The Newmens - A Million Tears (1972)

If you've listened to my Bite It Deep Mix Vol.13 you will have heard a great, melodic soft pop tune by the Newmens called "What Ya Doin' Down There?". I found this single on Leicester Market a couple of months ago, amongst some less interesting seven inch singles. I liked this single so much that I stuck it on my pile of records that I was considering featuring on this blog. A quick search on 45cat showed me that the Newmens had another single release, also from 1972 prior to the previously mentioned one. I tracked a demo copy down (stock copies are most probably much scarcer), again on eBay for the book price of £5, which after hearing it I reckon is a total steal.

A lot of these early seventies singles I feel are neglected/passed on mainly because of the date they were released by the sixties purists but the sound on a lot of these records could easily pass off as the late sixties. The Newmens on both of their singles are a few years behind the times and sound like the Byrds before they went country. Some great vocal harmonies and interesting sound effects adding colour to the ultra melodic vibes. I'm always on the lookout for nuggets like these!

Anyone got a photo of The Newmens?

One thing I know is that the internet doesn't know everything, and although there is no mention anywhere of an album by the Newmens, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something exists somewhere, maybe more songs, maybe some demos, who knows. The facts that I've got are that this band left behind two brilliant singles that deserve your attention.

Here is the only bit of decent info I can find on the Newmens, taken from the liner notes of the Fairy Tales Can Come True vol.3 compilation...

The Newmen (why Parlophone added an ‘s’ I’m not sure) were a popular showband from Antrim in Northern Ireland. Our track was written by Barry Woods, a former member of the Belfast band Clubsound, who were previously named The Monarchs. Back then they included a pre-Them Van Morrison on sax. Anyway, Woods joined the Newmen in the early seventies, and then moved on to a prog/pop band called Chips. However, recently he was back playing with Clubsound, who, as of 2005, had a weekly residency at a hotel in Ballymena!