Radio London - Big L Fab Forty 13th June 1965

Sunday 13th June 1965

Donovan – the original Cat in the Hat – climbs to #5

Last	This
Week	Week
8	1	I'm Alive	Hollies
2	2	The Price Of Love	Everly Brothers
5	3	Crying In The Chapel	Elvis Presley
10	4	Anyway Anyhow Anywhere	Who
14	5	Colours	Donovan
9	6	Set Me Free	Kinks
1	7	The Clapping Song	Shirley Ellis
6	8	Long Live Love	Sandie Shaw
3	9	Trains And Boats And Planes	Burt Bacharach, his Orchestra & Chorus
17	10	Looking Thru The Eyes Of Love	Gene Pitney
11	11	Come Home	Dave Clark Five
13	12	From The Bottom Of My Heart (I Love You)	Moody Blues
4	13	(You've) Never Been In Love Like This Before	Unit 4 + 2
23	14	On My Word	Cliff Richard
18	15	Stingray	Shadows
27	16	It Ain't Me Babe	Johnny Cash
22	17	Incense	Anglos
26	18	Strong Love	Spencer Davis Group
21	19	It's Just A Little Bit Too Late	Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders
7	20	Poor Man's Son	Rockin' Berries
–	21	In The Middle Of Nowhere	Dusty Springfield
–	22	To Know You Is To Love You	Peter & Gordon
31	23	Early Bird	Tornados '65
–	24	My Child	Connie Francis
29	25	Mrs Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter (EP)	Herman's Hermits
32	26	Leave A Little Love	Lulu
20	27	Yeah, I'm Waiting	Force Five
–	28	The One In The Middle (EP)	Manfred Mann
–	29	She's About A Mover	Sir Douglas Quintet / James Royal & the Hawks
39	30	Back In My Arms Again	Supremes
–	31	Nothing Can Stop Me	Gene Chandler
38	32	Be My Guest	Niteshades
35	33	I'll Stay By You	Kenny Lynch
40	34	Help Me Rhonda	Beach Boys
28	35	Someone's Taken Maria Away	Adam Faith & the Roulettes
–	36	One More Time	Them
–	37	Tossing And Turning	Ivy League
16	38	This Little Bird	Marianne Faithfull
–	39	Woolly Bully	Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs
–	40	Maggie's Farm	Bob Dylan

Climbers:
Honey And Wine	A Fair Set
Sweet Love	Sons Of Fred
Welcome, Welcome	Nancy Wilson
What The World Needs Now Is Love	Jackie de Shannon
(Remember Me) I'm The One Who Loves You	Dean Martin
Come Dance With Me	Pat Wayne
Mr Tambourine Man	Byrds
Lonely Without You	Julie Grant
Down In Mexico	Boston Crabs
Disc of the Week:
When Summertime Is Over	Jackie Trent

Sweet Love

Sons Of Fred

Columbia DB 7605

According to the Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide, a mint condition copy of Sweet Love is valued at a staggering £85. The reason for this high value may well be that the single is sought by Jefferson Starship collectors. Pete Sears, who was with Starship between 1974 and 1987, was Sons Of Fred's bassist.

(click on the picture for an Amazon link to more information about the Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide)

Several sources state that there were two bands called Sons Of Fred (one from London and one from Great Yarmouth) and that SOF later evolved into Odyssey, the band that took How Long Is Time into the Fab 40 in July 1966. On investigation, it seems likely that these are two pieces of misinformation that have come to be regarded as gospel and are now regularly repeated. They appear to have originated from a band listing posted some years back on the (now-defunct) website Tapestry of Delights and this also seems to be the place where the questionable link with Odyssey arose. In my original Fab Forty notes, when I had found not a single shred of evidence for the existence of either a Yarmouth SOF or a SOF connection to Odyssey, I wrote, "The truth is out there, and no doubt we shall unearth it eventually." We have! Sons Of Fred's bass player Pete Sears, has now set the record straight.

Dear Mary and Chris,

First I would like to compliment you on a wonderfully intricate, clear and easy to navigate Radio London web-site.

Some time ago I put the name of my old band Sons of Fred, my first pro band, into your site's search engine and was amazed to see a playlist containing our first single 'Sweet Love', as well as a well-researched overview of the band's personnel. I was a young sixteen-year-old musician at the time, and being my first pro musical endeavor, I will always have a soft spot for the band and its crazy memories. We toured all over the UK in a variety of beat-up old vans, playing six or seven nights a week. The Sons of Fred was the beginning of a long and windy road in music for me.

I am still a professional keyboard and bass player today. I have been a US permanent resident living in the San Francisco Bay Area of California since joining the original Jefferson Starship way back in 1974 (right after recording piano on 'Smiler', my fourth and last Rod Stewart album).

I have just got back to the US after visiting my family in England for the month of March 2008. While I was there, Radio 2 played 'Sweet Love' on their Sounds of the Sixties programme. It was quite a surprise, especially when they failed to mention my name when reading out the band personnel! Brian Matthew said that Alan Bohling was the bass player. Alan (we called him 'Boh') played rhythm guitar. I actually played bass on everything the SOF did, including all live shows and recordings. This is the correct line-up:

Lead vocals: Ray Redway
Vocals and Rhythm guitar: Alan 'Boh' Bohling
Lead Guitar: Mick Hutchinson
Bass Guitar: Pete Sears
Drums: Tim Boyle

Singles released on EMI:
'Sweet Love' - performed live on Ready Steady Goes Live, date unknown (B-side 'I'll Be There')
'Baby What You Want Me To Do' (released 1966. Lip-synced on Thank Your Lucky Stars 5th March 1966) B-side 'You Told Me'.

'I-I-I (Want Your Lovin') / 'She Only Wants a Friend'

Our agency was Chapel Music in London.

I think you have correctly deciphered the reason that this mysterious Great Yarmouth 'SOF' appeared out of nowhere. Tapestry of Delights somehow got the town of Great Yarmouth involved with the band. Our 'Sons of Fred' (the only one, I suspect) was based in Dulwich and Beckenham, where the singers Ray and Boh lived, with Mick Hutchinson and Tim Boyle coming from Chislehurst, and I came from Hayes, near Bromley. Ray Redway and Boh already had the band name by the time I joined and we went pro soon after. I never did get a good answer about where the name came from.

The Sons of Fred had no connection with any band called Odyssey either.

I enjoyed listening to Brian Matthew and his show. It was nice to have some of the old music playing again, but I have no idea where SOTS got their information from when your site is one of the first to come up if you Google the Sons of Fred.

Thank you for your time and interest in all the old music, from a time when Rock 'n' Roll was still in its infancy. Radio London and its courageous DJs and staff was a vital and amazing radio station, which helped instill a sense of independence and individuality in an entire generation, not just in music, but in free thinking as well.

All the best, Pete Sears

www.petesears.com

The 'Sons' played live on Ready Steady Go! after the programme had outlawed the original concept of artists miming to records and had rechristened itself 'Ready Steady Goes Live'. The exact date of the appearance is not known, but it must have been around this time (i.e. June 1965) to coincide with the release and promotion of Sweet Love. The band appeared on Thank Your Lucky Stars on Jun 19th 1965 to mime alongside fellow Fab 40 acts Peter and Gordon and Gene Pitney. According to the Thank Your Lucky Stars tribute site, The Yardbirds were banned from the same show after turning up late for rehearsal. Tut tut! SOF were back on TYLS on March 5th 1966, to promote I-I-I (Want Your Lovin').

Odyssey, make their Big L Fab Forty debut here.

Down In Mexico

Boston Crabs

Columbia DB7586

Down In Mexico was written for the Coasters by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller and released as their first US single in 1956. The Boston Crabs single was the work of the late EMI producer Bob Barrett. Down In Mexico was also released in the US (Capital 5493).

Very little is known about the Boston Crabs and there is much conflicting information concerning the band. The only full line-up unearthed so far comes from Vernon Joynson's book, Tapestry Of Delights, which cites the band's birthplace as Cambridge and names members as Fred Driedlin (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Ian Jack (guitar), Simon Jones (bass), Geoff Mott (guitar) and Alan Taylor (drums). However, according to postings on Youtube, 'Crab' guitarists were Albie Prior and David Wright (bass) – neither of whom is included in the Joynson listing. Of course, bands are apt to undergo several changes of personnel and Prior and Wright may well have been part of a later line-up.

Geoff Mott or Motlow is named by many sources as the band vocalist. His claim to fame was that early in the swinging decade, he had fronted a band called the Mottos or Mottoes, the line-up of which included future Pink Floyd icon Syd Barratt. It appears that Barratt's name is not included as a member of both bands anywhere other than in Tapestry Of Delights. None of his fellow Mottoes feature on the 'Crab' list.

Despite Down In Mexico spending six weeks on the Big L playlist (peaking at #14) the single did nothing in the Nationals. Both subsequent releases As Long As I Have You (65) and Gin House (66) failed to feature in the Fab Forty.

The song featured more recently in Quentin Tarantino's film Death Proof.

Thanks to Paul Coates for additional info

James Royal & the Hawks appeared in the Fab Forty for just one week with their cover of She's About A Mover, after which it was dropped in favour of the original US version from Doug Sahm's Sir Douglas Quintet.

Between 1965 and 72, James Royal released 16 singles on three separate labels. The first credited the Hawks as backing band; the last, Two of Us, was a duet with Liz Christian. All intervening releases were solos.

Three follow-ups to She's About A Mover – Work Song, Call My Name and It's All in the Game – all featured on the Radio London playlist, but it was the third release, the soulful Call My Name, that fared best in the Big L Fab Forty, peaking at #13 on February 12th, '67. Although never featuring at all in the UK Nationals, it went on to be a huge success on the continent. The song was penned by Ralph Murphy, giving him his first songwriting success and launching an illustrious career in the music business. (NB: Call My Name is not the song of the same title by Them (written by Tommy Scott) that had already entered the Fab Forty in March '66.)

The history of James Royal, his backing band and his solo career, is fraught with conflicting and confusing information. The band is believed to have started as Jimmy Royal and The Hawks, later becoming the more formal James Royal and The Hawks. Information about the Hawks seems to be non-existent. At some stage the band's name (if not the band itself) evolved into the trendily-monikered James Royal Set (sometimes billed - perhaps erroneously - as James Royal and the Royal Set). They played both London's Marquee and Dunstable's California Ballroom during 1966, and toured with Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins in 1968. However, it is debatable whether the 'Set' was ever anything more than a collection of musician pals of Royal's who happened to be available.

His 'Set' showed no sign of any sort of permanent line-up and being friendly with the cream of musicians of the time, in an unknown number of BBC radio sessions Royal was backed by a constantly varying 'Set'.

Rick Wakeman's keyboard talents were employed for the first of the Beeb sessions. His personal website dates the recording as 1966, but says it was for Radio One, which is not possible, as the station went on the air on 30th September 1967. (Any sessions laid down prior to that would have been for the Light Programme.) A more probable recording date would be late '67 or '68.

In a Penny Valentine interview on the Yes website yesmuseum.org, Rick Wakeman recalls that the highlight of his week (the year is unspecified) were the rocking sessions at the Red Lion Brentford, where jammers included, "John Entwistle, James Royal, Nick Simpler, Mitch Mitchell – everyone turned up for these incredible rock and roll evenings, and I was really honoured to be there playing with these great musicians." John Entwhistle reportedly played bass on some of the 'Set's' BBC sessions.

Nick Simpler participated in the Beeb recordings as a sideline to backing Marsha Hunt. He says the 'Set' "included Albert Lee (later of Heads, Hands & Feet) and keyboard player Rick Wakeman, later of Strawbs and Yes fame".

Guitarist Ged Peck, who was also with Marsha's band is named by some sources as one of Royal's session men.

On his website, Mick Underwood remembers how he was called by, "an old friend, singer James Royal, looking for a drummer to do a two-week stint at a very trendy club called Hatchets in London's West End." On the strength of that one phone call, Mick gave up his day job. "The keyboard player in the band was Peter Robinson, and the die was cast for some future fun."

Although the James Royal Set is not credited on any of Royal's 16 singles, it seems likely that musician friends who recorded the Beeb sessions and toured with him may well have played on them.

In 1972, the year that Royal released the duet with Liz Christian, they both toured with Jerry Lee Lewis.

The website Dunrockin says that James Royal is now driving taxis in Queensland, Australia and some sources cite his real name as James Nairn.

Webmaster's note: Researching the James Royal information gave me a good example of the internet being similar to the game Chinese Whispers – i.e. information becomes more and more distorted each time it is repeated. We know that Call My Name was released in the UK in 1967 and that it never charted in the UK, apart from its Top Twenty appearance in the Big L Fab Forty. The single is, however, reputed to have become a number one bestseller in France and other countries. (I unfortunately have no way of verifying this.) This information has become so distorted that some websites now carry the totally false statement that Call My Name was a UK number one in 1965. Don't believe everything you read on the internet!

I have gone to a great deal of trouble to research available information about James Royal and his backing band. It has proved rather like attempting to complete a very complex jigsaw puzzle and I would be pleased to hear from anyone who can give me more concrete information – Mary.