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(1977)
The Theme From The Water Margin, Pete Mac Junior:
Brings back memories of one of my favourite TV programmes of all time and it's got quite a
good, slow-swinging disco-like feel to it - possibly the coolest record to have been released
on the not-so-legendary 'BBC Records & Tapes' label! Failing any out-and-out 'Disco'
records in the 'Top Twenty', being a bit of a dancer I thought I'd better have something like
that in, at least.
60 Minutes Of Your Love,
Dr Feelgood (off the album 'Be Seeing You'):
I've got to have something by Dr Feelgood, who invented the late seventies New Wave of Brit
Blues sound and there's an interesting connection below - see Secret Affair's 'Shake And Shout'.
(1978)
It's Too Bad, The Jam (off the
album 'All Mod Cons'):
Probably not one of their better-known releases but wonderfully melodic pure pop with a touch of the
'yeah, yeah, yeah' bit out of The Beatles' 'She Loves You' in the guitar breaks.
Get It, Darts:
Too easily dismissed as nothing but a revivalist show band. This is, I think, Darts at their
most Mod. Self-penned number by Nigel Trubridge AKA the band's sax player, Horatio Hornblower
and a great 'Northern' style feet mover.
(1979)
Buzz Buzz A Diddle It, Matchbox:
Some might think this is 'Rockabilly-Lite', but it's still the group's rawest and most primitive,
driven along by wailing harp. Curious though it may seem for a Mod to be into this group,
there is a logic inasmuch as they supported Bo Diddley, beloved of both Mod and Rocker camps,
on a UK tour back in those days and it's still a cracking record whatever your sartorial
preferences may be. As Ringo Starr replied to a rather poshly-spoken young lady in the film
'A Hard Day's Night' to the question "are you a Mod or a Rocker?'"
"no, I'm a 'Mocker'".
OK Fred (The Instrumental Version on the b/w):
Errol Dunkley:
Perhaps this is, by the same token, 'Reggae-Lite', but what an irresistible dance record.
The B Side gets rid of the annoying lyrics and lets you get on with the 'skanking'.
Win Or Lose, Lew Lewis Reformer:
If I never get to hear the Status Quo original I don't think I'll care. I was in the kitchen
grabbing a snack some time in the Summer of '79 and the radio happened to be on and I thought
'What was that - who was that!?'. That's the way to discover a group!
I went out and got their first album 'Save The Wail' at the soonest possible opportunity
- at good old R.E. Cords on Sadler Gate, Derby - and I've still got it today.
Shake And Shout, Secret Affair
(off the album 'Glory Boys'):
Well, I've had the cover of the A Side of Homer Banks' '60 Minutes Of Your Love'. This is
Secret Affair's sound-alike of the B Side, 'A Lot Of Love'. As the years have gone on I think
this holds up better than the better-known 'Time For Action' and is also a better dance track
- and dancing is what being a Mod is all about!
The Walk,
The Inmates:
Again we're in covers territory, this time of Jimmy McCracklin's 1957 R&R Oldie, but what a
cover! Lead Vocalist, 'Big' Bill Hurley and Lead Guitarist, Pete Gunn were never on better
form than this - especially towards the end. I would say, 'if you're going to end a record,
end it like this'.
I Wanna Hold Your Hand,
Dollar:
There is also another version from 'Top Of The Pops'
on the 'Dollar: Shooting Stars' site.
(Well, after rediscovering one of my fantasy girls, Thereze Bazar, thanks to ITV's
'Reborn In The USA' how could I resist that!) Every young man from any generation has
'wow! look at that' moments. This was one of mine, as a young Mod, of course, coupled with
another cover that blows the original article clean out of the water - yes, even The Beatles!
- the minimalist, machine-like production, thanks to Christopher Neil on nothing short of
inspired form given his earlier days' work on Paul Nicholas's 'novelty' records and the
somewhat anonymous AOR of Celine Dion since, could still hold up today and in another twenty
or so years time. The Greasers had had their bit of fun with Olivia Newton-John's performance
in 'You're The One That I Want' from 'Grease' the previous year. Now it was the Mods' turn
for a bit of a (slightly lower-key, but welcome all the same) thrill. On the 'Videotheque' on
the 'Dollar Shooting Stars' site, you can see that Thereza's still 'got it' in her mid-forties
in the duo's one and only performance - disgrace! - on 'Reborn' before being thrown off the
tour bus at the first hurdle, although the 'consolation performance' in the final more than
made up for that - the duo obviously enjoying themselves and why on earth not? I think it probably
shows that the best way to win 'Reborn' was to come last!
Incidentally, if you go to The Big Kiss
site you will discover that I'm far from the only fan of Ms. Bazar's charms.
(1980)
Too Nice To Talk To, The Beat
(or 'The English Beat' to American site visitors):
One of my favourite 'skanking' records of all time and tells a hauntingly familiar story.
D-a-a-ance, The Lambrettas:
Power Pop at its best. I just love the guitar figures. It's not just Heavy Metal-ists
who get out their 'air guitars'! One caution about some of the images in the page linked
- some of the so-called 'thumbnails' are just contracted versions of the full image files
and so take a while to download. Don't ask me what purpose that is supposed to serve, since
I thought the general idea of thumbnails was to provide a quick-to-load preview of the
full-size images. It's still an interesting site, though.
Special Brew, Bad Manners:
Again a good 'skanking' record and the sax break just before everything goes completely
insane at the end is one of my favourite moments in recorded music history, it takes the
record up just that little bit. Also, I loved the way the group invented the term
"Ska 'N' B" - managing to combine two of my great musical loves at the time.
(Do) The Hucklebuck,
Coast To Coast:
What, you may ask, is a Mod like me doing picking this cover of an old Rocker? There is a
story behind this. One of the composers (Roy Alfred) was also part of the team behind
The Orlons' 'Come On Down Baby Baby', a 'Northern' fave of mine - and The Orlons' 'Wah-Watusi'
does get played in the background in the film 'Quadrophenia' - and although the fun and games
of the 'TOTP' appearances might have been rather off-putting to some, when you get the record
on and get the bass up you realise what a literally thundering good production this is and
the high energy Doo-Wop-style backing vocals are the cherry on the already rather moreish
cake. As I said, I'm a 'Mocker'! Also, where would all those Sixties Soul acts so beloved of
the Mods have been without their New-Wave-of-Doo-Wop roots? - Notionally, at least, 'Rocker
Territory'. As a postscript to this, like I describe Darts' 'Get It ' as 'Darts at their most Mod',
Bo Diddley's 'Hucklebuck' has to be Bo at his most Mod - a real cool Soul groover.
Sound Of Confusion, Secret Affair:
Epic, doomwatching record that presages the deeply insane decade just beginning at the time.
But if this is doomwatching I'll go for it every time!
(1981)
I Won't Lie, Nine Below Zero
(From their second album 'Don't Point Your Finger'):
Get the album just for about twenty seconds of it. It's worth it. Mark Feltham's blues harp
break goes through me and it perhaps would all listeners as well. Just go down on your knees
and play that 'air-harmonica'!
(1982)
I Should Have Known, Natasha
(the b/w to 'Iko Iko' and heaps better):
Natasha, who for me came along at just the right time after Dollar had somewhat faded
temporarily from the scene, for - how can I put this? - the aforementioned reasons, gets low
down, mean and bluesy - wow! Here she is under her full name,
Natasha England,
performing with the guitarist, David Kalmusky. As it turns out, something of which I have
only become aware in the last few days is that Natasha England was Darts' Manager at the time
they would have released 'Get It', so there's a connection here with another of my
'Top Twenty' entries. It was also quite an achievement at the time for a 22-year-old woman
to be managing a group of those mostly senior to her to such success, which could have been
even better had it not been for Grease's hogging of the No. 1 spot through much of 1978.
(So 'Grease' gets another indirect mention!) She could have been one of the most successful
British female group managers of all time - a quite noteworthy contribution to the Pop world
nevertheless.
You Look So Good, Mari Wilson
(the b/w to 'Baby It's True'):
Starts off slowly and fairly unprepossessingly but cranks up magnificently and comfortably
trumps 'Baby It's True' for excitement - a genuine 'Northern' dancer in the bits when it
does get going.
All Of My Heart,
ABC:
Well, this is the eighties! Tevor Horn, eighties Britain's very own Phil Spector,
at his most sumptuous and Martin Fry at his most soulful. Of course, talking about the great
genius, a special mention has to go to Dollar's
'Hand Held In Black And White',
from the previous year, here - which, amongst others, laid the groundwork for this. I think,
by the way, that if pressed, I would say that this is my favourite Dollar release when they
weren't dressed up in Mod gear - a mega-production with a pretty heavily 'bassed-up' bit in
between the two keyboard breaks, which tugs you along very nicely, one of those 'whoa'
moments which I like in records - and Thereza, as she probably would have been by the Summer
of 1981, still manages to make the obligatory eighties 'fashion disaster' outfit in
the TV appearance linked look pretty 'hot'!
Heartache Avenue, The Maisonettes:
The best British Motown-style record ever made. It's a shame that this group faded
virtually straight away after this record. Never mind, if you are going to be a
'one-hit wonder', do it with this!
Unbelieveably, this record has been covered (although re-named 'The Avenue') by Roll Deep,
a UK Garage outfit, allegedly because one of Roll Deep's members happened to hear the original
in his car as he was listening to BBC Radio Kent and thought he could do something with it.
Although what I've heard of the re-hashing isn't, in itself, much to write home about it has
to be good news from the point of view of drawing attention to The Maisonettes' original. All
in all, I think it's a 'sitting ovation' for Roll Deep, therefore.
I hope you've all enjoyed this little six-year-long journey of extremes - from the testosterone of Dr Feelgood to the rather more oestrogen-driven climes of Mari Wilson, from the primitiveness of Matchbox to the futurism of Dollar's 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand', from the good, old-time dance of Coast To Coast to the visions of futures to come of Secret Affair's 'Sound Of Confusion', from the noisy insanity of Bad Manners to the smooth sophistication of ABC, from the nervous introspection of The Beat/The English Beat to the rather more positive outlook of The Lambrettas. It was all there in what I am proud to call 'My Generation', although it's still a case of "'nuff respect" to those back in the 50's & 60's who made it all possible.
If you've enjoyed this why not indulge your own memories by picking your own "From 'Sweet Sixteen' to 'Twenty-One Today' Top Twenty"?
If your browser is MSIE integrated into 'StarOffice' you will need to deselect it as the
'external browser' and copy the following into the location box for when you re-open the browser.
http://users.whsmithnet.co.uk/ceedeebeegermantranslators/madmodernist/Your_16_to_21.html
As a 'parting shot', on the 'Dollar Shooting Stars' site, in the
'Thereza Bazar Gallery' there is a wonderfully disarmingly naive pen portrait, obviously taken
from a page in a teen girls' magazine, together with
a pic of Thereze in Mod gear again (wow!). I mean, could you imagine the reaction from today's
crop of street-wise 'pop babes' if you started asking them questions about their
weight and their hobbies? (do 'pop babes' have 'hobbies'?). I think we'd be in 'have you
got a good lawyer?' territory! Actually, it does occur to me that a 'pop babe' from the early
eighties, Kim Wilde, (a favourite of my brother if I recall rightly), is heavily into gardening and
presents gardening tips on the TV nowadays,
so maybe the idea of "pop babes with 'hobbies'" isn't too daft after all.
I thought it'd be a good laugh, in a sort of 'reality trip' after the fantasy, (well, us Mods
are ultimately realists!), to try and see how I'd have stacked up on the 'potential partner'
front with my fantasy girl from all those years ago. So, I've got a "Tale of the Tape"
up on the Web. It's all rather revealing stuff and I'll leave it up to you to decide if I'd
have been a 'hit' or a 'miss'.
Incidentally, in case anybody has noticed a discrepancy in the spelling of Thereze's name in the text up to this point it is there for a very good reason. When one places remarks in quotation marks they obviously have to be 'as is' and not chopped and changed around to suit. On the 'Dollar Shooting Stars' site the accepted spelling seems to be 'Thereza'. Given that there are two signed photographs of Thereze in that 'Gallery', one spelled 'Thereze' and the other spelled 'Thereza', it is my assumption that she has actually changed her name, given that the 'Thereze' photograph seems of an earlier vintage than the 'Thereza' one. Since I am a hopeless forty-something looking back on an increasingly distant youth in this instance, it seems to make sense to me to use the spelling that is quoted in that teen girl magazine feature, which definitely is 'Thereze', rather than what I take to be the current one, even though there is a signature on there that confusingly reads 'Thereza' - you cannot guarantee that the signature, unless it was printed on as part of the original publication, is contemporary with the article and it may have been added some years later - If there are any 'Thereza' fans 'out there' who object to the spelling 'Thereze' I am sorry but, for the purposes of this particular page, I am sticking mostly to 'Thereze'. This is not out of any disrespect to the woman. It's just that it is apparent that she was probably 'Thereze' at the time of 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand'. To back this up, it is notable that, in the 'Guiness Hit Singles of the 70's' book, the caption to the picture of the duo reads '...David and Thereze...'. So, at the time that was published, which would of course have been after the turn of the seventies to the eighties, she may still have been known as 'Thereze' even then.
If there is anybody 'out there' who thinks I am just going 'ga-ga' and imagining that she has changed her name please say so by clicking on the following E-Mail link: E-Mail. If not, then please click on this second E-Mail link: E-Mail. I got in touch with the person in charge of the 'Dollar Shooting Stars' site, asking for clarification on this issue and to enquire why, if Thereze has changed her name, this extremely useful snippet of information goes completely overlooked, (as far as I can tell), on the duo's official site, but never heard anything. Of course, if she hasn't changed her name and I am just imagining things and she was 'Thereza' all the time I sincerely apologise, as a reasonable man, to all concerned at the 'Dollar Shooting Stars' site. The very last thing I want to do is hurt anybody's feelings there in this way. I would not want that on my conscience. I don't mind hurting people's feelings with my opinions, (see the 'Disclaimer'), but hurting those feelings with misrepresented 'facts' is another matter entirely in my book.
In a postscript to this I have had a reply to my enquiry to the 'Yahoo! Groups' 'Videotheque' group, (why not visit my 'Yahoo! Groups' Profile Page?), indicating that I do have a point about the name change and that while she was with Guys 'N Dolls the accepted form was certainly 'Thereze' - hence the spelling in the text in the Guys 'N Dolls site linked from 'Dollar Shooting Stars' - and also in the early days of Dollar. However, it did become 'Thereza' by the 1980's, so it looks as if it might be a case of 'panic over'. It is still notable, though, that Web editions of some newspapers when talking very much about the here and now, which I admit I'm not here, use the spelling 'Thereze'. My own 'modus vivendi' that I have worked out is to use the spelling 'Thereze' when talking about her when she was with Guys 'N Dolls and when referring to the first year or so of Dollar's existence and to use 'Thereza' when talking about the period since.
Just to show what I looked like all those years ago here's a picture of me taken on my twenty-first birthday, complete with green mohair jacket - one of my all-time 'faves' -, collar-pin and cuff-linked shirt and a tie-pin with a real bit of green opal set in. I'm sorry I wasn't smiling a bit more than I was as I was opening my 'prezzie' of a Braun electric tooth-brush - quite advanced for its time - but you've got to look a bit cool dressed like that, haven't you?
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