The Story Behind The Song: How The Who created ‘I Can’t Explain’ by Drew Wardle of Far Out

 

At a time when The Who’s first single, ‘I Can’t Explain’, was released in 1964, the band had just changed their name from The High Numbers and were eyeing up a new creative path. Despite claims at the time that it had resembled The Kinks’ ‘All Day and All of the Night’, Pete Townsend wrote: “It can’t be beat for straightforward Kink copying. There is little to say about how I wrote this. It came out of the top of my head when I was 18 and a half.” Along similar lines, The Kinks had also released ‘You Really Got Me’ during the summer of ’64 and when Dave Davies heard ‘I Can’t Explain’, he allegedly said “cheeky buggers.” There is another connection between the two songs, and that is that they both share the same producer, Shel Talmy.

This is not necessarily a coincidence. Shel Talmy was very well known for accentuating loud guitars on his records. In an interview with Songfacts, Talmy said: “The Who, when I first heard them, I thought, ‘This is the best actual rock n’ roll band I’ve heard in England.’ Pete wrote a song he thought would catch my ear, and he was correct.” Up until the point before they released their first single, The Who did not really have any original material to show for. Roger Daltrey, in an interview with Q Magazine, explains why: “We already knew Pete could write songs, but it never seemed a necessity in those days to have your own stuff because there was this wealth of untapped music that we could get hold of from America. But then bands like the Kinks started to make it, and they were probably the biggest influence on us – they were a huge influence on Pete, and he wrote ‘I Can’t Explain’, not as a direct copy, but certainly, it’s very derivative of Kinks music.”

The song is a brilliant pop vignette that captures the very essence of what rock ‘n’ roll means to millions of people. Pete Townshend has described the song to be about a guy who “can’t tell his girlfriend he loves her because he’s taken too many Dexedrine tablets.” Dexedrine is an amphetamine drug, which would explain the “dizzy in the head” lyric of the song. On the surface, it certainly seems like it would be about love; love can be a very complicated and multi-layered concept most times.

Roger Daltrey, in conversation with Uncut, describes it thus: “Well, it’s that thing – ‘I got a feeling inside, I can’t explain’ – it’s rock n’ roll. The more we try to explain it, the more we crawl up our own arses and disappear! I was very proud of that record. That was us, y’know – it was an original song by Pete and it captured that energy and that testosterone that we had in those days.”

The song also showcases Keith Moon’s dynamite ability to bang away at the drums. In general, The Who as a whole would begin to develop a reputation for being not only a great rock and roll band but one that lives up to that reputation. Keith Moon, more than any of the other members of the band, would develop the reputation as a wild man, who would carry around a briefcase containing an assortment of medications, and also would be known to blow up the occasional toilet. Pete Townshend, on the other hand, would begin to be expected to damage his guitar – a stage stunt that began when he accidentally smashed his instrument up into a low ceiling at a club.

When recording ‘I Can’t Explain’, the band turned up to the studio and found the producer, Shel Talmy, sitting with Jimmy Page. Because Talmy had a propensity to turn the guitars up and have them be one of the main features of a song, he wanted to make sure that the guitar solo would be absolutely accurate, and in case Townshend would not be able to deliver, Page would be able to do the job instead. Reflecting on the moment, Page recalls this particular session in conversation with Uncut magazine: “I’d seen them at the Marquee. To be a kid, in the room, right there in the middle of the sound Pete, John and Keith created, was phenomenal. At the session, my job was to play something behind Pete’s riff – he had his Rickenbacker 12-string. You can hardly hear me, to be honest, because his playing was so powerful. I also played a bit on the B-side, ‘Bald Headed Woman.’ That session really impressed on me the part of a well-drilled rock band.”

Reissue CDs Weekly: John Mayall - The First Generation by Kieron Tyler - Massive box-set tribute to the important British musical visionary

 

The First Generation 1965–1974 is a 35-CD box set dedicated to the blues maven and propagator John Mayall. As well as the discs, there are three books: one a hardback, another reproducing fan club material, and the third a facsimile of the press pack for his first album. Also included are two posters and a signed photograph of Mayall. Five thousand copies have been made. As it sells for £275, the 3.8 kilogram The First Generation will not be a casual purchase.

What’s encompassed by The First Generation is not the well-defined narrative of a standard band or musician. Mayall’s Sixties band Bluesbreakers had a lot of churn, as much so as Fairport Convention or The Fall. Pete Frame’s book Rock Family Trees records 15 different Bluesbreakers’s line-ups from January 1963 to June 1970 (the final two were such in all-but name, even though Mayall operated with a solo credit). Muddying the waters further, he also recorded solo.

A lot of the customary narrative relates to fallout from the churn. Three-quarters of the original Fleetwood Mac were in the April to May 1967 Bluesbreakers. Two-thirds of Cream, in the form of Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce, were Bluesbreakers at different times between April 1965 to July 1966. Guitarist Mick Taylor was a Bluesbreaker from June 1967 to May 1969, after which he joined The Rolling Stones. So far, so blues or blues based.

But another band hot-housed by Bluesbreakers didn't fit that bill. Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Tony Reeves were with Mayall from April to August 1968. After leaving Bluesbreakers, the trio formed pioneering British jazz-rockers Colosseum. John Mayall indeed created a breeding ground, but it wasn’t just for those who ran with the blues.

So how to grapple with Mayall? The First Generation is undoubtedly about Mayall and his relationship with blues, but it’s also about his capacity for using players as a conduit for how he saw music. In Pete Frame’s book, Mayall says Jon Hiseman knew nothing about blues and didn’t care about his music, but Mayall wanted him to join Bluesbreakers as he admired his playing. In the spirit of aiming for what he saw as the best, Mayall would summarily sack players if someone he liked more came along – short-stay guitarist Jeff Kribbett was abruptly dumped in favour of Peter Green. Later on, with Mick Fleetwood’s departure there wasn’t a replacement waiting in the wings. The drummer was fired for drinking. Despite who else is heard, The First Generation is ultimately about the will of John Mayall.

During the period covered by The First Generation, Mayall – with his 57 varieties of Bluesbreakers and solo – issued 12 studio albums. There were also seven live sets, including 1964’s debut John Mayall Plays John Mayall. There were compilations too and, of these, Looking Back (1969) and Thru The Years (1971) are included in The First Generation. The scorching “I’m Your Witchdoctor” / “Telephone Blues” (1965) single and the “Lonely Years” / “Bernard Jenkins” (1966) single are allotted a disc apiece, as is the 1967 All My Life EP, recorded with Paul Butterfield. 1966’s Blues Breakers album (the Eric Clapton-era “Beano” album) takes up two CDs: one for its mono version, the other its stereo counterpart (as per the 2009 deluxe edition reissue). The 1968 The Diary Of A Band Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 comps are on two separate CDs (they were two albums originally). The 1971 double album Back To The Roots is also on two CDs, as is the 1973 double set Ten Years Are Gone. Many of the actual albums have bonus tracks: either non-LP single tracks, live material or alternate versions. Generally, the bonuses are the same as previous stand-alone reissues of the albums (for example, the 2001 version of The Turning Point and the 2007 version of Blues From Laurel Canyon). That’s 26 of the box’s 35 CDs taken care of.

Mayall aficionados are going to have a lot of the first 26 discs already. Any decision to buy will hinge on depths of pockets and the degree of yen for the rest: the books, posters, the signed photo, the BBC and live discs. And as John Mayall himself is involved with the release, that may be an influence on whether to purchase.

After the first 26, the remaining nine discs are two dedicated to BBC radio recordings (from 1965 to 1968: 29 tracks have never been out before), a comp of low-ish fi but bracing audience recordings of tracks extracted from four Peter Green-era 1967 live shows (presumably all that survives of these shows) and a disc apiece for six other live shows. There’s one full show with the John Mayall, Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green, John McVie band. It’s another audience recording (in a bootlegger’s A-/B+ sound quality), from Bromley Technical College at some point in April or May 1967 (when this line-up was extant). Despite the audience chatter, what’s heard is pretty hot – this was a tight, driving band. “Stand Back Baby” is the stand-out as everyone is locked-in with each other.

A really interesting show crops up on Disc 31. It’s imprecisely annotated as “7th National Jazz & Blues Festival (1967)”, but specifically is from Windsor on 13 August 1967. Fleetwood Mac debuted at the same festival. Billed with a new outfit formed by his former sidemen, Mayall’s band is Mick Taylor (guitar – he first played live with the band on 17 June), John McVie (bass - he'd soon leave to replace Bob Brunning in Fleetwood Mac), Keef Hartley (drums), and Rip Kant and Chris Mercer (saxophones). Another audience tape, it’s a little muffled and has some chat and a gentleman coughing near the microphone (maybe A- quality). The band has not yet bedded in: “Sonny Boy Blow” has a false start which causes the audience to jeer. Overall, it’s musically more loose than the Bromley show with a leaning towards soul which was lost by the time Mayall and co recorded Crusade, their next album. Taylor is on three of the other four live shows. The last and latest is credited as “Fillmore West (1970)” (it’s from 17 April) and features drummer Duster Bennett, who didn’t record in the studio with Mayall.

But the box is not all about the music. The books are a draw. The text in the 131-page hardback incorporates interviews with Mayall: new and old. Dates are always specific. Detail dominates. It’s nicely designed and broken up into logical sections. The illustrations are great, as is the choice of who else beyond Mayall to quote. All anyone needs to know is here. A fine, precise, straightforward biography.

The facsimile of the press pack for 1965’s live John Mayall Plays John Mayall album (recorded live in December 1964) is great to have. Irrespective of any interest in Mayall, it’s a terrific period piece. In it, Charlie Watts is quoted as saying “John Mayall? Great! Quite an experience to hear and see him. That one-man band, leaping about all over the place – mad!” Georgie Fame says “I’m pretty sure he’s got no imitators with that triple harmonica-organ-piano rave up. It’s a knockout.” The Kinks’s Pete Quaife is more measured, saying of the album that “this disc generates a fair old bit of excitement.”

The book of fan club material collects 128 pages of newsletters from early 1968 to July 1970. It’s a goldmine of raw material with detailed information on tours and releases, and lengthy specially written contributions from band members including Mayall. Mind-boggling stuff.

So this big box set is a big deal. Nonetheless, there’s a few oversights. Some licensable material is not included. The tracks Mayall and his band played on the 1967 Eddie Boyd And His Blues Band album are not here (the album is mentioned in the book). Champion Jack Dupree’s 1966 album From New Orleans To Chicago featured Mayall on “Shim-Sham-Shimmy” and “Third Degree” (also mentioned in the book). Neither are collected. Mayall’s tracks from the excellent 1967 Raw Blues comp are absent: “Burn Out Your Blind Eyes”, “Evil Woman Blues” (with Peter Green), “Long Night” (with Steve Winwood) and “Milkman Strut” (Raw Blues is mentioned in the book). Perplexingly, despite its bulk, The First Generation is not the full story.

However, The First Generation 1965–1974 is an extraordinary tribute to a wilful, visionary British musician. A great enthusiast and a great propagator, John Mayall is important. But is this box set at £275 important? Five thousand copies have been released and, presumably, at least the same number of buyers will think it is that important.

Acid Jazz to release, 'Circles – The Ultimate Fleur De Lys' on 26th March

 

Atlantic Records, Andrew Loog Oldham, Shel Talmy, Cream, Isaac Hayes and er Tony Blackburn, all these and so many more turn up in the story of Southampton band the Fleur De Lys and so many more. You may not have heard of them, and if you have it may be just because of their glorious cover of the Who’s Circle’s – an ultimate freak beat anthem which this compilation is named after – but the singles they released in the second half of the 1960s are one of the greatest collections of singles by any band, ranging from R&B through freakbeat and psych and back into club soul.

Emerging from the English South Coast’s competitive club scene they signed to Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham’s pioneering indie label Immediate where they recorded two singles before being taken under the wing of Frank Fenter who worked out of the UK Polydor office running the UK arm of Atlantic. The group went through numerous line-up changes as they recorded a series of singles which are now some of the most collectible of the era.

Acid Jazz and Countdown Records have been the custodians of the Fleur De Lys catalogue for the last decade and this compilation is the culmination of that work containing all the singles that they released for Immediate, Polydor and Atlantic (where they pipped Led Zepplin to become the first UK signed band to that legendary label). Issued digitally, on CD and in a limited edition gatefold coloured double vinyl, it has been produced with the full co-operation of the group’s Keith Guster, allowing us to use previously unseen photos and illustrations. Compiled by Eddie Piller and Dean Rudland and the band’s official biographer Paul ‘Smiler’ Anderson, who has contributed an extended note that tells the band’s story in compelling detail.

Available on the 26th March 2021.

Tracklisting: -

Circles

Mud In Your Eye

Hold On

Gong With The Luminous Nose

Tick Tock

Hammer Head

One City Girl

I Forgive You

Brick By Brick (Stone By Stone)

I Can See A Light

Prodigal Son

Nothing To Say

Stop Crossing The Bridge

The Bitter With The Sweet

So Come On

You’ve Got To Earn It

Two Can Make It Together

I’ve Been Trying

(You’re Just A) Liar

Moondreams

Wait For Me

Love Them All (Demo)

Gotta Get Enough Time (Demo)

I Walk The Sands

Yeah I Do Love You (Demo)

1960s Mod Slang We Should Use Today by Fraser McAlpine of BBC America

 

In 1983, the venerable British pop magazine Smash Hits (sadly no longer with us) published a feature called “The Things People Said,” in which Tom Hibbert pulled together a lexicon of youth slang, across the rocking ’50s, the groovy ’60s, the hippy ’70s and the heavy metal ’80s. For a young fan of pop culture and inventive uses of the English language (hello!), it was quite the eye-opener.

For example, teddy boys in the 1950s would refer to hair dye as “roof paint,” whereas their groovy ’60s successors would refer to the most astonishing of musical delights as being “ghosty,” and if you wanted to wake up a hippy, the thing to should would be “hey man, unscrabble your lids!”

One section is particularly interesting and should be required reading for anyone besotted by ’60s mod culture.

As you may know, the mods were a tight-knit London clique, created by young men obsessed with sharp clothes, scooters and general peacocking. Their credo (according to self-styled scene spokesman Pete Meaden) was “clean-living under difficult circumstances,” which gives a hint as to their fastidious and judgmental nature. This is further revealed when you examine some of the common slang terms the original mods used, some of which could stand a revival: -

Face

A face is a good mod; someone with the right clothes, the right haircut and the right taste in soul music and ska. An especially good mod would be an ace face or, more properly, THE ace face.

Ticket

A ticket is a bad mod, someone still wearing last week’s fashion, slightly grown-out hair, and not enough/too many mirrors on his scooter. It comes from third-class ticket, a reference to train fares.

Both of these terms were put to good use in “I’m The Face,” the debut single by the High Numbers, who shortly afterwards changed their name to the Who.

Seven and six

The mod lifestyle was about conspicuous spending on quality goods. Suits had to be tailored, not bought off-the-peg, and anyone who did turn up at an all-nighter wearing a low-cost version of mod fashion would be labelled a seven and six. The numbers are a reference to pre-decimalized British currency and the cost of cheap T-shirts in Woolworths.

Flashkick

A delightful experience, a giddy thrill. You’ve heard of teenagers doing things just for kicks? These are flasher.

Deck

A term used to describe poking fun at someone, as in “Did you see me decking those tickets? What a flashkick!” Although in more recent British slang to deck someone means to hit them, with the inference that you’ve hit them hard enough to knock them over.

And while we’re on fighting…

Jump through

Mods liked to fight. They fought with rockers, they fought with fake mods, and they fought with themselves if there was no one else about. To engage in a fight with someone was to jump through them.

Number

A number was a run-of-the-mill mod, if you can imagine such a thing. Which when you bear in mind quite how special each mod considered himself to be, being considered just one of the herd was a stern insult indeed. But being a high number (like the High Numbers) was quite the compliment. The term was picked up by mod-revivalist Paul Weller in the early days of the Jam, when he wrote the song “Away From the Numbers,” although he seems to be talking more about being on his own than being the very acest face in the place.

Gab up

To get dressed, something that could take a very long time indeed, especially when you remember the lengths your average mod would go to in order to get their clothes ready for wear. That thing about sitting in a bath wearing a pair of Levi’s to shrink them down to a skin-tight fit, that must’ve taken DAYS.

Sources: -

The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional Language

Tom Hibbert – Rockspeak!

Mods who supported The Jam after forming in Burton get back together, reports Richard Castle on Derbyshire Live

 

A Burton band that once played alongside one of the biggest names in British music history have reformed to release a new single. It is 38 years since REACTION were at the heart of the 80s Mod revival scene in Burton, playing prestigious gigs opening up for The Jam, Secret Affair and Lambrettas. And a demand for their music from fans who followed them back in the 80s has prompted the reunion.

But with bandmates scattered across the globe and Covid restrictions in place, they had to be creative to make it happen. Bruno Gallone, 58, lead singer of the four-piece act, who formed in November 1980, became aware of the demand when he set up a Facebook page during lockdown as an outlet to share memories, music and anecdotes from the band's heyday.

The appetite for a revival became apparent when their music started featuring on Mod radio shows, as well as compilation CDs and vinyl showcasing the best unsigned bands from the 70s and 80s. This, along with messages of support from long-time fans, inspired Bruno to reach out to his former bandmates for a special reunion. They reunited virtually via video calls from their homes in Burton, Derby, North Yorkshire and Fiji to record two brand new songs.

Bruno said: "A reunion wasn't something I'd ever planned on, least of all in a year when a global pandemic prevented us from meeting up. I was overwhelmed by the conversations taking place on the Facebook group, with people sharing their memories of REACTION. I knew I couldn’t ignore the demand for new music any longer. I set about writing the new songs and the band shared ideas virtually about how they wanted them to sound.”

"It wasn't the easiest of tasks, balancing technology, work and family - not to mention time difference - all things we wouldn't have dreamed of contemplating in the 80s. In these strange times, music has been an outlet for many, be it through listening to it or creating it. I know for REACTION it's been brilliant to reminisce and get the creative juices flowing once more. I hope the new music will put smiles on the faces of our fans, both new and old."

The first of the two songs, Another Sunday Morning, is now available to stream and download on Amazon, Deezer and Spotify, with the second release due in the coming weeks.

Andy Snipper on Music News reviews The Direct Hits' 'The Broadway Recording Sessions' album which is released on 26th February (Optic Nerve)

 

The Direct Hits were part of the Mod Revival movement that followed the emergence of The Jam and they released their album ‘Blow Up’ on Whamm Records in 1984.

However, before the ‘Blow Up’ sessions the band had recorded a set of 12 songs in a tiny studio in Tooting – Broadway Sound – self-funded and with very little production, they did 9 songs in a day and 3 more a week or so later. So this album, which feature a lot of songs that were on ‘Blow Up’, finds the band at their rawest and most primitive. And it is really bloody good!

The songs are true to the Mod Revival sound but also hearken back to much of the original Mod movement back in the sixties. The songs had been well rehearsed as the band were playing gigs on a regular basis and so it wasn’t too difficult to lay their music down but, for me, what is remarkable is the visceral quality of the recordings. Yes it’s raw and there is very little in way of embellishment but by criminy it is good to listen to and I find it much more exciting and musical than ‘Blow Up’.

Listen to a track like ‘Naughty Little Boy’ with definite links back to The Who and stunning drumming almost reminiscent of Keith Moon himself or ‘I Start Counting’ with Beatle-esque guitar parts and Hollies like harmonies. They manage to steer into real Jam territory with ‘What Killed Aleister Crowley’ (my favourite track) with a great rhythm guitar and lots of changes in tempo and even some reverb.

The first time through I listened to the album and thought “Yeah, it’s ok but a bit meh” but I turned it on again after a session listening to some metal and with the volume turned up – the difference was incredible! The songs come into focus, the vocals and the harmonies deepen and the drumming suddenly is crisp and authoritative instead of crackly and splashy. A definite case of PLAY THIS LOUD.

The TV show that made the Sixties swing by Gareth Cartwright

 

Ready Steady Go! was hardly one of the sixties survivors, with few traces left of the show that did so much to define the decade. But, says Garth Cartwright, a new book manages to capture the spirit of a legendary programme and its moment in time.

“The weekend starts here” went the tag line to a dynamic new TV show and, between August 1963 and December 1966, this truly was the case for many British youth, as Ready Steady Go! began its broadcast at 6pm every Friday.

Heralded by some as the greatest music TV series ever, Ready Steady Go! attained ‘legendary’ status decades ago but, frustratingly, appeared to have vanished leaving few traces, more mythic than tangible.

This situation has been changing, though, first with a BBC4 documentary, screened last March, and now a huge hardback book, Ready, Steady, Go! The Weekend Starts Here: The Definitive Story of the Show That Changed Pop TV.

At first glance author Andy Neill’s book appears the literary equivalent of those multi-album box-sets (containing demos, retakes et al) that are aimed at uber-fans: it weights a couple of kilos, documents each episode and is jammed with photos and memorabilia, the perfect present for a 1960s obsessed, Brit pop anorak. Upon reading I quickly realised that Neill – biographer of The Who and The Faces – has written far more than a glorified fanzine: Ready, Steady, Go! was, he convincingly argues, popular entertainment television that helped change both British TV and society.

Long described as the soundtrack to 'Swinging London', Neill demonstrates how RSG! was more than simply chic pop stars and presenters: as Pete Townshend notes in his interview, “it’s not flippant to say that RSG! probably helped pave the way for sexual liberation, but more seriously to the legalisation of homosexuality in the UK and a broader racial integration.”

Indeed, RSG! Gave young women leading media roles (as presenters and producers), embraced African American culture in a way no other British media previously had and caught youth culture’s fizz, the sense that the young were no longer going to remain deferential to their elders. More than any other document of that era – including the Beatles’ films – the series captured what made the 1960s so dynamic.

Ironically, RSG!’s founders gave little initial thought to challenging establishment values. Instead, journalist Elkan Allan, having been appointed Head of Entertainment at Rediffusion, a media company created to make programmes for ITV, realised with the onset of Beatlemania that a pop programme would likely succeed.

At 41, Allan realised he needed youth to help shape his vision so hired his 24-year-old secretary, Vicki Wickham, as assistant producer. Wickham was an inspired choice although his initial presenter, 34-year old Keith Fordyce, was less so, being the epitome of the senatorial TV chap.

Allan then hired 20-year old Cathy McGowan – who beat 600 other applicants who had answered an advertisement for “a typical teenager” - her chic dress sense, long fringe and unforced ebullience ensuring she instantly became the “face” of RSG!.

McGowan had no media training and it showed: she got names wrong, asked naff questions, giggled and behaved like the bands’ buddy. In doing so McGowan made teens across the nation feel she was one of them and so grounded RSG! in their reality.

Filmed live in Rediffusion’s Holborn studios each Friday – the rest of the week they shot children’s TV here – Ready, Steady, Go! featured both British and international artists miming to their new releases while Wickham sourced the best dancers from clubs across the West End so to keep energy levels high and ensure fashions and dances were fresh.

Indeed, the mod movement broke beyond London via RSG! and The Who appeared regularly. Dusty Springfield, who began her solo career in late-1963, was a semi-regular presenter and it was her devotion to African American music that ensured Wickham and Allan would begin to book more and more African American artists. Alongside giving the likes of Nina Simone, John Lee Hooker and Buddy Guy their first ever UK TV exposure, RSG! would devote entire episodes to 'specials' celebrating the artists of pioneering R&B labels Motown and Stax plus “Soul Brother No 1”, James Brown.

Black was just beginning to be seen as beautiful and RSG! took mod enthusiasm for African American music, clothes, dance, slang and more into the UK mainstream. Kenny Lynch, the self-described “black Cockney”, was also a regular performer. Considering the Race Relations Act wasn’t passed until 1965, RSG! was groundbreaking in its multicultural vision.

In 1964, 24- year-old American director Michael Lindsay-Hogg came on board and emphasised RSG!’s pop art feel, pushing the lighting, titles and camera angles to a degree never seen before on British TV.

Unknown new talent was invited on, so giving Donovan, David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix their first TV exposure. Peter Blake and Peter Cook were both regularly on set – Ready, Steady Go! capturing London’s zeitgeist like nothing else. By 1965 many artists were insisting on performing live – miming deemed uncool (unless it was ironic: a classic clip features members of the Rolling Stones and McGowan goofing about while pretending to mime to Sonny & Cher’s I Got You Babe).

Yet by becoming so cutting edge RSG! would lose the mass pop audience who were devoted watchers for the first two years when the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, Sandie Shaw and other chart busters appeared regularly. Inevitably, this lead to its cancellation.

The BBC, previously having struggled to showcase popular music on TV, launched Top of the Pops in 1964 to compete with RSG! and, by focusing only on hits, soon captured far greater viewer numbers. But, beyond helping sell vast numbers of 45s, Top of the Pops had little resonance while Ready, Steady, Go! energised and informed British culture as much as the artists it featured.

Unfortunately, like many other 1960s-era TV series, most episodes of Ready, Steady, Go! were wiped once they had been screened so then-expensive videotape could be reused.

Lindsay-Hogg managed to get several episodes recorded for his own collection and these are all that remain today. Dave Clark – of the Dave Clark Five – purchased this footage and issued it on VHS in the 1980s but nothing’s ever been available on DVD.

German music behemoth BMG now own this footage and, as they published Neill’s book, surely are intent on making it available: British pop culture’s lightning rod has the book it deserves, now let’s hope the surviving footage get similarly regal treatment.

Ready, Steady, Go! The Weekend Starts Here: The Definitive Story of the Show That Changed Pop TV by Andy Neill is published by BMG

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news/the-story-of-ready-steady-go-6889098

Inside Paul Weller’s plan to form a Beatles supergroup with Paul McCartney and Noel Gallagher by Lee Thomas-Mason of Far Out Magazine

 

 We’re taking a trip back to 1995 to revisit an exceptional piece of correspondence shared between The Beatles bassist Paul McCartney and The Jam’s enigmatic leader Paul Weller. It saw the latter pen a heartfelt message to the former Fab Four member asking him to help create his Beatles super-group.

The situation arrived after Paul Weller became involved with The Help Album, a charitable record which set out the aim of raising money to provide aid to war-stricken areas such as Bosnia and Herzegovina. A poignant moment which would be emboldened by the Beatle’s presence.

The recordings took inspiration from John Lennon’s Instant Karma!, a track written and recorded in a single day, and followed the premise that records—like newspapers—should be released as soon as they are created. With that in mind, songs on The Help Album were all recorded in a single day.

The most prominent bands of the day were welcomed to the studios. The likes of Oasis, The Stone Roses, Radiohead, Massive Attack, Portishead and more all joined the record, producing exclusive cover versions of tracks that were created in a single day. While many of the bands included took the decision to avoid Beatles numbers and, instead, to lay down special renditions of their own songs, Weller went the extra mile and created his own ‘super-group’ for his effort. And he had big plans for who he wanted in it.

Weller, the former leader of The Jam, decided to pen a handwritten letter to Paul McCartney inviting him to participate in the recording of a version of The Beatles song ‘Come Together’. Weller’s plan was to create his new band, The Smokin’ Mojo Filters, and he managed to recruit Noel Gallagher, Steve Cradock, Steve White, and Carleen Anderson for the track.

However, one person remained on his hit list, and that was one of the song’s creators, a former Beatle who could bring the cover version up to the dream levels that Weller had envisioned; Paul McCartney himself.

Using Melody Maker writer Paolo Hewitt who faxed his letter over to Macca, Weller asked: “We’d love you to come down [to Abbey Road], even better if you’d fancy doing the track with us.” Weller continued: “I hope you’ll consider it and as a personal thing to me, I’d love to do a track with yourself!”

McCartney did receive the letter and did accept Weller’s request, heading down to Abbey Road studios on Monday, September 4th, 1995 to record the song. You can read the original letter below.

Woman spends £40,000 to live like she’s in the 1960s by Ellen Scott of The Metro

 

Ever wished you could live in a different era? Gina Guearnieri has, and she decided to stop wishing and start doing. The 57-year-old has spent £40,000 making every part of her life feel like the 1960s, from her sixties outfits to her furniture. Even her mode of transport is sixties themed, as Gina, who calls herself a ‘mid-century magpie’, has four scooters, – three Vespas and a Lambretta – a 1966 Triumph Herald Convertible, and a 1959 Bedford CA Porthole Campervan.

She lives in a tiny bungalow full of 60s appliances and memorabilia, including crockery, a Dansette record player, and furnishings, with her long-term partner. Gina, who lives in Worthing, West Sussex, became obsessed with the decade in the early 80s in her teens after buying a classic scooter and becoming a backing singer in an RnB band. She never stopped loving the decade.

Gina said: ‘Living in the ’60s gives me so much more than a hobby. ‘I won’t use a modern high-fi, for instance. I think my favourite ’60s item would have to be my Dansette record player. ‘I love live music and often travel around the country and abroad to gigs. ‘Being able to have a weekend away for a gig and spend the daytime scouring the flea markets looking for more 60s jewels, while being able to wear my favourite cape and vintage boots, gives me the greatest pleasure. I really can’t imagine my life without being immersed in the sixties.

‘Often people visiting my home who don’t know me will comment that it’s like a museum, and that’s what makes me tick. I love stories, and most of my pieces have a history and occasionally carry battle scars. ‘As a 16 year old, I became fully submerged in London’s revival Mod culture and bought my first scooter in 1981 with birthday money from my mum. Over the subsequent years, I always had a scooter or classic car, and favoured 60s styling over any other.’ Gina never liked the late 70s and early 80s fashion in her teens and, after watching Franc Roddam hit film Quadrophenia, fell in love with the ’60s. Gina, a publications editor for RSPCA, said: ‘It [Quadrophenia] showed me a way of life that I wanted to be ‘me’.

‘During the ’70s, I didn’t like the clothes and homewares that were in vogue then. ‘I joined a ’60s R’n’B band. I was out six nights a week, often only going home to get changed and then go back out again. Although it was the early 1980s, it felt to us like we were living in the ’60s – we had the times of our lives.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/23/woman-spends-40000-to-live-like-shes-in-the-1960s-13470601/?ito=cbshare

Six items to steal from Pete Townshend's 1960s wardrobe by Faye Fearon of GQ

 

When The Who released their first single, “I Can't Explain”, in 1965, it went straight in at No8 in the UK's charts. The man behind the track was Pete Townshend, cofounder of the band, whose unique sound was rooted in Britain's swinging mod culture.

Townshend went on to be one of the 1960s' most influential figures. Through his music, of course – unsurprisingly, The Who were quick to find success in America (as one of the leading groups of the British Invasion) before going on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide – but equally Townshend inspired through his personal style.

Mastering the formula of mod fashion through his slim-cut suits, leather boots, knitted jumpers and patriotic prints (who can forget the Union Jack blazer?), Townshend used his wardrobe to communicate a forward-thinking Britishness all his own, here's six of his go-to garments from the decade that kicked off his success.  

1. A pinstripe blazer

Year: 1966

Tip to take: The key to nailing mod style? First and foremost, through tailoring. Townshend is a prime example to follow, especially during this US television performance in 1966, for which he wore some ultra-slim-cut trousers paired with a single-breasted pinstripe blazer. Points for the construction of his top half especially: cut to fasten a little higher (a key nod to boating styles) and fixed with nifty notch lapels, the result looked sharp and extremely stylish.

For the other 5 items, go to GQ magazine via the following link: - 

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/fashion/article/pete-townshend-style

Take a look inside Cheltenham's 1960s Mod culture and Vespa club by Robin Brooks of Gloucestershire Live

 

Essential transport for 1960s’ Mods, complete with Parka jackets, Ben Sherman shirts and sharp suits in two tone tonic, the Vespa was a style statement of Italian chic. Or so people thought, even though the bulbous side-panelled two-strokes were in fact made in Bristol.

The British motorcycle maker Douglas built Vespas under licence offering the machines, as we see from the ad you see here in Standard, Magna and Ultra form.

The grand gathering of Vespas pictured here was parked outside the Gaumont, in Winchcombe Street, Cheltenham, in 1960, two years before the cinema changed its name to the Odeon.

The film showing at the time was The 39 Steps, starring Kenneth More, which was released in 1959. It was plainly a big hit with Vespa owners, but the eagle eye may spot a Lambretta making an attempt to muscle in on the scene in the top right hand corner of the photo.

Scenes like this were common in that swingin’ decade. Most Friday and Saturday evenings scooters embellished with chrome crash bars, spot lamps galore and such paraphernalia were seen parked outside the YMCA in Vittoria Walk, the High Street’s Blue Moon, the Sarah Siddon’s in Pittville Street, or wherever the in place to be was that week.

Some favoured the Vespa, others the Lambretta, but the important thing was that they were Italian, (or believed to be) and that meant style. British motorbikes, such as the BSA, Matchless, or AJS, leaked oil. But on a Vespa, or Lambretta you could wear your Italian cut suit without getting grease on your tapered trousers with a crease like a carving knife down the front.

Another picture of massed scooters you see here captures members of the local Vespa Club on the old Gloucester to Cheltenham Road at Staverton. If you have a long memory you may recall the corrugated iron church on the left long demolished, which stood opposite the turning to Pheasant Lane.

Incidentally, the Vespa GS ridden by Sting in the 1979 film Quadrophenia by the Who’s Pete Townshend now resides in the county. You’ll find it in the Littledean Jail Museum.

Years before the sewing machine-like whine of a Vespa was heard in Britain, a local firm was building motor scooters. After the First World War Gloster Aircraft and its parent company H H Martyn & Co diversified away from making military aircraft into civil production areas. One of these ventures was the Unibus.

In its issue of 28 June 1920, Motor Cycling magazine reviewed a locally-made Unibus. Described as a “one man car, or super scooter”, the Unibus was packed with engineering innovations, “a distinct break away from the ordinary” in the words of the magazine.

Looking rather like a Vespa, the Unibus featured leaf sprung front and rear 16 inch wheels. The single cylinder, three port, two-stroke engine of 270cc was air cooled and to start it, a handle on the dashboard was turned.

The machine had two gears and transmission was via a worm shaft. Constructed on a steel frame with pressed aluminium panels, the design incorporated a parcel compartment under the single seat.

Motor Cycling concluded, “From whatever standpoint the Unibus is viewed, it stands as an engineer’s job from start to finish. The design marks a new era in the march of progress of the two wheeler”.

Despite such praise, the super scooter was a commercial flop, primarily because of its price. At 95 guineas, the Unibus was only slightly cheaper than a new Model T Ford.

Only one Unibus is known to exist today. It’s in the excellent Jet Age Museum at Staverton and a most interesting curiosity it is too.

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/history/take-look-inside-cheltenhams-1960s-3978845