out for The Settlers LP, The Lightning Tree on the York label– it’s the same record.

MARIANNE FAITHFULL

Marianne Faithfull is not really folk but she's not easy to categorise, really so here is where she is put. What she is, however, is quite posh. She is descended from a line in which her

mother's uncle Leopold Baron von Sacher Masoch features and who authored a novel called Venus in Furs which threw up the word ‘masochism’ for the first time. The first song released by Marianne Faithfull, and the opening track of THE WORLD OF MARIANNE FAITHFULL (SPA 17), was As Tears Go By, the first tune ever written by the Mick Jagger/Keith Richards combo from, of course, The Rolling Stones. This song became a hit but Ms Faithfull’s second record was ‘Blowing in the Wind’ which failed miserably. Happily, you won’t find this tune on SPA 17 but the more successful follow-ups, ‘Come and Stay with Me’ and ‘This Little Bird’ do feature.

CAT STEVENS

Steven Demetre Georgiou aka Steve Adams aka Cat Stevens aka Yusuf Islam was born in London to a Greek Cypriot father and Swedish mother. A person could get confused and

maybe this was borne out when, as Cat Stevens, his first recording was a song called ‘I Love My Dog’ which on our record is followed by 'Kitty' and preceded by 'I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun'! If this doesn’t suggest an unsettled mind, perhaps Stevens’ decision to take part in an edition of the kids’ TV show, Crackerjack! might ring the alarm bells of worried nurses. This show was played out in front of a cacophonous crowd shipped in from the juvenile chaos department of the BBC. Proceedings were at the mercy of the professional ineptness of such as Ronnie Corbett, Don MacClean and Bernie Clifton along with his Ostrich (check it out) but the December 1967 edition was presided over by Leslie Crowther and Peter Glaze. The show

comprised games, competitions, music and madcap comedy. A favourite game that comes to mind is Double or Drop. Kids would be asked questions and with each correct answer, would be given a prize – with each incorrect answer, they would receive a cabbage. All these things they were obliged to hold, taking home only those gifts that weren’t dropped. Now, cabbages are pretty heavy.

Anyway, where the delicate songs of Cat Stevens fitted in it is difficult to say. Mind you, he did have a number 6 hit with ‘I’m Gonna Get Me a Gun’ in 1967. He might have needed it. Happily, the Crackerjack! story doesn’t end there. Ed ‘Stewpot’ Stewart also spent time as a presenter and I’m guessing that you’d have guessed by now that, yes, there is indeed a WORLD OF Ed LP – more on this mighty vinyl tome can be found earlier in this blog. The Cat’s LP here is THE WORLD OF CAT STEVENS (SPA 93). Above is the Australian issue cover whilst above this is the more familiar UK cover and check out the cool chick three along from Cat's left. Is she? I think she is. Decades before Madonna 'invented' it, this young lady is doing it. She's vogueing!

JULIE FELIX

Californian Julie Felix left home with just a duffel bag and a guitar to find fame and fortune and, after trawling around Europe, she found them in England and soon became the first

solo folk songstress to sign for a major UK record label. The record label? Why, that would be Decca, naturally, but this collaboration only saw one single released, ‘Someday Soon’. It did produce three LPs plus THE WORLD OF JULIE FELIX (SPA 6) and VOL. 2 (SPA 76), though. Julie also shows up on THE WORLD OF CONTEMPORARY FOLK (SPA 156) singing ‘What Did You Learn in School Today’ which is a bonus as it does not feature on her two WORLD OFs. During her first year in England she was invited onto TV’s The Eamonn Andrews Show and was subsequently invited back three times due to popular demand. This was quite

a popular show for WORLD OF hopefuls: Peter Cook and Dudley Moore appeared seven times; Kathy Kirby and Matt Monro also cropped up 4 times whilst The Bachelors, Willie Rushton, Marianne Faithfull and Val Doonican all appeared three times and Tony Hancock, Kenneth Williams, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck and Lulu were asked on to the show twice and those managing just the one time include Marty Feldman, The Beverley Sisters and Max Bygraves but one WORLD OF fellow was involved in all 179 episodes; Bob Sharples who was the composer of the show’s theme tune ‘Late Night Special’. Other television appearances include the Frost Report as resident singer and her own series of 17 shows which turned out to be the first series shown in colour by the BBC. Julie’s first major hit was ‘If I Could (El Condor Pasa)’ but all through her folk career, Julie Felix always had her humanitarian causes in mind and was seen as an ambassador for the charity, Christian Aid. She also took her place on a potentially dangerous peace march through South America and used her songs as vehicles for peace concerns in general in support of other causes.

JOHN ARLOTT

Finally, in this section on the English countryside we must find space to mention John Arlott. If you know of him at all it is likely to be from his time as BBC Test Match Special commentator from where you’ll remember his Hampshire burr talking poetically about the quintessentially (sorry to those who notice these things - I did look for another word in order to avoid using this cliché) English game of cricket. Those same tones pop up between the songs on THE WORLD OF THE COUNTRYSIDE (SPA 304) with segments of poems by John Clare, Robert Bloomfield, Stephen Duck and George Crabbe. Not quite as comfortable here as in the commentary box, I feel, where his humour and natural expression enjoyed a spontaneity which is denied him on our record, having to stick to someone else’s script. Still, it feels quite correct to have John Arlott aboard.

FOLKIE ROUND-UPAs in other genre discussions, there are a number of songsters, too numerous to mention in any detail, who contribute just one tune and listed here are they:

· Holly Gwyn (with Davy Graham) – Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall

· The Young Tradition – Tomorrow shall be my Dancing Day

· The Clutha – Border Widow’s Lament

· The Ian Campbell Folk Group – Canny Lad the Miner

· Jon Raven – Kate of Colebrook Daly

· Marie Little – Twa Corbies

· David Goulder & Liz Dyer – Black is the Colour

· John Faulkner (with Sandra Kerr) – Song of Choice

· Bonnie Dobson – Thyme

· The New Deal String Band – The Bald Headed End of the Broom

· Terry Yarnell – Tottie

· Martyn Wyndham-Read – When Jones’s Ale was New

· Shirley Collins – Sweet England

· Trevor Crozier’s Broken Consort – Zummer’s Evemen Dance

· Peter Bellamy – Yarmouth Town

· The Critics – We Gets Up in the Morning

HARD ROCK

There are two compilation WORLD OFs in the rock box on which all songs are sung by cover artists; one, THE WORLD OF HARD ROCK (SPA-R 148) is credited to Hard Rock

Circus whilst THE WORLD OF HEAVY HITS (SPA 209) seems to feature a band called Various Other Artists. The former LP presents tunes largely written by American artists such as Chuck Berry (‘Roll Over Beethoven’ and Maybelline’), John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival (‘Up Around the Bend’ and ‘Proud Mary’) or made famous by Little Richard (‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ ‘Long Tall Sally and ‘Ready Teddy’). The Brits DO get a look-in, though, with Stevie Winwood’s ‘I’m a Man’ and Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’. ‘Hey Joe’ throws up an interesting story regarding its composition. For example, you might find single records by a band called

Leaves on different record labels which credit Dino Valenti (Mira and Lost Nite) whilst records by Jimi Hendrix might credit D Valenti (Reprise) or claim the song to be a traditional tune that has been arranged by Hendrix (Polydor). You might even find one that credits Billy Roberts (Reprise). Some claim this and some claim that but the fact appears to be that US folk singer, Billy Roberts may be the composer as it was he that is registered for US copyright. So where does Dino Valenti come from? Well, there is a tale that suggests that Billy Roberts was a friend of Valenti and that Roberts designated the rights to Dino in order that his pal would not be broke when he was released from jail. So, there you go. But who is the band playing here? Well, one source2 suggests that the band may be German and that Michael Schenker, later of UFO and Scorpions, may be involved.

So, what of SPA 209 with its various artists covering several rock classics? John Fogerty provides two more CCR songs whilst the Led Zep boys give us ‘Whole Lotta Love’ again plus ‘Living Lovin’ Maid’. There are two Deep Purple tunes (‘Black Night’ and ‘Strange Kind of Woman’), two from Atomic Rooster (‘Devil’s Answer’ and ‘Tomorrow Night’) with Free, The Rolling Stones, John Kongos and Black Sabbath chipping in with one each. But what about the players? Well, we have another rumour3 that it was Steve Hillage and Egg which is backed up by a story in number 8 of the Music Magazine FLASHBACK from 2016 in which David Hitchcock, producer at Decca, tells us about THE WORLD OF HEAVY HITS and since it is in the words of a member of the Decca hierarchy, I’ve left it as it was kindly presented to me by Bosse Larsson, a self-proclaimed happy Swede:

‘This was purely a session Project, simply done for fun in the studio. I can't remember if I suggested it or Decca did but the idea was to record cover versions of tracks by all the most successful hard rock bands - Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and so on - for Decca's budget line. Originally, I used the usual session guys but they couldn't really hack it. I recall Clem Cattini struggling with the bass drum pattern on ‘Immigrant Song’ (which I left off in the end) and me explaining that it was in doubles, to which he replied, “It wasn't like this in the Tornados!” In the end I got Egg in to play quite a lot of it with Hamish Stuart from the Dream Police (who I managed briefly) on guitar. However, Steve Hillage was at one of the sessions, and he played on "Whole Lotta Love" which ended up closing the LP. He came in looking like the total hippie that he was, then surprised me by saying, "I've always wanted to play this!” Of course, he did a perfect take right away. The album had a David Anstey cover that shows some heavy animals hitting each other and must have sold a few copies because I did get some royalties, for once.’

So there you go - some solid evidence, the appearance here of which would have been quite unlikely if not for my happy friend, Bosse Larsson. Thank you so much, Bo!

Refs:

1. https://naturalvoice.net/about/nvn-president-frankie-armstrong

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Joe

3. http://www.heyjoecovers.fr/albums/sixties/hard_rock_circus_60.html

Other references available on request

Regarding the LP cover images, they are photographs of the records in my own collection and are taken by my own hand (which explains the slight wonkiness of some of them). All images are, however, copyright of Decca.

Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of any image in any form should be considered prohibited.

Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the text in any form is prohibited, restricted by permission of the author.

Next time we will continue the research into the players on Rock 'n' Roll records similar to above and we'll also take a look at some more pop and this time, prog rock. GRRR OOVEY! We will finish off with a review of some of the Brass Bands involved in the collection. See you all again soon.