The Ugly's - It's Alright/ A Friend

 

Cult Brummie legends with widely promoted 1965 single

Label: Pye

Year of Release: 1965

The Ugly's (sic - apostrophe theirs) were a highly respected group on the Midlands gig circuit, acting as local stars and an unofficial starting school for all manner of rock notables. On a national level, however, they never managed to score a hit single despite promotion from pirate stations and terrestrial television. 

Their second single "It's Alright" is probably the closest they came to success. Airplay was plentiful and an appearance on "Thank Your Lucky Stars" gave the group a chance to plug it to an even larger audience. Copies also aren't that difficult to come by at reasonable prices these days, suggesting that this sold slightly more than your bog-standard flop. It's a strange piece of gentle, slightly Kinksy baroque pop which perhaps wasn't melodically compelling or forceful enough to cut through to the masses, but points towards a softer side of the sixties beat boom.

Their next singles "A Good Idea" and a cover of The Kinks "End of the Season" sold less and caused Pye to drop them. They moved to CBS in 1967 for the 45 "And The Squire Blew His Horn", then again to MGM in 1969 for the progressively orientated "I See The Light", which was recalled by the label before it even had a chance of selling (apparently only six copies are known to exist). 

The group - who at this point consisted of Bob Burnett on guitar, Steve Gibbons on vocals, John Gordon on keyboards, Jimmy Holden on drums and John Hustwayte on bass - changed their line-up several times between 1965-69, and ended up including ELO's Richard Tandy and Fairport Convention's Dave Pegg in their ranks. The group eventually evolved into Balls who issued the superb solo 45 "Fight For My Country" which we've already featured on this blog. 

When that group didn't get off the ground, Steve Gibbons formed the Steve Gibbons Band and continued to issue solo LPs - he remains active in music today. 

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