October-November 1971 Black Christmas As the Vanda and Young single found its way into Australian record shops and onto the Sydney airwaves, across the other side of the country, former bandmate Stevie Wright's new band was starting to take impressive shape. Ray Hoff envisaged the outfit as a multi-faceted showband - all the better to cope with the variety of material that would enable them to appeal both to serving soldiers in Vietnam and upmarket audiences on the supper club circuit - and so the band had three singers: Hoff handled the blues and rock'n'roll end, Stevie delivered a mix of old Easybeats hits and soul standards, and Shirley Read pounded out soul-blues-torch songs like Nina Simone' s "Revolution" or the Janis Joplin arrangement of "Me and Bobby McGee". Read had previously been one-half of The Same Day Twins, a Perth-based duo who had emerged in the mid-sixties via the prosaically-named Perth Talent Quest. Appearances on the Club 7 Teen TV show and live work supporting the likes of Billy Thorpe boosted their profile ahead of a well-received tour playing to servicemen in Vietnam. Heading east after returning home, the pair were signed up by the Robert Stigwood organisation, becoming the only Australian-based act on Stigwood's books (Billy Thorpe was also approached and agreed to sign but ended up moving to Melbourne instead). With Stigwood's backing, the Twins signed to Festival and enjoyed a local hit in 1968 with "Walking and Talking" (not the Vanda and Young song of the same name but an original tune by John Read). Various PR blurbs claim this as a national top ten hit but the reality was rather more low-key: the Pat Aulton-produced single (Festival FK-2511) entered the Perth charts in October 1968 and peaked at # 24. Shirley's online biography (see here: http://www.last.fm/music/Shirley Smith/ wiki) notes that she appeared on The Easybeats Special in 1969, although there is no mention of her in the newspaper advertisement for the show highlighted on part two of the Easybeats: Album by Album thread here: The Easybeats: Album by Album Thread (pt2). Shirley confirmed for me that she and her twin brother John did appear, and provided a photo of them surrounded by their band (The Children of Tomorrow - formed especially for the show) in the stage costumes they wore for the TV appearance. She and Stevie were therefore at least acquainted before they joined forces for Ray Hoff's ambitious showband venture. Among the band members surrounding Shirley in the above photo is Freddy Hampton. Not long after the Easybeats show, the Adelaide-based Hampton enjoyed a decent-sized hit with the topical "Let There Be Peace" before reuniting with Shirley as the duo Freddy Hampton and Trik. The pair landed an Adelaide hit in early 1971 with "Hooch" (Gamba GA-10) before Shirley headed back to Perth and signed up with Ray Hoff's new outfit. A fan of singers like Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield, Shirley had a strong, powerful voice and a striking visual appearance that marked her out as a real asset for the band. Widely recognised as one of the best singers working the Perth circuit at the time, she had even jammed with Led Zeppelin when they were in Perth earlier in 1971. When I contacted her for information for this thread, she told me: "(I even) sang a couple of songs with Led Zeppelin in 71 at the Latin Quarter the night before their Perth gig, as Robert was on a different flight and they wanted to have a play together. When the singer of (popular local club band) the Troupadors said I was a singer... They played "I Got My Mojo Working" and handed me the mic. I have great memories". As with Ray Brown's contemporaneous One Ton Gypsy (which featured Brown, former Bootleg singer Graham Lowndes and the dynamic Alison MacCallum on vocals), Likefun's three-headed vocal assault gave them the ability to mix a variety of styles and the vocal firepower to reach even the most blase of audiences. The rest of the band were no slouches either. Keyboardist Alan Wilks (who played both organ and piano on stage, according to the needs of the material) and bassist John Tucak had previously played in local bands Stafford D, Nelson and Hard Kash and drummer Maurie Pearson had played with Ray Hoff in the Offbeats and later in New Era. Only guitarist Gerry Stoll was without any significant track record. Thus constituted, the band hit the road and headed up the country to hone its act; as Shirley put it: "It was late 71... We did a few shows in Geraldton to work the band in". The same story is told by bassist John Tucak on his website (http://www.strayalienmusic.com/about-us.php ): "We spent six weeks rehearsing, and playing in Geraldton under the name Black Christmas (the West Australian newspaper carried a headline forecasting the effect of a strike, by unions involved in the production of electricity)." Geraldton was a good place to break in a band away from the glare of the media - a medium size fishing town several hundred miles north of Perth, there was little chance of a music critic dropping by to check out the band before they had their chops together. Opting to use the unknown name "Black Christmas" was another smart move - nothing there to connect the band to Hoff, Read or Wright - although John Tucak makes the enigmatic comment "There appeared to be too many negative connotations to this name" on his website, so perhaps audience attendances were less than stellar. Tucak was clearly impressed by Stevie: "Stevie Wright was, by far, the most accomplished singer / musician that I had the privilege to work with - and I'm sure that the other guys felt the same. He could move across the stage like Michael Jackson, and had an inflection in his voice like Ray Charles. He was great to work with - at rehearsals, or on stage." Clearly then, Stevie had shrugged off the hesitant, lacklustre approach he had brought to Rachette and was once again dominating the stage the way he had done in his Easybeats heyday. By the time that the band's Geraldton residence had come to an end, they had come together as a unit and it was time to head south for some Perth shows ahead of the projected overseas trip. Matters were organised by drummer Maurie Pearson, who (according to Tucak) made plans for the band to sail to Singapore on board a cruise ship, perform at the Singapore Hilton and then move on to play the USO Clubs in Vietnam. The intention was to follow on with shows at the Hong Kong Hilton and the Tokyo Hilton, and if these went well, possibly even the Hilton in Las Vegas. As the band were leaving the hotel in Geraldton, Johnny O'Keefe arrived, but sadly, nobody had a camera handy to get a photo of Johnny O'Keefe catching up with Ray Hoff and Stevie Wright. John Tucak did however get some photos of the band, of which this is one: So the band headed back to Perth, where guitarist Gerry Stoll dropped out to be replaced by Colin Wilson, who had previously played with Pearson in New Era. (Stoll later performed under the name "Ric Veneer"). On arrival, the band also dropped the Black Christmas moniker and became Likefun, prior to some planned end of year shows in Perth - of which more later, when we get there....... Thanks to Shirley Smith (née Read) for help with this post.
Hooch was just as good an anti war song as Arkansas Grass. The single got massive airplay on 3UZ in Melbourne and was played in the 'underbubblers' every Sunday for about six weeks when they counted down the top 40 but it never made it. Both sides are really good. Born Today had as much chance of being a hit as Hooch.
Sorry, Sharleen - I hurt my back a couple of weeks back and have not been around much. I'll get back on line in a day or two with the next post.
Since my last post, Shirley Smith (née Read) of Black Christmas fame has got in touch with some more details of her career before she linked up with Stevie and Ray in 1971: "... My brother and I are not actually twins...that was our gimmick...and we won The Festival of Perth Talent Quest in 67... Also we weren't the only Australian act signed by RSO, as Freddy Hampton was also signed, which is how we met. Franz Conde was head of all RSO affairs in Australia and was a TV producer for Channel 7. He produced The Easybeats Special and The Same DayTwins joined with Freddy and called the band The Children of Tomorrow, put together for the show. Freddy was originally from Bundeberg in Queensland was at that time based in Sydney. He had enjoyed some incredible success and was invited to play on the American show Shindig... not sure when but early 60's... ... I forgot to mention "Walking and Talking" got to #3 in New Zealand. We were going to do a tour there but were offered 3 weeks in Tahiti so took that... but then that fell through... I didn't know it got to 28 in Perth... We had a fan club there but were based in Sydney. Franz Conde had a regular Saturday night variety show hosted by a rugby player, Rex Mossip, and an actress, Noeleen Brown. We were almost regulars and had a track on the album The Club Show. I was told the single got in the top 10 in Sydney. I know it was a big regional hit in WA and was played a lot on 6WF, as the most requested flashback, on the hour every hour. Family would ring and tell me... ... My brother became ill and returned to Perth and I joined The Spinning Wheels with Freddy and guitarist Grahame Conlon and toured the Swinger circuit. We moved to Adelaide, originally for a 5 week stint at the Swinger in the Australia Hotel... However... we - Fred, Grahame and myself - stayed all night at the party thrown for our departure and next morning found we had been left behind. We were propositioned by a talent scout from Fable records in Melbourne and he organised for us to audition at Gamba Studios. This led to us all working for Gamba... doing ads and recording original songs, including "Bottle of Hootch"... We were so broke we were allowed to stay in the art gallery next door, as it was all owned by Derek Jolly, a member of the Penfolds family... We eventually put another band together called Trik and did the Swinger again. When the band moved to Surfers, I left and retuned to Perth. I didn't know the success "Hootch" had in Melbourne..." Shirley's comments about The Same Day Twins' chart success are interesting, as Gavin Ryan does not list the song in his Sydney chart book, and it is similarly absent from Dean Scapolo's summary of New Zealand's charts. Aussie charts from the sixties are notoriously unreliable, often based on what radio stations played rather than on real sales (notice how the Go-Set chart changed during the record ban, when Ed Nimmervoll began surveying record shops directly). The Billboard chart for Australia in the early sixties (sourced from a magazine called Music Maker) has some records (like The Missing Links) that don't seem to have made any radio charts at all. Weird. Some record stores also ran up their own charts, which would at least have been based on sales in those stores. Perhaps the Twins' top ten placing came in one of those. Impossible to know, after all these years. Same problem in New Zealand. The "official" chart was based on votes from listeners and had no relation to sales until the seventies; the result was (for some reason) a strong bias against NZ (and Aussie) records in favour of overseas ones. Radio stations also had their own charts, some of which were also biased aganst local product. Again, weird. But it is what it is. BTW, if anyone wants one, there are currently two copies of The Same Day Twins' single for sale at Plastic Passion Records in Perth: http://plasticpassion.musicstack.com/seller.cgi?seller=230476&media=&find=S. And many, many thanks to Shirley for her ongoing help with the Black Christmas / Likefun story.
Garethofoz, I hope you're doing well! Never will my comments mean I'm impatient. They will always mean I look forward to the next installment. Just trying to be sassy. Feel free to tell me to hold my horses!
Some months ago, when discussing the Eddie Avana single, I speculated that the flipside "Sarah" (which I had never heard) was an Alex Young composition, and put out the above call for anyone with a copy to get in touch. Thanks to this thread, my call has been answered by none other than John Tait, author of the Vanda and Young biography. John has a copy of the record, and with the kind assistance of his son Francis, has uploaded it to Youtube and asked me to share it here. So here it is: John agrees that it sounds like an Alex Young effort (and having now heard it, I am pretty sure that it is too). John also thinks that it is Alex singing it, and again, I am inclined to agree. The release therefore seems to follow the pattern of the Moondance single and the two other Young Blood releases of having a Vanda-Young song one side and an Alexander effort on the other, with vocals shared accordingly. As John put it to me, did anyone who bought the record notice that the Eddie Avana on the B-side was a different guy from the Eddie Avana on the A-side? Thanks to John and Francis Tait for sharing this clip with us... and to John for writing the book that led me to this song - and this forum - in tbe first place.
Could we please be clear about Tony Cahill of the Easybeats! Tony was my brother and he was born in Camberwell, Australia on 20 December 1941.
His first instrument, if we can call it that, was a set of drumsticks, with which he used to practice relentlessly for hours on on the fake leather, blue chair in our lounge (living) room...
Hi Castoroo and on behalf of Gareth and the other guys who do these two Threads (the other one being “The Easybeats Album By Album” Thread) I’d like to say Welcome. I didn’t realize anybody had ever been unclear about Tony Cahill or his contribution to The Easybeats but if so I would like to say this. I personally think Tony was a phenomenal drummer and truly talented musician. His playing elevates virtually every track he is heard on. I think Harry Vanda put it very well in an interview with biographer John Tait for Tait’s book (Vanda & Young: Inside Australia’s Hit Factory): “Tony Cahill was bloody good, he was far better than we ever gave him credit for…. George and I were extremely hard taskmasters. We gave him drum beats that no sane man with two arms and legs could play…” (pg 90). And if Harry Vanda had that to say I doubt anybody here would disagree. I should think you'd be very proud of your brother and his contributions to the History of Rock.
I spoke with Tony Cahill a few times on the telephone when he was living on his boat in Venice Beach, I believe it was. He was nothing short of the complete gentleman and he was genuinely surprised (and pleased) when I told him I thought The Easybeats were one of the most underrated bands of all time. I had heard he planned on returning to Australia, but had no idea his health was failing. I thought very highly of his drumming and of course it must be said his ideas for songs led to one of the very few writing credits alongside Vanda and Young on the great "Come In You'll Get Pneumonia".
Interesting. Australian TV stations didn't want to pay for The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour but screened 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee instead.
Excellent research as always Gareth. And another piece of the 1969 Easybeats Special puzzle found!!!!
Well, hello, Castoroo and welcome. I too rate your brother highly, both as a drummer in the Purple Hearts and the Easys, and later as a bassist with Python Lee Jackson and King Harvest. Thanks too for clearing up the details of Tony's birth - I'd read that he was born in Australia but too many accounts had him pegged as English so I got it wrong when I wrote that obituary last year. It's good to have the record set straight once and for all. I hope to cover more of Tony's post-Easybeats career a little later on in this thread, so feel free to correct anything I get wrong or fill in any gaps.
Drumsticks were my first instrument as well. Except in my case, it was brown fake leather. I had permanently 'borrowed' one of the dining room chairs and took it to my bedroom. I already had the family turntable, amp and speaker (mono sound system) set up there. I'd play for hours along to my favourite records. I remember thinking I could get a pretty good snare and tom tom sound ala Keith Moon.
I think I started by tapping pencils onto table tops, driving my parents mad in the process. In the end, my dad bought me a set of bongos, which I played for a year or two before progressing to a drum kit, which lasted around three years till I moved on to other things.
12 November 1971 Mumma Bear - Pasadena (Hemmings-Vanda-Young) / Sally Anne (McNeal) Parlophone R 5926. While Stevie Wright was busy breaking in a new band, back in the UK, Harry and George managed to place another song for release in time for the Christmas market. The song was "Pasadena", which had already been issued ealier in the year by Phil Pickett and Tony Cox's fictitious group, Buster (see post 119 here: The Easybeats: The Solo Years ( Featuring Vanda and Young)). This time though, the band was a real one - a hard gigging band previously known as The Classics but now trading under the very seventies-sounding name of Mumma Bear. As The Classics, they had been around since 1968, performing a kind of harmony pop heavily influenced by U.S. groups like The Beach Boys and The Four Seasons. Early in 1970 they were discovered by songwriters and agents Derek Savage and John Turner, who in turn inteoduced them to EMI producer Jeff Jarratt, resulting in a contract with Parlophone and the release in September 1970 of a debut single pairing "My Baby Said Yes" with the catchy "Tell Me How" (Parlophone R 5861) that saw the band rebaptised as Mumma Bear for the occasion. As drummer Bill Fisher told me when I tracked him down for this thread: “My Baby Said Yes” was released and, to be frank, didn’t set the world on fire ! It got some radio exposure and helped the group to get a few more bookings, but didn’t enable (us) to increase (our) appearance fee!". A second single was nevertheless commissioned and released in March 1971, this time pairing the very American-soundng (if slightly dated) "Betty, Betty, Bye Bye" with "Susie, Susie" (Parlophone R 5891), but even the presence of super session singers The Breakaways as backing singers couldn't help the single into the charts. Four months later in July, the band tried again but this time with a major departure in style that resulted in a single coupling a revival of Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song" with the original "Puppet Man". The A-side was given a reggae makeover, and the idea was not as daft as it sounds, given the ceaseless string of rocksteady / reggae hits pouring out of the Trojan label at the time. (Bill Fisher has an amusing story about this release, which space does not permit me including here but which I may include in a "side bar" post after this one). The record enjoyed good airplay on BBC radio but stopped short of entering the charts, sending Jeff Jarratt back to the drawing board looking for a hit song. Enter Vanda and Young. The song Jarratt picked for the topside of Mumma Bear's fourth single was "Pasadena", for which Bill remembers him playing them a demo (offering yet more proof that such a thing not only existed but also existed in more than one copy (as at least one copy made its way to Australia) - I'll discuss the demo in a little more detail later). I asked Bill if they'd heard the Buster version, or only the demo. He responded: "Thanks for reminding me! You know, I’d completely forgotten about “Buster”! Completely! (Getting old?). Yes, I remember Jeff Jarratt, our producer, talking about and playing their version. He felt, and I believe rightly so, that they’d not done the song justice". As Mumma Bear were a working band, there was no room for Vanda,Young and Alexander to join in the proceedings this time, so they had no direct involvement in the recording. Jeff Jarratt gave the song a fresh arrangement, bringing in Tremeloes guitarist Rick Westwood (there was a family link between The Tremeloes and Mumma Bear's management) to play pedal steel and adding a tasteful string arrangement. With engineering by Richard Langham and production by Jarratt, the result was the best Mumma Bear single to date. Interestingly, the original Buster single release in January had seen the publishing assigned to E.H. Morris; by the time Mumma Bear put the song to market, the song was now noted as a Friday Music copyright. Despite the fact that the song had already flopped less than a year earlier for Buster, BBC radio was very receptive. "Pasadena" was announced by legendary DJ Alan Freeman on Radio 2's Pick Of The Pops programme as "a new contender for the top 20" and according to Bill Fisher, "The BBC loved it! So much so that, over a very short period, “Pasadena” received well over 100 plays on BBC Radio One alone! Mumma Bear became well-known in just about every city in the UK ! They even managed to increase their performance fee to a staggering £100 !!!". Airplay is important, but sadly of course, it is not enough to make a record a hit. As Bill put it: “Pasadena” was released towards the end of 1971. In those days, at the end of a year, all major artists released a single, with their eyes set on the lucrative Christmas market. Very rarely did an “unknown” artist manage high sales at this period. Quite often, only one single captures the public’s attention. This was the case in 1971. Although the air play was massive, to say the least, “Pasadena” lost out on the “sales” to, wait for it, Benny Hill and his “Ernie, The Fastest Milkman In The West” !!! Well, Mumma Bear would be the first to admit that it was a funny record !!". Whether Benny Hill really did gun down Mumma Bear or whether the single missed for more prosaic reasons, it certainly made a splash. Bill told me: (It might have missed the charts but) the group’s popularity got stronger and stronger and (we) were now travelling all over the country, playing larger clubs nearly every night of the week. (We’d) even traded (our) Ford Thames van in for a slightly less-battered Transit, complete with two rows of aircraft seats! Pure luxury!". A near miss does of course bring other benefits. According to Bill, the single was released "in many territories around the world, such as Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal, Brazil and even Australia! Unfortunately, touring in those days was not like today and the group didn’t make it over to play these countries. The world was a lot bigger then!". Bill is probably right about that. It was certainly issued in Spain (Belter 08-112), so a Portuguese release is quite likely, although I have not yet sighted a copy. A Portuguese release could, in turn, easily have led to a release in Brazil, while the success of the Moondance single in Sweden in 1970 was probably enough to engender interest in Scandinavia, although again, I have not laid eyes on a release for either country. As for Australia..... well, there are still some gaps to be filled in the EMI discography for the early seventies, so it might have appeared there, but again, I've never seen a copy (Jae, any thoughts on this one?). It might well have been issued but if so, it was buried by John (Paul) Young's version - which we shall get to in due course. Sadly, none of these releases appear to have troubled the charts (although, to be fair, I have not been able to check chart stats for Portugal or Brazil, so it might well have flown in one or both places). After four consecutive flops, Parlophone dropped the band when Jeff Jarratt left the label (Jarratt later struck gold with the multi-million selling series of symphonic rock albums Classic Rock). Mumma Bear remained a popular live act, even supporting The Osmonds at The Finsbury Park Astoria before mutating into glam rock outfit "Mustard" for a cover of expatriate New Zealand / Australian band Bitch's "Good Time Coming" (Bitch were previously known as The Clevedonaires and then The Cleves - they became Bitch when they moved to the UK). Sold for release to EMI, it made a bit of noise but was another flop and the band drifted away. Bill Fisher moved into management, notably with The Rubettes, and later moved to France, where he still lives today. He went back to making music in the nineties, along with two of his former Mumma Bear colleagues. As for "Pasadena"... well, there was plenty more mileage left in this particular tank and the long freeway where the desert used to be would turn out to lead to... Australia, then to South Africa and then back to England again, in a journey with many twists and turns to come... Big thanks to Bill Fisher - one of the nicest guys in the business - for help with this post.
A final word (or several) on Mumma Bear. When I contacted Bill Fisher in the hope of getting a few details for this thread, his enthusiasm was overwhelming. He sent me so much stuff, I couldn't possibly use it all in my post about "Pasadena" but as he was so kind and forthcoming, it would seem churlish not to put it to good use. So, to run things off on a (very) short tangent, here is the story (in full) of Mumma Bear - a story of a hard-working, dedicated band for whom the cards never quite fell the right way, and so, in its own way, a story that shines a lot of light onto the careers of all the bands who never quite made it: THE MUMMA BEAR STORY Way back around 1968, a group of budding young musicians were playing pubs, clubs, US Air Force bases, discos and just about anywhere that would pay them between £15 to £25 for a LONG night’s entertainment. £25 was a GOOD fee, one that they didn’t see that often! The band went under the name of The Classics and were known for their full-harmony “Pop” style, featuring many Beach Boys' and Four Seasons' songs in their repertoire. They cut a few demos, were “spotted” by various agents, all promising the “world” and “fame & fortune”, though, of course, none of the guys dared “give up their day jobs”! Then, one day early in 1970, an agent, by the name of Derek Savage, approached them. He’d previously booked The Classics and had liked what he heard. He and his song-writing partner, John Turner, were looking for a group to be the “vehicle” for their compositions and they felt that The Classics were THE group for them! One particular song, entitled “Lorraine”, was chosen and, after rehearsing this and a “B” side, a recording session was arranged. The session went well and Derek was pleased with the outcome. He then set about trying to gain record company interest. A certain young producer at EMI, Jeff Jarratt, jumped at what he heard and immediately signed the group. Recording dates were booked, at the famous Abbey Road Studios, in London and things began to move very quickly! The group were very excited at the prospect of recording in Studio 2 at Abbey Road. It was here, after all, that The Beatles had cut their hits, not that many years before! However, there was a hiccup, a little “prob”, on the first day ! Jeff had asked an arranger to “orchestrate” the two songs and the arranger had written ALL the parts for “Lorraine” in the WRONG key ! There was NO way that lead singer, Marge (full name Dave Margrie, affectionately known as “Marge”), could sing THAT high, even if he DID have an exceptional voice range! What to do? The studio had a full orchestra in it and time was LOTS of money! “We’ll leave ‘Lorraine’ for now”, said Jeff, “Let’s concentrate on the “B” side”. The “B” side, entitled “My Baby Said Yes”, was an unpretentious, jolly little “pop” tune that was intended to “fill up” the record. The recording was done and, whilst Jeff was “mixing” it, an EMI executive passed by and, on hearing the track, entered the studio with the comment “THAT is GREAT”! The comment astounded everyone, since the general opinion was that they were still dealing with a “B” side! With this news, Derek and John there and then VERY quickly “hussled up” a new “B” side, which was recorded in no time at all ! Acoustic guitars, finger snaps and tambourine and “Tell Me How” was born ! At the next weekly EMI Release meeting, the board was unanimous : “My Baby Said Yes” was set for release ! To “top” it all, EMI chose to place the Group on their “Parlophone” label – THE VERY SAME LABEL as The Beatles !!! Things HAD, indeed, moved very quickly and there was more to come! Jeff Jarratt felt that The Classics was a bit “weak” as a name and the search was on for a new one. It’s a bit unclear who actually came up with the name (it was probably Jeff), but the chosen one was: MUMMA BEAR “My Baby Said Yes” was released and, to be frank, didn’t set the world on fire! It got some radio exposure and helped the group to get a few more bookings, but didn’t enable them to increase their appearance fee! Now that he had his very own signed artist to look after, Jeff Jarratt hunted around for follow-up songs. Unfortunately, Derek Savage and John Turner’s writing partnership had split up and there was no more coming from them. A second single was planned, with the strange sounding title “Betty, Betty, Bye Bye”, a song in the true American “Pop” tradition. Again, the recording was made in Abbey Road’s Studio 2. To highlight the “American” sound, Jeff engaged, to accompany Mumma Bear’s unique harmonies, the famous “Breakaways” female vocal trio (which included the late and sadly missed Vicki Brown, wife of Joe and mother of Sam !). The result was a massive production of up-tempo “Pop”. Unfortunately, this single, too, failed to make the very important BBC Radio One “playlist” and Mumma Bear were again without success. Undaunted, Jeff continued to look for THE song. Mumma Bear began to feel that they “lived” in Abbey Road Studios ! Not only did they record various “demos”, trying to find their next single (tracks such as “Anytime At All” and “Eastern Seaboard Rag & Ruin” are still somewhere in EMI’s archives, along with the remains of the “Lorraine” session !), but Jeff used the group’s tight playing and close harmonies on many other single releases. Mumma Bear had, in fact, become Jeff’s “session group”! Releases “lost” in the multitude of singles on the market in the early 70’s, where Mumma Bear can be heard, include “Is There Anyone Home?”, by White Lining and “Ape Call”, by Mighty Mo, BOTH “groups” being, in fact, Mumma Bear! One day, Jeff called Mumma Bear drummer, Bill, to announce his latest idea : “We’re going to do an up-tempo ‘reggae’ version of the Harry Belafonte standard, ‘The Banana Boat Song’ ”! At first, Bill thought Jeff was joking, after all they’d built up between them a “special” sense of humour, so necessary when working long hours side-by-side! But, NO, Jeff was deadly serious and rehearsals began! The result was astonishing! The idea worked! EMI set an immediate release and it seemed that Mumma Bear were about to move a step up the ladder! Co-incidentally, at this time there came a change in destiny: One of the “agents” that booked the Band was, in fact, the mother of a young guitarist. The drummer of her son’s group was Michael Blakley, brother of Alan Blakley, of TREMELOES fame! At this time, Alan was looking for artists who would eventually form a “stable” of acts that he, along with Len “Chip” Hawkes (Tremeloes’ lead singer) would manage. Michael was going to look after the publishing side of the new company, Gale Music. Michael mentioned Mumma Bear to Alan, before approaching Bill with a management offer. This all tied up with the release of “The Banana Boat Song”. Gale Music took on Mike Beaton, a famous promotions guy, to work on the project and he personally took the disc to Radio One. A campaign linked the group to “Fyffes”, the banana importers, who gladly supplied boxes and boxes of bananas, along with a number of man-sized “inflatable” ones! Blue oval-shaped stickers were printed up (identical to those placed on bananas), with the inscription : “Mumma Bear - Banana Boat Song” . Over the next few weeks, these stickers were to be found EVERYWHERE in London, on walls, bus-stops and, especially, ALL around the BBC offices and studios! Mike Beaton managed to get the disc played just about every day on Radio One and many “shows” invited Mumma Bear to perform “live” in the studios! Bananas were given out to all DJs and BBC staff and producers and it was quite often that comments were heard, related to the disc or to Mumma Bear! Mumma Bear had, indeed, moved well and truly into the eyes of the public AND the media! The DJ Emperor Rosko organised a “mini-moke” rally around London one Saturday afternoon, starting from the BBC and Mumma Bear joined forces with him, not in a “mini-moke”, but in their old Ford Thames van, decorated all around with huge inflatable bananas !!! One of the BBC invitations was for the Group to appear on the “Radio One Club”, a “live” mid-day show, hosted by David Hamilton. Whilst they did not actually perform, they were interviewed and the disc promoted and played. At this appearance, Mumma Bear made the aquaintance of two delightful young girls, in fact Tremeloes’ fans, Sharon and Bren. This meeting turned out to be quite significant, because the two lasses were to become Mumma Bear’s Fan Club Secretaries, with a heck of a lot of work ahead of them, did they only know! An amusing little “anecdote” : On the strength of the success of “Banana Boat”, Mumma Bear were booked to play at a club in South Wales. Now, in those days, South Wales was a little bit more than “just down the road”, there were NO motorways then! The group travelled, sitting/sleeping on cushions ON TOP of their equipment, cramped up in their little, battered old Ford Thames van, NOT exactly “stars” yet! It was a LONG way to Wales! Still, their money had now reached the staggering amount of £40 a night, so they had something to smile about! They reached the club, set up and prepared to play. They’d noticed that the “clientele” was, in the main, “Caribbean”, but didn’t think anymore about it – until they struck up! When they began their famous “pop-harmony” act, the crowd didn’t react in the way that the group were used to! The manager of the club approached the stage and asked what the band thought they were doing ? Where was the “reggae”? Of course, Mumma Bear didn’t know what he was talking abou! “Reggae? We’re not a reggae group!” The manager produced a copy of “Banana Boat” – “What’s THIS then ?” he asked ! “I heard this disc, thought it was brilliant and booked you straight away for my club! THIS is a REGGAE club !!” OOPS ! Not knowing what to say, Mumma Bear were in a fix ! After all, here was someone who’d booked them on the strength of their record, on what he’d heard on the radio. To be fair, he DID have a point! SO, to “save the day”, what did Mumma Bear do? Quite simply, they carried on playing their usual act, putting a REGGAE beat to ALL their songs !! They went down a storm!! Mind you, the drive home was LONG and REALLY uncomfortable! They did pick up £40 though! Although “Banana Boat” just failed to make the Top 50, the massive airplay it had brought public recognition to Mumma Bear and the media began to take an interest in the group. The BBC continued to use them for “live sessions”, on such shows as Jimmy Young, Dave Lee Travis, Terry Wogan ... Tony Blackburn often played their tracks and Emperor Rosko was, now, a firm MB Fan! A HIT record was needed and Jeff Jarratt’s next idea was something special! He’d found a song written by a very famous writing duo (Vanda & Young, of “Easybeats” fame) in collaboration with David Hemmings, the famous film star! The song was entitled “Pasadena”. After discussing arrangements and rehearsing the song, Mumma Bear once again went into their now “second home”, at Abbey Road. This time they used the same studio as they had done for “Banana Boat”, Number 3. The engineer was, of course, the one and only Richard Langham, who had by now become an important part of the Mumma Bear team! In no time at all, they realised that they had a winner on their hands! Jeff had the astute idea to use Tremeloe Rick Westwood on Pedal Steel Guitar, to accompany the Boys. He then added a subtle string arrangement. The result stood out a mile, EVERYBODY was over the moon with the result. Once again, with baited breath, the decision from the BBC was awaited. Would “Pasadena” make the all-important playlist? Quite honestly, they needn’t have worried ! The BBC LOVED it ! So much so that, over a very short period, “Pasadena” received well over 100 plays on BBC Radio One alone ! Mumma Bear became well-known in just about every city in the UK ! They even managed to increase their performance fee to a staggering £100 !!! There was just a slight “blur”. “Pasadena” was released towards the end of 1971. In those days, at the end of a year, all major artists released a single, with their eyes set on the lucrative Christmas market. Very rarely did an “unknown” artist manage high sales at this period. Quite often, only ONE single captures the public’s attention. This was the case in 1971. Although the air play was MASSIVE, to say the least, “Pasadena” lost out on the “sales” to, wait for it, Benny Hill and his “Ernie, The Fastest Milkman In The West” !!! Well, Mumma Bear would be the first to admit that it WAS a funny record !! However, the group’s popularity got stronger and stronger and they were now travelling all over the country, playing larger clubs nearly every night of the week. They’d even traded their Ford Thames van in for a slightly less-battered Transit, complete with two rows of aircraft seats ! Pure LUXURY ! “Pasadena” was a success and released in many territories around the world, such as Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal, Brazil and even Australia ! Unfortunately, touring in those days was not like today and the Group didn’t make it over to play these countries. The world was a lot bigger then ! A highlight of this time was when they were invited by The Osmonds to open their show for them at The Finsbury Park Astoria (later known as The Rainbow) ! THAT was a real honour and a great occasion ! The Astoria had been the scene of The Beatles spectacular Christmas Show some years earlier, it seemed that Mumma Bear were forever following in their heros’ footsteps ! Bill remembers that night very well : “We were waiting in the wings, ready to go on. There were no curtains, just a huge open stage, in front of literally thousands of screaming Osmonds’ fans ! The announcer managed to make himself heard and asked the crowd to give a big welcome to “The Osmond’s FAVOURITE British group, their specially invited FRIENDS, MUMMA BEAR !!” We walked onto the stage and the noise was deafening ! It was a dense wall of sound that hit us like a hurricane ! I had to get to my drums, which seemed MILES away ! Finally, I made it and, with a nod to the guys, we struck up ! I have to say that I can’t remember hearing much from where I was, the kids just kept on screaming and screaming ! All too soon, it was over and we left the stage to a tremendous roar ! I’ll NEVER forget THAT feeling !” No more Mumma Bear singles were ever released on the Parlophone label. They’d demo’d their version of “Na Na Hey Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye”, which went down so well at gigs, but, for some reason, it stayed on the EMI shelves. Jeff Jarratt left EMI, to pursue a career in management and arranging. He later found IMMENSE fame and fortune with his idea of combining Rock and Classic. He produced the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing his arrangements of such rock classics as “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Queen) and “Baker Street” (Gerry Rafferty). The result was the album “Classic Rock”, which sold over 12 million copies ! One or two “follow-ups” had similar success. Well done Jeff ! Mumma Bear’s contract with EMI ran out and the Group, whilst continuing to gig non-stop, looked around for other ideas. They didn’t have to wait too long. Alan Blakley came up with one for them. Alan and Len Hawkes had heard a song in Holland, by a Dutch (sic.) band called “Bitch”. The song was entitled “Good Time Coming” and it was felt that Mumma Bear could do a really good job on it. The boys re-worked the song, which was originally ‘rock’, bringing to it a sound that was bang up-to-date in the mid-seventies : GLAM-rock ! Mumma Bear produced the record themselves, recording it at R G Jones Studios, in South London. The “B” side, “I Saw, I Heard”, was an original idea of Pete’s, that the band worked on together. The question arose as to whether the name Mumma Bear went well with the change of style. A joint decision was made to use the name “Mustard” and to create an “image” surrounding the release, which had been contracted to EMI, this time on the actual EMI Label. To add force to the “Glam” rock image, the Boys took to wearing snakeskin & black leather “Platform” boots. For the “Mustard” side, they all wore shirts made out of chamois leather and brown velvet trousers! To add a “mystic” touch, it was decided to all wear masks! The media were informed that “Mustard” was, in fact, a SUPERGROUP, who wanted the disc to be a “Hit” on its own merits, NOT just because it was THEM! The idea actually worked ! The disc DID stand out. It became London’s Capital Radio Record of the Week and received massive airplay. Radio stations up and down the country were playing “Good Time Coming” and guesses were being made everywhere as to WHO “Mustard” REALLY were ! Bill took on the task of doing a Nation-wide Radio Tour, guesting on just about every local radio, NEVER divulging who he really was! One strong memory concerns Radio Hallam, in Sheffield : “I was sitting next to Paul Jones, the lead vocalist of Manfred Mann. Of course, I was wearing my mask ! Paul started chatting to me and said that he was SURE he knew me. I replied that he was probably right. He implored me to let him in on the secret, after all, he was certain we were, in fact, “old mates”! I never did ! Sorry Paul! Interviewers tried their darndest to get me to reveal our identity on their show, all trying for an “exclusive” ! I never gave in. On one occasion, I can’t remember exactly where, I was asked to name one of the “B” sides of our “Hits”, just as a clue. I replied that to do so would give the game away immediately, so well-known were all of our “B” sides!! There was nearly one “nasty” moment. I travelled around the country by train, taking taxis to the various Radio Stations. It must be said that, at that time, there was a great deal of unrest over the “Irish Problem”, with, unfortunately, frequent terrorist bombings. Our masks were of black cloth and, of course, I had to put mine on BEFORE arriving at the radio. The biggest shock was when I flew over to Belfast itself, to the local station there. The taxi-driver really panicked when I opened my bag and produced the mask ! He was so nervous, but I quickly re-assured him and explained that, if he listened in to the show, all would become clear ! I gave him an autographed photo and he calmed down! It was all a lot of fun being “Mustard”, although gigging in a mask was like playing in a sauna!! One of my fondest memories concerns Pete. We all had little “add-ons” to our Masks, I, for example, chose to wear hideously big sunglasses over the mask! Pete was FABULOUS, he used “props” that made him look like Mrs Doubtfire !!!! Such a scream !” The “Mustard” period didn’t last long for Mumma Bear, although they became very much in demand for shows, interviews and even opened fêtes! "Good Time Coming” just failed to reach the Top 30 and a planned second single idea was shelved. The 1980’s were now drawing near and the music scene was changing radically. “Pop” music had dropped out of fashion. The public were now seeking “Punk”, with the advent of bands such as The Sex Pistols. Unfortunately, Mumma Bear didn’t fit into this “bracket” and, after so many years of touring and recording together, the Boys decided it was time to “call it a day”. Oddly enough, 3 of the guys are still very much involved in music, be it writing, producing, recording or playing. Neither Pete, nor Marge, nor Bill have ever really “stopped”. Maybe there’s still life in the “Old Bear” yet? Who knows? A Mumma Bear “Revival”? WATCH THIS SPACE !!! (Copyright on the above: Bill Fisher and Mumma Bear). Anybody wanting to hear more from Mumma Bear (including "Banana Boat Song") can find some sound clips on their myspace page here: https://myspace.com/mummabeargroup/music/songs And to round things off, here's some photos of Marge, Pete and Bill, taken just a few years ago, once again courtesy of the Bill Fisher collection. THANKS BILL!
12 November 1971 Mosaic - Bluebird (Vanda-Young) / Bird of Time (Titley) UK Parlophone R 5928. A-side published by Friday Music. Issued the same day and on the same label as the Mumma Bear single was the second release connecting Vanda and Young with the production team of Phil Pickett and Tony Cox (see here for the first one: The Easybeats: The Solo Years (Featuring Vanda and Young)). Mosaic was another fictitious group among the many who proliferated in the early seventies, assembled by Pickett and Cox. The pair had good ears for pop hits and had rightly identified that the Haffy's Whiskey Sour track "Bye Bye Bluebird" was too strong a song to be left languishing on a B-side. Following a slight change of title, the song was given a new lease of life as a single in time for the Christmas market. As with the Buster single, it is possible that Vanda, Young and Alexander are among the players featured on this single. Certainly, as John Tait noted in his biography, they would have offered their services to generate some much needed income, and as they were already acquainted with Pickett and Cox, it would have made sense. Having said that, the trio had just brought their own verion to market, and so had a view as to how the song ought to sound; recording it again under somebody else's production might not have been much fun. Of course, just because the songs were released in this order doesn't mean they were recorded that way around - the Pickett / Cox session may well predate the Haffy's Whiskey Sour single and - who knows - the recording might even date from the same session as the Buster single. Be that as it may, it doesn't much sound like them, not to my ears anyway - both of the usual tell-tale signs (George's guitar and Harry's high harmony) appear to be absent - so if they are on this record, they are on a pretty tight leash to deliver someone else's vision. The record was also issued in Portugal (Parlophone 8E 006 93 129), although it does not appear to have been released anywhere else (or if it was, copies have yet to surface on the net). Listening to the two versions of the song, it is clear that Pickett and Cox's love of pop resulted in a subtly different approach from Vanda and Young's "down home and dirty" style, which ought to have given the song a chance on the airwaves. Rock fans might justifiably prefer the Haffy's Whiskey Sour rendition, but there was merit in the slightly poppier - but still rocking - sound of the Mosaic recording. The flipside, by contrast, was a rather exotic beast: a somewhat dated, late flowering piece of British pop-psych, driven by a prominent acoustic guitar and dream-like vocals. It sounded like the work of a different band, and, given the anonymous nature of the single, might well have been. My ears can't hear the boys on this one either, but as Lord Chuck of Berry put it, you never can tell. Despite the single's commercial potential, it failed to make the UK charts (I have not found Portuguese charts for this period, so I have no idea whether or not it sold there - Portuguese copies do seem to turn up on Ebay more often than UK copies though), bringing Vanda-Young-Alexander's association with Pickett and Cox to an end. Phil Pickett subsequently emerged from backroom anonymity in 1972 as one half of Kajanus-Pickett (the other half was Norwegian singer-guitarst Georg Kajanus, formerly of folk-rock outfit Eclection) whose 1972 LP Hi-Ho Silver (Signpost) was well reviewed but a commercial failure. Kajanus and Pickett then formed Sailor, with whom they enjoyed two major UK (and Australian) hits ("Glass of Champagne" and "Girls, Girls, Girls") amidst a longer run of European successes. When Sailor ran aground in the early eighties (after a final LP, Dressed For Drowning, recorded without Kajanus but featuring a guest appearance from The Beach Boys' Carl Wilson), Pickett returned to the backrooms before surfacing again to play keyboards with Culture Club, for whom he co-wrote the multi-million selling "Karma Chameleon", which earned him two Ivor Novello awards, and the lesser hits "It's a Miracle" and "Move Away". (It was presumably these multiple links between Pickett, Wilson and Culture Club that led to the appearance of the Boy George-Roy Hay penned "Passing Friend" (with a Carl Wilson lead vocal) on The Beach Boys' eponymous 1985 album.) Pickett later moved into management, notably for Keziah Jones, before reforming Sailor in 1993 for successful European tours and further Euro-hits. More recently, he penned the songs (with fellow Sailor alumnus Henry Marsh) for the West End musical Casper: The Friendly Ghost, and helped lead the successful campaign extending UK copyright protection for recordings from 50 to 75 years (thus keeping The Beatles' catalogue (apart from "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You") out of the public domain until 2039). Alongside his managerial, songwriting, publishing and other business interests, he still performs with Sailor today. Cox meanwhile continued to work as a producer / arranger, his name popping up in 1972 on records by Barry Ryan, Jonathan King, Chris Hodge, Stackridge, Jonathon Kelly and Tír na nÓg, among a host of others, while 1973 added the names Lesley Duncan, Magna Carta and a number of artists on the DJM label. He was less ubiquitous as the seventies progressed, but he would reconnect with the Vanda and Young catalogue in 1979 as producer of The Golant Pistons' revival of "Friday On My Mind" (see here: The Easybeats: Album by Album Thread (pt3)). The B-side has popped up on a couple of compilations in the last decade (in 2006 on Psychamania: Eccentric Sounds From The British Underground 1970-73, Queen Victoria QVR 2006 and in 2009 on Electric Asylum 2: British Psychedelic Freakrock Rareties, Past and Present PAPRCD 2098) but so far as I know, the only way to acquire the A-side is on the original 45.
Late 1971 The Katz While Vanda and Young were earning a trickle of income from the recent round of releases of their songs, their former colleague Dick Diamonde made a low-key return to action. Not much is known about Dick's post-Easybeats career, but he did tell Vanda and Young biographer John Tait that after his marriage broke up, he drifted back to London where he joined forces with a band whom Tait names as "The Katz". After several months of internet trawling, I have found nothing whatsoever about any band at this time called The Katz. Certainly, no band of that name had any record releases during this time frame. There were of course hundreds (if not thousands) of bands playing gigs every weekend, most of whom never got near a studio, so it is quite possible that The Katz were one of those. (Sadly, the extensive gig listings in Melody Maker have never been put on line, but that would, I imagine, be the best place to look.) It would have been a bit of a comedown for a former pop star with an international smash hit to his name, but these things do happen. There is however another intriguing possibility. From 1968 to some point in the seventies, there was a band called The Cats active in the UK, playing a mix of ska, rocksteady and reggae with a pop bent, not unlike some of The Equals' recordings. This band, comprised of West Indian and British members, had even enjoyed a hit of sorts in 1968 with a version of a theme from Tchaikowsky's "Swan Lake" (the first reggae hit by a UK band), although by 1971 that had pretty much been forgotten. Might Dick have joined a late lineup of that band before they broke up? I didn't think this was very likely, but then I stumbled across a long Facebook post giving a history of the career of Australian pop singer Barrington Davis, who had played the same Sydney circuit as The Easybeats in the mid-sixties. Buried within, I discovered this: "... “I left Australia for the UK on April 12th, 1969, aboard the ‘Fairstar’. I wanted a change in music and attitude to music.... Later, I joined a band and went off to Belgium and then France... We were booked to do some gigs at a place called the ‘Rock n’ Roll Circus’ just of the Boulevard St Germaine (sic.). Apparently Jim Morrison of the Doors used to frequent the place but I never saw him at the time I was there...". (This reference puts the date at somewhere in the second quarter of 1971). Davis continues: "... My band broke up and I used to spend every night at this club just jamming with anyone who happened to be playing there at the time; people like the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation and Champion Jack Dupree. I then got a job selling magazine subscriptions door to door in towns around the north of France whilst playing solo gigs at night in cafes, but soon went back to London where I met up with The Easybeats’ bass player Dick Diamonde, who introduced me to Tyrone Patterson, who would later produce my LP. Tyrone had previously had a massive reggae hit with a band called “The Cats” in the early sixties. It was a reggae version of Swan Lake.” Not much to go on, but it does, in the person of Tyrone Patterson, provide a link between Dick and The Cats. Davis doesn't say that Dick played with The Cats, but he was clearly friendly with Patterson, the band's keyboardist. Wikipedia lists the band's bassist as being Richard Archer, but the band may have had a few late lineup changes that have gone unrecorded. It is notable that Wikipedia says that the band split in 1971 but other sources say 1975. My guess is that the original lineup split in 1971 and that Patterson carried on with new members until 1975 - one of whom may, for a time, have been Dick Diamonde. If nothing else, Davis's story confirms both that Dick was in London in late 1971, and that he was still around the UK music scene at that time. But whether he was playing with The Cats, or with some other, still unidentified feline outfit, remains to be discovered.
Today Cato's Youtube channel had a visit from John Bachini, the man behind the above single. He left the following message: "I have to tell you: Godson was John Bachini. He produced, wrote, played Bass, did Lead Vocals - for what they are worth - and he even paid for; the other musicians - his friends - the cheapo Studio, where in a three hour session both sides of this single, We've Not Made It and All Dressed in White, were produced forty four years ago. Mike Vaughan bought the production and then sold it to Philips. Jonathan Peel worked with Mike Vaughan. Jonathan did produce the Orange Bicycle Album in 1970.... Should also add, These tracks were the Demos by John Bachini and friends, Jonathan Peel and Mike Vaughan liked them this way and released them. At the time it seemed OK. It wasn't a Solo effort, they were just songs and good fun... that's how it was then. Thanks for letting us hear them forty odd years later. " So there we have it - an independent production purchased by Mike Vaughan and leased to Philips. Thanks to John for sharing his memories with us.
Backtracking to January 1971... As discussed earlier on this thread, Stevie made his first major post-Easybeats concert appearance at the 1971 Wallacia festival, fronting the power-rock outfit Rachette. Frustrating little detail is known about Rachette, or even about this performance, which took place on 22nd January. However, courtesy of Gary Heap, from the Facebook page "Stevie Wright and Easybeats Fan Group", here are two photographs of Rachette on stage at the festival. The first, from a distance, may be the band tuning up. Stevie is on stage, second from left. The second is a close up of Stevie in action. Finally, to round things off, here is a copy of a flyer for the festival, listing Rachette for the opening night. Big thanks to Gary for allowing me to share these here.
November 1971 Gravy Train - (A Ballad of) A Peaceful Man Vertigo 6360 051. Produced by Jonathan Peel for Mike Vaughan Productions. Side one: Alone in Georgia (A Ballad of) A Peaceful Man Julie's Delight Side two: Messenger Can Anybody Hear Me? Old Tin Box Won't Talk About It Home Again While Harry, George, Stevie, Tony and Dick kept busy with their various musical endeavours, their former manager Mike Vaughan's new charges, Gravy Train, issued their sophomore LP, (A Ballad of) A Peaceful Man, which featured both sides of the recent single (see post # 230 here: The Easybeats: The Solo Years (Featuring Vanda and Young)). A more varied set than its predecessor, the album featured, in addition to the band, some tasteful string arrangements that filled out the sound. Very much, as football commentators have it, "a game of two halves", the record featured one side of gentle ballads and one of heavy rockers, making for a somewhat disjointed but nevertheless enjoyable listening experience. In terms of sound, the band's influences were fairly clear - the heavier end of Jethro Tull and the arty angularity of King Crimson wrapped up in a symphonic wash reminiscent of The Moody Blues or Yes. The epic title track was a clear standout, as was the rifftastic "Can Anybody Hear Me?" (already issued as a B-side; a clip can be found here: The Easybeats: The Solo Years (Featuring Vanda and Young)), while the closing "Home Again" was the closest they had come to cooking up a commercial hook. On the back of some strong reviews, the album was duly issued in Australia, Germany, Italy and South Africa, all with the same catalogue number as the UK release. Extensive gigging had built the band a reasonable following, but not large enough to break the album into the charts anywhere. It was one disappointment too many, and the band's (or Vaughan's) contract with Vertigo was not renewed, leaving Vaughan shopping for a new deal while the band continued its slog around the university circuit.
