Label: Piccadilly
Year of Release: 1965
If there's one thing nobody's bothered to write a sixties article about (so far as I know) it's the incredible volume of jugbands who made themselves known throughout the decade. You would have thought that in an era of rapidly changing recording studio technology and ever-evolving sounds, the sixties would have been very keen to shake them off - but no. Even in the late sixties The Purple Gang were deemed strange counter-culture heroes, and at the turn of the seventies Mungo Jerry's sound owed a debt to the movement.
Verifiable facts about the Dedicated Men's Jugband are hard to come by, but they had two releases out on the Pye subsidiary label Piccadilly, this and the follow-up "Don't Come Knocking". We also know (from the signed copy of this very 45 alone) that they consisted of Seth Copeland, Mick Sutton, Paul Birkbeck, Wink, Ray Butt (?), Lyn Birkbeck and Roger Mills, and they somehow were lucky enough to get a promo film made for themselves by Pathe.
Copies of their records are thin enough on the ground to suggest that they sold poorly at the time, but "Boodle-Am-Shake" is a real tonic - a preposterous, speedy little ditty which belts along at such a pace it's almost hard to keep up with it. You can understand why Pye took a gamble on them, despite them possibly seeming like a rather unlikely prospect.
7 comments:
Thank you Dave
The only single by the band, superb
Greetings Albert
Couple of things - I always thought the jug player was Seth COPAS but maybe not? Mick Sutton's brother John was the drummer in the Downliners Sect. I've still got a photo of them but hadn't heard anything by them since the 1960s when I remember especially Boodle am Shake.
Dedicated Men Jug Band line-up:
Ray Ball - kazoo, vocals
Wink Stinton - slide whistle
Roger Miles - kazoo, vocals
Seth Copas - jug
Paul Birkbeck - banjo, saw, phonofiddle
Lyn Birkbeck - guitar, vocals
Mick Sutton - washboard, percussion
2 singles: Boodle-am-Shake/Come On Boys (1964) & Don't Come Knocking/One Time Blues (1965)
Wink, Roger and ! rendered 'Boodle-am-Shake' next to Paul's coffin in Putney Vale Crematorium 27 Sep 2019, probably our last performance!
Ray Ball
Hi. Just stumbled across this just now.I have some hand written stuff,8/9pages, including bios, that i acquired years ago i guess written by one of you?Obviously for print as noted to use Gill bold.You are down as 24yrs old! Maybe of interest to you and the others. Cheers!
I had the privilege of sharing a flat with Roger Miles for several weeks in (I think) 1964, when I was 17 and on holiday from school in Edinburgh. I had come to London for the summer, in search of fun, and got a job for Fulham Borough Council, making rough-hewn coffins "for paupers". Those were the days...
I can't remember exactly how I met Roger but he kindly arranged for me to be allowed to stay at the flat in 102/4 Ifield Road SW10, along with two lovely young women - way out of my league - called (if I remember rightly) Stephania Wilson-Bowen, and a Swedish girl called Gunilla Hugo.
Roger introduced me to the delights of Portobello Road on Saturday mornings, and various other groovy venues and scenes. For a few weeks I would meet P.J. Proby and others on Saturday evenings in The Cricketers pub in Piccadilly, which I assume must have been another introduction from Roger.
One other introduction that didn't go quite so well (for me!) was when I introduced him to my then girlfriend. Since Roger was a very tall, glamorous figure - and in a band, no less - at some point when I was absent he and she...well, you can guess! But at 50-odd years' range I can't hold that against him! I wish him all the best: it's amazing that the very first result that came up on my Google search for "Roger Miles" just now was indeed the real thing.
Hi there, I'm Mick Sutton's daughter. Sadly Mick died in 1989 when I was 5 and I'm looking for any memories or photos from those who knew him..? Thank you. Betsy
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