Candy –Orang-Utang

Candy –Orang-Utang/ The Rock Comes Back -Pink Elephant PE 22.769X (1973 BE)

This is where I lose any lingering credibility I may have still had...
It looks like Candy were a Belgian aggregation (group would be too sane), and Orang-Utang is well...BLOODY SUPERB, makes Jungle Jim sound like Joy Division. The manic drumming, Farfisa organ and insanely infectious tune put this one right up with the best Monkey songs around...it nestles perfectly next to Douglas (Monkey Song) in any case...

Just download this and play it loud and proud...No shame or guilt, just surrender to its power. The B side is "good" too!

Thanks to J.K for this one

Click on title for a full version of Orang-Utang

Hans Van Hemert –Because Of The Cats

Hans Van Hemert –Because Of The Cats/ You Got To Sing Tonight –Philips 6012 324 (1973 NL)

Hans Von Hemert’s name appears as producer on many choice Dutch Glam era singles including Dump’s incredible Annabelle (or Annabella). He also had quite a few releases under his own name and was pretty popular at the time.

Because Of The Cats is the title song to what appears to be a Dutch Giallo/Slasher movie -Niet Voor De Poesen : A series of rapes are commited by a gang of "untouchable" rich kids. The gang doesn't need to steal as they are all rich. Instead, they hold sadistic quasi-satanic rituals, wreck the houses of other rich people, and rape women. The boys call themselves "The Ravens"; the girls call themselves the "She-Cats." Egged on by the "She-Cats," the boys' activities escalate until they commit a murder...
Musically Because Of The Cats is nailed down by a thumping beat, sports a catchy tune with subtle orchestration and features some choice use of phasing half the way through. A very cool single indeed!

Click on title for a soundclip of Because Of The Cats

Starbuck –Heart Throb

Starbuck –Heart Throb/ Ricochet –Bradleys BRAD 7411 (1974 UK)

The ongoing Brian Engel/ Martin Briley saga continues…Yes, it’s ye old Mandrake Paddle Steamer, Prowler, Liverpool Echo, Shambles guys with the follow up to Do You Like Boys. It’s pretty different from the previous Starbuck release as it leaves the camp element behind, but the 2 sides are veritable corkers. Both songs were written by Howard/Blaikley with Heart Throb being a glammed up 50s / 60s recreation with an incredible production –progressive Doo-Wop anyone?
Ricochet is more like Chicory Tip updating The Merseybeat sound but with more oomph. Fantastic stuff!

This just in...Thanks to Brian, Martin and Mark J. for the added info

From Brian:

“Well, actually, there WAS a band and we DID do a few gigs. It actually was planned as a real entity. It was absolutely outrageously stupid but I remember loving it because it was so unutterably silly.”

“We were all pounced up with the most hermaphrodite look that our girlfriends could devise and it really appealed to my sense of the bizarre to be gyrating around, looking like Lynsey De Paul singing simple pure Billy Fury songs like Half Way To Paradise.”

“Briley and I actually did a short tour of Germany with another bloke called Barry Blue. We were halfway through the tour and wondering why Germans seemed so keen on giving blokes flowers when it dawned on us that we had been booked into a series of Gay Bars.”

Martin: “I seem to remember as a four piece we were booked to play a gig at some skinhead club in Chatham, the crowd looked SO dangerous we had to decide whether to slip out the back, OR go the other direction and just totally camp it up. We chose the latter. I could never work out how we managed to get away with that, maybe they felt too sorry for us to get violent.”

Click on title for an edit of Heart Throb and Ricochet

Letters From The Front...

So here I am in Hamburg...

Spent the day checking out the record scene, and I've had a pretty productive day.

Many of the shops I had on my list are now closed, but the remaining stores well made up for it so far. The first shops I visited were Zardoz, Slam and Rekord in Schulterblatt. I picked up 4-5 singles there, but following a short taxi ride I landed at Plattenrille which you can find at the end of an alley at 29 Grindelhof. The shop itself is pretty big with an OK collection of singles and a huge amount of LPs, but after talking to Paul who's been running the shop for donkey years, I was invited into the backroom which is in fact more like a warehouse! There must have been over 50.000 singles there, all meticulously alphabetisized. The only shop I know where Cardinal Point have their own section for chrissake!

Needless to say, after a good 4 hours going through the boxes, I found 50 singles of note, which come to think of it is the same number I usually find at the Utrecht fair in 2 days!

Here are some of the finds of the trip so far, most in pic sleeves:

Muff: Sexy Sexy Lady -Ger Pic sleeve

Missing Link -Friday On My Mind

Alvin's Heart Beats -Chilly Willy -nice German Pic Sleeve

Teenager -Baby Hold On (related to Dutch band Bloom)

Walkers -I do The Show For You (The Danish ones, not the Dutch)

Geoff Appleby -Make Me Take Me -UK Demo

Extra copies of both Buzz singles (Geoff Appleby/ "Mutt" Lange)

Revolver -But How I Love It (a spare of this fine single)

Burnt Out Stars -In Vain

Nicky Bulldog -Bulldog (Dog Power Song) -heard a snippet of this -sounds pretty wild, most likely an Italian job...

Radiator -Isn't It Strange -UK Demo

Sting -Blazing Inferno -A second single by the band who recorded the Bubbleglam classic Thief Of Baghdad

Paul Ryder And Time Machine -Are You Ready (Great German Pic sleeve)

Funny Dog -One, Two, Three (fun bubblegum tune)

Capital City Rockets -Little Bit Of Fun/ Breakfast in Bed (Jaimie Lyons from The Music Explosion!)

K.K Black -California Sun (produced by Robert Johnson, the guy looks very familiar to me, who is he?

Teddy Lane -Do The Rock 'N' Roll

The Sorrows -C'Mon Everybody. This looks like the same Sorrows. Not sure if Whitcher/ Lomas are involved, but it's produced by Eddie Seago and John Rossall and it's from 1977!!!!

Rats -Turtle Dove -lovely bright yellow German pic sleeve with band photo

Phoenix -Black Is Black (looks like their second single, also produced by Adrian Baker)

Barry Ryan -Do That -UK Dawn

Shepstone and Dibbens -Shady Lady -god they look dodgy on the cover of this German single...

Brandy Balloon -Tambourine -Sonet -also Shepstone and Dibbens

SkinFlick-Do You Want To Touch Me -UK Demo -god knows, this might be a horrinble disco version...

Disco Kid -Roller Coaster -Ger RAK

Heart -Lovemaker -Great full colour German Pic sleeve for this Dutch Glam cruncher

And much more, plus a couple of Elton Motello singles and a bundle of spares...

Paul is a very cool guy who knows his stuff inside out. They don't list their stock on the website, but I left quite a few singles, so if you need 10 Elton Motello singles or that elusive Cardinal Point track, you know where to go. They do mail order.

Click on title to go to Plattenrille's website

Michael Elo –Wizzy Lizzy

Michael Elo –That’s My Bag/ Wizzy Lizzy –Philips 6012 364 (1973 NL)

Frizzy Micky sings Wizzy Lizzy! Michael was a Danish citizen who had quite a few releases including a solo album with the self-effacing title "Me" in ‘71. This single was recorded in The Netherlands under the supervision of producer Hans Van Hemert (Because The Cats coming soon…) and it’s a nifty Hard Rockin’ Glam crossover. The lyrics allude to that great Danish obsession with broomsticks and the like, but there’s no foul, only fair to be found here…Perhaps not a great Dane, but a man of definite merit based on this B side in any case.

Click on title for a soundclip of Wizzy Lizzy

Hero –Love Gone Bad

Hero –Love Gone Bad/Nothing Comes Easy –Private Stock PVT 102 (1977 UK)

Anyone for Downer Glam syndrome? Go on pop a couple of ‘ludes and get into this baby.

I’m not one for growers as life's too short, but this is really something special. It’s pretty indescribable, but I somehow think of Cheap Trick in Dream Police/Voices mode, but persevering with their Lennon obsession with a handful of horse tranquilizers and cheap synths. It sounds like they were even going for a Reggae type beat, but thank god they completely failed in that department. The arrangement and structure are really strange to say the least, just you wait until that thumping middle eight kicks in. Anyhow, this is quite an incredible production, just give it a chance to seep into your (un)consciousness.

In order to get you all hooked, when you click on the title you will get the FULL version of Love Gone Bad

Thanks for the turn on Bob!

Hamburg Record Shops

Hi
I'm off to Hamburg for a few days. Can anyone recommend any record shops? Most listings on the web are done by "dance" music types, but what I want are places where I can find my dodgy 70s singles!
Thanks
Robin

Eddie Kidd –Leave It To The Kid

Eddie Kidd –Leave It To The Kid/Big Jump At Picket’s Lock –Decca FR 13795 (1978 UK)

Leave It To The Kid is a bone-crunching-13-double-decker-hopping-semi -smash-stomper by the UK’s own Evel Knievel: Eddie Kidd. Of the Decca singles I have, this is by far the greatest as it’s a truly rousing performance featuring Eddie’s unmistakable vocal range along with a great driving string section. The track was even a "Tony Blackburn Record of the Week", and that man certainly knew his stuff! Eddie retired from stunts a while ago, but I am proud to acknowledge his legendary status here and now, if only for this amazing release.

Click below for a soundclip of Leave It To The Kid

You can also catch Eddie performing the track on Peter Cook’s Revolver here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCjgEj2iJZg

Return from Utrecht...again!

Every time I come back from the fair, the same clichés come to mind:...The sheer size of it is just plain nuts (500+ dealers) and it really pisses all over what passes for major "International" fairs here in London.

The aches and pains of crouching, stretching and walking up and down the isles in a crazed daze looking through the Zillions of singles, in the hope of finding that special classic that makes the trip worthwhile, is madness...BUT yes, I found some great and sometimes surprising stuff, but also some hilarious disasters!

The whole trip didn't start too well as I had to make changes to my original plans and went to Brussels the day before for work commitments, and in the confusion I forgot my 3 day passes in London! But what could have been an issue was swiftly sorted out with great friendliness by the organisers and I didn't have to go through with plan C, which involved hanging on to the under-carriage of dealer's van to gain entry...(In fact there was a plan B as well). So by 9 am on Friday, I was in...
And the result? Well, I came back with over 50 singles, including one absolute Corker from someone who was a household name in the UK in the 70s...I'll keep schtum about it until I review it (hopefully on Monday), in the meantime I'll just divulge that it involves motorbikes...

Here are some of the other ones:

Black Fire -Come On And Do It (RCA Ger 1975). This is in fact the Dutch Black Fire, they renamed the song and gave the new sleeve a certain Pantherman feel to it. Click on the link above to go to the original review and soundclip.
Mustang -Wild Mustang (-Good Teens soundalike on blue vinyl)
Pagliaro -Lovin' You Ain't Easy (in a rather fetching French Pic. sleeve)
Kraaijeveld -Yes Tonight Josephine
Stamford Bride -Rise Sally Rise
Baby Face -Watch Your Step
A collection of BubbleGlam singles with a...er... "European feel": 2 by Jackpot including Is Everybody Happy (Incredibly dodgy, but with stomping sounds that are the closest to crunching goosesteps yet -they're German after all), Crackerjack -Tambourine (also German), Cissy by Yellow Cat (Dutch but sound German!)
Holy Mackerel -Rock'A'Bye (Barry Blue/Green)
Carnaby Street Runners (Kasenetz/ Katz, similar in concept to Mike Berry's Biggles single)
Fogg -Dancin' To The Music (Ger pic sleeve)
Duck Deluxe -I Fought The Law (RCA Demo)
Blackfoot Sue (German single with Glittery Obituary on the B side)
Smoke-Shagalagalu (yes, it's BubbleGlam folks...)
Starbuck - Heart Throb -Bradleys (A great single)
Wild Angels -Jo Jo Ann (from Out At Last)
Wild Angels -Sally Ann (NOT from Out At Last!)
Time Machine -Turn Back Time (French Psych with pipes from the Andes!!! -on Rubble volume something or the other)
Merlin-Wild Cat (Nice German pic sleeve)
Catapult (UK issue on Bradleys!)
Park Lane -The Party (Produced by Pete Koelewijn, the A side rocks and it has a different version of The Rockets' Rock 'n Rioll Drummer Part 2 on the B side
Dump -Will you Still Love Me Tomorrow
The Dogs -I've Been Down Down Down (a 68' call to rarms transplanted to 1974)
Hans Van Hemert -Because of The Cats -(a cracking Glam single)
TimeBox -Baked Jam Roll In Your Eye (lovely mint UK copy of this nutty masterpiece)
Bang -Questions (German pic sleeve of a Blue Cheer -like/ Teen hard rock band)
The Boer Four -The Boers Have Got My Daddy on Surf City Recordings!!!????
Magnet -Something To Remember me By (Ex Downliner Sect in semi-Glam crunchin mode)
Giggles -Just Another Saturday Night (Great German pic sleeve on this one)
Zips -You're So Good To Me (Yum Yum). This is in fact Pip Whitcher and Roger Lomas (The Sorrows, The Eggy, Renegade). As Zips, they also released Bye Bye Love (with a great B side) on RAK in the UK, but I didn't know about this one, which comes in a gear German pic sleeve. Musically, it's a stange mix of Adrian Baker Beach Boys fixation and Lomas/ Whitcher Heavyness with Glam seasonings.

I'll be reviewing some of these over the next few weeks, let me know if you have any particular request...

Here we go again...

I'll try and report back on Sunday...I will also be spinning a few singles here http://www.dbstudio.nl/ on Friday night, sleep...? Sleep is for wimps!

The Memories –Lay It On Me

The Memories –Lay It On Me/Did Ya Get It –Rex R11091 (1974)

This is definitely one of the more obscure Junkshop Glam singles…It has all the staple trappings including HEYs, handclaps, a mean Glitter fuzz part and it’s from the right year, but… it doesn’t quite make it to upper echelons of Crunching Glam Corkers, and is in a similar bag as Loco's At The Local Dance (BASF). Still the cartoon voice intro and the Glam-by-numbers arrangement, make this single a nice find and not only because it’s so damn obscure…The B side is also a rocker but in a lighter quasi-Bubblegum mode…Were they perhaps an Irish band???

Click on title for a soundclip of Lay It On Me