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from Joe Meek to turning Orange
Here is a man who started recording with Joe Meek as a Millionaire and then moved into second hand musical equipment before founding his own company. Their equipment was everywhere and highly distinctive – well Orange in fact, and here you can learn how it happened https://youtu.be/fZ-6js6fdJs
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the lovely but late Kevin Ayers talks about Jimi and more
We have had to re-edit the clip we did of the Kevin Ayers interview as we used some of the Peter Whitehead footage of Jimi Hendrix and somebody else now claims to own it. Peter’s story was wonderful, Chas Chandler said turn up at the Saville Theatre I have this great new guitarist and when…
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how do you start a Virgin?
Simon Draper is Richard Branson’s second cousin and came over to London taking a summer job in the new mail order company. The second part of his story unfolds here https://youtu.be/2wi8CHfg8Z0
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Les Cousins folk club was the best London gig to play
In the Sixties there was a Folk Club in Greek Street where everybody wanted to play. It became the epicentre of the music world, it is where Paul Simon heard Scarborough Fair and claimed it as his own, Donovan did a big press piece about it, Sandy Jenny, Davy Gram, Bert Jansch the list of musicians is…
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Hot off the press
On our run up to Manchester last weekend we managed to pop in en route and film an interview with Gloria Bristow. As a teenager she lied about her age to get a job at Philips Records in the early Sixties, doing press for the label before branching out with her own PR company. By…
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Louder than Words
Just been up in Manchester for the Louder Than Words literary festival with Norman Jopling who we filmed in conversation with Mick Middles as one of the featured talks. In the audience was author Simon A Morrison who bought his own copy of Shake It Up Baby! which Norman was happy to sign for him.
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That’ll Be The Day – Five Dozen Dodgy British Cover Versions
When deejay Kenny Everett started playing random dodgy oldies on Capital Radio back in 1977, in search of “The worst record ever made”, he struck a nerve. Every week he’d get a sack of mail from listeners, nominating increasingly bigger stinkers, and the whole shebang quickly mushroomed, taking on a life of its own. The…
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Chicago Calling – the roots of the British Blues & R&B boom
Received wisdom would have us believe that British Blues began in 1962, when Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies opened the celebrated Ealing Club. But things are never quite as straightforward as “received wisdom” would have us think and the roots of British R&B/Blues do, of course, go back a decade earlier. Moreover, although the opening…
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Don Craine recalls the roots of Sixties British music
Don Craine has been around the roots of British popular music for quite a while now – starting his group around the time of the Pretty Things and the Stones in the early Sixties by forming the Sect and/or the Downliners Sect. He has an awful lot of time for the role that Chris Barber and…
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designing a sleeve for Dark Side
Here is an insight into the world of Hipgnosis and sleeve designing when Nick Mobbs was running the Harvest label. https://youtu.be/JCKFCsQKZUw
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Kidd, Sutch, Lord and Blackmore what a Purple patch
Another great interview yesterday with Nick Simper, now there is a man who has been a musician all his life working with greats like Johnny Kidd and entertainers like Screaming Lord Sutch before starting a small musical departure from the norm called Deep Purple with Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore. Then he moved on to forming…
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getting a Squeeze
After deciding to drop the Sex Pistols it took Derek Green quite while to get enthused again, but then he heard Squeeze on the radio and got all excited again. Signing them from Miles Copeland was straight forward but then he got talked into signing a band he had never seen or heard – watch and…