Sunday 7th March 1965

A new climber, soon to be a huge hit. For Your Love was written by Graham Gouldman and was intended to have been the first release for his band the Mockingbirds. This and other Yardbirds Fab 40 entries can be found on The Ultimate Collection, a total of 36 tracks on CDs. Click on the sleeve for a full track listing.

Last	This
Week	Week
10	1	Silhouettes	Herman's Hermits
31	2	The Last Time	Rolling Stones
1	3	It's Not Unusual	Tom Jones
7	4	I Must Be Seeing Things	Gene Pitney
9	5	I Apologise	P J Proby
13	6	I'll Stop At Nothing	Sandie Shaw
14	7	Come And Stay With Me	Marianne Faithfull
12	8	Yes I Will	Hollies
11	9	Honey I Need	Pretty Things
26	10	In The Meantime	Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames
28	11	Concrete And Clay	Unit 4 + 2
–	12	I Can't Explain	Who
4	13	Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood	Animals
17	14	The Birds And The Bees	Jewel Akens
29	15	I Belong	Kathy Kirby
2	16	Funny How Love Can Be	Ivy League
3	17	The Game Of Love	Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders
24	18	Diggin' My Potatoes	Heinz
5	19	Goodnight	Roy Orbison
30	20	Goodbye My Love	Searchers
35	21	Give Him A Great Big Kiss	Shangri-Las
27	22	I Don't Want To Go On Without You	Moody Blues
33	23	Where Am I	Sundowners
36	24	The Boy From New York City	Ad Libs
6	25	Mary Anne	Shadows
16	26	Do What You Do Do Well	Ned Miller
–	27	At This Moment	Crispian St Peters
37	28	I Know A Place	Petula Clark
8	29	I'll Never Find Another You	Seekers
–	30	Do The Clam	Elvis Presley
20	31	Hawaii Tattoo	Waikikis
39	32	Every Little Bit Hurts	Spencer Davis Group
–	33	Hawaiian Wedding Song	Julie Rogers
21	34	Can't You Hear My Heartbeat	Goldie & the Gingerbreads
–	35	She's Lost You	Zephyrs
15	36	It Hurts So Much	Jim Reeves
34	37	Find My Way Back Home	Nashville Teens
40	38	If I Can Help Somebody	Frenesi Watson
18	39	Stop Feeling Sorry For Yourself	Adam Faith
–	40	He Doesn't Love Me	Adrienne Poster

March 11th
The date of the first assignment of a title to Pall Mall Music, the publishing company in which Radio London's managing company, Radlon Sales had a 50% shareholding. The deal, for an arrangement of the old song Little Brown Jug, was made with a composer by the name of Richard Blackmore, better known as Knees Club member Ritchie Blackmore. See a scan of the contract in Mini-Memories

March 13th
Keith Skues (at the time still working for Caroline South) appeared as the guest DJ on ATV's Thank Your Lucky Stars, alongside The Bachelors, Joe Brown and The Bruvvers, The Moody Blues, Marianne Faithfull and Them. Around the end of 1964 and beginning of 1965, there was a tradition of the show having a co-host appearing with either Brian Matthew or Pete Murray. A number of guest DJs came from 208 and other offshore jocks who appeared on TYLS around this time were Ed Moreno and Simon Dee. The co-host idea appears to have been dropped once Brian Matthew became the show's permanent host. Thank Your Lucky Stars tribute site

33

23

Where Am I

Sundowners

Parlophone R5243

The band name comes from the title of the 1960 motion picture starring Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum. It proved such a popular moniker with musicians, that numerous Sixties outfits chose the name. One originated in Birmingham and another in Scotland, while other Sundowners formed in Lake George, New York. Sonny Day and the Sundowners came from Auckland, New Zealand and yet another Sundowners formed in the UK in 1988.

Thanks to Shaun of the Country Music Store, we can now place our Fab 40 Sundowners in Kent. "They played in Folkestone and the surrounding villages – I lived in the area at the time, " said Shaun. He then referred us to a feature on the website Kentgigs.com. (NB: You will need to scroll some way down the page.) Here, the band line-up – as of August 1963 – is listed by the Folkestone Herald as Martin Jones (guitar), Bozz Leggett (Rhythm), Roger Ames (drums) and Neville Takes. They were previously called The Travellers and in view of the ensuing plethora of Sundowners, perhaps would have been well-advised to stick with the original name. Where Am I, their third stab at chart success, was penned by Peter Lee Stirling (co-writer of Knees). It is not clear from the Kent Gigs feature whether or not the same line-up of musicians was still together to record this third single.

The proliferation of bands bearing the same name had long led us to believe that the Scottish Sundowners recorded Where Am I. The Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide lists only one set of Sundowners, crediting them with five singles on four different labels. The relevant page does not scan well, but the years of release are as follows: 63, 64 (Piccadilly) and 65 (Parlophone), with the last two released in 68 on Columbia and Spark. (The numbers on the right are estimates of the single's value, in mint condition, made in 2006.)

Shaun has now assisted us in establishing that only the first three of these singles was by the Folkestone Sundowners. We believe the two final singles on Columbia and Spark were by a Scottish trio of Sundowners, comprising of Steve Robbins (bass, vcls) Dave Silverman (various instruments) and Barry Weitz (banjo, gtr, vcls). They were classically-trained musicians, who became the backing band for vocalist Tommy Truesdale.

The website for the Pavilion Ballroom in Strathpeffer, Ross and Cromarty, lists several appearances, both as The Sundowners and as Tommy Trousdale (sic) and the Sundowners. In 1967 they were billed as "Scotland’s Top Showband Tommy Trousdale and the Sundowners." Best-selling country singer Barbara Ray was a one-time Sundowner vocalist who returned to the UK from South Africa to record an album with Tommy in 1985.

DJ Climber:
Pretty Girls Everywhere	Walker Brothers	Dave Cash
Climbers:
Gonna Work Out Fine	Owen Gray
For Your Love	Yardbirds
Fancy Pants	Al Hirt

Pretty Girls Everywhere Walker Brothers Philips BF 1401 Dave Cash's climber was the first UK release for the Walker non-brothers John Maus, Scott Engel and Gary Leeds and the first of several Fab 40 entries. Around this time, they recorded the frequently-featured jingle 'Kenny and Cash, in London', which Kenny and Dave absolutely loved. The Walkers appeared (and were mobbed) at many Big L events, including the Radio London Trophy Meeting at Brands Hatch in June 1966, where they presented the winners' trophy to Peter Gethin and screaming fans invaded the motor racing track. A longer Walker Brothers item, with additional great photos from Chris Walter's archives is in the Fab 40 for 28th May 1967. Gary Walker's personal site, with photos and video clips from his visit to the Cashman's morning show aboard Pirate BBC Essex 2007, is here (Photo ©Chris Walter, used with permission)

Gonna Work Out Fine

Owen Gray

Aladdin WI 603

Expert on West Indian music, Mark Griffiths, says:

I don't believe I've heard this particular version of Gonna Work Out Fine although I do have a later (Reggae) version of it by Owen Gray from '69. Aladdin was a short-lived subsidiary of Island. Owen did quite a few soul things on the main Island label including Shook, Shimmy and Shake which is a real goody. Sadly, he never achieved any success with Blackwell and co.

In recent years, Owen has appeared with the Goldmaster All Stars. He must be the most under-represented Jamaican artist of his calibre on CD - practically none of his '60s/'70s material is available.