for Sunday 12th June 1966

Aboard the Galaxy this week

On June 14th, Bill Hearne (Knees Club member #334) joined Radio London, having been heard first on Radio Luxembourg and most recently, on Caroline South.

Beggars Parade is a Gaudio/Crew song and the b-side of the Four Seasons' Opus 17, standing this week at #5.

From Oxford, the Falling Leaves were Rod Stephens, vocals, Neil Stanley, organ, Will Patrick lead, Mal West, bass and Larry Nedel, drums

Beggars' Parade had long proved a source of puzzlement to me, as I was absolutely convinced the song contained the phrase 'flowery bum'! Having been mistaken about song lyrics on many occasions, I simply decided that my ears had been deceiving me again. However, I eventually reached the conclusion that 'flowery bum' was indeed the phrase Falling Leaves are singing, but it did not mean 'florally-enhanced posterior'! As the song is after all, about beggars, the word 'bum' is used here in the American sense of the word, i.e. 'tramp'. My eventual conclusion was that 'flowery bum' described a flower-power hippy drop-out... until I heard from Peter Tomlinson! Peter imparts the invaluable information that, "The phrase is in fact "Bowery bum", a reference of course to New York City's infamous Skid Row of the 1800s up until recently, when it acquired a bit of hip cachet as home to equally infamous punk club CBGB."

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35

Haywire

Bean & Loopy's Lot

Parlophone R 5458

Little is known about Bean and Loopy's Lot, but Stitch In Time, the 'B' of Haywire, was written by George Bean and fellow 'Loopy' Anthony Catchpole, who was to join the Alan Bown Set the following year.

In 1963, as a soloist, George Bean became the first artist other than the Stones to record a Stones' song - two, in fact, on the 'A' and 'B' sides of his second single, Will You Be My Lover Tonight/It Should Be You (Decca F11808). Waxed in 1963, the single was not issued till '64, meaning that Gene Pitney won the race to be first artist to release a Stones' song, with That Girl Belongs To Yesterday.

Around 1965, George's band was called George Bean and the Runners, one member of which was drummer Barry (BJ) Wilson, later of the Paramounts. The Runners issued one single that year, Dylan's She Belongs To Me (Decca F12228). which failed to climb the Nationals.

George Bean later formed another band called Trifle but sadly, died before their album was issued in the early Seventies.

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40

Mama

B J Thomas

Pye International 7N 25374

In the first week of June, the Association was the successful US act that only ever had one hit in the UK. In week two of June, 12/06/66, B J Thomas is in the same situation. His sole UK chart entry was Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head – the Bacharach/David song featured, somewhat incongruously, in the tremendously-successful film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Billy Joe Thomas had no less than twenty-five entries in the US Hot Hundred between 1966 and 1978. Mama was #22 in the US chart in June '66, but lost out here to Sheffield's own Dave Berry, who took the song to #5 in the Nationals, #18 in the Fab.

On Friday, June 17th at Beaconsfield Youth Club, Knees Club Officials permitted Phil Jay (below, centre) from Radio City to sign up as KC member #287, because he told us he was friendly with the Big L jocks. Phil was the only non-Big L offshore jock from the Sixties invited to join the KC till the year 2000, when Bud Ballou (#380) was inducted to become the club's new Vice-President!

Photo courtesy of Raoul Verolleman

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.

Indication Zombies Decca F12426 Zombies stomper Indication was Tony Blackburn's first Big L climber, after joining the station on 7th June. It did well in the Fabs, but sadly not the Nationals. In recent years the song has featured regularly on Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent's set list (whether playing as Blunstone and Argent or as the Zombies). On June 13th, Tony (our new Knees Club member #274), gave the club one of its many on-air plugs over the Big L airwaves, at 12.45pm. (Thanks to Alan Hardy for this photo and the one of Bill Hearne)

Scrooey Mooey Peels Audio Fidelity AFSP 527 Mint copies of Mark Roman's climber can command in excess of £30. The Peels were a US band who had scored a very minor hit there in 1959 with a song memorably titled Juanita Banana.

Originally from Lincolnshire and called the Tea Time Four, Boz was an outfit named after vocalist, Raymond 'Boz' Burrell. The band appears to have been unable to settle on a name, having been known on occasions as 'The Boz', 'Boz People' and also as 'Boz and The Boz People' and were an occasional backing band for Kenny Lynch. Whatever the title, the little-known London group had an impressive line-up of musicians passing through its ranks

Boz went on to join King Crimson, then Bad Company.

One-time lead guitarist, Ian Whiteman, switched instruments to piano and sax, when he formed Mighty Baby with ex-members of The Action, in '68.

In the period around November 1967 to March 1968 the current version of the group, at that time called simply Boz, contained famous session men of the era, including two Knees Club members. Guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore (#220) and Ian Paice (#311) on drums, accompankneed non-members, Boz, bassist Chas Hodges (later of Chas and Dave) with Jon Lord on keyboards.

Another former Boz keyboard player, Ian MacLagan, presumably did not perform on any of the singles, as he had left to join the Small Faces in October '65 and was still with them when they evolved into The Faces in '69. He describes the style of Boz People as "somewhat jazzy". Ian has since played with both the Who and the Stones.

Pinnochio was Boz's third disc to be issued in '66. In all, six singles were released on the Columbia label between '66 and '68, including a cover of the Doors' Light My Fire, but none of them saw any action in the Nationals.

The Pinnochio follow-up, also from '66, The Baby Song (Columbia DB 7972) had Carry On Screaming as its 'B' side. Written by Myles Rudge and Ted Dick, this was the title song from the comedy horror film starring amongst others, Fenella Fielding, Kenneth Williams and Jim Dale. The film's credits name the singer as 'Anon', but the theme song was described elsewhere as being sung by "up and coming recording star, Boz". All this anonymity led to false rumours that Boz was Jim Dale, incognito.

That 67/8 line-up containing the two KC members, played on the fifth Boz single, a Dylan cover, I Shall Be Released (Columbia DB 84006) The track can be found on several Ritchie Blackmore (#220) compilations, including Ritchie Blackmore Vol 1.

Brian Long in his book The London Sound records that Boz visited the Galaxy on 17th June, but whether the visitor was Boz Burrell the man, or Boz the group, is unknown!

Webmasters Chris and Mary had the pleasure of seeing Boz Burrell perform with Bad Company in San Diego in 1999. He is also in the film 'Bad Company Live', released in 2000. Sadly, he passed away at his home in Spain in September 2006. Read Boz's interview with Sid Smith here.

Bad Company Website: www.badcompany.com