So I know that all of you caught the Pistols in Manchester, saw Led Zeppelin in 1968 when they were billed as the New Yardbirds, Beatles at the Cavern, etc. Me?
The Spinners, the UK ones with the yellow smocks. It would have been at some point between 1975-77 at Bristol Colston Hall. They played in the round, because I can clearly remember a guy behind them yelling furiously while they were singing “Deep Blue Sea” – I don’t believe he was overcome with emotion, just a little disturbed – he was gently led away. Perhaps it was the blue light they switched on for that song? This is the only real detail I can remember from the night beyond them standing in a thin yellow line. I was about 5 or 6 at the time, so I would probably have enjoyed “The Rambler”, “D-Day Dodgers” and “Everybody Loves Saturday Night” if they played those as they were my favourites.
Prior to this, music was a mysterious thing held on plastic C90 cassettes that frequently regurgitated their spool into the guts of my dad’s expensive looking “separates” system – two cassette decks, amp and tuner, but no turntable (it’s just occurred to me that we never had any vinyl in the house). Dad had a drawer full of cassettes, a few bought, most taped and labelled in his own neat hand. There was also some sort of colour scheme on the spines of the cassette boxes – the titles were on purple or blue card. If I cast my mind back, I see Tomita, The Spinners, Lots of Cliff and the Shadows, Planxity, The Tain by Horslips (that one I found dissonant and scary), Steeleye Span, West Side Story, a Ronco compilation called That’ll Be The Day which I adored, and can still play in my head to this day, Jean Michel Jarre – the rest are lost to me.
I can also remember the incredibly shitty Beatles compilation my dad had made…It opened with the “Paul is Dead/Cranberry Sauce” loop from Strawberry Fields, plunged into Penny Lane, then heavily favouring Ringo vocals throught, Fool on the Hill was probably the high point. I’m sure I’m the only Beatles fan who had “Act Naturally” word perfect before say “Please Please me.” I was shocked when I got familiar with the catalog just how many hits my dad had managed to avoid.
On seeing the Spinners, I remember a disconnect closing in my head that the music on these lumps of plastic could and was actually played by real people in real time, so thank you to them for that.
Despite the relative poverty of music in this drawer, I listened to it all, many times – it was years before I could afford my own music, or get myself to the library to borrow some. For me, my musical world was all here apart from the Jimmy Saville show where he played top 10s from 3 decades and the Top 40 on Sunday night. Dad would tape the latter for us and my sister and I would play it every night on a mono cassette player which was carefully positioned on the landing, equidistant between our two bedrooms, ensuring neither of us could hear it very well.
There were no classics, no Floyd, Zeppelin, Bowie, No significant early rock beyond Cliff. Steeleye Span, but no Fairport, Horslips, but no Tull, certainly nothing more raucous than the Shadows. My parents had the anti-collection. (Ooh, I’ve just remembered there was a reasonable amount of Manhattan Transfer.)
I didn’t really appreciate it at the time, but there wasn’t much money around us in the early 70s, so I guess going from Wells to Bristol to a concert was a big deal to my mum and dad – I do remember having to dress smartly. They wouldn’t have had a drink before – alcohol was limited to a shared bottle of Woodpecker cider bough from the Off license (literally – it was sold via a door round the back of the local pub).
As money improved, we went to more things – a restaurant when I was 11 (I spilled a coke on the white tablecloth, and nobody yelled, they just cleaned it up and got me another, it was amazing!), my second concert was (drum roll) Mary Hopkin! and the first band I saw with with electric instruments was Dr Hook*. This one clearly soured my parents on live shows (I don’t remember anything, but dad says they were “a bit rude”), because that was the last show we saw as a family.
There’s a fair old gap until I was able to go to shows on my own dime. That first gig, I think, was Kitchens of Distinction in about 1986, so I kept up the tradition of failing to see anything of importance.
*I’m going to guess that somehow my mum had heard “Sylvia’s Mother” on deciding to go to this one.
I found the track listing for the Ronco compilation. I had no idea my dad had left a bunch of track off it. I’ve marked those so you can see what I was dealing with
Everly Brothers Bye Bye Love
Johnny Tillotson Poetry In Motion
The Diamonds Little Darlin’ – Omitted
The Platters Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Big Bopper Chantilly Lace
Dion And The Belmonts* Runaround Sue
Everly Brothers Devoted To You
Jerry Lee Lewis Great Balls Of Fire – Omitted
Johnny Preston Running Bear
The Champs Tequila
Little Richard Tutti Frutti – Omitted
Everly Brothers (Till) I Kissed You
Paris Sisters* I Love How You Love Me
Del Shannon Runaway
Larry Williams (3) Bony Moronie – Omitted
Jimmy Rodgers* Honeycomb – Omitted
Frankie Lyman Why Do Fools Fall In Love
Buddy Knox Party Doll
Ray Sharp* Linda Lou – Omitted
Johnny And The Hurricanes Red River Rock – Omitted
Bobby Vee And The Crickets (2) That’ll Be The Day – Omitted (Bizarre! now the title makes sense)
The Ponitails* Born Too Late
Everly Brothers Wake Up Little Suzy
Brian Hyland Sealed With A Kiss
The Monotones Book Of Love
Lloyd Price (You’ve Got) Personality
Bobby Vee And The Crickets (2) Well All Right – Omitted
Danny And The Juniors* At The Hop
Dante And The Evergreen* Ally Oop
Bill Justis Raunchy – Omitted
David Essex Rock On – Omitted
Billy Fury A Thousand Stars – Omitted
Viv Stanshall* Real Leather Jacket – Omitted
Billy Fury Long Live Rock – Omitted
Stormy Tempest What In The World (Shoop) – Omitted
Billy Fury That’s All Right Mama – Omitted
Eugene Wallace Slow Down
Billy Fury Get Yourself Together – Omitted
Billy Fury What Did I Say – Omitted
Wishfull Thinking* It’ll Be Me
My dad had that album on two LPs, which he then taped to play in the car. If I’ve got it right, the first three sides were a compilation of licensed tracks (omitting most of the big names, of course!) whilst the four side comprised of music from the film.
Ah! That makes sense why the fourth side was largely ignored by my dad. Cracking album! I’m going to recreate it as a Google Play(list) right now.
I’ve got that album. Before you get the fourth side it’s brilliant. Pressed on cardboard, unfortunately.
A car boot classic.
On Spotify! My brother had this album and I played it to death as a kid.
My dad was also a erm..fan of the Spinners.
Although an early lover of 50s style RnR he just didn’t get “it” after about 1968.
A live Spinners album was much played during the mid 70s….I bloody hated it.
The only one I can recall was (of course) a track called something like “leaving of liverpool”
Ahem….”So fair these well, my own true love
When I return united we will be
It’s not the leaving of liverpool that grieves me
But me darling when I think of thee….
The audience singalong bought to mind the old biddies on Monty Python.
“But he sailed out of Liverpewwl, never to retuuurrrnnnn…”
The Tain is flipping great!!
“On seeing the Spinners, I remember a disconnect closing in my head that the music on these lumps of plastic could and was actually played by real people in real time”
That I am familiar with.
When my daughter was 3, I had a Boo Hewerdine promo for months before it came out – in all good record shops. We played it on the drive to and from nursery. I could probably put it on now (she’s 16) and both of us sing all the words.
Anyhow, “Uncle Boo” would regularly be round at ours. He played a gig at a folk club (where I was a regular) in the basement of a Cambridge café and I was friends with the soundman and promoter. I knew they’d reserved us seats, I didn’t know they were middle of the front row. So I turned up with my 3-y-o moments before Boo went on stage and she settled down on my lap.
I can still see the look on her face, and the double-take she did, when Boo sat on the stage and then began to sing… and the penny dropped.
“That’s Uncle Boo and he’s singing your songs!”
It took years before she could understand that I don’t actually know every performer we’ve seen on stage.
The Spinners were also the first band I saw in concert. I’d have been about 9, and it would have been around 1973. After the show (at Newcastle City Hall), I was persuaded to wait at the stage door and get their autographs. All I managed was Cliff’s, and he wrote ‘Best wishes, Cliff & The Spinners’. At school a few weeks later, I was showing people my autograph book which, for some bizarre reason included all of Stoke City’s first team squad. ‘What’s that one?’ asked a classmate, pointing at the Spinners’ one. His eyesight wasn’t great, and he had blue NHS specs, with one lens plastered over, to prove it. ‘Oh that’s….Cliff And The Shadows’ I said. And that’s how uncool The Spinners were.
Here they are at their best, played by Russ Abbott, Les Dennis, and Dustin Gee as Cliff. Very different times.
My dad bought his stereo with compensation he got for a work related injury. We also initially had no turntable. When I got into The Beatles he brought home the 1967-70 album on a C90 (C180?) from “a lad at work”. I can still remember him putting it on and hearing Strawberry Fields Forever for the first time. I had only previously heard early Beatles stuff, mind was blown …
Would have been two C90s to cover the whole of the blue double – you could usually fit a single disc into 90 minutes, with a few notable exceptions (Relics, Caravanserai and others) that exceeded the time limit.
Yes I said C180? I meant C120. You mean a double disc normally fitted on to a C90, but the blue album is a bit longer.
C120’s – little feckers kept snapping. I’d have to try and borrow the albums again.
I was a TDK AD man myself. Couldn’t see the point of SA’s. Looked down on users of D’s.
C120s and C180s always used thinner tape than C60s and C90s. Even the more expensive makes. Only way to get that length of tape into a cassette shell.
People are far too huffy about The Spinners, they were there at the start and did a lot for folk music’s revival during the 60s and on into the 70s. Jumbo guitars, big smiles and jumpers, yes, but also quite a lot of otherwise neglected song revival and good original material.
Oh, and yes, The Tain is ace!
Completely different band in North America:
Agreed re The Spinners UK. Though I was hellbent on being transported to Planet Glam in ’73, I also had a soft spot for their songs and schtick.
There’s something about them, similar to something about The Seekers, that I find affecting. Groups whose records were owned by my far from the cutting edge crowd parents.
Young me: I like this, but not that.
Older me: I like this and that.
The Seekers! Dad definitely had some New Seekers. Not sure about the “old” seekers, though. I didn’t have any concept of cool at this point in life, and by the time I’d figured out what was “hip” I had means to establish my own collection.
I still play the Tain and Steeleye Span, and my kids were word perfect on “King Henry” and “Alison Gross” pretty early on – these were the two songs from my dad’s entire collection which most fascinated kid me, so I passed it down.
Every household in the 70s had at least one Ronco compilation in it.
Ours was Good Vibrations – I don’t recall it being played – Abba, The Carpenters and Barry Manilow were, but I recall little else apart from Radio 2.
When my own record player came along, it was this (mainly because of the cover – a generic 70s rock bloke with a guitar) and the Beatles Red album which were duly re-homed
(and I’ve still got both of them)
The Good Vibrations track listing (which doesn’t contain any Beach Boys) has actually got more interesting as the record (and I) ages:
Johnny Nash – I Can See Clearly Now
Chi Coltrane – Thunder And Lightning
Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes – If You Don’t Know Me By Now
Blood Sweat & Tears – Go Down Gamblin’
The Hollies – Long Cool Woman
Rod Stewart – Handbags And Gladrags
Poco – Good Feeling To Know
The Association – Darling Be Home Soon
The Raiders – Country Wine
Loudon Wainwright – Dead Skunk
Redbone – Witch Queen Of New Orleans
Albert Hammond – It Never Rains In Southern California
Mac Davis – Baby, Don’t Get Hooked On Me
King Harvest – Dancing In The Moonlight
James Brown – Down And Out In New York City
Ramsey Lewis – Slipping Into Darkness
Sly And The Family Stone – Thank You (Falletin Me Be Mice Elf Agin)
The O’Jays – 992 Arguments
Looking Glass – Brandy
Johnny Williams – Slow Motion
Mott The Hoople – All The Young Dudes
Melanie – Peace Will Come