The story of The Attack was an
undeniably complex affair, bad luck, an unstable line-up and a
broken promises didn't help for a band with such a short life
span consisting of only 4 singles. Richard Shirman : "I was
in a group called THE SOUL SYSTEM, a rhythm and blues outfit. The
leader of THE SOUL SYSTEM was Bob Taylor, an excellent guitarist,
who went on to join THE DOWNLINER SECT, ELMER GANTRY'S VELVET
OPERA and also played on a few studio things for THE PRETTY
THINGS. I was obliged to help my mother with the shopping on
Saturdays and, whilst queuing up at one of the counters in
Sainsbury's in the Earls Court road I got chatting to the
guy who, it turned out, played trumpet and a bit of guitar (Davy
O'List). He only lived round the corner so the two arranged for a
meeting. Armed with records we got chatting and I introduced him
to the club scene and we became good mates. I also introduced him
to the guys in the SOUL SYSTEM, which he eventually joined.
Being full of our own importance, we decided to form our own
group playing different stuff to THE SOUL SYSTEM. He then
told me of this Scottish chap (who worked at Sainsbury's full
time, Gerry Henderson, who played clarinet on 'Hi Ho Silver
Lining' ) and a bit of bass (and how !). Bob Hodges (Hammond
organ) and Alan ' Noddy ' Whitehead (drums) replied through
adverts we placed in MELODY MAKER." Luckily they were
spotted by Decca towards the end of the year and were hauled into
the studio for the release of their debut single, a cover of The
Standells 'Try It'. The song, also covered by The Ohio Express
was a fine effort and really deserved much more. At this point,
Alan Whitehead quit to team-up with the Marmalade with Barny
Barnfield stepping into the drum seat. Their troubles began with
the release of the second 45, 'Hi Ho Silver Lining', Richard :
"Our manager & Record company man, Don Arden, got an
acetate of the song which had been written by Scott English (an
ex singer from the Four Seasons) and told us that this was
to be our single. We recorded it (producer, Mark Wildey,
studio - Decca No. and, in the half an hour that remained,
Dave took the guys and ran a riff and chords he had in mind
whilst I wrote some lyrics and hummed them along ! Thus ' Anymore
Than I Do '. Don had all the pirates lined up but (this is
unsubstantiated) Micky Most had someone at Decca studio in his
pocket and they passed him the song / demo. Our first pressing
went and, due to the Stones, Tom Jones and Englebert Humperdink
all having singles out they were flat out and didn't press The
Attack, though demand was there. Two weeks later, Jeff's version
came out, he got Top of the Pops and the rest is, as
they say, HISTORY !" On hindsight, it's a shame they didn't
use, 'Anymore Than I Do', a fine song complete with blistering
guitar work from O'List of which John Peel even used this on his
pirate Radio London jingles. O'List however quit for pastures new
with The Nice shortly after this. Brian Davidson was drafted in
on drums before he left to join O'List at The Nice. After various
line-up changes the third single appeared, 'Created By Clive',
based on the atmosphere of Kings Road circa 1967 with a full
Kinks 'Dedicated Follower Of fashion' mood song. The song must
have had an impression on Decca who gave it to subsidiary label
Deram for a release b
y
The Syn. Both songs were released at the same time getting the
buying public into confusion and inevidently they both cancelled
each other out. The flip 'Colours Of My Mind' contained some
unusual Eastern guitar playing. Around this time guitarist John
DuCann joined and 'Magic In The Air' was due to be the new single
however this was rejected for being too heavy and was replaced by
the excellent 'Neville Thumbcatch', telling the story of a man
and his allotment whilst the flip 'Lady Orange Peel' caught The
Attack at possible their strangest and again the single failed.
Rumours were that Decca persuaded the group to record a full
album under the working title of 'Roman Gods Of War'. The music
press gave out news of a release date, scheduled for release on
15 March 1968. Richard : "Roman Gods of War' was a
prospective title of a song that Keith Hodge - drummer - was
alleged to be writing and, if it was used as a working title may
have some air of veracity about it. However, I wasn't aware
that there were any definite plans to release an album so all
talk of titles strikes me as being slightly superfluous !".
A final single 'Feel Like Flying' / 'Freedom For You' never
appeared and The Attack effectively ended. In 1968 DuCann worked
on a one-off album 'The Five Day Week Straw People' released on
the low-budget Saga label before forming Andromeda who even did a
reworking of The Attack's Go Your Way for their first single. It
took over 20 years for the story to re-open. In 1992 a bootleg appeared on the Reflection
label, 'Magic In The Air', a compilation of the singles and some
previously unreleased tracks. This was followed up with Angel Air's
Final Daze and in 2006 RPM issued "About Time" which included some BBC
session material.
Discography
Try It / We
Don't Know (Decca F 12550)
Hi Ho Silver Lining / Anymore Than I Do (Decca F 12578)
Created By Clive / Colour Of My Mind (Decca F 12631)
Neville Thumbcatch / Lady Orange Peel (Decca F 12725)
Feel Like Flying / Freedom For You (projected as the fifth
single, idea abandoned)
Compilation Releases
Magic In
The Air
|
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Final Daze (Angel Air, SJPCD 080) Track Listings...Magic In The Air / Mr. Pinnodmy's Dilemma / Freedom For You / Strange House / Feel Like Flying / Too Old / Go Your Way / Now The Sun Shines / Sleep Like A Child / Roll On / Go Your Way (demo) / You Know He Did / My Letters / Earth Tremor / Spaced Out / The Rock Door / Magic In The Air (unplugged) |
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The Five Day Week Straw People (re-issued on Angel Air, SJPCD 059) Track Listings...Five Day Week Straw People / I'm Going Out Tonight / Gold Digger / Postmen / Car Wash / Feel Like Having A Party / Sunday Morning? / Does It Rain! / If You Were Around / Dust In MY Eyes plus 'Life After Decca' NINE bonus tracks by The Attack Magic In The Air / Mr. Pinnodmy's Dilemma / Freedom For You / Strange House / Feel Like Flying / Too Old / Go Your Way / Now The Sun Shines / Sleep Like A Child |
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About
Time (RPM) 2006
Anymore Than I Do/ Colour Of My Mind/ Created By Clive/ Hi Ho Silver Lining/ Lady Orange Peel/ Neville Thumbcatch/ Try It/ We Don't Know/ Watch With Mother/ Freedom For You/ Sympathy For The Devil/ Anything/ Come On Up (Radio session)/ Created By Clive (Radio session)/ Mr Pinnodmy's Dilemma/ Go Your Way/ Strange House/ Too Old/ Feel Like Flying |
Additional Information
We Don't
Know can
be found on The In Crowd - the ultimate mod collection
(Four CD set) |
I'd like to thank Richard Shirman for his time and effort helping to write this page