Welcome the the RPM Seven Day Soundtrack, week ending Friday 23rd December 2022. The year has turned, with the shortest day last Wednesday, the days are now lengthening and we're heading for those long summer days and some outdoor music. In the mean time, wishing you all peaceful best wishes this Mid Winter / Yuletide...I'm lighting the woodburner, pouring a seasonal ale and settling back to listen to your tunes; over to....

Jayne -

"Thank you, RPM faithful, for your musical gifts through the year."

John -

"Hi RPMers, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. Here are three tunes that caught my ear in the past seven days..."

Philip -

"First of all, to all RPMers, a very merry Christmas or happy yuletide or however you like to think of the midwinter festival.

A couple of seasonal offerings this week."

Jean

"A festive selection this week, but a variety of moods. Happy Christmas everyone. Keep the music coming."

Nina -

"Hi folks. Hope you're all well. Sad news this week; Terry Hall and Martin Duffy passed away - thoughts for their families."

"Here's a Winter Solstice poem by Katherine Venn..."

Cam Ceiliog

(Welsh for ‘cockerel’s step’, a local name for the Winter Solstice)

Draw up the darkness, pull it round

yourself; let winter settle

as the light’s door closes,

narrows to the soft,

unwinking gaze

of just one

bright eye.

Rest.

The path

before you

has been marked: trust

that the light will stretch

each day by the length

of a cockerel’s step, whose crows

slough off winter, peel back the dawn.

"Happy Christmas everyone, hope you all have a lovely time.

Cheers!"

Kevin -

"Happy Christmas RPMers. Hope everyone has a cool Yule ( I gotta get back to work now 😏)"

Alan -

"As forewarned, here's three primal slabs of 'real' punk rock from the sixties. Although I did (and still do) listen to 'prog', folk, indie etc, it's garage rock and psychedelia which by far outnumbers those genres in my collection and, along with 60's beat, r&b and 'mod', hits the deck most regularly. There's something about hearing 4 or 5 young kids struggling to find their voice (and usually the right notes in the right order too) in an adult world of 'professional' musicians and, as a result, turning out records of weird and wonderful imagination, both lyrically and, occasionally, musically too!! Musical purists or those of a nervous disposition are hereby warned......... it's crude, loud and, in one case, extremely basic!!!"

The Savages- 'Baby the world ain't round, it's square' (Initially Bermuda only 7" single, released mid 1966. Duane label. This from 'Teenage Shutdown! The World Ain't Round, It's Square!' LP released December 29th 1998. Crypt label.)

"Regularly referred to as one of the greatest 'garage/punk' singles of all time, the single is placed at number 4 in the list of the 1000 greatest garage rock records in Mike Markesich's 'Teenbeat Mayhem' book! What's even stranger in 'garageland' is that the group were from Bermuda!! The group comprised Bobby Zuill on bass, Howie Rego on drums with Paul Muggleton and Jimmy O'Connor on guitars. Formed in 1965, the group secured a residency at The Hub, based at the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda, regularly playing three sets per night for American students on summer vacation. February 6th 1966 saw the group recorded live at the hotel and the resultant album ('Live 'n Wild') was released on the local Duane label. The album consisted of thirteen tracks, several of which were group compositions and the rest cover versions including the Animals 'We've gotta get out of this place' and, weirdly, an English language rewrite of the Icelandic proto-psychers Thor's Hammer song, "Ertu Med". Four singles were issued over the next twelve months with 'The world.....' being the group's final release. Paul Muggleton usually handled lead vocals but it was Bobby Zuill who provided the scowling voice on 'The World.....' and was later quoted, "on the LP......we were so scared that we played everything too fast…". Following their earlier singles (local) success, the group's manager Eddie DeMello arranged a tour of the West Indies (supporting The Wailers) which was followed by a series of club dates and a recording session in New York. However, after several well received gigs supporting the Young Rascals, the Doors and Jimi Hendrix, and the recording of the 'Roses are Red' single, two group members either 'provoked', or got involved in what was referred to as a 'life-threatening incident' and, following the resultant inter-group arguments, they disbanded. The Allmusic website reviews the live album as " (an album which) stands as one of the best '60s full-length garage platters" and, as a result, prices are at a premium. I cannot find a valuation for an original Bermudan pressing but reissues regularly fetch between £50 and £100 and a 'Duane' label CD is for sale at $300 on Discogs . After the Savages split Rego relocated to the USA where he became a respected session player, recorded and toured with Peter Frampton, Sly and the Family Stone and Edgar Winter and appeared in the original cast of 'The Rocky Horror show' alongside Meatloaf before passing away in May 2019."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbBNUps1kbQ

Canadian Rogues- 'You better stop' (initially 7" b-side to US only ' Have you found somebody new' single released August 1965. Fuller label. This from 'Garage Punk Unknowns Volume 8 (18 Rockin' Mid-60s Punk Thumpers!)' released 1995. Crypt label.)

"The sleeve notes to this excellent comp states "Efforts to track down and interview the bands herein have turned up fruitless, so we won't waste your time with half assed guesswork as to the STORY BEHIND each group" (not my capitals BTW!!) but, of course, much has changed since 1995 thanks to t'internet so I can reveal quite a bit about the group. The group was formed in late Spring 1965 (as The Rogues) and consisted of Dane Streets (rhythm guitar), Harvey Criswell (lead guitar), Ronnie Harrel (bass), Willie Metts (vocals) and 'Doug' (drums) . Their first live gigs took place in August (around the same time as 'Have you....' was released) and they regularly played The Eldorado Showcase Club in Tampa Bay after auditioning for the owner Moose Vosberg who advised the onlooking Harvey Criswell's father, John, that 'If you'd get rid of that singer (Metts), you'd probably be okay.' Metts did go on to front the slightly more successful Raintree County in the early seventies. However, seeing the bands popularity with the local kids, Vosberg began to promote the group by realising they may be more popular by appearing to be 'foreign' and suggesting the addition of the 'Canadian' prefix (despite none of the group had left Florida at this time!!) and he then arranged their debut recording session at Tampa's Charles Fuller Productions studio. It's also possible that he turned down first refusal on a song on behalf of the group at this time............ the song was 'Snoopy vs The Red Baron' which was then recorded by another Fuller Production group from Ocala Florida, The Royal Guardsmen' (also not a 'foreign' group), which was released on the Laurie label and went to number two in the US, number six in the UK and number one in Australia and Canada. There's no mention of the Canadian Rogues response to this missed opportunity although it's highly unlikely the group would have indulged in any of the abysmal follow up discs recorded by the Guardsmen based around the Snoopy/Red Baron theme, including 2006's 'Snoopy vs Osama'!!!. Life seemed to improve when they provided live backing for Neil Diamond, Glen Campbell, the ShangriLas, and the Tokens and touring as support with the Hollies, the Beau Brummels, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, and Spirit. Summer 1966 saw the group head to Atlanta's Master Sound Studios where they recorded three singles which were released over the next 18 months, with minimal sales outside of their core audience. Further high profile tours followed supporting Tommy Roe, Ray Stevens and The Classics IV but, as the majority of these dates were in 'lounge clubs' they did little to improve the groups profile. The result? The group gradually fell apart and by late 1968, after several departures, the remnants of the group decamped to California where they disappeared into the mists of time............. until 1986 when there was a partial reformation which continues to this day. I can't see any copies of 'Have you found somebody new' for a valuation but there is a copy of 1967's 'Run and Hide' currently on Discogs at $400!!!

'Garage Punk Unknowns Vol 8' is another 'does what it sez on the can' album. I trawled through a lot of websites regarding groups on the album so that I could bore everyone silly again with 'some useless information trying to fire (your) imagination' (copyright Jagger/Richard) but, although the videos were generally available for most, if not all of the tracks, information on the guilty culprits was as scarce at the very tail end of 2022 as it was in 1995. Average price for the album is around £16 with copies sometimes fetching almost £30. Good value at the average figure............"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xa_pK261aY&t=2s

"And finally............. the finest (and possibly the 'rawest') garage single ever released, well, the b-side anywayze 'cos I've already posted the top side on Week 38. 2021 and, since that time, absolutely no new information appears to have surfaced on t'internet so I'm just copy and pasting the info from 'To Find Out':"

The Keggs- 'Girl' (7" single released December 1967. Orbit label. This from 'Back from the Grave Part 5' LP, released 1985. Crypt label)

" First up it's quite possibly (in my 'umble opinion anywayze) the greatest double-sider from the era. Recorded at the B.A.Starr Studio in Garden City Michigan, just 75 copies were pressed for the band to try to sell. However, every time the band played live they were bottled off stage and had to revert to regular name changes to try to secure further gigs. Then, disaster struck twice for the band; just before they took possession of the discs their lead singer was decapitated in a motorcycle accident and this was followed by the studio being destroyed in the '67 Chicago race riots. Luckily, studio owner Yolanda Owens had kept a safety copy and pressed a further 100 copies on her Orbit label with 75 going to the band and the rest to 'local DJ's and star makers'!!! There are just 14 copies known to have survived and, such is its collectability, that a cracked copy was sold for $400 in 2003 whilst a playable copy was snapped up by Jack White's cousin for $2561 in 2005!!"

Piers -

"I was delighted to hear from that the Elsing Wassail will continue.. and he also made confirmation official by releasing a flyer.... https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075867856305

This week I also found myself wondering about doing some seasonal shopping, (nah! We both hate it!), and I realise that Christmas really is all but upon us. Not just because there is choral music in the village shop and hideously swung, jolly vibe, Christmas carols being played on Radio 3, but because people are being genuinely nice to each other. I find it really very touching. All the more so when the strangers being nice to me are NHS staff who are being truly solicitous. That the Tory government is trying to break them would still be shocking even had it not been for all that smirking and clapping in Downing Street not so long ago. Now we just can’t afford to pay the equivalent of what they were being paid 12 years ago. Bags of money to cover tax cuts for the rich though…

But still… do have a wonderful Christmas all, and thanks for all the fabulous music that just keeps on coming…. I hope you find these diverting."

Tony -

"Seasons greetings to accompany my christmas week selections. I was gently nudged by Jean about my incorrect accusation last week that Perry Como helped the career of the Osmonds along. Of course as she correctly pointed out it was Andy Williams and given the sparse availability of American TV shows over here back then I should never have got the two mixed up. I was amazed to read this week that a very famous American, Bob Dylan, has been asked if he would like to appear on Corrie as he's a self-confessed fan - whatever next!

This week I've created a Joe Bonamassa sandwich as a thanks to Jean with Kenny Wayne Shepherd's band providing the surrounding slices. Merry Christmas everybody!"

Dave -

"Hi RPMers, a very happy Christmas to you all. Here’s my three this week."

Tim -

"My penultimate three for this year..."

'Til Next Time...at the end of the year....