for Sunday 3rd July 1966

26

34

Excuse Me Baby

Magic Lanterns

CBS 202094

Brian Long, in The London Sound, lists the Magic Lanterns' line-up as Jimmy Bilsbury, vocals, Ian Moncur, bass, Peter 'Coco' Shoesmith, lead and Alan Wilson, drums. Other sources list the vocalist's name as 'Pilsbury'. The group appeared at the Radio London Marquee Show, hosted by John Edward, on June 23rd.

From Lancashire, and originally known as The Sabres, they are not connected to a Coventry band of that name which also issued a single in 1966. Between 1966 and 1972, the group (with some changes of musicians) released ten singles, including a cover of Vera Lynn's wartime fave We'll Meet Again, plus two albums, Lit Up With the Magic Lanterns and One Night Stand.

Like a demented bungee jumper, Excuse Me Baby bounced in and out of the bottom end of the Nationals three times between 7th July and 11th August, but failed to top a #44 placing. At the time, the suspense for group members must have been terrible!

The Magic Lanterns fared slightly better in the US with three of their singles nudging into the Hot Hundred in '68, '71 and '72. Highest-placed of the three was Shame Shame, which stayed in the chart for twelve weeks, peaking at #29.

36

39

When You're In Love With A Girl

Tony Barry

Decca F12431, released 24/6

Tony Barry became member #311 of the Knees Club on July 9th when promoting When You're In Love With A Girl at London's Marquee Club, during the Saturday afternoon Radio London Marquee Show. Tony's signature and agency addess, above, are from the Knees Club Book II.

Also on July 9th, Lynn asked Big L's Mike Lennox (#16) who was hosting the show, if he would marry her, because he was the only person who could get her up in the mornings. He said 'Yes'.

The Knees Club Deep Purple Connection

Other new members who joined at the Marquee that afternoon, included two members of MI5 (sometimes written as 'MI Five'). With the current popularity of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (see Fab May 1st 1966), James Bond and other spoof-espionage films, all things spy-related were highly fashionable.

Rod Evans (#309), the band's vocalist, and Ian Paice (#311) the drummer, made a personal appearance on behalf of MI5. Groups rarely did live performances during the Saturday afternoon show, usually appearing simply for the purpose of being interviewed by the host DJ to promote a current single. An airing of said disc would be followed by an autograph session at the side of the stage. Either it had been deemed unnecessary for the whole of MI5 to attend the promotion, or the rest of the band was doing its bit elsewhere in London (probably at a Caroline Club function). MI5's only single was called You'll Never Stop Me Loving You and the missing members of the group were Chris Banham, organ, Roger Lewis , guitar and Eric Keen, bass.

The next person to join the KC was singer/songsmith Kenny Lynch (#312). This is sheer speculation on my part, but the MI5 single would appear to have been a cover of Kenny's own Top Ten hit of two years earlier,
You Can Never Stop Me Loving You. The song titles seem too similar for this to be a coincidence and Kenny Lynch does appear to have accompanied Ian and Rod to the Marquee. Kenny's greatest songwriting success to date had occurred in February of 66 with the Small Faces' huge hit Sha La La La Lee, which he co-wrote with Mort Shuman.

Ian Paice and Rod Evans were, of course, future members of Deep Purple. Only days earlier, on July 1st, two other future Purple people, Roger Glover (#305) and Ian Gillan (#306) had joined the KC when Episode Six signed up at Beaconsfield Youth Club.

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25

Oops

Neil Christian

Strike JH 313

A couple of months before the other Purple people, Ritchie Blackmore had joinedthe KC from Neil Christian's Crusaders on April 25th, becoming member #220!

Oops was banned from being played on both Ready Steady Go and Five O'Clock Club, as the lyrics were deemed overly sexually- suggestive for early-evening TV. On April 25th at Wycombe Town Hall. Neil Christian (#218) had been on tour to promote his only national chart success That's Nice. His Crusaders backing group for that tour were Jimmy 'Tornado' Evans (#219), Tony Marsh (#221), Avid Andersen (#222), and Ritchie Blackmore (#220). Group Manager, (or Road Manager) Ron Watell also joined (#224). Christian was a decidedly crude character and the group scribbled fictitious names and vulgar comments in the sacred Knees Club Book. I obviously did not think much of them, as I wrote in my diary, "Haven't had such a lousy time in years".

My only assurance that the individuals listed above were indeed those Crusaders who had defaced the KC book, comes from Pete Frame's 'Rock Family Trees', which lists the band's line-up (its sixth) for April '66. Thus, the KC had acquired Ritchie Blackmore, who was to be the first of five fledgling members of Deep Purple to join.

My only assurance that the individuals listed above were indeed those Crusaders who had defaced the Knees Club book, comes from Pete Frame's 'Rock Family Trees', which lists the band's line-up (its sixth) for April '66. Thus, the KC had acquired Ritchie Blackmore, who was to be the first of five fledgling members of Deep Purple to join. Click on the photo for more info on Rock Family Trees

22 21 You Gave Me Somebody To Love Fortunes Decca F 12429 22 21 You Gave Me Somebody To Love Manfred Mann HMV POP 1541 This is the last week when the two versions of You Gave Me Somebody To Love are climbing the Fab Forty neck-and-neck. Next week, the Fortunes have vanished and the Manfreds continue climbing on their own. The Fortunes were not assisted by the advert on the left (from The London Sound, courtesy of Brian Long) where the typesetter has managed to retitle the single "You Save Me Somebody To Love"! The group was managed by Radio City's Reg Calvert, who never saw the single's release on June 24th, 1966, having died from a gunshot wound on June 21st. The full story of the shooting can be found in the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame.

Besides climbers that were played at the time of the broadcast of the Sunday Fab Forty,
Alan kept a note of others he heard later in the week and incorporated them into his list.

July 8th – Willy Walker (#271) left Radio London and Norman St. John (#333) (below) joined Big L from Caroline

Climbers:
Thirty Second Floor	Washington DC's
Love Letters	Elvis Presley
No 1 In Your Heart	Herbie Goins & the Night-Timers
How Long Is Time	Odyssey
Disc of the Week:
(Baby) You Don't Have To Tell Me	Walker Brothers
Album of the Week:
Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich	Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich

The Album of the Week for w/c 3rd July 1966, is a Fab Forty anomaly. Alan Field heard it announced as Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich. In The London Sound, Brian Long lists the designated Radio London Album of the Week as Pet Sounds. Why such a radical change was made, we may never know, but it seems from Alan's notes, that Pet Sounds was never Album of the Week.

1966 Pet Sounds-related Fab Forty info:

Tune in next week for another Field's Fab Forty!