SINGLES

ANDWELLA’S DREAM-Sunday/ Midday Sun (CBS)
BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST-Brother Thrush/ Poor Wages (Harvest)
BEATLES-Ballad Of John And Yoko/ Old Brown Shoe (Apple) #1
JEFF BECK-Plinth (Water Down The Drain)/ Hangman’s Knee (Columbia)
ALAN BOWN-Still As Stone/ Wrong Idea (Deram)
EDGAR BROUGHTON BAND-Evil/ Death Of An Electric Citizen (Harvest)
THE CASUALS-Sunflower Eyes/ Never My Love (Decca)
DONOVAN/JEFF BECK GROUP-Goo Goo Barabajagal (Love Is Hot)/ Bed With Me (Pye) #12
EASYBEATS-St Louis/ Can’t Find Love (Polydor)
FREE-I’ll Be Creeping/ Sugar For Mr Morrison (Island)
GENESIS-Where The Sour Turns To Sweet/ In Hiding (Decca)
GENTLE INFLUENCE-Always Be A Part Of My Living/ Captain Reale (Pye)
ROBIN GIBB-Saved By The Bell/ Mother And Jack (Polydor) #2
GRACIOUS-Beautiful/ What A Lovely Rain (Polydor)
THE GROOVE-The Wind/ Play The Song (Parlophone)
HEAVY JELLY-Time Out Chewn In/ The Long Wait (Head)
KINKS-Drivin’/ Mindless Child Of Motherhood (Pye)
THE KULT-No Home Today/ Mr No 1 (CBS)
NEIL MacARTHUR-Don’t Try To Explain/ Without Her (Deram)
MAGNA CARTA-Mid-Winter/ Spinning Wheels Of Time (Mercury)
MARMALADE-Baby Make It Soon/ Time Is On My Side (CBS) #9
THE MINT-Luv/ Simone (Tangerine)
ONYX-Tamaris Khan/ So Sad Inside (Pye)
PASHA-Somebody Shot The Lollipop Man/ Pussy Willow Dragon (Liberty)
RAINBOW PEOPLE-Living In A Dream World/ Happy To See You Again (Pye)
SHEPPERTON FLAMES-Take Me For What I Am/ Goodbye (Deram)
SPOOKY TOOTH-Son Of Your Father/ I’ve Got Enough Heartache (Island)
CAT STEVENS-Where Are You/ The View From The Top (Deram)
TIN TIN-Only Ladies Play Croquet/ He Wants To Be A Star (Polydor)
TOGETHER-Memories Of Melinda/ Good Morning World (Aurora)
MARK WIRTZ-My Daddy Is A Baddie/ I Love You Because (CBS)

ALBUMS

PETE BROWN/BATTERED ORNAMENTS-A Meal You Can Shake Hands With In The Dark (Harvest)
CASUALS- Hour World (Decca)
JOE COCKER-With A Little Help From My Friends (Regal Zonophone)
DEEP PURPLE-The Book Of Taliesyn (Harvest)
FOREVER AMBER- The Love Cycle (Private Pressing)
HARSH REALITY-Heaven And Hell (Philips)
JUNIORS EYES-Battersea Power Station (Regal Zonophone)
PESKY GEE!-Exclamation Mark (Pye)
PINK FLOYD-Soundtrack From The Film ‘More’ (Columbia) #9

HAPPENING!

WATCHING!

 

REVIEWS

Edgar Broughton Band

Evil: Violent underground rock with shades of pop's most notable absentee, Arthur Brown. Edgar has a good band and much going for him, but this is not a particularly impressive debut for either band or new label.

Casuals

Hour World (LP): Despite the occasional donning of underground effects and electronic gimmickry, this is mainly a staightforward beat group album, and they do it very well with good vocal harmonies and nice arrangements.

Sunflower Eyes: A pretty ballad that should give them a reasonable hit. Nice lead vocals and restrained backing. The final harmonies remind me of the Radio Rhythm Boys of the late twenties.

Deep Purple

The Book Of Taliesyn (LP): The Harvest label has really got off with a bang and if the rest of their output can maintain this standard they will deserve the thanks of all progressive pop collectors. This is an excellent set which underlines the absurdity of the fact that Deep Purple don't mean too much in their native Britain but have already made it in the States. They are a thoroughly musicianly group, with Jon Lord's organ playing outstanding, and include five excellent originals on the album along with River Deep Mountain High, We Can Work It Out and Neil Diamond's Kentucky Woman.

Harsh Reality

Heaven & Hell (LP): The harsh reality is they obviously haven't a clue what they are doing or why. The dreadfully tasteless cover, depicting the group stripped to the waist and covered in inked-on blood, is an attempt at drama rendered in a singularly hammy manner. The venture into Mothers Of Invention type freaking out is painful and embarrassing.

Heavy Jelly

Time Out: A straight instrumental track that sounds as if the group is having fun but doesn't really mean much as a single.

Kinks

Drivin': Let's hope Top Of The Pops don't refuse to play this follow-up to the ill-fated Plastic Man, which should have been a big hit. This is equally catchy and typically Ray Davies, and as far as I can tell the word "bum" is not in evidence. There's a nice Lovin' Spoonful kind of shuffle beat and Ray sounds as wanly amused as usual.

Magna Carta

Mid Winter: Attractive flutes and guitar provide a beautiful backing to the vocals and Spike Heatley has done a fine job in arranging the accompaniment which lifts this out of the realms of the usual.

Tin Tin

Only Ladies Play Croquet: "la la la la" sing Steve Groves and Steve Kipner on a Maurice Gibb production that sounds coquettish enough to trip into the charts. The sounds reminds strangely of the Bonzo's famous "Head Ballet" with a doctored piano backing or whatever keyboard instrument it is that they use. Do you know what? It's a hit, innit!

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