UK 1960s

DAVY’S ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Long-overdue journey through DAVY GRAHAM’s seminal first decade.
By KINGSLEY ABBOTT.

Davy Graham
A Scholar And A Gentleman
Universal 2-CD
It’s very difficult – if not impossible – to imagine the development of the folk scene to what it is today without the input and activity of certain key people early on. Davy Graham, along with players like Martin Carthy, Bert Jansch and Dave Swarbrick, were the figures that younger musicians like the fledgling Fairport Convention looked to in the mid-60s.
Like many others, Graham was a teenager who was inspired by the Skiffle movement to pick up a guitar, but in his case he quickly took the instrument further than most and in his turn began to influence those around him.
The folk scene of the late ’50s and early ’60s was centred around an attractive circuit of small clubs and rooms above pubs where the music was taken pretty seriously. Older traditional material was mixed with new songs, gradually interesting mainstream record companies. In Graham's case, his first album outing was on the budget Golden Guinea label, but soon after he transferred to Decca, from where most of this material arises.
The joy of Davy's music is twofold: firstly, there is the quality and intricacy of his guitar playing, and secondly the breadth of his material. From his well-known ‘Anji’, the opening track here, first recorded on a EP for Topic, we get a selection of blues, jazz, calypso and ragas alongside his own material and even a nod to Dylan on ‘Don't Think Twice, It's Alright’.
Radically re-arranged traditional songs like ‘She Moved Through The Fair’, ‘Nottamun Tower’ and ‘Reynardine’ were to provide reference points to Fairport whilst ’69's ‘Sunshine Raga’ illustrates how easily he had soaked up other influences to re-present them in unique forms.
The eclectic mix of styles was no more apparent than on the ’68 album Large As Life And Twice As Natural and the following year's Hat, both of which show his desire to explore across the board. The following year saw the Holy Kaleidoscope album from which we can enjoy the delightful ‘Sunny Moon For Two’ and ‘Charlie’, both of which float in a light and beguiling jazzy swirl.
It’s hardly surprising that so many subsequent musicians have pointed to Davy's pioneering work as a key early influence. His talent and self assurance mark him out as a benchmark for others to aspire to.
This cherry-picked, chronologically arranged set takes you along on his musical journey – one of increasing delights and variety.

THE MAJORITY
The Decca Years
Rev-Ola CD
www.revola.co.uk
The Majority was one of the few groups who didn’t use a solo lead vocalist on their tracks – it was always a multi-lead. While this approach never netted these Hull-based lads a chart record, it made for some absolutely gorgeous tunes with amazing harmonies, which you can hear on The Decca Years, a disc which collects the single sides The Majority recorded for Decca Records.
Many of the B-sides shine as brightly as their topsides: The Fortunes-esque ‘I Don’t Wanna Be Hurt No More’, the obvious Beach Boys cop ‘Shut ‘em Down In London Town’ and ‘One Third’, which features some neat counterpoint vocals are the best of the flips. Among the best of the flops are a cool, uptempo version of the Twice As Much tune, ‘Simplified’, the Northern Soul-ish ‘To Make Me A Man’ and the glorious, Bee-Gees penned ‘All Our Christmases’.
It’s truly a shame The Majority didn’t hit it big, because they were as good as many who did.
David Bash

THE ONYX
Kaleidoscope Of Colours: The Onyx Demo Sessions 1967
Wooden Hill CD
www.tenthplanet-woodenhill.co.uk
Cornish band The Onyx are now revered for a slew of, at the time, commercially unsuccessful but excellent pop singles for Pye and CBS. Under the management of local entrepeneur Bob Potter, they recorded proficiently at his studio, which they lived above and from where these 19 tracks originate. Supposedly dating from 1967, many sound far too advanced for this date and more accurately represent the later 1960s generally. Ending with their original version of ‘Climb That Tree’ more widely known by The She Trinity (who seem to have simply dubbed their vocal onto the existing track and edited the ending), this is a valuable document of a top class band. From the phased popsike of the title track, the set demonstrates their immaculate progression over their time with Potter.
They later became Vineyard, recording two excellent 45s and an as yet unreleased album in the mid-70s. The Onyx had pop and vocal smarts a plenty.
Paul Martin

VARIOUS ARTISTS
The Girls Are At It Again: UK Beat Girls 1964-1969
Eclipse/Universal CD
This set should have fans of RPM’s Dream Babes series smiling from ear to ear. Detailed liner notes come from the pen of Sheila Burgel, proprietor of www.chachacharming.com, who informs us that she had a universal (get it?) pass to the Polydor, Fontana, Phillips and Mercury archives while putting this comp together. Pretty much everything is sublime from the off.
Standouts include Bimbi Worrick’s ‘Long Time Comin’’ with it’s Cilla-like vocal and bendy acoustic guitar lines, the wallet-emptying freakbeat take of The Sorrows’ ‘Baby’ by Tracy Rogers (backed by Les Fleur de Lys) and Lori Balmer’s rendition of The Bee Gees-penned ‘Four Faces West’. ‘So Little Time’ is possibly the only Diana Dors record you’ll ever here with a fuzz guitar on it whilst Pattie Lane’s ‘Paper Dreams’ is as much emoted sobbing as singing!
Girl sound fans should snap this one up before it disappears.
Paul Martin

GARY WALKER & THE RAIN
Album No. 1
Eclipse/Universal CD
Who’d have thought that – come 1967 – teenage garage tub-thumper and former Walker Brother Gary Leeds would have wound up playing mutant R&B and psychedelic pop with a bunch of British beat journeymen in Japan?
Such is the strange saga of The Rain, whose light shone briefly in the late ’60s and whose sole album – released only in Japan due to said ex-Walker’s phenomenal appeal there – stands resolutely to one side of contemporary releases of its kind; a product of the Summer Of Love but almost entirely removed from it.
A favourite with bootleggers over the years, this is Album No. 1’s first ever official reissue. Now we get to hear that clunky but compelling mix of decent originals like ‘The View’, ‘Francis’ and ‘Thoughts Of An Old Man’, endearingly shaky ensemble performances and Leeds’ tin soldier drumming in slightly better fidelity.
And there’s the psychedelic masterstroke/commercial suicide that was their version of The Easybeats’ ‘Come In, You’ll Get Pneumonia’.
Andy Morten