Innholdsfortegnelse for Oct/Nov 2020 i Vintage Rock

Noel and Liam Gallagher, Ray and Dave Davies, Chris and Rich Robinson, Jedward (only joking about the latter, sorry lads), there’s something about the creative tension between brothers that often makes for remarkable music. And at the head of the queue comes the formidable talent – and rivalry – of our cover stars this issue, Phil and Don Everly. When the stories of brothers in bands down the ages are retold, in the rush to trot out those old hackneyed anecdotes of fights, arguments and bad blood that feed into a wellworn narrative, the music often gets sidelined as salacious headlines take its place. When it comes to the Everly Brothers, though, we’d prefer to concentrate on the remarkable legacy they’ve left us – our cover feature this issue looks…

A previously unreleased track featuring Jerry Lee Lewis and Rory Gallagher covering The Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction will feature on a forthcoming compilation of the late Irish guitarist’s work. The alternate outtake is culled from Lewis’ 1973 album The Session… Recorded In London With Greatest Artists, that also featured the likes of Peter Frampton, Mick Jones, Kenney Jones and Alvin Lee. In a 1984 radio interview with BP Fallon, Gallagher recalled: “We ran through Satisfaction, because Mick Jagger was supposed to come to the session. Jerry Lee wanted to do that one, but he didn’t quite know the song well enough. He asked me to put a guide vocal down, which I did. He also pretended the song’s lyric was too suggestive, but that was the sort…

Bristol’s The Hawkmen are flying high, borne aloft on a blend of rockabilly, Northern Soul and rhythm & blues. Plotting their course is bassist Scott Milsom, who’s played with psychobilly trio Coffin Nails and the Hammond organ group Big Boss Man. “I wanted to be in a band playing music I enjoy listening to and writing those kinds of songs in the genres of music that I like,” says Milsom. The Hawkmen started life as a studio project, releasing a handful of singles on European record labels before they’d even played live. Two of their songs have been featured on Craig Charles’ Funk & Soul Club compilation albums, and they released their self-titled debut album last year. Fronted by soulful vocalist Scarlett Fagan, The Hawkmen are fast on the rise…

Cathy’s Clown entered the UK charts in mid-April, 1960. That was fortuitous timing, since Don and Phil Everly were in the midst of an extended tour of Great Britain and thus in a perfect position to ramp up interest by playing it at every gig they performed. They reprised the song on Alma Cogan’s television show (All I Have To Do Is Dream was also played that evening). By May, Cathy’s Clown sat proudly at the peak of the UK hit parade. If the group behind the Everlys throughout their tour looked familiar, they certainly should have – it was the unbilled Crickets, then consisting of guitarist Sonny Curtis, bassist Joe B. Mauldin and drummer Jerry Allison. They weren’t on the show as special guests, just as the Everlys’ band.…

The roots of NEO-ROCKABILLY weave a tangled web indeed. Was it an unholy union inspired by the spirit of punk, or simply a new generation rediscovering a wealth of underground artists from the 1950s that the mainstream music business had seen fit to sweep under the carpet? Even the title itself is a contentious issue. “It was a term used by a couple of journalists back then, but more in the sense of the word, as in ‘Neo, a new form of the music’ rather than a complete genre,” Clint Bradley of The Blue Cats explains. “Once we started to play gigs in our own right, at places like Dingwalls, the Hope & Anchor, the Marquee, Rock Garden, etc, that’s when what they now call ‘Neo’ really started to live…

Although Levi and the Rockats shared the stage with punk bands such as Siouxsie And The Banshees, they had enormous respect for the roots of rockabilly. A career highlight for the group was a live performance on legendary American radio show the Louisiana Hayride on 14 July 1979. The country music show had launched the careers of Hank Williams – the Father of Country Music – and Elvis Presley, who debuted That’s All Right Mama on the programme in 1954. Twenty-five years after Presley’s appearance, the Rockats stayed in the same Shreveport motel room as Elvis, used the same microphone and were introduced to the audience by the same MC, Frank Page. The set that followed had a timeless sound that could have easily dated from the mid-50s. Levi Dexter’s…

THE RESTLESS (EP) 7" (1982) SUNROCK Intriguingly billing the band as The Restless, this is their first release and it appeared on the Swedish label SunRock in a run of only 400 copies. Starting as they meant to go on, the band delivered three raw originals – Long Winding River, Leavin’ This Town and Ghost Town. WHY DON’T YOU… JUST ROCK! LP (1982) NERVOUS Still one of Nervous Records’ best-sellers to date and a stunning debut release. This album pushed Restless into the limelight and tracks such as It’s A Scam, Ice Cold and their version of Mike Page’s Long Black Shiny Car remain live favourites today. VANISH WITHOUT A TRACE 7" & 12" (1985) ABC ABC had high hopes to push the band beyond the rockin’ scene, and this…

MATCHBOX 1979 • MAGNET Side 1 Rockabilly Rebel Buzz Buzz A Diddle It Seventeen Tell Me How Hurricane Everybody Needs A Little Love Side 2 Rockin' At The Ritz Hi-Fly Woman Love Is Going Out Of Fashion Poor Boy Lord Mr Ford Black Slacks All tracks.written by Steve Bloomfield, except.Buzz Buzz A Diddle It (Slay/Crew), Seventeen (Young/Gorman/Bennett), Tell Me How (Hardin/Allison/Petty), Rockin' At The Ritz (Ray Campi), Lord Mr Ford (Dick Fellar), Black Slacks (Denton/Bennett) GRAHAM FENTON VOCALS, STEVE BLOOMFIELD LEAD AND STEEL GUITARS, MANDOLIN, VOCALS, FRED POKE DOUBLE AND ELECTRIC BASS, VOCALS, GORDON SCOTT RHYTHM AND ACOUSTIC GUITAR, VOCALS, JIMMY REDHEAD DRUMS, PERCUSSION, VOCALS…

Charles simultaneously recorded straightahead piano jazz for Atlantic. The label also allowed him to expand his vocal palette on The Genius Of Ray Charles; one side of the album featured swinging big band backing, the other luxurious violin-enriched ballads. Its six ballads were cut on 6 May 1959. “When Ray was preparing, he asked me, ‘Who’s writing the strings on the Chris Connor records?’” said Wexler, who produced the set with Ahmet Ertegun’s brother Nesuhi. “I said, ‘Ralph Burns.’ He said, ‘That’s the man I want!’ Ralph wrote all the ballad parts, all the string parts.” 18 horn players – Ray’s own crew augmented by a contingent of Count Basie and Duke Ellington all-stars – were assembled for the 23 June big band date. Quincy Jones was supposed to do…

Was the Running Together album always conceived as a family a.air, or did the collaborations happen spontaneously? The album developed spontaneously as dad wrote the songs over a few recent years – it was an album that he wanted to gift to his family and fans. It became a journey through his songwriting years, old songs he wanted to revisit, new ones that kept pouring out of him. The collaborations with Ricky, Roxanne and myself happened spontaneously, too. Music has always been like a second language in our family. The album title, Running Together, is in recognition of some amazing music collaborations we’ve all shared together over the years – a joyful expression of our passion for music. 60s World includes nods to Phil Spector and The Beach Boys. Do…

SUPERB RECOMMENDED AVERAGE PATCHY AVOID Bill Haley & His Comets ROCKS, CLOCKS & ALLIGATORS JASMINE Bill Haley’s hits should be reissued at least once a year to remind the next generation about the source of rock’n’roll. And although all the classics, from Crazy Man, Crazy in 1953 to Rock Around The Clock, See You Later, Alligator and Shake Rattle And Roll are all present and correct here, there’s more to this collection than most. Bill’s later releases when the hits dried up are hard to find on 45rpm, but this comprehensive reissue features Chick Safari, The Spanish Twist and Warpaint – otherwise filed under ‘Hen’s Teeth’ due to their rarity. Billy Boy Arnold COME BACK BABY, I WISH YOU WOULD JASMINE An uncredited architect of the British blues boom, Chicago’s…

Glasgow-based musician and artist George Miller has certainly been productive during lockdown – the Kaisers frontman has created a collection of handmade marionettes celebrating some of his favourite rock’n’rollers. Miller has used his day job skills as a production designer on a BBC children’s drama to craft the figures, including Elvis, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Link Wray, Wanda Jackson and Bo Diddley. Enter Chris Taylor, member of The Razorbills, who spotted George’s work-in-progress on Facebook. Taylor explains: “I was amazed by the level of accuracy and detail that George gave each of his subjects. I also noticed correlations that linked with some personal work that I was developing at the time. I’d started to create a series of prints, based on imaginary record sleeves, of some of my favourite music…

Johnny Earl first came to prominence with his Elvis Presley-inspired act, although he declines to describe himself as a tribute performer. Instead, he has made it on his own terms, and apart from blossoming as a writer of original songs, he also persuaded Elvis’ backing vocalists The Jordanaires to reunite with Presley’s Blue Moon Boys – guitarist Scotty Moore and drummer D.J. Fontana – for their first UK and European tour, with Johnny himself on lead vocals. He has survived in the business for 30 years, touring the world and recording, and his love for rock’n’roll remains undimmed. You had a busy 2019, and after the pandemic has subsided, it seems 2021 will be even busier for you… You bet. I’m heading towards the most exciting phase of my career…

BYE BYE LOVE The beginning of a spectacular partnership between the Everlys, Archie Bleyer’s Cadence Records and Nashville composers Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, Bye Bye Love had reportedly been turned down by quite a few singers before Don and Phil turned it into global gold. The Everlys’ lonesome harmonies sounded great poured over a rocking beat. WAKE UP LITTLE SUSIE The Bryants’ encore composition for Cadence’s newlycrowned rock’n’roll stars turned a few heads with its allegedly racy storyline involving a teenage couple who doze o. in a movie theatre until the wee hours, but the lofty commercial outcome was the same as with Bye Bye Love: another romping blockbuster. ALL I HAVE TO DO IS DREAM A solo Boudleaux Bryant provided the Everlys with their first ballad smash, and their…

Matchbox had already put out two albums before they joined Magnet. The first, Riders In The Sky, had been made in Holland in 1976 with Bert Rockhuizen of the Rockhouse label, who had also worked with Crazy Cavan 'n' The Rhythm Rockers. This extremely enjoyable album, with artwork emphasising the band’s Ted image, featured an early Matchbox line-up with Wiffle Smith on vocals, Rusty Lupton on piano, and Bob Burgos on drums. Steve Bloomfield and Fred Poke were already on board, and the definitive chugging Matchbox rhythm was in place. Killer tracks included revivals of Wash Machine Boogie and Teenage Boogie, and the instrumental Steelabilly showed Bloomfield’s rich imagination. Settin’ The Woods On Fire was released on Chiswick Records in 1978. By now, Graham Fenton had replaced Smith on vocals,…

I’ve Got A Woman was a post-war R&B landmark. “It was the beginning of the Ray Charles that we came to know,” said the late Jerry Wexler, Charles’ Atlantic Records co-producer. From there, Brother Ray embarked on an unbroken string of hits extending to the end of the decade, when he unexpectedly exited the label. The pianist embraced his own gritty, spiritually enriched voice at Atlantic after years of imitating uber-cool customers Nat “King” Cole and Charles Brown. A handful of other R&B visionaries dared to mix sanctified and secular during the early-50s, led by Clyde McPhatter, first as lead tenor with the Dominoes and then his own Drifters, as well as The “5” Royales. But it was Brother Ray who spearheaded the emerging hybrid, providing an indelible blueprint for…

Thanks to the relentless innovation of the digital age, these days there are many more ways to enjoy music. Equal and opposite to traditional vinyl is the wonderful world of online video and Bopflix is one of the coolest standouts amongst an explosion of dedicated digital music channels. Created as an independent broadcasting and media production company, it curates music videos, live events, promos and documentaries. Specialising in roots music and lifestyle subcultures – mainly rock’n’roll, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, western swing, country and doo-wop – the channel’s remit is to be a one-stop repository for hot sounds. Available through YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo, Bopflix provides access to all the latest and greatest in international music events and must-see revivalist band sessions. Celebrating 10 years at the helm of this…

SUPERB RECOMMENDED AVERAGE PATCHY_ AVOID Batmobile BIG BAT A-GO-GO MUSIC ON VINYL Dutch rockers Batmobile team up with the Bosco Horns to bring their big band side project blasting onto a limited edition chunk of 7" yellow vinyl. The band’s sound is big enough at the best of times, but this new venture positively fills the room with rhythm. Drums A-Go-Go and Hammering suggest the power that lurks within the grooves as their brand of psychobilly gets the widescreen treatment. An essential taster from a forthcoming 10" mini-album which will surely bring the band’s new direction to an even bigger audience. Astounding. The Hi-Risers SMOOTH OPERATOR HI-TIDE RECORDINGS This New York rock’n’roll trio take a slight detour on the title track of their latest single, which boasts an element of…

Little Richard was just 18 years old when he started his recording career in October 1951 at the Atlanta radio station WGST used by his label RCA Victor. He had made his stage debut four years earlier, though, when Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard the-then Richard Penniman singing one of her songs before a performance at the Macon City Auditorium. Tharpe was so impressed by Penniman’s voice that she invited him to open her show. After Tharpe paid him for his work, it inspired Richard to become a professional. Little Richard’s eventual signing to RCA Victor saw him cut eight sides for the label, including the blues ballad Every Hour, which became his first single and won him attention on a local level in Georgia. Yet Richard’s rise to the top…

A new 4CD/2LP collection, From Elvis In Nashville, will tell the full story of the five-day run that Elvis spent at RCA’s Studio B in Nashville in June 1970. With an additional session on 22 September, it formed the core of three of his most successful 70s studio albums: Elvis: That’s the Way It Is, Elvis Country (I’m 10,000 Years Old) and Love Letters from Elvis. Newly-mixed by acclaimed engineer Matt Ross-Spang (John Prine, Jason Isbell) and stripped of the overdubs and orchestration that appeared on earlier releases, the 4CD boxset includes two bonus discs of rare and/or unreleased outtakes from the sessions. A highlights package will be available on vinyl as a 2LP set. Under the direction of producer Felton Jarvis, the Nashville sessions are widely recognised as among…

Lee Rocker UK Tour 4-8 November LOCATIONS Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Bristol and London BOOKING leerocker.com/2020-uk-tour Wildest Cats In Town Xmas Party 27-30 November FEATURING Charlie Gracie, Travis Le Doyt, Si Cranstoun, Metrotones, The Jets, Spunyboys, Sweet Georgia Boys LOCATION Pontins, Lowestoft BOOKING tennesseeclub.net Rockin’ Race Jamboree 2021 4-7 February 2021 FEATURING Reverend Horton Heat, Wayne Hancock, Hacienda Brothers, Deke Dickerson & Bloodshot Bill, The Playboys LOCATION Torremolinos, Spain BOOKING rockinrace.com The Rockabilly Knock Out 8 May 2021 FEATURING Reverend Horton Heat, The Delta Bombers, The Deadshots, The Rhythm Torpedoes, Dylan Kirk & The Killers LOCATION Passenger Shed, Bristol BOOKING rockabillynight.co.uk The Hangar Stomp! Weekender 14-16 May 2021 FEATURING Roy Dee & The Spitfires, Sonny West, The Doel Brothers, Levi Dexter, Restless, The Bullets LOCATION Bruntingthorpe, Leicester BOOKING rockabillynight.co.uk…

Their two albums for Cadence Records in the late 1950s had announced The Everly Brothers’ arrival on the scene as one of the most exciting acts around, but it was their big-money move to a rapidly expanding Warner Bros that would gain them mainstream credibility and firmly establish both the duo and their paymasters as major players in the rock’n’roll business. After an amazing run beginning in 1957 at Archie Bleyer’s Cadence, where the country-rooted harmonies of Don and Phil Everly translated into rock’n’roll gold on Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Susie, All I Have To Do Is Dream and a long string of additional Nashville-cut smashes, the Everlys’ Cadence contract expired. Their manager, Acu.-Rose Music boss Wesley Rose, was free to place his boys with a new label.…

By the end of the 70s, Britain’s rockabilly scene was like a powder keg stashed away beneath the mainstream music industry. The fuse was burning out of control and the whole thing seemed on the verge of exploding, sending quiffs, double basses and twangy guitars flying all over the charts, radio waves, TV shows and newspapers. The audience was so extensive that the Stray Cats travelled from New York to London to use the British scene as their springboard to fame. Britain’s Levi and the Rockats, by contrast, struck out in the opposite direction, taking a re-energised form of rockabilly back to its homeland, where it had been all but forgotten. When the band made their American TV debut, the bemused host, Merv Gri.n, tried to explain to the audience…

Cherry Red have released Matchbox: The Albums 1979-82 on their 7TS label. The 65-track 4CD boxset includes the four LPs the band cut for the label in that period, along with all their hit singles, including B-sides, and other bonus tracks. It begins with Matchbox which, when it reached No.44 on the album charts in early 1980, became the first genuine rockabilly breakthrough LP of the revival era. The follow-up, Midnite Dynamos, did even better, reaching No.23 later that year. It was a more expensively produced album, but the title track was another Top 20 hit, and Bloomfield originals like the instrumental Stranger In Nevada, which sounded like something out of a spaghetti western, showcased the band’s range. Flying Colours was the last release with Peter Collins as producer. It…

When Charles decided his 1955 revival of Drown In My Own Tears required female backing voices, Atlantic house arranger Jesse Stone recommended The Cookies. It was the start of an enduring relationship. Margie Hendricks, Darlene McCrea and Dorothy Jones also sang behind Chuck Willis and Joe Turner at Atlantic and had their own 1956 hit, In Paradise, but The Cookies shone brightest behind Charles, acting as his responsive chorus on the storming Leave My Woman Alone and Ain’t That Love. At the beginning of 1958, Charles persuaded Hendricks and McCrea to hit the road with him, rechristening the group The Raelets. Jones was replaced by 16-year-old Pat Lyles. For the rest of his Atlantic tenure, The Raelets brought the vocal heat behind their boss on You Be My Baby, (Night…

“I don’t know what it is, but I’m in trouble.” Those were the panictriggering words that greeted Marty Wilde Jr when he answered his mobile one day last April. His father, Jr soon discovered, had regained consciousness on his bedroom floor with no memory of how he got there. There, bloodied, bruised and unable to pick himself up, he just about managed to call his youngest son. “He’s just 10 minutes away, so I just lay on the floor until he came,” Marty Sr tells Vintage Rock, three months after that terrifying collapse. After being rushed to hospital, doctors diagnosed atrial fibrillation, which, in simple terms, is an irregular, sometimes overly fast heartbeat. It means the octogenarian crooner now has a pacemaker to keep his old ticker in check. “I’m…

SUPERB RECOMMENDED AVERAGE PATCHY AVOID Carl Perkins LIVE IN PARIS – THE LAST EUROPEAN CONCERT LMLR A wild night in the French capital in March 1996 is now presented in this double blue vinyl set housed in a blue suede shoe-shaped inner gatefold sleeve. The package also contains a 12-page colour booklet and a one-sided blue flexidisc single featuring the unreleased track Distance Makes No Di.erence With Love. Superbly presented, the collection contains 19 tracks, including heavy-hitters such as Matchbox, That’s All Right, Gone, Gone, Gone and even a tribute to The Beatles. Chubby Checker TWIST WITH CHUBBY CHECKER ABKCO Sixty years on from The Twist hitting the top spot of Billboard’s Hot 100, ABKCO present a remastered vinyl release of the Parkway LP that included the track which set…

I have to say that my association with top agent and manager George Cooper was of a totally di? erent nature to that of being in the company of Larry Parnes. Parnes kept his parents at arm’s length with all matters relating to his business dealings and associates. I don’t recall any of his relatives ever visiting his Knightsbridge penthouse apartment, or any of his shows. He was obviously aware that the less his family knew about his lifestyle the better. His business partner, John Edwards, on the other hand, had the contact details for a great many young ladies in his address book. Marty Wilde and I were privileged in meeting Larry’s family when he took us to meet his lovely parents and siblings for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish…