Moving Finger - Higher and Higher/ Shake and Finger Pop

Label: Mercury
Year of Release: 1969

The Moving Finger were an odd group who couldn't seem to make up their minds quite what they wanted to be.  Hailing from Norwich - home of "Sale of the Century" and Alan Partridge - and originally known as The Anglians, they issued the blue-eyed soul disc "A Friend Of Mine" on CBS. When that failed, they switched labels to Mercury and changed their name, issuing the moody popsike track "Jeremy The Lamp" backed with the absolutely fantastic, woozy and dream-like "Pain Of My Misfortune" (one of my favourite popsike tracks ever).

Needless to say that didn't pay dividends either, and the glorious technicolour of all things psychedelic had also largely faded by 1969.  This would seem to have inspired them to revert back to plan A and they subsequently issued this record, which is yet more blistering soul-inspired pop which rattles along with a lot more ferocity than their CBS disc.  The B-side "Shake and Finger Pop" is available on iTunes and elsewhere and showcases the group's abilities very well, being an intense and frantic take on the track which still gets spun occasionally by DJs of a certain persuasion these days.  Less is heard about the actual A-side, though, a mod take on Jackie Wilson's "Higher And Higher".  It certainly doesn't surpass the original in terms of quality, but it's a strident enough version which unveils previously unexplored beat possibilities.

What became of The Moving Finger after this flopped nobody really seems to know, but on the basis of the limited evidence we have available to us it's a fair bet that they were a fantastic live band in their day.  What do you mean "Isn't that just speculation?"  Of course it is!  I'm not a purveyor of time machines, you know.

Moving Finger - Pain of My Misfortune

Label: Mercury
Year of Release: 1968

Another sixties B-side I'm afraid, folks... but then again, this is something of a bottomless well to draw from.

I'm afraid to say that the A-side of this disc, "Jeremy The Lamp", remains unheard by me, though by all accounts apparently it's quite average and deserved to flop. As was often the case in the sixties, however, the record label allowed the band to experiment with their sound on the flip, and the results were considerably more satisfactory. The Moving Finger were actually a finger-poppin' mod/ R&B band with a hard-edged, abrasive sound. Hailing from Norwich, they covered soul classics with a snarl, and were popular on the pill-headed club circuit in Soho.

Like most bands of their ilk, though, they didn't cross over to the mainstream. All these facts make "Pain of my Misfortune" a spectacularly unorthodox piece of work. It barely has a chorus. It certainly doesn't have a "good driving beat". It just meanders moodily, as the soul vocals passionately howl "darkness fills my eyes with colours" and "My hands are wet with perspiration/ will my consciousness regain?". "It's A DREAM!" the lead singer assures us in a voice of panic later on, but I'm not so sure. It sounds like a bad trip to me. Itchycoo Park this ain't.

An awful amount of cash appears to have been spent on this for a B-side as well, and rumours abound that it was originally supposed to have been the lead track. A full orchestra provides an eerie, rich backing to the haunting organ. At the tail end of the track, the orchestra circles in conclusion through the fade-out, like a pilot waiting for the fog to clear before landing his plane on the runway. To all intents and purposes, this is The Walker Brothers on a bum trip, except Scott would never have condoned that kind of hippy thing. And it doesn't sell on ebay for a hundred quid a time for no reason (even though I'm aware plenty of things do).

http://rapidshare.com/files/120449826/Pain_Of_My_Misfortune.MP3.html (sharebee seems to be acting up today...)