In 1964 The Sneekers, released a 45 on the Columbia label Bald Headed
Woman which was produced by Shel Talmy, and it was The Sneekers that The
Who (as The High Numbers) had played with at the start of their run of
Tuesday nights at the Marquee Club, which would become the stuff of
Maximum R&B legend.
In 1965 they changed their name to The Frays and recorded an LP that
was never issued. However, the holy grail of British Rhythm and Blues
survived on one single acetate. With the exception of the song titles
the only other information on the disc labels were the words, “The
Frays, Marquee Club”.
At the time the recording was made The Frays were Brian Howard on
vocals and harmonica, Johnny Patto on guitar, Clive Howse on bass and
Barry Gilford on drums. They recorded the 12-track album presented here
at the Marquee Studios, which were situated behind the club. It secured a
deal with Decca Records. The Frays’ first release for the label was
Walk On backed with the stunning group original Keep Me Covered, both of
which are included here.
The Frays
English singer-songwriter and guitarist, born 19 July 1956 in London, England, UK and died 26 March 2006 in New York, USA.
Together with his brother, Epic Soundtracks, Nikki Sudden formed what was to become Swell Maps,
releasing 4 singles and 2 albums on Rough Trade (UK) between 1977 and
their break up in 1980. All these releases hit #1 in the UK Independent
Charts. Swell Maps are remembered, particularly by similarly minded US
based bands such as Sonic Youth, as pioneering exponents of the 'DIY
Punk' school.
Sudden then began a solo career making two albums 'Waiting On Egypt'
and 'The Bible Belt' before joining up with Birmingham guitarist, Dave
Kusworth. The pair formed the Jacobites in 1983, going on to make two
albums, 'Jacobites' and 'Robespierre’s Velvet Basement', the latter
reaching No. 1 in the German Independent Charts. This tied in with their
first German tour which lead to Sudden relocating there.
When the Jacobites split in 1986, Sudden returned to his solo career
with Creation Records, releasing five solo albums over the next five
years: 'Texas', 'Dead Men Tell No Tales', 'Kiss You Kidnapped Charabanc'
(with Rowland S. Howard), 'Groove' and a compilation, 'Back To The
Coast'.
Nikki
The Untamed Youth were a mid-1980s garage rock group from
Columbia, MO, led by Deke Dickerson, who is best known as the frontman
for Deke Dickerson & the Eccofonics. The Untamed Youth first
performed in Columbia at local club The Blue Note in January 1987, and
quickly started playing locations throughout the United States between
the years 1988–1993. The group disbanded in August 1993, but later reformed for a European
tour in 1996 and to record two studio albums for both the Estrus and
Norton labels in 1997 and 1998 respectively. The Youth were primarily a
surf/frat rock band known for their wild stage antics such as spraying
the audience with cans of beer and for their self-deprecating sense of
humor (most notably to be found on their last album for Norton, 'Youth
Runs Wild'). All this, while holding a true reverence for their
influences… ”the gods whose grooves they hammer home are the stars on a
hundred forgotten 45's, their sacred texts 'Surfin Hearse and 'Go Go
Ferrari'. They're best live, but their Nineties LPs 'Some Kinda Fun' and
More Gone Gassers (Norton) surge with power; do not run other
appliances when playing these in your home”.
While their live shows were generally hard-edged, their albums are
notably well-produced and arranged particularly their early Norton work,
which was produced by Billy Miller of Norton Records and Andy Shernoff
of The Dictators. These early Norton albums “capture(d) the supercharged
atmosphere created whenever the Untamed Youth filled a teen club or
tavern”.
Despite considerable local success and strong critical acclaim
(including album reviews in Goldmine, Alternative Press, and Maximum
Rock & Roll), the band followed many of their garage rock brethren
into obscurity due to the (at the time) limited appeal of 1960’s retro
music. However, as has often been the case with bands of this genre, the
Youth gradually acquired a cult status as is evidenced by their
reuniting recently for festivals in both the U.S. and Europe. The band's
first albums, "Some Kinda Fun" and "More Gone Gassers" are now highly
sought after collector’s items on vinyl.
Youth
1985 fantastic album Italy (Trieste) garage psychedelic band.
Running Stream.
If you are an alternative/sixties rock fan than this album should be a
blessing. The songs range from dark ,haunting melodies to upbeat and
heavy sixties style garage rock without ever resorting to tacky lyrics
or boring sound-alike melodies.The songs are diverse and well
crafted,each one sounding unlike the other.This was the Steppes final
album and also their best,although there wasn't a bad album in their
entire cataloge.Definatly a band worth tracking down.
The Steppes
