Sir Sidney Saitheswaite And The Garbage Collectors - I Like Knees/ Tea Lovely Tea

Absurd Bonzos-esque meditation on the wonderfulness of knees

Label: Parlophone

Year of Release: 1967

Given the stunning number of Bonzos inspired singles I've managed to unearth over the years, anybody would think that they were the leading lights of the late sixties rather than something of a cult concern. This, though, is possibly a stupendously silly prince among them.

Backed with the typical jauntiness of a Roaring Twenties music hall ditty, the lyrics of "I Like Knees"   are part fetishistic in a Victorian way ("Everybody likes to see a ladies' knees!"), part ridiculous ("Vote for knees on election day!") and delivered with the kind of prim enthusiasm usually only reserved for a major royal event. The combination of the lead singer's posh accent and the over-the-top delivery is both infectious and hilarious, and makes for a humdinger of a single, not entirely dissimilar in tone to the world of "The Ladies' Bras" but a lot less brief.

The B-side isn't bad either, focusing its attention instead on cups of tea, making this possibly the most stereotypically English 45 put out even in the late sixties when it had plenty of competition. Barring the questionable Indian accent towards the end which nobody would get away with now, it's another pearl - "Tea, tea, is utterly lovely/ it builds empires/ and puts out fires" we are informed, which I suppose is technically correct but water would do the job just as well. 

The collective behind these novelty sounds are clearly hiding in the shadows, however. They put out an additional single on Parlophone entitled "Our Mabel" which tries to repeat the quaint trick but isn't quite as interesting. Beyond that? The group name wasn't used again, and while the songwriting credits point to Derek Lay and Doug Perry, I can't find any additional work of theirs (serious or otherwise) on the usual reference sites. Perhaps they were a cabaret band who worked their nostalgic music hall act to the bone until giving up when it became apparent that public interest could only be sustained for so long. If you know better, though, please do help to fill in the blanks.