SINGLES

ACADEMY-Munching The Candy/ Rachel’s Dream (Morgan Blue Town)
BONZO DOG BAND-Mr Apollo/ Ready Mades (Liberty)
PETE BROWN/BATTERED ORNAMENTS-The Week Looked Good On Paper/ Morning Call (Parlophone)
CHORDS FIVE-Some People/ Battersea Fair (Jay Boy)
CLOUDS-Make No Bones About It/ Heritage (Island)
CREAM-Badge/ What A Bringdown (Polydor) #18
THE CYMBALINE-Turn Around/ Come Back Baby (Philips)
THE DEEP SET-I Started A Joke/ Spicks And Specks (Major Minor)
EAST OF EDEN-Northern Hemisphere/Communion (Deram)
THE EGGY-You’re Still Mine/ Hookey (Spark)
EIRE APPARENT-Rock ‘N’ Roll Band/ Yes, I Need Someone (Buddah)
FLOWERPOT MEN-In A Moment Of Madness/ Young Birds Fly (Deram)
FORTUS MENTUM-Gotta Go/ Marrakesh (Parlophone)
FREE-Broad Daylight/ The Worm (Island)
GRAPEFRUIT-Round Going Round/ This Little Man (Stateside)
INFORMATION-Orphan/ Oh Strange Man (Beacon)
KALEIDOSCOPE-Do It Again For Jeffrey/ Poem (Fontana)
ACE KEFFORD STAND-For Your Love/ Gravy Booby Jamm (Atlantic)
KINKS-Plastic Man/ King Kong (Pye) #31
THE KYDDS-The Sun Is A Laughing Child/ Touch Of The Sun (NEMS)
JASON PAUL-Shine A Little Light Into My Room/ Paradise Pudding (Pye)
PESKY GEE!-Where Is My Mind/ Place Of Heartbreak (Pye)
SADIE’S EXPRESSION-Deep In My Heart/ My Way Of Living (Plexium)
SMALL FACES-Afterglow Of Your Love/ Wham Bam Thank You Mam (Immediate) #36
TANGERINE PEEL-Never say Never Again/ Thousand Miles Away (MGM)
TASTE-Born On The Wrong Side Of Time/ Same Old Story (Polydor)
TIMEBOX-Baked Jam Roll In Your Eye/ Poor Little Heartbreaker (Deram)
TRIFLE-Altogether Now/ Got My Thing (UA)
CLIFF WADE-You've Never Been To My House/Sister (Morgan Blue Town)
THE WHO-Pinball Wizard/ Dogs Part 2 (Track) #4

 

ALBUMS

 

THE ACADEMY-Pop-Lore According To The Academy (Morgan Blue Town)
BEE GEES-Odessa (Polydor) #10
BOBAK, JONS, MALONE-Motherlight (Morgan Blue Town)
COLOSSEUM-Those About To Die Salute You (Fontana) #15
CREAM-Goodbye (Polydor) #1
CUPID’S INSPIRATION-Yesterday Has Gone (Nems)
FAMILY-Family Entertainment (Reprise) #6
FREE-Tons Of Sobs (Island)
HAPSHASH AND THE COLOURED COAT-Western Flyer (Liberty)
LED ZEPPELIN-Led Zeppelin (Atlantic) #6
LIVERPOOL SCENE-Amazing Adventures Of... (RCA)
JACKIE LOMAX-Is This What You Want (Apple)
PUSSY-Plays (Morgan Blue Town)
  SPOOKY TOOTH-Spooky Two (Island)
  AL STEWART-Love Chronicles (CBS)

 

 

HAPPENING!

 

WATCHING!

 

 

 

 

 

REVIEWS

DotBee Gees

Odessa (LP): The mood of this monumental work is basically one of despair and desolation. The strings surge over the Gibb brothers' melodies, which are often very good indeed. They have a sense of the dramatic and like to draw on large subjects--disasters or world shaking events. Not all of the tunes are slow paced. Arranger Bill Shepherd must be congratulated on his wide screen type musical scores which cope with all the Bee Gees moods. The Bee Gees can be proud of their achievement, it moves pop forward along a totally different track from the basic "underground" experiments, and is equally worthwhile.

DotBobak, Jons & Malone

Motherlight (LP): Enigmatic lyrics and effective guitar are the main assets of an underground album which shows a fair degree of originality, if occasionally erring on the side of pretentiousness. Not at all bad.

DotBonzo Dog Doo Dah Band

Mr Apollo: "Five years ago I was a four stone apology. Today I am two separate gorillas." Thus speaks Viv Stanshall near the end of this saga of strength and body building, written by Viv and Neil Innes. It will take a lot of listening as the production is too muzzy, with too much guitar and not enough words coming through. But the tune is commercial and the lyrics rib-tickling enough to revive Bonzo mania.

DotClouds

Make No Bones About It: Bit of a disappointment. They are a top class group, very exciting 'live', but this is rather monotonous and doesn't lead anywhere interesting.

DotEast Of Eden

Northern Hemisphere: The chaps sing a jolly decent tune, and this will definitely be top of the Upper Fifth chart before the term is out.

DotEggy

You're Still Mine: A Coventry group with an unusually good production. Listen for a heavy bass pattern and some screaming guitar a la Jeff Beck. Vocal harmonies are good too.

DotEire Apparent

Rock 'n' Roll Band: This rocks mightily and sounds like The Troggs in Hamburg in 1965. The vocals are horribly distorted and may be intended as a joke but simply ask for people to swear loudly and snatch the arm off the turntable. A nasty sound.

DotFamily

Entertainment (LP): Unless you are irritated by one of the singers who has a vibrato like a ewe in lambing season, this should delight everyone who likes intelligent underground pop. It's all well played, the lyrics are both meaningful and witty and the material is all original. A great deal of thought has obviously gone into the production and it has paid off. 

DotFlower Pot Men

In A Moment Of Madness: Quite a pretty noise, without being actively offensive.

DotGrapefruit

Round Going Round: It seems as if there is a national conspiracy among record buyers not to buy anything by Grapefruit. They consistently make good records, none of which take off. Once again they feature their fine vocal harmonies, backed by a solid band, on a George Alexander composition, that sounds like a hit. But who can tell?

DotKaleidoscope

Do It Again For Jeffrey: A strong group one rarely sees about, which made a good album a year ago and submerged under a wave of criticism that they were too hung up on the Hobbit and all the Tolkien gear--which they denied. This is much better anyway--less fairytale and more guts.

DotSmall Faces

Wham Bam Thank You Mam: Wham! A healthy explosion of guitars and cymbals, crashing and rocking that will bring guts and beat back to pop.  While the future of the Faces as a permanent group is uncertain, there is no doubting the hit potential of this heavy riff. 

DotSpooky Tooth

Spooky Two (LP): Heavy, stoned rock music, typified by intense, dramatic riffs repeated ad infinitum, or at least until the engineer cuts off the electricity. The bag is a strange mixture of relaxation and intensity, exhausting and recharging. You can almost hear Spooky Tooth breathing--heavily. There is a dark radiance about their music, to use an oxymoron figure of speech. Most highly recommended to all heads, and all who should be heads.

DotTangerine Peel

Never Say Never Again: One of the best songs on the new Bee Gees album and made single hit material by a worthy new group backed by Bee Geeian strings and strong rhythm section.

DotTimebox

Baked Jam Roll In Your Eye: I am still bewildered as to why "Beggin' " wasn't a hit - and will be forever, I have no doubt. But still the past is gone and here we are in the present, and who am I to ignore a group who have the bravery to call a single "Baked Jam Roll In Your Eye"? A very nasty situation this. One I feel that could have been gleaned from the endless goon show records of hot spaghetti trees and flying pancake machines. This is the first record Timebox have produced themselves and in parts it reminds me of the Bonzos. A sort of mad nursey tale of an invasion from Mars led by one "Galloping Klaus" Ho, ho, a merry wheeze indeed.

Baked Jam Roll In Your Eye: Groups who play well on stage and have a deal of musical talent often have greater difficulty in finding commercial material than awful bands that can barely play a note. If I didn't like and respect this band I would be a lot ruder about this sad production about "Martians coming to earth--you'd better watch out" etc.

DotTrifle

All Together Now: This was in the Yellow Submarine cartoon, a fine film that deserved greater recognition, and a new group Trifle give it a pleasing treatment.

 

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