The Oxford Watchband - Diagnosis (One Way Empty & Down)/ Welcome To The World

Disorientating and dramatic psychedelic soul

Label: Hand

Year of Release: 1969

I'm an absolute sucker for psychedelic singles which appear to be pulling in six different directions at once, and this one has been high on my "wants" list for years. It's delirious, dramatic and almost hysterical soul music set to lysergic shifts and changes, a rambling warning about nothing remotely coherent - similar to a nightmare you've woken up from at 3am with no conscious recollection of any meaningful thread which would help you to understand why you're drenched in cold sweat.

The song starts with urgent soulful singing about a bad medical diagnosis, then references an almighty downpour, before the music fades out and an ambient thunderstorm begins, combined with crashes, bangs, screams, shouts, arguments and mayhem. Then, naturally, the song returns and reaches its conclusion with one guitar whining alone in the distance. I'm none the wiser, but it's a bewitching three minutes which has more ideas on one 7" single than some bands manage on one side of an album. Over the years I've come to think of it as being a snippet from a film shorn of all context, three minutes razored out from the most dramatic moment.

 The Oxford Watchband were formed in Rochester, New York by brothers Brad and Jeff Wheat after they left the group The Heard, who issued the single "Laugh With The Wind" on Audition in 1966. Adding Jim Gilbert, Franke Previte and Jai Mate to their line-up, this was, to the best of my knowledge, the only single on their own Hand Records and while it benefited from a distribution deal with Capitol, clearly stuff like this wasn't going to sell by the shipload and it only registered on a cultish level in the local area. 

Previte went on to bigger things with the hard rock group BullAngus, and eventually wrote the smash hit "I've Had The Time Of My Life" for the "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack, which is obviously epic in a completely different and more coherent way. The movements of the rest are not clear, but please do fill in the blanks below if you can.

Reupload - Jackie Lee - Inigo Pipkin/ End of Rainbow

Reggaefied version of top seventies childrens TV theme

Label: Pye
Year of Release: 1972

Ah, memories. If you grew up in Britain in the seventies, television was a wonderful thing in the early and late afternoon, crammed with shows whose appeal has yet to completely wane. From the sheer animated eccentricity of "The Magic Roundabout" through to the outer space freaky Socialist moon creature whimsy of "The Clangers", and on to the rather more socially aware "Paddington Bear", it's impossible not to talk about these shows without getting wistful and dreamy. Filled with knowing jokey nods to the adults in the room, the overall concept seemed to be about family viewing, rather than simply sitting children down in front of the television by themselves.

"Inigo Pipkin" - or "Pipkins" as it became known by the time I was aware of it - was actually my favourite programme as a toddler. If forced to articulate the reasons now I'm not sure I could tell you why. I wasn't really capable of intellectualising why the content of "Pipkins" was superior to "Rainbow" back then, and if you'd ask me I'd probably have said something about some of the puppets being funny.  Love it I did, though, and as an adult viewer now the show has obviously taken on added dimensions. I wouldn't have known what "camp" was as a four year old, much less been able to tell you that's what Hartley Hare was, and nor would I have appeciated the fact that the puppets were rather moth-eaten beasts, a fact numerous YouTube commenters have since leapt up to point out.

The theme tune was ace as well, being a thing of popsike wonder, all close vocal harmonies and soaring melodies dedicated to a "puppet maker man". The perfect introduction to the rather gentle, cosy nature of the programme, it made you feel as if you were entering a safe world where eccentric old men could make a living owning a shop which purely sold tatty puppet animals to local children. Ah, those were the days. But those days never really existed.

Jackie Lee's single version of "Inigo Pipkin" is significantly different from the television theme tune, sadly. Here she seems to have gone for a little bit of a reggae lilt, which is a bit silly given that the show couldn't have been less Jamaican or urban. It's impossible to destroy the track's charm's completely, though, and its original intentions shine through. 

Grumpy - Rule Britannia (We're Doing Our Bit)/ You Were My Friend

 

The Sick Man of Europe Sings For His Supper

Label: Decca

Year of Release: 1974

That the mid-seventies were a bleak time for Britain in general is a well-known fact, but as a nation we were oddly keen to also launch into song about it. From Richard Stilgoe's "Suffering From Inflation" to the Eurovison Song Content entry "Rock Bottom" and Alan Price's "Jarrow Song", there were some reasonably high profile lamentations about pay limitations, the three-day week and power shortages way before people were making documentaries about punk rock showing rubbish bags piling up in the streets (because you have to show them, don't you? Nothing says "The Sex Pistols" like the suggestion of a stench of rotting cod followed by that bloody Bill Grundy clip again).

The concept of "Rule Britannia" here is more of the same - a stomping pub singalong not dissimilar to The Strawbs' "Part of the Union", only focused on  how Britain could possibly get back on her horse again to lead the world. "Rule Britannia!" Grumpy sing, "we've all seen better days... we did it before and we'll do it again". The backing is stark and austere, full of thumping piano lines and strident pub-styled vocals, sounding as if the entire thing had been recorded in a Trumans pub after hours. Well, you've got to start the recovery somewhere, I suppose.

There are few things more depressing than hearing this 1974 recording and realising that as a nation, we seem to have been locked into an endless spin cycle of slumps and booms ever since, including self-inflicted wounds and general asshattery. As a result, the song sounds truly sarcastic, and as Bono once sang "How long must we sing this song?" Only that was about something else, obviously.

Old Gold - Makin' Georgia/ Sitting

 

Family group take second stab at stardom

Label: President
Year of Release: 1971

If Old Gold (the band mentioned here, that is, not the disgustingly beige and brown hued reissues label) are remembered for anything these days, it's probably the B-side to their 1970 debut single "It's Goodbye". "Teacher of Electricity" is a track overloaded with twanging guitars, heavy reverb and a creepy if catchy melody. It's impossible to say if the group were Joe Meek fans, but the sound of the record definitely felt in thrall to Holloway's finest producer.

Following the failure of "It's Goodbye" to catch commercial fire, the group jumped from the tiny Trend label to the bigger indie President, who pushed this one out to the public, informing the press that they "have a considerable following around the clubs, and their own fan club of one thousand members". Sadly, it took more than a thousand dedicated fans to launch a record into the Top 40 back in 1971, and without the necessarily airplay "Makin' Georgia" also sank.

It's got a strong commercial sound, though, snuggling close stylistically to the joyous march of "Yellow River" from the same period. Fans of "Teacher of Electricity" won't experience the same cavernous oddness on this 45, but it's bouncy seventies pop which might have succeeded with a slightly better production. There's a rushed sparseness to the arrangement here which is even more pronounced on the group-penned flipside - it's possible it could have done with a bit more of a sprinkling of fairy dust, as Reg Presley once said.

Following the failure of this single they managed a third release on Ariola in the same year, though it seems to have only slipped out in Germany - but "Henry Ford" gives the group the production treatment they deserve.

Newby - Minks Moles and Telegraph Poles/ I Feel No Pain

 

Strangely sweet nightmare ballad from folky duo

Label: Pye

Year of Release: 1966   

Sometimes you encounter a single that seems to be walking a fine line between novelty parody and a serious attempt at a hit. "Minks Moles and Telegraph Poles" is perhaps one of our most obvious such examples in a long while, with the folk duo Newby - consisting of Pete Newby and Colin Day - cooing Everly Brothers styled harmonies about their nightmares surrounding a failed romance.

Obviously,  a song with this title is never going to be straightforward, and the lyrics contain the aforementioned creatures as well as "badgers bees and chestnut trees/ all these things are you in dreams". Lads, I doubt Freud would have a field day with this one, though you'd need to give him more information about what the creatures were doing in the dreams first. Minks can give a devilish bite, after all, and if that bite involved one electrocuting itself on a telegraph pole while you were stood underneath - well, that's probably still not worth writing a song about, but it's certainly a dangerous scenario worthy of the dream diary. 

This is a decidedly silly two minutes and I suspect the two knew it would be from the moment the record button was pressed in the studio, but its unusual lyrical nature made no impact on the charts; in fact, stock copies are extremely difficult to find these days, suggesting most were returned and destroyed. 

Newby also had a single out before this one entitled "You Can't Grow Peaches On A Cherry Tree", which was also not a big seller. Despite this, the pair were obviously solid performers. The flipside to this effort, "I Feel No Pain", has been compiled elsewhere and is freely available on Spotify and YouTube, and has obtained appreciation over the years.

Reupload - The Learning Process - Who Killed Carol? (EP)

 

Superb atmospheric eighties alternative rock.

Label: Bucket
Year of Release: 1988

In the public's rush to buy all manner of obscure self-released/ indie records from the eighties, it's often staggering how little sense the prices on the collector's market make. You can expect to pay three figure sums for some frankly uninspiring generic pieces of gloomy bedroom No Wave, and then records like this sell for under ten pounds.

"Who Killed Carol?" enters sounding like a slice of common-or-garden harmony driven folk music, and gradually builds, sweeping across a monochromatic landscape which grows more dramatic as jangly guitars join icy synths, pounding drums and hollering vocals. Stylistically, it owes as much a debt to Talk Talk as it does to The Smiths, meaning The Learning Process ultimately end up falling between the cracks of mid-eighties indie and the more dramatic, adventurous elements of post-punk.

The EP in general shows a group much more interested in meandering atmospherics than classic, catchy pop, which will alienate probably as many readers as it attracts. Track 3 "From The Outside In" sounds pleasingly vast, whereas the final track "My Greatest Fears" combines a propulsive, industrial drive with delicate, ever-shifting arrangements and keening vocals. Staggeringly, I've stumbled across bands in London venues in recent years who sound exactly like this - The Learning Praocess sound surprisingly current for a band of such a vintage.

Nineteen Eighty Four - Ba Ba/ No Matter How Long It Takes

LA Garage Rockers Ba Ba All The Way Home

Label: Kapp

Year of Release: 1968

Nineteen Eighty Four - not to be confused with the UK act 1984 from roughly around the same time - were to all intents and purposes the LA garage act Mark and The Escorts under another name. The Escorts were a local gigging outfit who performed a mix of covers and original and released two scarce singles on GNP Crescendo, "Dance With Me" and "Get Your Baby".

Ernie Hernandez, Mark Guerrero and Rick Rosas of The Escorts were joined by Tony Rodas to complete the Nineteen Eighty Four line-up and issued two singles on the rather more resourceful Kapp Records. The first was "Ba Ba", which sits inconclusively on the border of bubblegum and garage, offering quick and dumb fun (it's common enough for songs to feature "ba ba" in their lyrics, rarer for that to be their title) but also a certain heft and thump too. This may be slicker stuff than Mark and The Escorts, but their roots feel ever apparent. 

It wasn't a hit, and nor was the follow up "Three's A Crowd", and shortly afterwards they temporarily disappeared from the recording side of the music industry, but morphed into The Mudd Brothers and eventually Tango who signed to A&M for one album in 1973. 

The Carousels - Holiday Romance/ The Run-Run

Dublin showband with unexpected rocker on the B-side

Label: Pye

Year of Release: 1967

For all their strengths, Irish showbands could seldom be accused of being ground-breaking. Hard-working, entertaining, and musically accomplished, yes - trend-setting, no. What's often noticeable about the majority of the 45s they issued is most were entrenched in styles the rest of Europe had left behind a few years earlier, from slick, watery-eyed, round vowelled balladry to old-school rock and roll.

Dublin's The Carousels (aka The Carousel Showband) try their hand at both on this 45, with "Holiday Romance" on the A-side being the kind of prim, Cliff Richard-esque whimsy you'd expect from the title, whereas the flip "The Run-Run" is an unexpectedly pounding piece of swinging rock with a steady backbeat which wouldn't have shamed The Beatles' earliest live sets. While I've never had the pleasure of watching The Carousels live, you can imagine what they were capable of delivering from the hints afforded here; a nice slowie for the dancefloor and a raucous rock and roll number for when the drinks were truly flowing. 

For all the strengths "The Run-Run" affords, though, it sounds like a relic from the early Merseybeat boom and would have been a total fish out of water during the summer of 1967; a nice memento for those who enjoyed their live shows but not something that would have made much sense to the paisley kids.