What we have here is a collection of the best and heaviest tracks from the early career of the legendary English drummer, Cozy Powell. Born Colin Flooks in 1947 in Cirencester, he started out in The Corals, playing in a local youth club. He spent a few years cutting his teeth on the German circuit and on return to the UK his career advanced very quickly. He gained a reputation as a great drummer, session work jobs and offers from respected bands and musicians were many and frequent. His career is quite unbelievable in summary, reading like a hard rock hall of fame. The stage name 'Cozy' was borrowed from the jazz drummer Cozy Cole.
Julie Felix
Clotho's Web LP (1972)
Most of you will know him from his contributions in heavy metal heroes like Rainbow, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath and the Michael Schenker Group, but he started out in more modest forrays. From the mid-sixties he honed his skills in beat groups like The Sorcerers and Young Blood, heavy psych with The Ace Kefford Stand, heavy funk soul in the brief, final incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group, and hard blues rock with Big Bertha and Bedlam.
Throughout these early times he also worked as a session drummer for diverse projects from folk singer Julie Felix, Donovan, Bob Sargeant, Ten Years After keyboardist Chick Churchill, Tony Ashton/Jon Lord and Harvey Adams to name a few. The Ace Kefford Stand was a vehicle for Ace who was previously the founding bassist/singer of successful Birmingham mods The Move. His story is a sad one, the rock lifestyle was too much for him and psychological problems curtailed his career for good. With Cozy he recorded an album's worth of material that was only released recently. This band would morph into Big Bertha (including Leaf Hound's Pete French), then Bedlam, both in this comp.
Below: Televised performance of 1974 single "The Man In Black".
With Bernie Marsden on the Les Paul and Don Airey on keys
John Bonham & Cozy Powell
I have chosen the best of his work from the early period. This covers 1969-1974, and will satisfy TDATS fans out there who can accept a bit of heavy folk and even glam mixed in with the usual big riffs. A few of these are Cozy Powell solo singles, with the likes of 'Dance With The Devil' (which reached #3 in the UK singles chart during January 1974) and 'And Then There Was Skin' designed to showcase Cozy's skills with drum and rhythm based tunes. Cozy worked with a bunch of great musicians in his singles and solo albums, and his never-released sessions dubbed 'Cozy Powell's Hammer'. Some of these were Bernie Marsden, Don Airey, Tony Martin, Gary Moore and Jack Bruce.
Ritchie Blackmore, Ronnie James Dio, Cozy Powell in Rainbow
Cozy tragically died in a car crash in 1998, at the age of 50. He clearly had plenty more to offer the world of rock. He was continuously prolific throughout his career, in the '80s and '90s he worked with Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, Brian May, "Emerson, Lake and Powell", Cinderella, Warlock, Glenn Tipton & Pete Entwistle in "Tipton, Entwistle & Powell", Peter Green and Yngwie Malmsteen. At the time of his death, the English record producer Micky Most said: "Musically speaking he was one of the best drummers we've ever had in this country. He was a great guy, a fantastic musician and he always had a perfect disposition, always great fun. I spent a lot of time with Cozy in the Seventies and we went over to Detroit recording together. We had a lot of laughs and it was always a pleasurable experience to be around him. He was great fun. [The last time I saw him] he seemed in very good form. He was always a very `up' guy. Cozy worked with some of the greatest people and he was renowned as a great asset through both his attitude and his playing. It's a great loss. We're all gutted."
Cozy Powell & Robert Plant on UK Kid's TV Show "Tis Was" (1980)
There's a nice interview with cozy discussing his techniques and his early days here, and there's some welcome news about a planned Cozy Powell documentary here.
Tracklist:
01. Cozy Powell - Mistral (1974) Single
02. The Ace Kefford Stand - Gravy Booby Jamm (1969) Single
03. Big Bertha - Munich City (1970) Single
04. Big Bertha - Funky Woman (1970) Single
05. Jeff Beck Group - Ice Cream Cakes (1972) from album "Jeff Beck Group"
06. Julie Felix - Clotho's Web (1972) from album "Clotho's Web"
07. Bedlam - The Fool (1973) from album "Live In London 1973"
08. Bedlam - The Beast (1973) from album "Bedlam"
09. Donovan - Wild Witch Lady (1973) from album "Cosmic Wheels"
10. Cozy Powell - And Then There Was Skin (1973) Single
11. Cozy Powell - Dance With The Devil (1973) Single
12. Bob Sargeant - King Of The Night (1974)* from album "First Starring Role"
13. Cozy Powell's Hammer - Instrumental #2 (1974) from archival "Lost Reel Masters"
14. Cozy Powell's Hammer - Living a Lie (1974) from archival "Lost Reel Masters"
*A point of note on track 12: "King Of The Night". This great song also appears in a more heavy guitar-orientated version on the Bobby Harrison (Procol Harum, Freedom, Snafu) solo album 'Funkist' from the same year, on which Bob Sargeant also played. The song is credited to Bobby Harrison and Bob Sargeant.
Jodo's "Guts" LP is a favourite album which I found way back, and have often wondered about as there is so little information out there, making it something of an enigma. Spurred on by recently finding an original copy of the LP, I have contacted Rod Alexander, founding member and guitarist of Jodo. The word 'Jodo' is the name of a Japanese martial art using a short staff, read on though, as this may not be the reason for the band's name... (n.b. according to liner notes on the Green Bullfrog Sessions, Jodo's former name was 'Biskit').
The 1971 album 'Guts' is a really great blues rock album, with catchy songs and great performances from all the members. There's healthy doses of heavy riffs to keep you grooving, along with those is plenty of canny pop sensibility and some earthy blues, even some topical lyrics on race issues in the track "There's Still Time". All round, it's one of those albums which makes you think, "This band had the chops to contend with the big boys, and be successful. How come they seem to have been completely passed-by at the time, and more or less forgotten now?". It's a slick, well executed set, clearly catching on to the blues rock boom of bands like Cream and Led Zep, but in there with the seriously big riffs is an accessible and light-hearted angle, with a spirit of fun that's evident when compared to those two giants.
There are a few things that have helped to shroud Jodo in mystery. The first being the cryptic album cover, showing an old picture of a man with a bicycle. It gives away nothing about the band, no band pictures and barely any credits, a ploy which may have worked for Pink Floyd, but isn't going to do any favours for a little-publicised band's first album. Another is that they were seemingly an English band, but their sole album was never released in the UK, only in the US and bizarrely, in New Zealand, all to little fanfare.
Jimmy Bilsbury (L) with Earl Jordan (R), whilst both in The Les Humphries singers
Further searching finds that vocalist Earl Jordan later released at least one solo album, and was a member of a German singing troupe that has been referenced in TDATS before, The Les Humphries Singers. This group, started by Englishman Les Humphries, also included John Lawton, who was the singer in Lucifer's Friend (see Vol2 and Vol30) and Uriah Heep for a spell. Earl also contributed vocals to the jam album par-excellence, "The Green Bullfrog Sessions" (see Vol13 and Vol59). If allmusic.com is correct, he also contributed on a Starlight Express soundtrack LP. Earl seems to have worked on a few musicals, including the Eddie Hardin/Roger Glover-helmed prog rock opera "The Butterfly Ball" (1974), a clip from which shows Earl singing Old Blind Mole. I am not sure that the audio is Earl's voice there though.
Drummer Brian "Chico" Greenwood has come up from time to time in my searches also. He played on the Trifle album I used on the brassrock Vol93 and he is credited on many albums of the period, including those from acts such as Moonrider, Jasper, Ace, Nicky James, The Electric Banana and Phil May.
William E. Kimber 45 (1968)
Vocalist William E. (Bill) Kimber has been hard to find background on, it appears he was in South Africa for some time in the former half of the sixties, singing and playing rhythm guitar in The Couriers. I have also found some evidence of solo UK singles made just after that. After Jodo, he and Rod Alexander formed a duo called Axe, who made a few singles between '72-'74, at least one of which ("Running Wild") included Chico Greenwood. I have been unable to confirm this, but I think Bill quit being a performer in the latter part of the '70s and is the same Bill Kimber who went into music publishing/ management, becoming A&R manager for RCA records and having success working with well-known pop acts like The Bay City Rollers, Bucks Fizz and most notably, signing The Eurythmics. I found some of this information here.
In 2024 the below interview was conducted with Bill.
Jon Taylor in Little Free Rock (far left), + (l-r): Peter illingworth, 'Lord' Eric Carboo, Paul Varley
Bassist Jon Taylor is the most elusive member. He played in "Jasper" with Chico, and awesome band Killing Floor (see Vol7). He was also a belated, but important member of Litttle Free Rock, and the story of how he joined them can be found at The Official Little Free Rock Web Site.
Rod (center)
As for Rod himself, I found a useful account of his career here. After starting out with local Cumbrian bands, he moved to London. Amongst other things, he caught a break with Australia's top artiste Johnny Young and toured Australia and Europe. After Jodo he had a lot of work, including Joe Brown's band, Blackwater Junction, session work with the likes of Brotherhood of Man, Mike Berry and Johnny Howard's 18 piece big band. While still producing and writing music, Rod entered other types of work such as music management, and a stint with Europe's distributor of Fender guitars, Arbiter. Rod continues in music with Triangle Writers UK and the Alexander Dale Band (fb).
Interview with Rod Alexander
Rod Alexander
Here's a few questions which Rod very kindly answered, exclusively for TDATS. This helps to expose some of Jodo's long-held secrets.
Q01. Hi Rod, thanks for doing this! How and why did you become a musician, and why guitar/bass as preferences?
Rod: I first heard Les Paul & Mary Ford in a cinema with my mother. I was very young, but remember asking her what instrument was playing. I had previously shown no interest in music. Then years later, in my teens I started listening to Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Elvis, & Buddy Holly. Here in the U.K., we had Cliff Richard & the Shadows, & Johnny Kidd & the Pirates.
Hearing solos by Cliff Gallup, Scotty Moore, & James Burton was a huge influence, & U.K. records such as "Move It" By Cliff Richard, & "Shakin' All Over" by Johnny Kidd sealed my interest. From then on, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, Hollies, Who, Cream, Hendrix, Led Zep….
I moved to London from the Lake District, & after working in a music shop for a while got into the session scene as well as doing gigs with the likes of Helen Shapiro, Mike Berry, Peter Sarstedt, Joe Brown, & Carl (Kung Fu Fighting) Douglas, whose band I was in for 2 years, & Dave Curtis, who went on to write "Ray Of Light" for Madonna.
I was also in bands that supported the Moody Blues, Martha & the Vandellas, Little Walter, Koko Taylor, Small Faces, Ben E. King & others. I got really into Crosby, Stills, & Nash with their superb harmonies, & Stills guitar playing.
Later on I was into Dire Straits, Gary Moore, Level 42, & ZZ Top. Electric guitar was the only instrument for me. I am however very interested in vocal harmony.
Green Bullfrog Session
Q02. Howand where did the members of Jodo meet? What prompted the formation of the band?
Bill Kimber & I met when I was recording at Polydor studios in London. We formed an act called "AXE". It was basically a writing & production idea.
However, we had a minor hit with a single called "Running Wild". Axe also released "People Come, People Go", & "You'd Better Keep Outa My Way".
I had known & worked with drummer Chico Greenwood for several years. Chico told me about bass player Jon Taylor, who he had worked with in a blues band called "Union Blues" [aka "Jasper"].
I met Earl when we both worked on the "GREEN BULLFROG SESSIONS" album.
JODO was essentially a 5 piece. We had tried several keyboard players, but used a session player on some tracks of the "GUTS" album.
Q03. What's the story on the band's name and the LP art work?
In the U.S., a homeless person or someone of unknown identity is known as a "John Doe". I think it was Derek Lawrence who suggested the name by shortening "John Doe" to Jo Do...hence JODO!!.....the man on the bike. According to my vinyl copy of "Guts", sleeve design was by Virginia Clark....photography by Bruno Shreck.
Q04. Did Jodo play any gigs or festivals?
AXE & JODO both played some live gigs in & around London, But where & When I cannot remember.
Derek Lawrence
Q05. How did Jodo get signed to the Decca/MCA label?
I met Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple. He came to one of our rehearsals, liked the band, & recommended us to producer Derek Lawrence, who then produced the "GUTS" album.
Q06. Could you confirm the band members and production credits?
JODO line up:
Rod Alexander - Lead guitar & Backing vocals
Chico Greenwood - Drums & Percussion
Earl Jordan - Lead vocals
Bill Kimber - Lead Vocals
Jon Taylor - Bass guitar
Derek Lawrence - Producer
Martin Birch - Engineer
Louie Austin - Assistant engineer
Q07. “Guts” was recorded at De Lane studios, London. When was this? Can you describe the session, and some stand-out memories of doing it?
The album was recorded over 3 sessions in 1971. Fortunately, we were very well rehearsed, so the initial tracks went down quite well. There were a few guitar solos to do, & a few harmony guitar overdubs. The vocals were done very quickly, both Bill & Earl had plenty of studio experience. There are one or two mistakes on it, but we left them as we felt we had a good raw "live" feel.
Q08. What equipment did you and he band use?
As far as equipment goes, Jon Taylor played a Fender Precision bass, Chico played a conventional Premier drum kit. I was a one guitar man. The Gibson SG Special was superb...Ritchie asked me to sell it to him!! If I ever had to play acoustic guitar, I used an Ovation. I played my Gibson through a Marshall 50watt amp with one Marshall 4 x 12. I don't think I used any effects except perhaps a Vox wah pedal. We basically cranked up the volume & did it!!
Q09. Jodo’s music is fantastic, all the members’ performances gel brilliantly. It has heavy blues sounds like contemporaries Cream and Led Zep (One Night Stand, Nightmare), an upbeat pop edge (Rat Race, Seventeen) and slow-burning blues (Pushing). Earl Jordan's vocal performance is charismatic and excellent, as is Bill Kimber's. Can you explain your thoughts on the bands’ versatility and what influenced the sound of Jodo? What was the song-writing process of the band? And who was the creative leader(s) of the band, if there was one?
Thanks for you kind comments on the music. All the members of JODO were very experienced, so playing together was great. There was a lot of session work about at that time, so we had all played various types of music. Main influences were diverse; Cream, Deep Purple, Peter Green, Tony Joe White, B.B.King...
The interplay between the two main vocalists was tremendous on live gigs. What a pity we didn't do more of them!
The writing was all done by Bill Kimber & myself, with the occasional help from various members. I used to come up with the riffs & arrangements, Bill would come up with either a title or theme, then we would finish the song off together. We had written quite a lot together before JODO.
Q10. Do you have any favourite Jodo songs, if so why? Can you remember anything about playing any of them, ones which were hard to play, or most fun to play for instance?
3 tracks bring back memories; It's No Good...Kimber & I thought it would be good if the lead vocal was done in octaves. Only trouble was I wanted it in a particular key (I think E), so I could get that nice crungey feel to the track. When we went back to do the vocals, neither Earl nor I could reach the high notes, so poor Bill bravely did it by sheer brute force & effort (no voice processors in those days!!) I still feel for him when I hear that track.
Seventeen....Kimber got his own back on me on this. I came up with the lead intro phrase after listening to a couple of Blackmore tracks. When I had got a decent take of it, Bill said "now why don't you track it in harmony?" It was a bit of a struggle but I managed it.
Wish You'd Never Been Born....I just love the manic feel to this. The SG was a great guitar to play, & just loved to scream its head off. Amp was flat out.
Martin Birch c.1982 (r) with Steve Harris (l) of Iron Maiden
Q10. How did engineer Martin Birch (Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden) and producer Derek Lawrence (Deep Purple, Green Bullfrog, Wishbone Ash, Angel) get involved? How much input did they have in the session and the resulting album?
We have to thank Ritchie Blackmore for the introduction to Derek Lawrence, & for the chance to play on the GREEN BULLFROG SESSIONS. Martin Birch proved to be tremendous in the studio…A great guy to work with.
Q12. An observation I have seen others make quite a few times is that Guts wasn't released in the UK, do you know why? I have seen issues from the US, New Zealand and Germany, but never the UK.
I don't know what happened about the U.K. release. I didn't even know it had been released in New Zealand. I think the CD version is produced in Germany. I have tried for several years to get information from PRS & MCPS regarding sales, but without success.
Rat Race/Wish You'd Never Been Born
promo 45
Q13. “Rat Race / Wish You'd Never Been Born” were pressed on a 45. Was it released as a single or was it for promo only?
Don't know. I think it was promo only.
Q14. Do you think Jodo had the potential for more success than you ultimately had?
The band was certainly good enough, but there were a lot of other good U.K. bands around too. In retrospect, we probably should have gone to the U.S. The band would have worked as a unit, we rehearsed a lot & sounded good, but with no U.K. release, we all headed off our separate ways. JODO were only together for 2 years. The decision to split was totally amicable. We never started a 2nd album.
Q15. What have you done since Jodo, in music or otherwise, and would you like to tell us about anything you are doing now?
Over recent years I have carried on gigging, recording, & writing, as well as working as a consultant in both publishing & Musical instrument retail. I produced 2 CDs under the name of Triangle Writers UK, featuring highly talented female vocalist Jen Molineaux. Titles were "POINT OF ORDER", & "IT'S MY CITY", & recently wrote & produced "OUT OF CONTROL" CD by the Alexander Dale Band.
Q16. Can you tell us what you know about the other members’ careers after Jodo? I saw that Earl made at least one solo album, and joined the Les Humphries singers.
I think Bill is still involved in music management. I did hear that Earl was doing very well in one of the top West End Musical shows. Chico bought a hotel, and enjoys living in the West Country. Jon moved to New York.
Q17. Finally, do you have any great Jodo memories or stories (amusing or otherwise) that you think would give readers some more insight into the times and the band?
So long ago, I can't remember any stories that are printable. However, one incident springs to mind; We set off on a gig, somewhere in Sussex. On arriving, we were greeted by a charming elderly man who informed me "I just love the music of the Islands".
I was puzzled for a few seconds, then realised he had tried to book a Hawaiian band!! The guys all looked at me in amazement...it was too late to get anyone else, so I said" turn right down & lots of guitar solos". Somehow we got away with it...the old chap was happy, & we all got paid.
============================================
Thanks to Rod for his time, thanks to the band for the great music, and thanks to you for reading. Hopefully one day there will be a decent re-issue of Guts, in a nice package with some history and photos. Join JODO here on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hotrodmusic.co.uk/
Here's the best I could find from Poland. Stretching from 1968 to 1979, it's turned out to be another impressive array of unique hard rock, prog and psych from a country where it was not easy to make rock music in the period.
The full set of Eastern European volumes is now: 41: Eastern Roc |101: Poland |120: Serbia |134: Macedonia |153: Hungary 1 |157: Hungary 2 |164: Hungary 3
I found a good article regarding communist censorship here. There's a couple of bands that appeared before on the East European comp Vol41, and the rest are all-new to TDATS. In a recent update, I have now concentrated on that part of the world again and made a volume about Serbia; 120.
The cover art here is 'Leshy', a woodland spirit in Slavic mythology who protects wild animals and forests. I have since been shown a front-page scan here of the 1906 art nouveau magazine where the image comes from, if anyone can enlighten me as to the magazine, or the artist, drop me a line!
Tracks
01. Exodus - Pieśń Na Drogę (1977)
from from 'The Most Beautiful Dream - Anthology 1977-1985'
02. Budka Suflera - Memu Miastu na do Widzenia (1974)
from album 'Antologia I (1969 - 1975)'
03. Trzy Korony - Bierz życie, jakie jest (1972)
from album 'Krzysztof Klenczon i Trzy Korony'
04. Klan - Mrowisko (1971)
from album 'Mrowisko'
05. Czesław Niemen - Chwila Ciszy (1971)
from album 'Czlowiek Jam Niewdzieczny'
06. Mira Kubasińska & Breakout - Luiza (1971)
from album 'Mira'
07. Andrzej Zaucha & Piotr Figiel Ensemble - Księżniczka (1976)
from album 'Piotr Figiel Music'
08. SBB - Dyskoteka (1975)
from album 'Nowy Horyzont (bonus tracks)'
09. Niebiesko-Czarni - Purple Hazy (1968)
from EP 'Niebiesko - Czarni'
10. Grupa Stress - Granica Zycia (1972)
from 'Z Archiwum Polskiego Radia, Vol. 8'
11. Nurt - Piszę Kredą na Asfalcie (1973)
from album 'Nurt'
12. Romuald I Roman - Talizmany (1970)
from 'Z Archiwum Polskiego Radia, Vol. 5'
13. Test - W Pogoni Dnia (1974)
from album 'Test i Wojciech Gąssowski'
14. Breakout - Ona Odeszła Stąd (1979)
from album 'ZOL (Zidentyfikowany Obiekt Latajacy)'
Exodus
Exodus was a symph-prog band from Warsaw that released its first album in 1980, but the track here was recorded in 1977 and included on 'The Most Beautiful Dream - Anthology 1977-1985'. Budka Suflera are a prog band from Lublin that made some heavy stuff early-on but soon became more commercial. The track I used here is an early recording of a later-released track and this is the heaviest version. Many thanks to Paweł at the TDATS fb group for showing me this one!
Gdańsk's Trzy Korony (Three Crowns) is here with some fine fuzzy pop. This band included singer Krzysztof Klenczon who was previously in the hugely important pop group "Czerwone Gitary" (The Red Guitars), which was equivalent to a Polish Beatles. Warsaw's Klan made a good album of progressive psych in 1972 called Mrowisko (The Hive, or "Anthill" in English)
Czesław Niemen
Czesław Niemen (born in a town called Staryya Vasilishki which used to be Polish but is now in Belarus) was an important and very productive figure in Polish prog. He made many albums from the late '60s onwards. This track is taken from his fifth album (1971) variously entitled "Red Niemen", "Niemen", "Niemen Enigmatic" or "Czlowiek jam niewdzieczny (I am an ungrateful man)" in different releases. This is the hardest-rocking of his records and probably the best one for TDATS fans to start at. Another interesting fact is that Czeslaw's supporting band in some of the the former albums went on to become a famous prog band in their own right, SBB. They appear on here too.
Breakout
Warsaw's Breakout started life as the psychedelic band 'Blackout'. They became Poland's premier blues rock band and made many albums through the '70s. They had a singer called Mira Kubasińska and she made a couple of solo albums in the early '70s with Breakout as her backing band. I have used a song of Mia's for track 6, and the comp's closer is a Breakout track. Track 7 is some great funky jazz rock from Warsaw's Piotr Figiel, he made two albums that are very rare now. During my searches I found that jazz and funk were far more prevalent in Poland than hard rock!
The previously-mentioned SBB (aka Silesian Blues Band, "Szukaj, Burz, Buduj" or "Search, Break, Build") comes in at track 8, it's an awesome heavy jam, filled with growling fuzz, jazzy drumming and expert wah guitar. Dyskoteka is available as a bonus track on re-issues of their 2nd album, "Nowy Horyzont".
Niebiesko-Czarni EP (1968)
Gdańsk's Niebiesko - Czarni were a pop band that became more psychedelic and progressive as time went on. I have used their cover of Hendrix's Purple Haze, which was included on a 1968 four track EP. It's a great reinterpretation, the novel differences between this and the original may be intentional, or may be due to their inability to play it accurately, I'll let you decide! I found this on a comp of Polish beat called "Working Class Devils". In 1972 Niebiesko - Czarni made one of Poland's first double-LPs, a very adventurous rock opera called "Naga" (Naked). It used a lot of orchestration and I found a great track for the orchestral psych comp that's taking a while to make!
The tracks I have used from Grupa Stress and Wrocław's Romuald I Roman are both taken from archival releases that were recently issued by Poland's national publicly funded radio broadcasting organization, Polskie Radio. Neither band made albums, although Romuald I Roman did get an EP and a single out. Grupa Stress is the real hard rock hopeful here, and there's a few really heavy tracks from them. Romuald & Roman were more psychedelic. Here is some information, taken with appreciation from http://www.adambaruch.com/ :- "This album compiles archive material by the Polish Rock group Romuald I Roman recorded by the Polish Radio over a period of several years, covering the group´s history from its formative years to its ultimate demise. The fact that these recordings exist at all are a miracle and since the group never managed to record an album they are the only source of material that tells their story.
Romuald I Roman
In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s Polish Rock suffered from extreme limitations enforced upon the music and the artists by the Socialist regime, which considered long-haired and bell-bottom jeans wearing musicians as enemies of the state. Therefore many Polish Rock groups never managed to record even one album on the state-owned record label, especially if their songs were different from the Pop material considered safe by Government censorship. Luckily enough, the regime was also extremely bureaucratic and regionally partitioned, which allowed for some local sovereignty of some institutions, which was explored to the max by the Polish Radio, which had many regional studios and was able to record artists without asking too many questions. Thanks to the brave man and woman working at the Polish Radio all over the country many Polish Rock recordings survived the unsympathetic times against all odds.
Grupa Stress
The band [Romuald I Roman]was formed sometime during the troubled days of early 1968, when Poland was shaken up by political unrest, demonstration and strikes, brutally quenched by the Socialist regime. The group´s founders: guitarist / vocalist / songwriter Romuald Piasecki and guitarist / vocalist / songwriter Roman Runowicz, both students at the time, met during a student strike and quickly merged their musical forces to create one of the early legends of early Polish Rock. They added a rhythm section (bass and drums) and quickly established a growing following performing many gigs around the country. Runowicz left the group by late 1971 and Piasecki continued to lead it under the same moniker until it finally disbanded in late 1976. These recording present the musical history of the group, which went through several phases like Psychedelic Pop, Hard Rock, Progressive Rock and eventually even Jazz-Rock Fusion. Their material was very ambitious and involved a significant element of live improvisation, which of course was most evident during their live performances. Although the sonic quality of some of these recordings is not perfect, the music is excellent from start to finish and provides a wonderful glimpse into the past, serving as a fascinating document of Polish Rock history. Definitely a must to all Polish Rock fans both in Poland and anywhere in the world. Highly recommended!"
Nurt LP 1972
Wrocław's Nurt made one album in 1973, and an archival second release appeared last year. "This is the criminally long-overdue reissue of the only album recorded by the legendary Polish Rock group Nurt. Founded in Wroclaw in 1970 by guitarist / vocalist / composer Aleksander Mrozek, it also included bassist Kazimierz Cwynar, drummer Ryszard Sroka and vocalist Waldemar Domagala. By the end of 1971 Domagala was replaced by Roman Runowicz, who was previously a member of the no less legendary group Romuald I Roman. The group performed extensively in the early 1970s but managed to record only one eponymous studio album in 1972 for the State owned Muza label and several Radio recording sessions."
Test 1974
Warsaw's Test was the heaviest hard rock band in Poland to produce an LP in the '70s, and one of the only ones too! Their 1974 s/t album has the heaviest, Deep Purple-inspired, hard rock that you're going to find from the country. To finish the volume of TDATS I will use some more information from http://www.adambaruch.com/ :- "This is the only album by Polish group Test, founded and led by vocalist Wojciech Gassowski (previously with ABC), one of the greatest representatives of Polish Rock scene in the early 1970 and the first Hard Rock group in the country. The group included the talents of the great lead guitarist Dariusz Kozakiewicz (immortalized by his extraordinary performance on the "Blues" album with Breakout). Test´s instrumental sound was based on organ and brass instruments in addition to the usual lead guitar / bass / drums present in all groups at the time. In retrospect this music represents some of the best sounds of the incredible Polish music scene at the time. This expanded edition includes also the group´s early radio material. Wholeheartedly recommended!"
Welcome to the big 100! Here we have a comp of songs that appear in movies. There'll be more movie-related TDATS later with different themes, as it's a subject that interests me a lot and I've been on the look out for a long time now. You may think rock in the movies is not unusual or hard to come by, but in these examples the bands and the songs are lesser-known, good, heavy, and being seen played in the movie. Finding all these together is a harder task than I realised it would be when I started! A big thanks must go to the people who helped with some of the much-needed nuggets of information at the TDATS fb group, along with the amazing cameo lists at 60sgaragebands.com
Most of the films here are generally thought of as "exploitation movies"; movies that exploit a certain fad of the times, either in movie-making in general or else in popular culture at large. One example of a genre that you may think is a good source is the (road) rash of biker flicks that were popular for a few years from the late sixties onward. I certainly did find a good amount which had some great soundtrack music, but no examples where bands appear in person. I decided biker movies deserve their own volume later. [Edit: and here it is! Vol 109]
Soon after I first posted this, somebody made this comment. "It would be interesting to see not the songs in the movies, but the way Hollywood in general portrays "hard rockers". because it's cringing to watch. According to Hollywood, long-haired rockers are really the filth of the earth. dumber than poles, nasty and crazy.. Sad, really....stereotypes galore, "hairy biker rocker type" has become the villain everyone loves to hate."
My response was: "I agree, that is a subject that deserves a lot more attention.....there's a whole book right here. Most movies aimed at a general audience are about stereotypes though, what ever the subject. Exploitation movies especially, by definition. All the biker movies that had cool music and evil raping/murdering bikers - playing on the fact that rock did, and still does to some degree, play up to and thrive on the bad boy image."
TRACKS
Where possible I used tracks taken from the band's album or the movie's soundtrack LP. In the cases of Mystic, Luke Zane, The Bored, Atlantis, Forever More and Juicy Lucy, I extracted the audio from the best quality source (that I could get my hands on) of the movies themselves. "The Bored" suffers more than the rest from the fact that the sound quality of the movie itself was never good, and the only versions available at the moment are VHS bootlegs.
01. Mystic - The Mark Of Death (1973)
from "Horror Hospital"
02. Magic - Sorcerer's Advice (1978)
from "Trick Rock 'n Roll"
03. The Standells - Riot On Sunset Strip (1967)
from "Riot On Sunset Strip" and album "Try It"
04. Luke Zane - Liar (1970)
from "Ich - Ein Groupie"
05. The Bored - Night of Bloody Horror (1969)
from "Night Of Bloody Horror"
06. The Mops - Goiken Muyo (Ilja Naika) (1971)
from "Stray Cat Rock: Wild Measures'71" and Mops album "Iijanaika"
07. Atlantis - Maybe Someday (1978)
from "The Alien Factor" and 45rpm single
08. James Gang - Country Fever (1969)
from "Zachariah"
09. David Lucas & Michael Greer - Water (1970)
from "The Secret Garden Of Stanley Sweetheart"
10. Forever More - 8 O'Clock & All's Well (1970)
from "Permissive"and album "Yours"
11. The Pretty Things - Blow Your Mind (1969)
from "What's Good For The Goose" and album "“Even More Electric Banana”
12. Michel Pagliaro - J'ai Marché Pour Une Nation (1970)
from "Finalement" and single
13. Freedom - Born Again (1969)
from "Nerosubianco" (aka Attraction)
14. Juicy Lucy - Slow Down (1971)
from "Bread"
15. Moby Grape - Never Again (1969)
from "The Sweet Ride"
Psych-Out poster
One of the things that makes these appearances interesting is the way they show how rock music was regarded in mainstream consciousness, or at least in that of the movie industry. The movie has been used as a vehicle for big acts from the beginning; Elvis, The Beatles, The Monkeys etc, that's common knowledge, but the counter-culture revolution of the sixties was the time for smaller bands in movies. Beat groups in light mid-'60s teen movies were a common sight, and psych bands in serious movies about the revolution like Medium Cool were too.
Often you'll see what Hollywood's idea of a psychedelic rave is; lots of naked, body-painted go-go dancers, mop-haired revellers manically thrashing their limbs around, monged-out hippies smoking joints on the periphery and bands bathed in liquid light shows trying their best to mime to a backing track and look like they're getting into it. A pair of psychedelic exploitation movies are prime examples; The Trip (1967) and Psych-Out (1968), which are available on a double-bill DVD. The Trip was written by Jack Nicholson and starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, pre-dating the trio's work in Easy Rider by a year or so. Psych-Out starred Jack Nicholson (who was also in a few low-rent biker flicks at the time, as was Bruce Dern who was also in The Trip).
The Trip poster
Both these films had psychedelic music sequences in Sunset Strip clubs. Psych-Out boasts the amusing sight of Jack Nicholson fronting fictitious band "Mumblin' Jim", miming guitar to a Purple Haze-inspired riff which was in reality recorded by Colorado band "The Boenzee Cryque". In The Trip, Gram Parsons' country rockers "International Submarine Band" were filmed in a club, but their performance was dubbed over with The Electric Flag's "Fine Jung Thing", a band which was commissioned to make the soundtrack in replacement of original contender International Submarine Band. The resulting LP was Electric Flag's first full album.
How was hard rock and heavy prog/psych represented? It came about in the lower-budget, underground movies of less mainstream appeal. Very few world-renowned heavy bands were in films in the '60s and '70s, but a young Yardbirds appeared in Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up". As hard rock's popularity increased in the '70s, random band appearances became even less frequent, reflected by the lack of mid-late '70s songs in this volume.
Slade In Flame poster
There were a few movies made specifically about music and successful bands, in documentary format or mock-band stories for example. Some well-known examples are The Who in Tommy and "Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park", but these are not TDATS territory.
A good one to check out is Slade's "In Flame" which gives an uncompromisingly honest view of the rock'n roll industry and provided more than a few queues for This Is Spinal Tap. Another is "200 Motels", which was a surreal story that revolved around Frank Zappa's band. I have avoided those and stuck mostly to movies that had character-driven plots, in which the bands are lesser-known and appear in a few scenes, like Moby Grape in "The Sweet Ride" and The Bored in "Night Of Bloody Horror", or had more central roles as characters in the plot like Forever More in Lindsey Shonteff's "Permissive" and Sorcery in Brian Trenchard-Smith's "Stunt Rock". There are a few examples here of music that was performed by musicians that did not make up an existing band but were brought together for the sake of the film, like Mystic in "Horror Hospital" and the band in "The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart".
The Litter in Medium Cool
An interesting side story, and one which exemplifies the industry's sometimes fickle treatment of the rock bands themselves, is Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool. Excellent heavy psych band The Litter performed a full set for a club scene, only to have music from Frank Zappa's debut dubbed over the top in the finished movie. I contacted The Litter singer Zippy Caplan and unfortunately he cannot remember or recognise which song they were actually playing in the scene. There is a live Litter EP floating around on various archival releases which is all the tracks they recorded during the shoot. I had an idea to dub it back over the footage but I was unable to visually match any of the songs up as the flashes of the band are too brief . So it seems we'll never know now.
Horror Hospital poster
So let's get down to (movie) business, and track 1 of this volume. Horror Hospital is an English movie made in 1973. It was directed by Antony Balch, who is most well-known for this movie and some collaborative work with William S. Burroughs, with whom he always dreamed of bringing “The Naked Lunch” to the screen, but never did. The lead role is played by Robin Askwith, who is most famous for the “Confessions” series of sex comedies, and he still has roles in UK TV shows now. In the movie a disgruntled song writer goes for a break with a hippie-themed travel company “Hairy Holidays” and finds out the true intentions of the mad doctor who uses it to lure young people for his ominous uses…
The band shown in the film, which you can hear our protagonist Jason complaining about for using a song of his without credit, is rumoured to be three guys from UK pop/psych group Tangerine Peel: Warwick Rose (Bass), James Gaynor (Guitar) and John Warwick (Drums). The song 'Mark of Death' was written by Warwick Rose under the pseudonym “Jason deHavilland”.
I found an unsubstantiated claim on an internet forum that The Mark Of Death was released on a single b-side under a different band/song name, but haven’t been able to establish the truth of this yet. Some cursory searching revealed that Warwick Rose was involved in a number of acts after Tangerine Peel, like Ro Ro and Warwick, in which Alan Ross (Ex-Tangerine Peel) had some involvement also. Alan Ross had a complex post-Tangerine Peel career too, but I have not found any clues as to whether the postulated b-side was on any Rose, Warrick or Ross related singles…
Stunt Rock poster
In 1978 English/Australian director Brian Trenchard-Smith had the idea to sell a movie using the appeal of death-defying stunts mixed with rock music. He already had experience of making stunt documentaries, and chose Australian stunt man Grant Page as the star, who he’d worked with before. He travelled to the US and found a band. Almost recruiting Foreigner, he eventually made a deal with Los Angeles hard-rockers Sorcery, who had already developed a bombastic stage show of their own involving demons and wizards, and had been supported by the then up-coming band Van Halen.
Sorcery was made up mostly of musicians that had connections with show business and also did session/jingle work, although they were a bona-fide band, headlining their own shows. Lead guitarist/keyboardist and main song writer Richard Taylor had also played with Legs Diamond (see Vol29). Their stage show incorporated battles between costumed wizards which were complemented by extravagant stage effects and set-pieces. The movie has a thin plot which is used to hold together what is effectively a feature-length montage of quality hard rock, amusing stage antics and heroic old-school stunts. Something to get the Beavis and Buttheads in us all whooping with pleasure!
Sorcery’s efforts were cut on two LPs during their existence, which ended in 1987: Stunt Rock, and the soundtrack to 1984 slasher movie “Rocktober Blood”. The latter was a far inferior effort which apparently only had three proper Sorcery-written tracks, none of which were quite up to the standard of Stunt Rock. The quality of Stunt Rock’s music proved they had potential, and one wonders where they could have gone if they had wanted to escape the shady world of soundtrack work and become a proper signed band. There is an ancient official website here on which some DVDs and CDs of Sorcery rarities were available but it is now dead (archived). 2024: Their album has been officially re-pressed (link).
Riot On Sunset Strip poster
1967’s “Riot On Sunset Strip” is one of the first and defining counter-culture exploitation movies. It was rushed for release within 6 weeks of the Sunset Strip curfew riots which occurred in late 1966. Club-going revellers who were frequenting the strip in larger and larger numbers were getting the goat of local residents and businesses by amassing on the side-walks, making noise and holding up traffic. Police were patrolling the area in larger numbers as a result, and inevitably friction occurred between the opposing sides.
It came to a head one night during a protest against the authorities’ plans to control the situation by forcing closure of one of the central coffee houses, Pandora’s Box. Revived from years past, the kids had been subjected to an archaic curfew law banning under-18s from the main drag after 10pm, and a rally about all these things was arranged for November 12 1966. Over 1000 young people attended the march and the strip ground to a standstill amid sign-waving and verbal protests. It’s suggested that the violence started after a car full of off-duty marines didn't take kindly to being held up and started throwing punches. It ended with a city bus being ransacked, rocks and missiles thrown at the police and multiple arrests. One of the detained was Henry Fonda, and Jack Nicholson was another attending representative of the Hollywood set.
The Standells and The Chocolate Watchband are two bands that performed as themselves in Riot On Sunset Strip, and the title track for the movie by The Standells is what I have included here. It’s one of the seminal garage punk songs, with the spirit of punk in every part of it, from the simple but unforgettable riff to the snotty, chanted vocals. There are two interviews here at the great Psychedelic Baby webzine that have some comments about making the movie from members of both The Standells and The Chocolate Watchband.
Ich - Ein Groupie DVD cover
Moving across the pond to Europe now, we have an exploitation movie called "Ich - Ein Groupie". This time it comes from the perspective of a female rock groupie, played by German actress/comedienne Ingrid Steeger. Her character travels around Europe on the trail of English band Luke Zane, because she believes she has fallen in love with the singer, Stewart West. On the way she descends into the usual excesses of drugs, lustful desires of rock musicians, devil worship and Swiss biker gangs.
Ingrid Steeger became a household name in the mid '70s due to her success in German TV comedies, the first one being a sketch show called Klimbim (Trans: Odds & Ends). Soon after, her past activities in naturist magazine photo shoots and cheap pornographic 8mm movies, as well as more professional soft material like "Ich - Ein Groupie", was revealed when distributors attempted to cash in on her fame by releasing them anew. She successfully took legal action to block them, and the public didn't take offence to her past. Her third TV series with director Michael Pfleghar (with whom it was later revealed she'd had an affair while married to a cameraman) flopped and her career nosedived. She remained well known but in parody. Her notoriety became the tabloid press kind, with stories of career failures and relationship strife, punctuated with occasional appearances in TV and theatre. After reaching a very low point in the last decade, in which she was living off unemployment benefits, the story has brightened and she has regained some professional acceptance and success in the theatre.
This movie is a bit of goldmine, as it has no less than three early and obscure hard rock bands playing in it (plus other genuine acts playing other styles), two of which have appeared in TDATS comps already; Birth Control and Murphy Blend. I chose to use the band who appear in the opening scene, credited as "Luke Zane". This is the band who's singer Ingrid's character falls for, and they play a bluesy hard rock song which I guess is called "Liar" as this is the main lyric. I attempted to find out if "Luke Zane" has any connection to real bands, but drew a blank, until..... After reading this article, front man Stuart West got touch, and had this to say: "Luke Zane was a strange band who sounded a lot better than we did in that film. Liar and Blues Train (which you can barely hear in the orgy scene in the film) where the only two tracks ever recorded. There where clashes of musical direction, I wanted to record some songs I had written, bluesy and prog rocky stuff, two of the band said it was not cool to record, so it never happened. I left the band in 72 and played with various bands. Luke Zane split up in 73. The members where Steve Brown (guitar) Mick Melia (drums- good guy!) Steve Lynch (bass and dope!!) and myself vocals and sometimes bass/guitar. A good band when initially formed with Kevin Gorrin (drums- later to Magnum) Tiny Duncan (bass-later to many good bands) found it difficult to get gigs due us not being "commercial" enough. We carried on doing bluesy, progy stuff and finally got a good following on Uni scene, blues clubs etc. Clem Clemson got us to play in Switzerland, which was a good move for us resulting in the film and gigs through out Europe. The name? Means nothing really. We where struggling for a name and I think Tiny was reading a Zane Grey novel and came up with Luke Zane."
From one of the worst films included in this comp comes a very obscure nugget of heavy psych, but luckily the movie is of the “So bad it’s Good” variety. The Bored play for a full 4 and a half minutes in the club scene in 1969's “Night Of Bloody Horror”, during which the anti-hero of the movie hilariously gets beaten up on the dance floor without anyone noticing. The film was an ultra-low budget slasher and the plot is an unashamed “Is he/Isn't he the killer?” Psycho rip-off about a guy who suffers from blinding blackout head-aches and an oppressive, controlling mother. The lead role of Wesley is played by Gerald McRaney, who may be known to US TV viewers as Maj. John D. 'Mac' McGillis in early-'90s TV series "Major Dad".
Night of Bloody Horror poster
The scene in which we are interested is where our protagonist is sitting in a bar. As usually happens in these movies, luckily for us, the camera turns to a rock band for a few minutes which has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. In this case we can see the band’s kick drum inscribed with the name “The Bored”, and they churn out a heavy dose of swampy-riffed, rhythmic psych, howled vocals and swirling keys. Unfortunately the sound quality of this movie is terrible, with ancient VHS reproductions being the only versions available at the moment on DVD, but maybe that suits the band fine in this case as the sludgy sound gives it an almost modern edge, boy I’d sure have liked to see this band live back in the day. If what we see here can be relied on, I think they could have held their own in a stoner-rock gig even now.
Nothing is known or documented about this gone-for-ever band, except for a few comments that I found on a forum which I hope are all true. Apparently the members were Jay Wilson (on bass), Toad, BJ and Bobby. They came from New Orleans where they used to get together in a bar called The Gunga Den, and at some point they supported Vanilla Fudge. Much later on Jay W. emigrated to Australia. Let’s hope something else comes up and I’ll certainly be doing my best to get some more facts. I found a long-defunct web page, started by Jay in Grafton NSW, but I have been unable to get any further: http://www.nor.com.au/users/jayw/webdeveloper.htm
For track 6 we move onto a Japanese movie. It is part of the “Stray Cat Rock” series, which was a set of 5 films made between 1970 and ’71. As many of the movies in this comp, they were exploitation movies, but their country of origin gives them a very different feel. Something that stands out is the style and quality of their execution. Urban Japan of the early seventies, in the cool hues that these films use, looks sleek and modern, even by today’s standards. Of course, the stories themselves were just as silly and nonsensical as most exploitation movies.
Wild Measures '71 cast
“Pinky Violence” is a term used to describe the genre that these movies are associated with, which has been defined elsewhere as “sexed up, bad girl action films by the Toei studios.” It is true that all the Stray Cat Rock movies have strong female leads. The first in the series, “Delinquent Girl Boss”, is about an all-girl biker gang. The combination of director Toshiya Fujita and actress Meiko Kaji would go on to greater cult-acclaim with 1973's "Lady Snowblood", which is cited as a major influence on Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill".
Through most of the films there are appearances by real Japanese music acts of the day, which are generally not of much interest to TDATS, with one exception being a band called The Mops. The clip I have used is from the final instalment of the series, “Wild Measures '71” ( also known as “Crazy Rider '71”, “Beat '71” or “Bôsô shudan '71”) and at one point The Mops appear randomly on the back of a flat-bed truck, seemingly in the middle of a tense part of the plot involving a sniper and organised criminals. They play their hilariously quirky piece, and drive off again just as quickly as they appeared while an amused group of on-lookers wave them off, and the bemused criminals scratch their heads, crazy! The song is great fun while still being pretty heavy, and can be found on The Mops' third album “Iijanaika” (1971).
The Alien Factor VHS cover
I thank fellow rock obscurity enthusiast Adam Kriney, drummer in The Golden Grass, for the next piece of low-budget fun. In a great example of how these things can turn up in the least-expected places, a Maryland band called Atlantis appears in a Baltimore bar scene in monster slasher movie “The Alien Factor” (1978) and plays an entire song.Now it seems to me there’s a few reasons why directors may choose to do this. Is it a good way to pad out a few minutes of reel for the easy amusement of drive-in crowds? I’m sure it is. If you can’t afford to catch the zeitgeist with a popular band, why not use one that’s willing to offer its services for free in return for a little celluloid immortality.
Here’s some more info on Altantis that I patched together from a few internet sources: “The Who-like ‘Maybe Someday’ is a little-known garage single from a Baltimore band later known as The Lon Talbot Group.
Atlantis "Maybe Someday" 45
It appeared in the Don Dohler, sci-fi/horror flick The Alien Factor. The flipside ‘Moby Shark’ is a novelty fuzztone garage tune with wild stereo effects with lyrics that parody the ‘Jaws’ movies of this era. Singer/Songwriter Lon Talbot (David Aquino) recorded and gigged through the 70's as Atlantis, with various line-ups. They usually performed as a power trio, playing both original music and covers of the early British Invasion/Mod bands like The Who, The Kinks, The Yardbirds and Manfred Mann.
The single was released around the same time as the film, receiving some college radio airplay, especially on Towson State University's WCVT. In the early 80's the band became ‘The Lon Talbot group’, and played in Baltimore's early new wave scene in clubs like The Marble Bar and No Fish Today.”
Zachariah poster
The James Gang wrote two songs for 1971’s ‘Electric Western’ Zachariah, and they appear in the movie playing both. The one I have chosen here is ‘Country Fever’. It’s a fantastic hard rocker. In my opinion easily one of the best that The James Gang ever made. Neither of the songs appear on a James Gang album, but both are on the soundtrack LP and Country Fever was included on a best-of collection. ‘Laguna Salada’ is played by the band in the opening scene, and it certainly has a Wild West feel. The image of the band rocking out in the desert while our hero Zachariah (actor John Rubenstein) practices his gun-slinging is a striking and memorable one.
A couple of other interesting musical footnotes in this movie is the appearance of jazz drummer Elvin Jones and film composer Michael Kamen when he was a member "The New York Rock n Roll Ensemble". The whole band play in a bizarre scene where Zachariah beds a girl while surrounded by the naked band as they play. In fact the whole film is quite bizarre, one of those ones where you definitely won't get very far if you wonder what's going on or why any of it is happening, you just have to go with it. The other lead role in Zachariah is played by Don Johnson of Miami Vice fame. A few of his early roles were in exploitation movies, including “A Boy And His Dog” which was a great post-apocalyptic sci-fi that I've have liked for a long time. More on Don Johnson for the next track…
The Magic Garden of Stanely Sweetheart poster
His first big screen role was in “The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart“, a counter-culture exposé which had some cool music scenes in it. Andy Warhol himself referred to the film as "the quintessential, most truthful studio-made film about the '60s counterculture". The song I have used is from a drugged-out party scene about half-way through the movie. It shows a band playing a groovy psychedelic song called "Water", with one of the story’s characters singing in the anonymous band. From what I can gather this song was written by composer David Lucas and sung by actor/comedian Michael Greer who played the character of Danny.
Michael is remembered as being one of the first openly-gay actors in Hollywood (although not part of his character in this movie) and his great acting skills were limited to obscure movie roles as a result. He was apparently a talented singer/keyboard player too. The soundtrack LP for this movie had some other interesting tracks on it, including Crow (see Vol60) and “Eric Burdon & War”. This movie was recommended to me by Johnny of The Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, thanks man!
Permissive poster
Next up is a Scottish band that has appeared in TDATS before, Forever More (see Vol25). After two albums they would morph into The Average White Band, but before that they played the role of the band at the center of 1970’s groupie exploitation film "Permissive". This movie is a desolate account of the relationships and dramas of the groupie girls that cling on to a travelling rock band. The sometimes graphic scenes are at times on the verge of soft core pornography but the real theme of the film is the hopeless and pathetic life of the girls that choose the life of groupies, competing for the affections of their favourite band members, while being taken advantage of by others in the business.
The song I used is “8 O'Clock & All's Well”. This was a track on Forever More’s first album, 1970’s “Yours”, but I chose to lift the audio out of the movie as they recorded a version for it which is faster and harder than the LP.
What’s Good For The Goose poster
UK band The Pretty Things, who developed from a mod/r&B group into a psychedelic rock band, played a couple of songs in a club rave-up scene the UK sex comedy “What’s Good For The Goose”. The movie starred famous English slapstick actor Norman Wisdom, whose popularity was well-past its peak by the time it was made in 1969, in fact it was his last ever big screen role. It’s an awkward but endearing attempt to mix Wisdom slapstick, carry-on style sex farce, teen counter-culture and midlife crisis apologia.
The Pretty Things show up a few times, at the center of the hippie mob who descend on seaside town Southport at the same time that Norman Wisdom is driving there for a business conference. On the way he is cajoled into picking up a couple of free-spirited hitch-hiking girls, who are young enough to be his daughters. They show him a few things which disrupt his stayed life as a typical 2.4 children commuter dad.
The Pretty Things had a secret life as “The Electric Banana”, which was the name they used to record a number of library music records for De Wolfe Music, a company that syndicated recordings worldwide for commercial use in film, television and radio. Some say this was a purely money making exercise to help subsidise their ailing career and lessening record sales. The music appearing in What’s Good For The Goose was on the third of five E.B. records, “Even More Electric Banana”. Julian Cope wrote an extensive review of the album on his web site here.
Finalement soundtrack LP
Singer/guitarist Michel Pagliaro was the first Canadian artist to score top 40 hits on both the anglophone and francophone pop charts in Canada. He appeared in the movie “Finalement...”, in a dance club scene playing the song “J'ai Marche Pour Une Nation” (I Walk For A Nation). This was originally a single of his in 1969. The movie appears to have been a fairly unremarkable romantic comedy (I may be wrong as I haven’t been able to see the whole thing, and it’s in French), but the song is an excellent slice of catchy pop rock with a wicked hard rocking riff. Michel was also in Montreal bands Les Rockers, Les Chanceliers and Ouba. There’s lots of commentary on this hard-to-find film here, in French.
Nerosubianco (aka ‘Attraction’ worldwide), is an avant-garde film from experimental Italian director Tinto Brass. It was filmed in London and Tinto commissioned an English band to make the soundtrack. He chose Freedom, which had connections to a few other notable bands, Clark Hutchinson by bassist Walt Monagan (see Vol74), and Procul Harum by singer Bobby Harrison (see Vol57). Bobby Harrison (who had a later solo album that I intend to use in later vols) and early Freedom member Ray Royer had both been in the original incarnation of Procol Harum for their début 'Whiter Shade Of Pale', but were ejected soon after for Robin Trower and Barry Wilson.
What became Freedom’s first album, Nerosubianco (Black on White), was the soundtrack. I have chosen a track called Born Again. The band appeared playing it in the movie, one minute on an open top bus driving through London, then on a horse and cart. This song carries on into a surreal scene of scientists studying sexual activity. It’s a great psych track which verges on hard rock towards the end, and Freedom changed drastically on their second album to go in the direction of heavy blues rock.
Bread press book
Juicy Lucy was a short-lived commercial blues band that counted Mick Moody in its ranks, later of Whitesnake and other acts. The band was started by The Misunderstood (See Vol62) members Ray Owen, Glenn Ross Campbell (Steel guitar) and Chris Mercer (saxophone).
They appeared in a movie called Bread, playing at an outdoor gig. The movie was recently restored and re-issued by the BFI as a special feature with “Permissive”, mentioned previously with Forever More. Paul Williams puts on a great vocal performance, he was the second singer for the band after Ray Owen left for a solo career. Two bands play for the home-made festival at the end of the film, Crazy Mable, and Juicy Lucy, who got involved through screen writer Suzanne Mercer’s marriage to Chris Mercer, the band’s sax player. A band called The Web also played, but did not make it into the cut of the movie that is now available.
Here is a minor adaptation of the BFI’s comments on the movie: “Five hippies pitch their tent in the grounds of a young aristocrat's estate. They end-up there unwittingly, thinking it’s a suitable camping spot for an over-night stay while hitch-hiking home from the Isle of Wight festival. During the festival they were upset by the profiteering surrounding it and their minds are on ways to make money from a similar endeavour but in a more hippie-friendly way. The aristocrat befriends the group and accepts their offer to paint his house while he is away. The group decides to use the grounds to stage a pop festival.
An unusual mixture of pop festival documentary and saucy teen comedy, Bread was exploitation filmmaker Stanley A. Long's second attempt at what he called a "counter culture gimmick movie". His first, Groupie Girl (1970), produced by Long, was based upon the real-life exploits of the film's co-writer, Suzanne Mercer. Her encounters with rock musicians, as salaciously filtered through the distinctively seedy vision of director Derek Ford, had given Groupie Girl the grimy ring of truth, and the film made a lot of money. Unfortunately, despite its title - contemporary slang for cash - the more light-hearted Bread did not.” More information at the BFI (link).
Groupie Girl poster (aka "I Am a Groupie")
I considered the movie Groupie Girl for this comp, and there was a soundtrack LP made. It contains music from real bands Opal Butterfly, English Rose and Virgin Stigma. The history of Opal Butterfly recounts that Lemmy of Motörhead was a member for a short time in his pre-HawkVVind days, as mentioned in his autobiography "White Line Fever", but this was before the movie. Opal Butterfly did not appear in the film, they just provided the theme tune and background tunes, although singer Ray Majors did have a cameo. After a bit of searching it seems that Virgin Stigma were made up for the movie. They were part of the plot and appeared playing in one scene, in a studio.
The film was a tale similar to Permissive, but in this case the story of only one groupie, rather than a competing entourage. English Rose was a short-lived London band that later included Neil Peart, when he was living in the UK before Rush existed. Neil mentions this briefly on his website here. Their contributions to the soundtrack, "Yesterday's Hero / To Jackie", were released on a single. The music for Groupie Girl wasn't of much relevance to TDATS, but it may show up again later.
The first century TDATS comes to an end, and it's been a sweet ride. Moby Grape close proceedings. They appeared in the surfer-biker-psychedelic exploitation movie The Sweet Ride, playing the great song “Never Again” at a Sunset Strip nightclub called The Tarantula. Thanks for watching, stay tuned for more! Rich
For the time & expenses of the eternal search..Thanks!
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Unzip password for all files: tdats
Unzip problem? Make sure you enter the password, and for MAC users especially, I recommend using the free, opensource program 7Zip (there is a MAC version too), which is what I make the zips with. Feel free to contact me, or report dead/erroneous links, at: aftersabbath@live.co.uk If you have trouble with any volumes in particular email me.
Recommendations and advice is always appreciated, Cheers! Rich
.jpg "Martin Birch c.1982, with Steve Harris of Iron Maiden")
+poster.jpg "Groupie Girl (aka I Am a Groupie) poster")
