Slightly delayed after a short-cut via the Crab Nebula, we open the doors of the Aftertardis once more – and after fleeting visits to the birth of rock n roll and the dark heart of the eighties we’re at officially the Most Important Year Ever: 1966 and all that. There’s really very little I need to add here – and Jon Savage has a whole book on How Important It is. It’s the year Beat became Hippy, the year the Beatles stopped touring, Bob had an accident with a motorbike, and generally everything famous to do with rock happened. As ever we kick off with some stories from the NME Rock N Roll Years, and then it’s open house on a thread for anything and everything from 1966. I am one so no gig stories from me for this year. Any sightings of the Macca soundtrack to Wedlocked welcome.
Scott Engel of The Walker Brothers entered a monastery on the Isle of Wight for ten days retreat. However, he left after only seven days at the abbots’ request as fans had arrived to besiege the monastery gate.
Australia and US Censor UK Discs
Two current UK Top 10 singles are running into difficulties elsewhere in the world. Dozens of US radio stations have banned Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch’s Bend It because the lyrics are considered too suggestive, and the group have responded by recording a new version in London with a different set of words.
The tapes of this have been flown to the US for rush release, while the original single has been withdrawn.
Meanwhile, in Australia, the Commercial Broadcasting Corporation is debating whether to approve a total ban on the Troggs’ I Can’t Control Myself, which if effected, will mean not only no radio or TV plays, but dealers being prevented from selling it too.
This would be the first complete state censoring of a pop record in Australia. The Troggs lead singer Reg Presley commented, ‘Naturally we’re disappointed, but there’s no point getting angry about it’
The Who’s single Substitute, the first under the group’s new deal with the Reaction label via Polydor, was related in the UK on Friday March 4, and quickly set off a complex chain of events. Firstly, The Who’s previous label Brunswick, marketed by UK Decca, rushed out a Who single of its own, coupling ‘A Legal Matter’ from their debut LP with ‘instant Party’ – a track formerly scheduled as the groups next A-Side under the title Circles.
A day later, producer Shel Talmy, responsible for every Who recording prior to their Reaction debut, successfully applied for an injunction to prevent Polydor from marketing Substitute. His complain was that Instant Party was also on the B-side of the Brunswick single, and his copyright was thus infringed.
Polydor was served with the injunction on March 9, and stopped pressing the record. In the London High Court on the afternoon of the same day, counsel for Polydor told the judge that a sale plan might kill the chances of the record’ which in less than a week has entered the New Musical Express chart (compiled that morning) at No 19, and was expected to rise to No 1’.
On Monday March 14, Polydor circumvented the injunction by releasing a new pressing of ‘Substitute’ with a different B-side, an instrumental called ‘Waltzing The Pig’. Then on March 18, the injunction on the original pressing was removed by the High court, and Polydor was able to shift a warehouse stock of 40,000.
McCartney to score Hayley Mill film
Paul McCartney is writing the musical score for Wedlocked, a new Boulting Bros film starring Hayley Mills and Hwyel Bennett, which has just been completed at Shepperton Studios.
Written by Bill Naughton (of Alfie fame), it is based on the West End play All In Good Time, and concerns the trials of a newly-wed couple forced to spend their honeymoon with their parents.
Although neither Boulting Brothers nor the Beatles office will yet provide official confirmation of McCartney’s involvement, manager Brian Epstein had already hinted that Paul would soon be undertaking a solo project on the heels of John Lennon’s film work in How I Won The War.
I was tempted to post some Dave Clark after the earlier thread, but couldn’t resist the naughty charms of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch:
The Who B-side was Waltz For A Pig, not “Waltzing The Pig”. It was actually a Graham Bond Organisation recording and despite being credited to The Who Orchestra, had no Who involvement.
The GBO were signed to the Robert Stigwood Organisation so it was an easy fix to use one of their tracks as an emergency B-side of the Who’s Reaction label single.
The best LP ever made was released.
Correct:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_Sounds
1966 wasn’t all groovy, you know. There was this.
Meanwhile, there was this, which spoke directly to a lovelorn student about to be kicked out of university: Hang on to a Dream by Tim Hardin.
I think 💭 I read once that either the Japanese or the Chinese (forgive me) warned against any child 👶 born in that year.
I’m 16-10-1966
I rather like the bit on the Mayo and Kermode film programme when, on the subject of “Jaws,” Mark deadpans “Of course, it’s NOT about a shark.”
The essential “Goal!” is not about football, it’s about England in 1966.
The last 20 or so minutes is far too much time to spend on the final which, bizarrely and alas, is about football – it’s also the least interesting bit of the film.
Goodison Park, Ayresome Park, Italians getting off planes and/or Koreans getting off coaches…..that’s “Goal!”
I was -4 years old, but even then I knew that this was a phenomenal track.
And the album it comes from aint that bad either
http://www.mojvideo.com/video-the-beatles-and-your-bird-can-sing/b0595cf808457c62ebd3
My first gig was in June 1966 – The Edmonton Regal to see The Who, The Spencer Davies Group, the Merseys and a load of no hopers. Hosted by Mike ‘Come Outside’ Sarne, the bill did also include one Jimmy Cliff, who no-one had heard of at the time, and really didn’t fit on thta tour. Unfortunately he didn’t go down well and Steve Winwood came on to help him out. I still have the programme somewhere! I was 16…!!
The Rolling Stones are in the second year of their golden run of singles – perhaps one of the greatest runs ever in a calendar year:
19th Nervous Breakdown
Paint It Black
Mother’s Little Helper
Lady Jane
Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing In The Shadows
…..in 12 months!
Wales won the 5 nations rugby championship and the most points they scored in any one game was 11! I don’t remember this and thankfully also not the other big sporting event of the year …
” the other big sporting event of the year … ”
Billie Jean King winning her first Wimbledon title?
Yep, that one. Never liked her …
Being one I would not have gone to the cinema, but have since caught up with four fantastic films made this year:
Fahrenheit 451
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Funeral in Berlin
and the none-more sixties Blow Up
Here’s the Yardbirds playing Stroll On in the film:
Some interesting things about that clip.
Jimmy Page is playing the same Fender Telecaster he would use to record the first Led Zep album
Jeff Beck (understandably) refused to smash up his prized (even in 1966) Gibson Les Paul, so a 50 quid Hofner was sent out for and that’s the one which meets an untimely end
That’s a young Janet Street Porter we see dancing in the long silver coat
The action is supposed to take place at the Ricky Tick club in Windsor, but a mock-up was created at the Elstree film studios
The entire crowd looks like they are slightly better looking extras from The Walking Dead
More info on that clip. It seems the Yardbirds were the director Antonioni’s THIRD choice for the film. The Who had turned him down and been replaced briefly by Steve Howe’s pre-Yes outfit Tomorrow. When the Yardbirds in turn replaced the latter, Beck was issued the already completed prop replica of Howe’s guitar for his mimed performance/mondo-destructo finale.
“Antonioni wanted the most exciting thing we could do,” recalled Beck, “so we played ‘Smokestack Lightning.’ But he didn’t like that, even though we had this incredible build up in the middle which was just pow!”
The Yardbirds’ scene, shot on an Elstree Studios set over four days that September, is notable for its incongruities: the “audience” was staged to appear like sullen zombies; band favourite Train Kept a Rolling was quickly rewritten as Stroll On because of publishing concerns; Beck’s usual solid body guitar (a Tele or Les Paul) was exchanged for a cheap, hollow-body stand-in that he was directed to smash at the song’s conclusion.
YouTube comments – a trusted source – suggests that a short time in a pre Python Palin is in the crowd