THE GREMLINS
The Coming Generation: The Complete Recordings 1965-1968 (Rev-Ola; CD)
     Anyone who has Fading Yellow volume 1will be familiar with The Gremlins beautifully wistful harmony pop floater ‘The Only Thing On My Mind’. Similarly, if you have the excellent (green) vinyl comp No.8 Wire, you’ll have raptured to their superb popsiker ‘Blast Off 1970’, (for which a 16mm promo film was shot!). Both these numbers are present on this CD (all from the master tapes it should be noted). The Gremlins had a wrong-sounding name for the kind of music they played. Expectations may have centred on some snotty colonial garage delivery, but this is not the case. The Gremlins were a pop group, best known in their native New Zealand for their #2 hit there with a (superior) cover of The Knickerbockers’ ‘The Coming Generation’ in 1966. A veritable anthem for disaffected youth, they attempted a similar theme in ‘Understand Our Age’. This though, did not make them the Kiwi Sex Pistols of the ‘60s (The Blue Stars ‘Social End Product’ can perhaps claim that prize).
     Glen Conway (aka Glen Tucker) was the main song writer in The Gremlins and recalls the band’s rise and fall and song histories in Mark A Johnson’s enlightening and engaging liner notes. The 20 songs contained here (actually 22, but tracks 21-2 are just 45 second novelty pieces), range from the first rough demos in ‘65 through to fully realised masterpieces, the shining jewel amongst which (apart from the two previously mentioned) has to be another popsike masterpiece, their eighth and final single ‘Kingsforth Hemmingseen’. An idea based on a flatmate Colin Hemmingseen, the song has a strong Bee Gees influence and vocally implodes in a very Technicolor manner in the final section -- a song worth emigrating for to get hold of, I kid you not!
     Elsewhere the songs are variable but generally good pop and beat, always with a melodic edge. ‘Don’t Ya’, ‘That’s What Want’ and ‘I Want Your Love’ for instance are perfunctory, but pleasant enough. Then there are very happy floaters like ‘Ballad of a Busker’ which is a delightful slice of pop whimsy, with great lyrics about an itinerant musician that has much in common with ‘The Only Thing On my Mind’ in terms of aesthetic and feel. ‘Listen To Me’ is a good mod mover with a fuzztone guitar and is perhaps as aurally “aggressive” as the band ever got. ‘Never You Mind’ is a cool combination of floating harmony vocals and a good pop hook with a very Easybeats feel to it. ‘A Man’s Gotta Be A Man’ has a definite American styling (a la The Young Rascals perhaps), good vocal blending and a stabbing riff. All in all, a great disc and Rev-Ola’s first “down under” collection. Photoplay and packaging design were undertaken by Shindig!’s very own Andy Morten (love those label shots) and is Mark A Johnson’s first foray into a reissue project so hearty slaps on backs all round for everyone involved. In general this is an interesting and most enjoyable collection ranging across pop-beat to popsike and which maps the global musical changes across the few years of The Gremlins existence in very engaging way. Buy with confidence.
www.revola.co.uk
Paul Martin

ROCKIN’ HORSE
Yes It Is (Rev-Ola; CD)
     A little while ago this was a featured Why Isn’t This Out Yet? title here on Shindig! Well now it is! Rockin’ Horse was a project of song writer Jimmy Campbell and Bill Kinsley (ex-Merseybeats / Merseys) with Mike Snow, Stan Gorman and Bobby Falloon. It has been said often in recent months (not least by me) that Campbell is still one of the UK’s most underrated songwriting talents of his generation. Now thanks to the efforts of Mark A Johnson (who narrates the story of the group with reminiscences from Billy Kinsley) and Rev-Ola (with salutes to various other music site regulars), this excellent album is finally available again and from the master tapes. There has been sneering in some quarters that the album is Beatles derivative (remember The Aerovons?). There is a world of difference between being derivative of and strongly influenced by something. It is a simple thing to be derivative; much harder to write magical mind-sticking songs that very much stand on their own merits, which is what we have here. Campbell was too good and I suspect canny a songwriter simply to simply record a tribute album.
     There are Lennonisms a plenty in a late Beatles / early solo Beatles style for sure, but they are cut expertly from that cloth and then given their own identity; witness ‘Don’t You Ever Think I Cry’ and even title track ‘Yes It is’. Elsewhere there are pure pop songs, some cut in a early R&R style like the Sedaka-a-like ‘Biggest Gossip In Town’ and album closer, the almost glam pop ‘Julian The Hooligan’ that once heard will stick in your head like superglue. Others have pointed to the country tendencies in some songs. Well only in the same way as later Tony Hazzard or Marvin, Welch & Farrar did, with such delicacy and balance you couldn’t realistically call it country, just a pop embellishment. Some songs like ‘Golden Opportunity’ (i.e. missing it) ‘ Son, Son’ and ‘I’m Trying To Forget You’ sound as though they could be autobiographical, but that’s the prerogative of the singer songwriter.
     Bonuses include mono mixes of the 7" sides plus the Kinsley penned non-album B side ‘You Say’ and the post LP 7" ‘Frankie Joe’ and ‘Lonely Norman’ (a very good song by the way). In general this is an album that should have been a Mojo magazine “buried treasure” feature years ago. It covers a range of styles and whilst some songs are sentimental (and what’s wrong with that?), every one is memorable and infectious in its own way. The cover art has forsaken the rather dire original LP cover of the rocking horse head for a band shot in the studio. There’re other shots inside, as well as a track-by-track narration. A great package for a long overdue-for-reissue album.
     A lost pop classic and more plaudits for Campbell.
     And at mid-price too, you don’t have a reason not to own this!
www.revola.co.uk
Paul Martin

WANDA DE SAH
Softly! (Rev-Ola; CD)
     Before Brasil ’66 there was, not surprisingly, Brasil ’65, comprising The Sergio Mendes Trio and two exceptionally talented vocalist/guitarists Wanda de Sah and Rosinha de Valenca. Wanda didn’t stick around long enough to experience Mendes’ global success the following year, opting instead to cut this solo set in Hollywood with established producer David Cavanaugh and arranger Jack Marshall, composer of The Munsters theme, no less!
     Softly! (complete with mysterious and misleading exclamation mark) transplants cutting edge Brasilian bossa/pop compositions like Antonio Carlos Jobim’s ‘So Danco Samba’ and Baden Powell’s ‘Tem Do’ into old school north American big band/jazz territory with the most sublime results. Marshall’s arrangements are right on the money throughout and Ms De Sah’s impossibly breathy, honey-coated tones could render the telephone directory a thing of bottomless beauty.
Regardless of its essentially traditional approach, this cute little album (clocking in at a mere 24 minutes) will undoubtedly surprise and enchant those of us who least expected it.
www.revola.co.uk
Andy Morten

THE SHADOWS
Complete Singles As & Bs 1959-1980 (EMI; 4 CD Set)
     It hardly needs saying that The Shadows have been one of the most influential groups in all pop musicdom. As the former British Empire was discreetly replaced by the Commonwealth, the young generations of its former colonies and dominions cleaved to Cliff (Richard) and The Shadows like secular Gods. Hence although the US had The Ventures (arguably most influential outside of the USA in Japan where their bendy stringed Mosrite guitars spurred the Eleki boom there in the early ‘60s), it was Cliff & The Shadows (both collectively and as separate entities) who were the rite of passage for aspiring instrumental and beat groups from Australia to Singapore and beyond.
     The “Shads” have had their back catalogue compiled and recompiled more times (and often badly) than most groups. Before 1998’s 5 CD box set, budget “greatest hits” (and there were of course so many) of which their 20 Golden Greats was the most successful, were in every supermarket discount bin and mail-order music club introductory offer magazine advert. Here (finally?) is a treatment of The Shadows 45s that doesn’t simply plump for the obvious but includes all the flops and flips as well. Most people (over 20!) will know The Shadows as an instrumental group, which of course they largely were, but few would know that they began as a vocal group. Thus of the first four sides from 1959 when still known as The Drifters, the first two ‘Feelin’ Fine’ and ‘Don’t Be A Fool (With Love)’ are vocal efforts as are 1960’s ‘Saturday Dance’ and ‘Lonsome Fella’. Their first instrumental hit in the same year was the now globally known ‘Apache’ and it is the body of work that The Shadows are most renowned for that the first two discs in this set cover; ‘Man Of Mystery’, ‘FBI’, ‘The Frightened City’, ‘Kon-Tiki’, ‘The Savage’,, ‘Wonderful Land’, ‘Dance On’, ‘Foot Tapper’, ‘Atlantis’, ‘Shindig’ (!!) and ‘The Rise And Fall of Fingle Blunt’ et al, replete with B sides.
     It is really though, disc three which makes the ears stand up rather than just the nostalgic smile across your face. The latter part of disc two points the way to a newer feel. Vocal numbers in the form of the ballad ‘Marie-Anne’ and The Fortunes-a-like ‘Don’t Make My Baby Blue’ from 1965 (but with Hank Marvin now whacking out the fuzz tone to lift the number beyond this) start to appear, as does ‘Stingray’ (not the puppet series!) in which Marvin plays lead on a six-string bass. Disc Three opens with the 3/3 timed ‘War Lord’ a guitar instro of a different hue altogether, a great ‘Green Sleeves’ inflected fuzz-toned lead instro. There are tone-bender (think Jimmy Page as session player c.1966) effected instros like the magical ‘Scotch On The Socks’ and some more minor scale killers in ‘Maroc 7’ (theme to the film of the same name) and its flip ‘Bombay Duck’. More excellent period (‘66-‘67) vocal numbers in ‘The Dreams I Dream’ and the pounding ‘Will You Be There’ (think The Mersybeats ‘I Stand Accused’) and the beautiful British pop whimsy of ‘Dear Old Mrs Bell’, it’s wonderful flip ‘Trying To Forget the One You Love’ and the poptastic ‘Running Out Of World. The disc ends with two 1973 numbers ‘Turn Around And Touch Me’ and the quasi progressive ‘Jungle Jam’.
     The Shads split in 1970 (reforming in 1973) whereafter Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch & John Farrar formed a unit that produced three sublime albums as Marvin, Welch & Farrar (M,W &F, Second Opinion and Marvin & Farrar) which are still criminally overlooked (a best of CD Step Out Of The Shadows was put out by See For Miles some years ago but has long since been deleted). These three albums are in dire need of proper remastered reissue treatment, please take note Rev-Ola et al! The Shadows reformed in 1973 and ‘Jungle Jam’ especially reflects the musical direction of the preceding three years to some extent. As do the first cluster of tracks on disc four which date from 1975-‘76 ‘Let Me Be The One’ (a Eurovision entry that came second that year), ‘Stand Up Like A Man’, ‘Run, Billy Run’, ‘It’ll Be Me Babe’, and the later ‘Love Deluxe’ all of which John Farrar lends a falsetto backing vocal to and represents the afterburn of the 1971-‘73 period, slower, less defined and strong, but still an appealing vocal and melodic edge to them. Other than that, apart from ‘Honourable Puff Puff (a phased drum instro) the rest of Disc Four heads off into the distinctly un-Shindig! like territory, of TV advertised “not available in any shop”, mail order only covers of the day that sustained the group in the eighties. Hits here for sure, but unless you want the ‘Theme From The Deer Hunter’, ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ or Rodrigo’s ‘Guitar Concerto’ etc., you will find yourself hitting the skip button on the CD player a lot on this disc. However, should you choose to investigate those Marvin, Welch, Farrar albums (and I strongly suggest you do, they’re available 2nd hand cheap!) the first third of the disc is an interesting to coda to those.
     Overall, a magnificent and well annotated collection, which repositions The Shadows' singles into an evolutionary context, but should have ended in 1970! All your Shadows needs are catered for as far as singles go anyway. I would also suggest you check out the From Hank, Bruce, Brian & John LP from 1967, ignore the instrumental half (mainly supermarket muzak, but with one or two keepers) but revel in the vocal half which clearly points the way to what the M,W,F axis would later fully realise, then you will have pretty much all that’s necessary unless you’re a fanatical completist! This 4 CD set retails at just £12.99 on Amazon UK, so if you’ve always wanted to check out Shads in any depth, start here!
www.amazon.co.uk
Paul Martin

THE WARRIORS
Bolton Club ‘65 (Voiceprint; CD)
     I found myself very pleasantly surprised by this one. It's a rough and ready affair, a document of an evenings live performance of The Warriors (aka The Electric Warriors), the Lancashire band best known for featuring Jon Anderson, David Foster and Ian Wallace, later of Yes, Badger and King Crimson fame respectively.
     The Warriors hocked their wares round the northern club circuit between1962 and 1967, releasing a couple of singles on Decca in '64, before Anderson went on to more successful if not necessarily greater things. Capturing those glorious days when songs lasted two minutes rather than two hours, this album (a pair of live sets recorded at Bolton's Beachcomber Club in September 1965) is one of those lost gems that documents a great beat group doing their stuff and doing it really well. You'll find a really rather freakbeat take on Rufus Thomas' ‘Jump Back’, spirited covers of ‘I'm Down’,     ‘Fortune Teller’,’Too Much Monkey Business’, ‘Be My Baby’, ‘You Can't Lie To A Liar’, Chris Ravel's ‘Don't You Dig That Kinda Beat’, great Everly-style harmonies, daft onstage banter and a     few Beatlish originals (I think? They're uncredited!).
     In its somewhat raw state (the sleeve notes claim to have considerably cleaned up the tapes so I can't imagine what it sounded like beforehand!) this may be a curio, but in fairness it doesn't pretend to be anything otherwise. Claiming to capture the spirit of a club band of its era, it burps, farts and hisses all over the place and would benefit from some decent sleeve notes, but the pure spirit captured in these recordings makes it a worthy -- if lo-fi -- relative of Five Live Yardbirds and ensures that it's the only Jon Anderson CD that will ever get repeated plays round my gaf. It's ironic that the people who'll buy this are probably those less suited to appreciate it. Worth investigating! (Editor: I back Slav up! Very SD friendly beat band fare!)
www.voiceprint.co.uk
Slav "Writer’s Block" Tabernacle

VARIOUS ARTISTS Beat Express Volume 13: Amsterdam Volume 2 (Op Art; 10" LP)
     This latest volume in the long-running Beat Express series takes us back to Amsterdam where it began (Amsterdam part 1 was Vol.2). The comp sports 14 tracks including three tracks by The Outsiders. Their ‘I Don’t Care’ is live and is billed as such, the other two ‘Do You Feel Alright’ and ‘I Don’t Mind’ are billed as “bonus mystery tracks” and sound like muffled out-takes from a worn reel-to-reel tape. Nonetheless, this being The Outsiders, it is still a good listen. Hardly a (numerical) bonus though as there are always 14 tracks on a Beat Express comp! The two that really stick out are opener AB&C’s ‘Hey Pssst’ a brash kind of garage novelty number that sounds raw and insistent. The other is Met & Zonder’s ‘I Know’ which sounds like a book-end for Bud & Kathy’s ‘Hang It Out To Dry’ (if you can remember back that far to the old Satan records comp of the same name!). There’s more live action with the Marquees take on ‘Call My Name’ and De Maskers take on ‘Outside Looking In’. Thinking back to the couple of live tracks on Beat Express #12 (inc Q65’s You’re The Victor’, also billed as a mystery track), there is obviously a pretty cool recording of a whole live Nederbeat festival from about 1966-‘67 that these tracks are being cribbed from, it would be excellent if Op Art or someone would put this out in its complete form (please, anyone??)
     There are a few that have appeared elsewhere before such as Pennywise’s ‘Silver Girls’, The Lords ‘Day After Day’, Midnatt Fryan’s ‘When You’re Lonesome’, Sharks And Me’s ‘Buses’ and Trix & The Paramount’s ‘So In Love’ (good, excellent even tracks all, if you don’t already have them), but there is also Insect’s ‘Pitch Me Out’, the cool and uncomped flip to their better known ‘Be Good And Go’. In general. a good collection that increases strength on Side 2 but a little more attention to screening for fairly well known previously comped stuff would be appreciated.
Paul Martin

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Le Beat Bespoke: Voume 1 (Discotheque; CD/LP)
     It’s such a shame that the cover shot of five London Mod club regulars posed leaning on a vintage car in vintage gear (with one guy holding a cocked rifle!) gives the glossy Le Beat Bespoke packaging the cheesy appearance of Austin Powers-doing-Get Carter! Is this the most appropriate way to sell such a splendid compilation of real dance music?! I think not. Yes, the music stems from the 1960s! Yes, the club goers who dance to these 45s are obsessed by the decade … but… something a little less obvious would have been a far better option. Nevertheless, aesthetic grumbles aside, this is an absolutely superb album --far, far, better than the iconography suggests.
     On his first foray into the saturated ‘60s compilation market Rob Bailey (leading DJ, promoter and the flame that burns behind the thriving contemporary mod scene) avoids known acts like the Small Faces, or anything too obvious. Focusing on truly obscure 45s from the late ‘60s he concocts something very different from what can be heard on the plethora of mod/freakbeat comps that fill the stands, and impresses throughout!
     This really is dance music!
     In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s even the squarest performer (usually European) cut at least one killer fuzz guitar, Hammond and percussion inflected raver -- and this area of music, lets call it Euro-freakpop, is something Bailey uses to great effect: hear France’s Danyel Gerrard’s ‘Sexologie’ and Germany’s Howard Carpendale’s/ Daisy Clan’s ‘Du Host Mich’/ ‘Glory Be’ (Mix). Perhaps UK bands Marmalade and Plastic Penny may be known, Steve Ellis too, and his incredible ‘Loot’ -- but this compilation (mixed live in the studio for that authentic deejay set vibe) is about the sound of the music rather than artist or genre. Spain’s Los Gatos Negros superlative version of John Fred & the Playboys’ ‘Hey Bunny’ is the perfect example of the raging energy of the nation’s garagey blue-eyed soul; American “who-are-theys?” Flash & the Dynamics’ ‘Electric Latin Soul’ is an OTT exploitation soundtrack styled freakout, whilst Swede faves Ola & The Janglers’ ‘No No No’ throw in some Kinks’ beats with popish harmonies and Bonny St Claire (backed by nederbiet heroes The Nicols) do pop-soul Dutch style. Finally, with one of the many nightlights on this faultless collection, Phil Wainman typifies that wonderful late ‘60s big production with the winning ‘Going, Going, Gone’.
     These singles are worth thousands, and the superb sequencing (and mixing) give legendary DJ names like David Holmes a good run for his money.    
www.sanctuaryrecordsgroup.co.uk
Jon 'Mojo' Mills

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Girls With Guitars: All-Girl Bands, Axe-Backed Babes And The Like (Ace; CD)
     Maybe there were always more all-girl garage bands in the ‘60s than usually believed; it’s just that so few of them got to record. This may be born out by the dearth of the all-girl guitar toting bands on this comp. As the CDs’ subtitle implies, around 50% of the disc is comprised of all-girl vocal groups who sang about guitars (Al Casey & The K-C Ettes’ ‘Guitars, Guitars, Guitars’; The Percells’ ‘Hully Gully Guitar’) or who vocally backed up guitar players (Lonnie Mack & The Charmaines’ ‘Sticks And Stones’). None of the songs are any worse for all that, this is a lovely girl pop comp, but for fans of girl garage bands proper, you need to know the composition. One thing I do find rather tedious and unnecessary is the thinly veiled jibes at the beloved Girls In the Garage LP series (never referred to by name but implied in terms such as “grey area product” or “bootlegs”). Girls In The Garage is a long-running (11 volumes so far) LP (and now CD) series that was the first and is still the most interesting (despite their insistence of including novelty and kiddy toons!) and best batch of comps of it its kind, eclectic, entertaining and surprising. To diss them in this way as Mick Patrick, in his otherwise interesting and informative liner notes does here is disingenuous and smacks of the school prefect elbowing his way to the front row of the school photograph with a smug grin of superiority on his face!
     Quibbles aside, this is an interesting collection (building on the original LP comp of the same title put out some fifteen years ago). It is perhaps telling that it appears on the parent label, Ace imprint rather than the Big Beat label as you might expect (two cuts from Big Beat’s She anthology as The Hairem and She appear here). Presumably because it’s main market is seen as the girl vocal group collectors who buy the Where The Girls Are series on Ace, rather than garage fans.
     Politics apart, the music is excellent throughout if you have a broad enough girl group remit. Of the girl garage bands proper, there are some beauties. The Girls (who fans will know best for their 1966 ‘Chico’s Girl’ on Vol. 1 of Girls In the Garage), offer up both sides of their debut 45 for Capitol from 1965 in disc opener ‘My Baby’ and near closer ‘My Love’. Both are sublime guitar band numbers, but ‘My Love’ in particular is excellent with its chiming guitar motif. Denise (Kaufman) and Co’s legendary ‘Boy, What’ll You Do Then’ (also first comped on Girls In The Garage Vol.1) is a mandatory, signifier of the whole ‘60s girl garage band aesthetic, plus it’s an ad for the Ace of Cups collection on Big Beat (and watch out for a second CDs worth by them, this time direct from the band via their website). What is nice to see are four cuts by Goldie and the Gingerbreads, surely the most well-known and yet un-anthologised all-girl guitar group of the 1960s -why???. The four cuts here are not the best of their work and are culled from a budget label comp of various bands from 1964, but ‘Chew Chew Fee Fi Fum’ and ‘V.I.P’ are fun songs whilst ‘Skinny Vinne’ (a female take on Larry Williams’s ‘Skinny Minnie’) was one side of their debut Spokane label 1964 45 before they relocated to the UK for some time (and charting at 25 with ‘Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat’). Kathy Lynn & The Playboys guitar instro ‘Rock City’ is pretty well known but it’s vocal flip ‘I Got A Guy’ is less so (and is even better). The beautiful Daughters Of Eve’s ‘Help Me Boy’ is also a sublime piece of girl garage, whilst The Pandoras (no, this is a ‘60s group and far to demure looking for Paula Pierce to have ever been in!) ‘(I Could Write A Book) About My Baby’ is a traditional girl group sound their instrumental element of which you may never even be aware of save for posed band pic.
     Elsewhere, The 2 Of Hearts and Sugar & The Spices (both female vocal duos, the latter, a two song studio only arrangement) bring up some interesting sounds and Pat Powdrill & The Powerdrills sound, with a name like that as though they rock, but they don’t. It’s a cool number nonetheless, something akin to the recent volume of Dream Babes (Vol.5 the folkies volume of Marianne Faithful wannabes). Pat was later an Ikette, replacing PP Arnold in that group.
     Overall then, full marks for the sounds and the sound quality and the booklet (especially that cool pic of The Daughters Of Eve, swoon!!) but please leave the finger-pointing in the locker room thank you.
www.acerecords.co.uk
Paul Martin

VARIOUS ARTISTS
The Light Show Volume 1 (CDR; U-Spaces)
Lost Sixties Delights Volume 2 (CDR; U-Spaces)
     There seems to be no end to the still, even now, previously unreissued or uncomped 45s of the golden decade. No barrel scraping here on either of these prize discs. These are the latest additions to the growing cannon of internet group, U-Spaces whose mission it is to get these out to the widest public possible without a centime changing hands. Again, they are both almost entirely American comps. The only track I spotted that had already been comped (and pretty recently) is The Legay’s ‘The Fantastic Story Of The Steam Driven Banana’, flip to the awesome ‘No-One’ and recently outed on Jagged Time Lapse Vol.5).
     The Light Show has nothing to do with light shows.No, no oil-slides in sight. This is a pun on the term for a new series of American soft pop lovelies. It kicks off in fine style with The Roman Rebellion’s ‘What Summer Brings’ and follows on with an absolute Spinning Wheel or Fading Yellow-type delight in Barbara Keith’s (she of Kangaroo fame) ‘Fisherman King’ which does not feature on either of her period LPs. Clockwork Orange’s ‘Sweet, Little, Innocent Lorraine’ makes all the moves from orch-pop through Colours sounding US popsikeisms. It’s so difficult to pick one above another when you have 32 (yep, count ’em) cuts of this quality, but others include non-Americans She Trinity (‘Wild Flower’ -- did they ever record an album I wonder?), and The Stoics (‘Search For The Sea’). Other need-to-hears include Grains of Sand’s ‘Nice Girl’, Noah’s Ark’s ‘Hold Back The Sun’ and A Handful’s ‘Does Anybody Know’, but these are chosen at random, they are all divine to my ears.
     Lost Sixties Delights Vol.2 pitches in where Vol.1 left off. Unlike the ten volume Psychedelic Archaeology series, this one has a wider and more divergent musical remit. It does still have the odd track you would expect to find on that series (or perhaps A Fistful of Fuzz or Psychedelic Experience comps) such as The Illinois Speed Press’s ‘Get In The Wind Part 2’ (an acid fuzz instro of it’s vocal counterpart on the flip). However you get tunes you might also expect to have turned up on the Light Show if they had been a tad milder such as opener MC2’s ‘Smiling’ which sounds light and airy, but which kicks vocal ass (if I can say that without it being a contradiction in terms!). The two sides of Captain Billy’s Whizzbang ‘Kaleidoscope’ and ‘Paradise Of Your Mind’ are both pure great popsikers (in the American sense). These Vizitors’ ‘For Mary’s Sake’, Wild Ones’ ‘For Your Love’ (no, not that one) and Leather Soul’s ‘Take Me Back are just some of the beauties on this 29 track collection. As always, they are available as trades only, no money crosses hands. If these series were issued commercially (and just think of the licensing problems there!) they would already have been hailed as works of art. Hats in the air then and three hearty huzzah’s for the contributors at U-Spaces for these ongoing projects, which unreservedly deserve your support, get onto ‘em now!
velvetfogg@aol.com
Paul Martin

VARIOUS ARTISTS
The Midnite Sound Of The Milky Way (Big Beat; CD)
     Many readers will be familiar with Dean Carter’s ‘Call of The Wild’ collection on Big Beat from a year or two back. A unique and almost atomic collision of over-the-top-rockabilly-wig-out and garage-rock-raunch which was hitherto believed only to have been birthed by The Cramps in the late 1970s. That CD is maybe one of Big Beat’s best sellers. Well Carter’s label was Milky Way based in suburban Danville, Illinois (200 miles from Chicago). Most of the sessions on this disc are both unissued and were cut at Midnight sessions, the only time available when the bands weren’t playing. And there, you have the title explained.
     There’s no more Dean Carter here, but there are a number of cuts that are very much in the same Ball Park (think ‘66 era Gene Vincent ‘Bird Dogging’ for instance). One of Carter’s best loved numbers for the fans is ‘Rebel Woman’ -- which is recorded here both by George Jacks and The 12th Knight. There’s a group of 12 year-olds called The Cobras who sound tight enough to fool anyone they were six years older (save fore the pre gonad-dropped voices of course) and even an Amish beat group in Willie & The Travelaires with their ‘Fiery Stomp’. The real character on this set however is one Kooky Cook, a manic drummer (just rejoice in the teen-unleashing of percussive frenzy on the final cut ‘Drums’ that makes Sandy Nelson sound like he’s drumming with pencils) and accomplished scream-vocalist (his ‘Don’t Lie’ being a prime example). Cook features seven of his solo cuts here (including a raving cover of Orbison’s ‘Obby Dooby’). George Jacks is another featured artists who also has a penchant for tub thumping beats. You get the full story in the liners of the tiny make-shift Milky Way studio (most releases - a lot were country records, mercifully none of those are here - didn’t surpass 500 copy pressings). In all, a rollicking good 54 minutes worth of sweaty stomp and fuzztone. Sophisticated it ain’t, but it should sit right alongside your Dean Carter CD.
www.acerecords.co.uk
Paul Martin

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Mr Toytown Presents (Toytown; CD)
     This hugely anticipated collection was causing murmurs on the psych scene for several months prior to its arrival and now I understand why. These obscure (and I mean obscure) European 45s are drawn mostly from the catalogues of pioneering indie imprints Poplandia, Accion, Bocaccio and others, Spanish counterparts to the likes of Immediate, Penny Farthing and Page One if you will. Spanning the years 1969 to 1974, the selection is inspired to say the least and it manages to wipe the floor with most self-professed ‘psychedelic’ compilations in one fell swoop by virtue of being, well… fucking weird.
     Casting all concessions to the listener’s mental safety aside, the plainly sadistic Mr Toytown casually throws full-on gonzoid lunacy (Christophe’s five minute lobotomy-fest ‘Da Da Song Part 1’, Big Cherry’s hilarious yet nuts ‘Come In Bonzo’), relentless hard rock (Schizo’s frankly disturbing ‘Schizo And The Little Girl’, The Honest Men’s two-chord drone through The Beatles’ ‘Help!’ – I kid you not), candy-coated Mark Wirtz soundalikes (Napoleon’s irresistible ‘Jimmy Joe’, Barry Wigley’s Carry On-style romp ‘Brother Jack’), mutant folk hybrids (Demsey & Dover’s ominous ‘Emptiness Of Mind’, Children Of The Morning’s, er, ‘Children Of The Morning’) and rip-roarin’ psych pop (J Bastos’ ‘Alice’ – essentially a lysergic DDDBM & T thrashing ‘I Feel Free’ – The Electric Machine’s wah-wah smothered ‘Samantha’s Coming Home’) into his big pot and gives it a stir with his weird stick without pausing for so much as one single reassuringly familiar band or artist name. I like their style.
     When you emerge, blinking into reality, with the aptly-named Panics’ ‘Come With Me’ still echoing round your head, you may discover that you’ve been staring at a daddy longlegs for 70 minutes and, in the process, it’s somehow “borrowed” some of your brain cells and made itself a cup of tea.
     Don’t worry. Things like that happen every day in Toytown.
http://www.forcedexposure.com/labels/toytown.recordings.spain.html
Andy Morten

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Psychodelicias Volume 8: Collectors Choices Volume 1 (What’s That Sound; CDR)
     Another juicy volume in this excellent series. After the detour into surf instros that was Volume 7, the series returns in great form to the pop beat sound. This is the first volume of selections suggested by collectors and fans of Latin ‘60s beat and psychedelic music. It’s a cracker with great harmonies, tunes and fuzztone throughout. Groups include Spain’s Los Cheynes (check out the Their First Recordings 1965-1967 on Spanish RCA if you get the chance, they’re all spot on!). Here their ‘No Pierdas El Tiempo’ and ‘No Me Esperes’ are featured. Renato y Seus Blue Caps have a moody turn in ‘Sim, Sou Feliz’ whilst Los Sirex (check their double CD of EPs on Bamalama) feature twice with ‘Cantemos’ and ‘No Volvere A Llorar Por Ti’, two of their better numbers (they did a lot of generic covers). From Chile, Los Pekenikes’ ‘Cerca De Las Estrallas’ is perhaps one of the most enigmatic and captivating Latin popsikers ever and why it has featured on comps before. (Ed: I concur. This has to be one of the loveliest things I’ve heard in ages! Deputy Ed: It was on Spinning Wheel Volume One and yes, it is wonderful) Here it fits right in. There’s even the Venzuelan Los Shakers who cover the more famous Uruguayan namesakes ‘Dejame Ir’. Other ‘I vaguely know thems’ come in the form of Micky y Los Tonys, Los Doltons, Los Gatos Salvajes and Los Nivram, whilst other contenders muster in Los Atomos, Los Top Five and Los Buhos, all of whom have something worthwhile to hear. As long as there are groovy tunes of this calibre to be exhumed, there’s a need for this great series to continue (the artwork’s as eye-catching as ever as well!). As always, the disc is free, just the nominal cost of materials used and postage are charged for.
psychodelicias@hotmail.com
Paul Martin

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Wrenching The Wires Volume 2 (Sixty-Six Records; LP)
     What started out as a single volume is now becoming a series (Vol.3 is already being planned). This second instalment of mid-‘60s Polish garage and beat groups is just as strong as the first. Not only is the content and quality consistently high, but the commitment to the archaeological aspect is highly laudable. Thus instead of the already comped (on Super Psychedelic Pjotr for instance) LP version of Niebiesko Czarni’s ‘Nocny Alarm’, you get a Polish radio (!) version which replaces the cool pumping brass section with a fuzztone guitar! There are two cuts from Dzikusy, the first of which is an early Kinks-a-like number ‘Niefortunny Podrywacz’ whilst Blackout’s ‘Czy Znasz Ten Zwyczaj’ is a moody number with an intensity build towards the chorus.
     The Phantoms were a UK band with Polish connections (and were thus based in Poland) and who turn in a reasonable ‘Hey Girl’. Stars of the comp however are Trubadurzy whose ‘Chociaz Na Chwile Przyjdz Do Mnie’ sounds every inch like some lost classic Nederbeat nugget. (Jangly guitars and strong beat, think Sandy Coast in a huff!). Polanie’s ‘Can You Hear Me’ is again one of their stronger garage numbers (there’s a CD doing the rounds of their stuff, about half of which is rather turgid blues – ‘Georgia On My Mind’ etc. - and the other half is full of cool garage). This one comes to you through the fuzz tone pedal (the ‘Satisfaction’ one!) that Keith Richards left them after the Stones played Warsaw in ’66, and it hits the spot well. Last up, Pesymisci’s ‘Nie Powiem Ci Juz Nic’ is a great beat number with a great guitar motif that wraps itself round your mind immediately.
     An excellent comp from an under explored (and appreciated) source. If you’re a garage fan, you’ll want this and no mistake.
Paul Martin