Bryan Evans - Turnaround Sunday/ Re-united

 

Glam-tinged gospel from Mumbles star of the stage

Label: Columbia

Year of Release: 1972

We've stumbled briefly upon Bryan Evans before on this blog, documenting his unexpected efforts to de-campify the Howard and Blaikley glam flop "Don'tcha Like Boys" and turn it into a chart sensation. He failed miserably, of course, but had the project been launched a few years earlier than 1978 he may well have been on to something. Timing is everything in pop.

For most of the seventies, though, Evans was an ever-present background figure in light entertainment, appearing in West End productions and also having a long recording career across multiple record labels, starting with CBS in 1971 and finishing with EMI International in 1979. It's rare for an unsuccessful artist to be given so many chances by the music business, and it's usually a display of enormous faith in their abilities, suggesting that Evans was seen as a highly polished performer capable of competing with the big boys (and girls) of the day. 

"Turnaround Sunday" was actually his third single and first for Columbia after a two-single stint with CBS. It's an interesting mix of styles, combining happy clappy gospel influences with a faint tinge of glam. The first time I played this, I accidentally left my laptop speaker on and ended up hearing the track with an unintentional and tinny slap of reverb delay, and when I found out it wasn't supposed to sound like that and the extra high-end slap was just due to my own absent-mindedness, I was faintly disappointed - but still, even without such gimmicks the track has its own euphoric stomp.

Besides having a career of his own, Evans also ran the independent Wren records during the seventies,  but eventually became a property developer in the Mumbles area of Swansea. That's a career far more likely to result in a healthy financial return than showbusiness, obviously, so I'm sure he's not exactly drying his eyes in a bedsit while watching "Britain's Got Talent" on a portable television set. 

If the previews below aren't working properly, please go right to the source.