The Barron Knights are known to most as a parody band. They had a number of hit singles between the 1960's and 1980's, their biggest hit being, "A Taste Of Aggro" from 1978, a song which parodies The Smurfs, Boney M and Brian & Michael's "Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs". It is not well known though that they started out as a straight pop in the early sixties group before becoming successful as a comedy act. In the early seventies, after a few years of little success, the Barron Knights decided to go straight again, releasing their pièce de résistance, the self produced, "One Man's Meat" on Penny Farthing records in 1972. Nine of the Ten songs on the album are original compositions, penned by band members Peter Langford and Leslie "Butch" Baker. Recorded at Morgan, Recorded Sound and Beck Studios, the album wears it's influences on it's sleeve and you can hear echoes of The Beatles, David Bowie, The Sweet and Badfinger. I promise, I'm not making this up! The album opener and lead single, "You're All I Need" starts off with tribal drums and fuzz guitar and can be heard on the Electric Asylum Volume Three compilation. "Before You Leave" sounds like David Bowie doing Abbey Road with its George Harrison-esque slide guitar and might have been a better choice of single. "Bottle On The Shelf" is a prime Badfinger singalong with the band doing their best Lennon impressions. The orchestrated ballad, "Lonely" sounds almost like the Bee Gees but without the billy goat vocals. "You Know What I Mean" contains hints of psychedelia with it's church organ and dreamy vocals, it also has my favourite lyric on the album, "She may be a trifle small but I don't care at all, just take a look at her teeth".
(L-R) Duke D'Mond, Dave Ballinger, Peter Langford, Butch Baker, Anthony Osmond
Side two begins with a better than the original version of Hurricane Smith's "Don't Let It Die", a tune that Smith wrote, hoping that would be recorded by John Lennon. "Turning My Back On You" is a dead ringer for the Sweet circa 1972. I wonder if Noel Gallagher has ever heard "Oh Little Girl"? as it sounds remarkably like Oasis' "All Around The World". I'm a total sucker for a Beatlesque tune, especially one with hand claps, like "To The Woods", the album highlight and worth the price of the album alone. The LP closes with the Pete Ham styled piano ballad "Peaceful Life" and rounds off the perfect ten out of ten album and fades out to the lyrics "I'm not gonna pack my bags, I ain't gonna pack my bags" This album really is a genuine killer and if it was by any other band it would be considered a lost masterpiece by the rock press. Having searched the web for info on this album it appears that little has even been written about "One Man's Meat" in the blogosphere with the exception of The Downstairs Lounge, a site dedicated to novelty records. So grab yourself a copy of this album straight away. If you're lucky one might turn up at your towns charity shop, I cheated and got my copy from ebay! Also worth mentioning is "Nothin' Doin'", the b-side to "You're All I Need" which is bouncy piano pop reminiscent of Macca at his most playful.
Last weekend I found myself behind the wheel (yes, just the one) of steel. A friend of mine was running a vintage fair, required some suitable music for the event and for some reason asked me to provide it. A five hour session spinning retro tunes was not far off what I'd be doing on a Saturday afternoon anyway so I obliged and was set up in the corner of a primary school hall to blast out some popsike, toytown, power pop and some Beatlesque faves at a reasonable volume. I got to meet some interesting characters who live in the area ranging from some old bloke who upon hearing the Moody Blues made a beeline towards me to tell me the usual "You can't beat the sound of vinyl can ya?" right down to a toddler who seemed hypnotized by the spinning vinyl on the deck. I'm glad I brought along a ten minute version of the Beach Boys, Heroes and Villains Suite as it gave me plenty of time for a toilet break and a stretch of the legs.
Highlights from the day included...
Slade - Martha My Dear The Californians - Congratulations Fenwyck - Mindrocker Ronnie Burns - Coalman Merry Go Round - Listen, Listen
...and of course "Tonight" by New Kids on the Block. A Junipers favourite!
I'm hoping to get the vinyl out again soon, maybe start a Bite It Deep club night or even as part of the Junipers' gigs with some help from the other lads. Watch this space.
From now on, as well as being able to listen to these mixes on Mixcloud you can also get them from iTunes. Just go to the iTunes Store, Podcast section and search "Bite It Deep". You can subscribe and all future mixes will be automatically downloaded to your PC/Mac/iPhone/iPad/iPod etc.
Apple made this process of uploading a podcast as hard as they could. It took me a good evening to get these up, so gimme some good ratings please!
Every year for my best pal Joe's birthday, I make him a mix cd. We've been friends for donkeys years and share a very similar taste in music. We meet up, at the Junipers' studio at least once a week and in between rehearsing/jamming/laughing with the other lads, we'll chat about our latest musical discoveries. Well, I had to keep quiet about this one for a good six months, not wanting to spoil the surprise for his birthday mix. July came and I got give him his present and he loved it, natch! We're both amazed that this one has slipped under the radar for so long.
Kit Russell was actually Charles Gilesnan (never heard of him either!) and had put out another excellent and unknown/uncomped single under the name Charlie on the tiny Bumble record label in 1972. "Dream Hero" is a nice, floating, orchestrated pop tune sort of like a laid back Gilbert O'Sullivan. The Kit Russell single, released on Deram in August 1973 is Charles' nugget though. "Pepper's Last Stand" is a genuine killer with it's Moog synth intro, Abbey Road drums and Beatles references in the lyrics. When the word gets out about this one, I can see it selling for bison dollar on ebay. I'm just glad I got my own copy. On the down side, "Shuffle Back", the B-side, is a steaming pile of poo.
Pepper's Last Stand - Lyrics
(Russell)
I'm writing a sad song
It don't seem to last long
Lasting one minute it seems
If it were a fast song
It'll last even less long
I guess I'll just write about dreams
I'll write about Snoopy
Or maybe about Lucy
The girl with the tangerine eyes
They've sung her before
Perhaps they may want more
Of acid and diamonds in skies
Listening to Beatles I'm much better off without songs that I write about me
Sometimes when Paul sings I'm dreaming of something like wearing my own M.B.E.
And when I have ended
with no one offended
I'll listen to some other boys
Like Simon, Garfunkel or Melanie's uncle
Then tune in and turn off the noise
Stop!
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
I've got a sentence that rhymes
And when I have spoke it
I know someone wrote it before
But I hope they won't mind
Listening to Beatles I'm much better off without songs that I write about me
Sometimes when Paul sings I'm dreaming of something like wearing my own M.B.E.
And when I have ended
with no one offended
I'll listen to some other boys
Like Simon, Garfunkel or Melanie's uncle
Then tune in and turn off the noise
Then tune in and turn off the noise
Then tune in and turn off the noise
In the early 1970's the Beatles influence was present in the sound of many popular bands. Smyle, We All Together, The Tremeloes, Stackridge, Emitt Rhodes etc, all made great records with obvious nods to the Fab Four but one band that really stand out are The Liverpool Echo, a band whose one and only LP, on Spark records sounds more like a tribute to the Beatles rather than a Beatles influenced album. But where as the mentioned bands' Beatles sound are like continuations from Abbey Road or Let It Be, Liverpool Echo looked towards their more energetic and live sound Please Please Me and the Merseybeat era for inspiration. Rockin' Horse had tried a similar act a few years earlier in 1970 but failed to grab the public's attention. So, in 1973 were the music buyers finally ready for the Beatlesque, Liverpool Echo? No! And so we are left with another lost classic, an under appreciated pop nugget, a perfect entry for this blog!
The roots of Liverpool Echo can be traced back to East London, UK where school friends Martin Briley and Brian Engel formed the psychedelic quintet, the Mandrake Paddle Steamer with the help of Martin Hooker (organ), Paul Riordan (bass, vocals) and Barry Nightingale (drums). Two heavy psych singles were released on Parlophone during 1969: "Strange Walking Man" b/w "Steam" and "Sunlight Glide" b/w "Len" (a Sweden only single). A regular gigging band, playing with the likes of The Who, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple to name a few lasted until 1970 when Briley ran out of steam and left the band to become a graphic designer.
Mandrake Paddle Steamer
Brian Engel continued writing musical scores, attracting the attention of George Martin who suggested him to bring back old band mate Briley to provide some lyrics. The duo recorded an albums worth of originals material at Martin's AIR studios, which remained unreleased until recent years aside from the singles: "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" b/w "Jaywick Cowboy" as Corn & Seed Merchants and the excellent "Pale Green (hmmmm) Driving Man" again b/w "Jaywick Cowboy" under the name Prowler. The songs from these sessions were eventually released by RPM records in 2007 as "Between the Sky and the Sea" by Briley & Engel.
Following the AIR sessions Briley and Engel made friends with Andrew Pryce Jackman (ex-The Syn) who was conducting orchestras at the time and the three of them came up with the idea to record an album of "proper songs". The new band name, Liverpool Echo, was also the name of a newspaper and was a concious link to the Beatles, even the album sleeve is a front page article from 1963 of a Beatles news story. They employed the now legendary session musicians Clem Cattini (drums) and Herbie Flowers (bass) for the recording sessions which also included Jackman on keys and production duties and Briley and Engel sharing guitar and vocals. The recording sessions were quick with most tracks captured on the first or second take. The simplicity and rawness of the songs is a perfect antidote to the overgrown, seriousness of the Prog Rock of the time, much like the emerging Pub Rock scene.
Briley & Engel
The album was released in 1973 by Spark Records who unsurprisingly had no idea how to market the band and many believe that the few copies that were sold were probably people thinking they were buying a Beatles album. The band we're paid £25 for their efforts and the records sunk into obscurity. The failure of the records success prevented Briley and Engel from turning Liverpool Echo into a live gigging band and it's legacy remains only on vinyl grooves.
The duo continued to write together for a short while, putting out the odd singles as True Adventure, Starbuck and Slick Willie (check out "Side Walk Surfing Skate Boarding" Birthday-esque?) and eventually drifted apart. Brian Engel went on to form country rockers, Limey and then Joined the New Seekers. Martin Briley had a succesful solo career in the 1980's and now works for Paul McCartney's MPL Communications Organisation and has written songs for N'SYNC, Celine Dion and Michael Bolton to name a few.
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