SINGLES

THE ACCENT-Red Sky At Night/ Wind Of Change (Decca)
THE AFEX-She’s Got The Time/ I Never Knew Love Was Like This (King)
BLOSSOM TOES-What On Earth/ Mrs Murphy’s Budgerigar/ Look At Me I’m You (Marmalade)
ALAN BOWN-Toyland/ Technicolour Dream (MGM)
ERIC BURDON/ANIMALS-San Franciscan Nights/ Gratefully Dead (MGM) #7
CALIFORNIANS-Follow Me/ What Love Can Do (Decca)
DAVE CLARK 5-Everybody Knows/ Concentration Baby (Columbia) #2
CREATION-Life Is Just Beginning/ Through My Eyes (Polydor)
CROCHETED DOUGHNUT RING-Two Little Ladies (Azelia And Rhododendrun)/ Nice (Polydor)
DONOVAN-There Is A Mountain/ Sand And Foam (Pye) #8
SIMON DUPREE AND THE BIG SOUND-Kites/ Like The Sun Like The Fire (Parlophone) #9
EPISODE SIX-I Can See Through You/ When I Fall In Love (Pye)
FAMILY-Scene Through The Eyes Of A Lens/ Gypsy Woman (Liberty)
FOCUS THREE-10,000 Years Behind My Mind/ The Sunkeeper (Columbia)
HONEYBUS-Do I Still Figure In Your Life? /Throw My Love Away (Deram)
ICE-Anniversary (Of Love)/ So Many Times (Decca)
JOHN’S CHILDREN-Go-Go Girl/ Jagged Time Lapse (Track)
THE KINKS-Autumn Almanac/ Mr Pleasant (Pye) #3
KIPPINGTON LODGE-Shy Boy/ Lady On A Bicycle (Parlophone)
JACKIE LOMAX-Genuine Imitation Life/ One Minute Woman (CBS)
THE LOVIN’-All You’ve Got/ Do It Again (Page One)
THE MISUNDERSTOOD-I Can Take You To The Sun/ Who Do You Love (Fontana)
MUD-Flower Power/ You’re My Mother (CBS)
THE QUIK-I Can’t Sleep/ Soul Full Of Sorrow (Deram)
ROULETTES-Help Me To Help Myself/ To A Taxi Driver (Fontana)
RUPERT’S PEOPLE-Prologue To A Magic World/ Dream On My Mind (Columbia)
TIMEBOX-Walking Through The Streets Of My Mind/ Don’t Make Promises (Deram)
THE TROGGS-Love Is All Around/ When Will The Rain Come (Page One) #5
TWO AND A HALF-Suburban Early Morning Station/ Just Couldn’t Believe My Ears (Decca)
THE WHO-I Can See For Miles/ Someone’s Coming (Track) #10

ALBUMS

BONZO DOG DOO-DAH BAND-Gorilla (Liberty)
ERIC BURDON/ANIMALS-Winds Of Change (MGM)
HOLLIES-Butterfly (Parlophone)
DAVID McWILLIAMS-Volume 2 (Major Minor) #

HAPPENING!

WATCHING!

REVIEWS

DotBlossom Toes

Look At Me I'm You / What On Earth / Mrs. Murphys Budgerigar : A value for money single! The first side runs over 4 minutes, and the 2 titles on the flip total nearly 5 and a half minutes. Difficult to describe the disc in a few lines, because there are so many different styles, influences, and ideas incorporated into 3 tracks. You've heard the Teenage Opera? Well, this is a sort of Teenage Compendium of Modern Beat Group Sounds! I found the disc thoroughly intriguing from the word "go". Blossom Toes is a group laden with talent, which is exploited to the full advantage. Give it a try, and I think you'll agree that there's more substance and original musical conception in this single than in many an album, definitely worth while.

Look At Me I'm You: I think there are just the slightest signs that they're trying to do something along the lines of psychedelic, wouldn't you say? No, you've got to have a melody. They are thinking that everything is going in this direction and they've gone overboard and slapped in everything. I mean look at Pink Floyd. They know how to do it. This has got everything psychedelic and weird that the hippie wants but it's just shades of Strawberry Fields though. No matter how many times I hear it, it just doesn't happen. There's too many tempos and arrangements going on. (Barry Gibb in Melody Maker's Blind Date feature)

DotAlan Bown

Toyland : Enchanting words set to an up-to-the-minute backing, incorporating flute, cellos and organ. Mid-tempo beat. Well worth your attention.

Toyland : I'm a bit tired of songs saying how turned on childhood is. We all know that. Now why don't they leave it alone? Beautiful production.

Toyland: Too much! A great record from a great group. This must mark the long awaited chart breakthrough of Alan and his exceptional young singer Jess Roden. It's clever, cute and a hit, or my name isn't Ronald K Sprothole.

 DotEric Burdon & The Animals

San Franciscan Nights: Virtually a poem to San Francisco, it commences with a dramatic narrative a la Dragnet, followed by a gentle description, laced with occasional strong sentiments about "the Cops." The fade out is a rather anti-climax after such a strong opening, but doubtless all things have their purpose. A hit!

DotThe Creation

Life Is Just Beginning : Another one of those discs with strong classical overtones. It opens like a Haydn string quartet, then suddenly breaks into a thumping mid tempo beat opus, though the cellos and fugal strains are still much in evidence in the scoring. The boys generate a good vocal sound, involving an absorbing harmonic blend, and the mixture of solid beat and classical influences comes across surprisingly well.

DotCrocheted Doughnut Ring

Two Little Ladies : You could expect almost anything from a group with a name like this. What you get is a delightful story-in-song, set to a jazz-tango beat, with a few psychedelic effects thrown in.

Two Little Ladies : Some nice ideas. Funny little ethereal icicle sound. Reminded me of "Mellow Yellow".

Donovan

There Is A Mountain : Magic minstrel skips out of the mist and into the pool of warm sunlight to look beautiful again. Donovan is Donovan and he's back with another graceful, enterprising song breathing with life and pulsating with natural, vital energy like an internal combustion engine tunefully chugging in his head. A relaxed "live" studio recording, timing , lyrics -- "caterpillar sheds his skin to find the butterfly within" -- plus the cool, sighing sounds of flute, clopping bongos and congas, coupled with Don's vocal expression gives this record the disturbing gentleness of both "Sunshine Superman" and "Mellow Yellow" and the power of a thousand exploding suns.

There Is A Mountain : "Mellow Yellow" with a West Indian influence, bongos, and warm, shuffling sound hand-clapping, and his voice sounding like sand going through a timer. It's hard to tell whether it's commercial. Certainly it will offend no-one's parents.

Simon Dupree and the Big Sound

Kites: Ah, so velly gloovy. Fiendish Chinese effects bow in Simon and his Oriental sound. It's a beautiful song, made more tender by some genuine dialect by Jacqui Chan. Gongs clang, rice paper bowls across the Great Wall and the Red Guards will have their hands full when this decadent Western pop song becomes a hit from Chungking to Gerrard Street. Bang on.

Episode Six

I Can See Through You : A thundering beat, with a double-time tambourine and a great guitar sound, underlines this well-written number. And there are a couple of tempo breaks, with the group supported only by a flute.

I Can See Through You : How strange. They go off on another tangent and freak out liberally. It makes me feel a bit uncomfortable for them and it's rather uncontrolled stuff too.

I Can See Through You: Good grief, here is a merry marriage of idioms. I detect a sort-of Buddy Holly guitar riff, a nice solid drum beat, plus modern advanced vocal harmonies and flute breaks. It's an inventive concept which keeps on happening right through to the end, with a surprise a microgroove. If not a hit, it deserves an award of some description for ideas, taste and good intentions.

DotFamily

Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens : This is weird enough to make it. Strange eastern sounds, a mid-record change of mood, a lead singer with the confidential style of Steve Marriott and a good bit of record engineering make this an impressive first single. I like it anyway.

Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens : Produced by hit-maker Jimmy Miller, this has a Traffic quality about it. Intriguing lyric, with an unusual sitar-like sound emanating from the twin-necked guitar, and a punch-packed second half. Sensual and startling.

Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens : An excellent record of its type. Actually it sounds as if it was recorded in a Hindu Temple.

DotHoneybus

Do I Still Figure In Your Life? : Written, arranged and produced by the group's lead singer Peter Blumson, it's an intimately handled ballad, with a glowing backing of cellos and acoustic guitars.

Ice

Anniversary : Better than expected. Nice breathlessness about it all. Super chorus, and I liked the lead singer. Yes!

DotJohn's Children

Go-Go Girl / Jagged Time Lapse : If you can resist the compulsion to dance to this you must be a Radio 3 listener! It's a sizzling hunk of r-and-b, blended with psychedelic effects and oscillations, and strings - surprising, but effective - in the background. Ideal for discotheques, but the welter of big-name releases coming out simultaneously may prevent it from making the chart. FLIP : You'd expect something way-out from this title - and you'd get it. Not so much from the treatment, as from the lyric, which is very surrealistic. Unusual!

Kinks

Autumn Almanac : There are few groups more capable of painting vivid and descriptive verbal pictures than The Kinks. This follows the tradition of "Waterloo Sunset" by latching on to every-day happenings and giving them an absorbing lyrical quality. Ray Davies takes the lead and the other boys join in with carefree abandon. Like most of the Kinks' discs this is loaded with commercial appeal-- a catchy, if somewhat familiar tune; a bouncy beat and a fruity sound in the backing. I wouldn't class it as one of their very best discs, if only because the melody has a certain similarity with past releases, but a big one for sure.

DotKippington Lodge

Shy Boy / Lady On A Bicyle : EMI has high hopes of this new group, and with some justification. Relating a charming story-in-song, about the slow and embarrassed getting together of a boy and girl, it's very true to life - and will have a self-indentification to many youngsters. Set to a easy-paced Good-Time rhythm, and pleasantly sung. Produced and arranged by the "Teenage Opera" man, Mark Wirtz. Could happen! FLIP : Another good story line in this lyric. The verses are soloed, with falsetto harmonies in the chorus. The rhythm is a sort of beat-waltz. Fun!

Shy Boy: Once in a while a really great record bubbles to the surface. Pop. One just came up. It's written by Keith West, who should be awarded a silver cup and gold watch for the lyrics, which are brilliant. It's produced by Mark Wirtz and it's sympathetically sung by a new group, who actually rehearse at Kippington Lodge, Sevenoaks, in Kent. You'll want to listen all the way through to this sad tale about the shy boy, whose clothes don't fit, who's skin is never right, buys a ring for a girl and finds she's already wearing one. A small gem of all-British originality.

DotRuperts People 

Prologue To A Magic World : Based on "Alice In Wonderland" and an excellent disc. Absorbing story-in-song lyrics with a melodic chorus, gentle rhythm, rippling celeste and fascinating organ sound.

DotTimebox

Don't Make Promises: A new group making quite an impact with their interpretation of this interesting medium pacer. Soloed, with an ear catching backing of organ, vibes, guitar and assorted strange noises.

DotThe Who

I Can See For Miles : An ear-shattering wall of sound, with penetrating rasping guitars, heavy-handed drumming and constant cymbal-crashing, and Pete Townsend's vocal riding smoothly above the all-happening backing. Strident, repetitive, raucous and beaty, but it's also charged with dynamite and laden with atmosphere. Not quite so tuneful as some of their hits but another big one.

I Can See For Miles : I can't say I was as knocked out with this as I expected to be. It has none of the charm that one has come to expect of Townsend's compositions and in many ways it sounds just like lots of other groups, which is a shame, because one expects The Who to be always ahead, although naturally it is a very superior record of its type. It is hard and it is driving. It has tight, crashing aggressiveness with Moon falling onto his drums and plenty of room for Pete to circle his arms around. Daltrey insinuates the bitter words and it sounds like eight electric trains going through a tunnel. Having read all that--it sounds good. I just think it seems very long, and usually for me, The Who can't make a record that's too long, that's all.

I can See For Miles: In a town without end, with a moon that never sets, there is a fire burning. It is the fire of the Who, once though to be diminished or dying, but obviously glowing with that renewed heat. Forget Happy Jack, this marathon epic of swearing cymbals and cursing guitars marks the return of The Who as a major freak-out force.

 

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