JohnTem82387976

12 April 2020

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.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...



Thank you David

Copletely unknown for me

Albert

Anthony "A-Log" LoGatto said...

Great sounding novelty tune, Dave! I'll be sure to play it on my show. I also come bearing info.

According to the site dedicated to the pirate radio station "Radio 270", Sir Sidney is indeed one of the songwriters, Derek Ley (or Eggy Ley, as he's also known), who was a Jazz musician and producer for Radio Luxembourg. Mary Payne provided the info for the site.

http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/chart97.htm

And it was a hit on that station, too; #35 for that week, if I recall?

23 Daves said...

Thanks - that's really interesting! If only the identity of all performers could be so quickly revealed...

topher c said...

Thanks! I tried to convince someone this dimly remembered track existed (nonoen would believe me) and LO here it is!

Kristjan Saag said...

Terrific tunes. I'll play "Tea Lovely Tea" for the third time in my weekly radio programme Rendezvous on Swedish Radio in a couple of weeks time. First time was in 2006. I'm also happy owner of the single.

KaBluie said...

"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."

What are some other "Bonzo inspired singles" I love the Bonzos and really liked these two tracks and the other two tracks by this band that are on YouTube.

23 Daves said...

I would say these are good starters:

https://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2020/01/levity-lancers-oh-play-that-thing-too.html

https://youtu.be/FlG_M_8lRAk

https://youtu.be/MsSv3AFL-QA

And on a more modern tip, personal favourites of mine:

https://youtu.be/nIDn2h_upbY

"Stunning amounts" might be a slight exaggeration, though.