The Early Radio London Fab Forties

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.

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, the unrelated John Maus, Scott Engel and Gary Leeds and the first of several Fab 40 entries for them. 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.

(Photo ©Chris Walter, used with permission)

33
23
Where Am I Sundowners Parlophone R5243

Thanks to Shaun Greenfield, formerly of the Country Music Store, we can place our Fab 40 Sundowners in Kent. "They played in Folkestone and the surrounding villages – I lived in the area at the time," he told us. He then referred us to a feature on the now-defunct website kentgigs.com. The band line-up – as of August 1963 – was 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 fourth and final release (a third was issued in the name of Linda Doll and the Sundowners) was penned by Peter Lee Stirling (co-writer of Knees by Kenny Everett and Dave Cash).

There were an awful lot of bands called Sundowners, as per a comprehensive list on 45.cat, that reveals that even prior to the Sixties and the release of the film, musicians known as The Sundowners Band released a number of 10", 78rpm records on shellac.

The proliferation of bands bearing the same name had for some time led us to conclude erroneously that Scottish, rather than Kentish Sundowners recorded Where Am I. The confusion arose mostly because The Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide listed only one band under the Sundowners name, crediting them with five singles on four different labels.

Bruce Welsh, Canadian author of What About Us? A Rocklopaedia Of Britain's Other Recording Groups 1962 – 1966 discovered some additional info during his research for Volume 2 of his Rocklopaedia, which covers 1967 – 1969.

The clipping, left, kindly contributed by Bruce, is about Folkestone's Sundowners. It lists the line-up as Martin Jones (lead guitar), Bozz Henson (rhythm), Neville Take (guitar) and Roger Ames (drums) – the same names, with slight variations from those that were printed in the Folkestone Herald. (However, we all know that local papers in the Sixties were infamous for getting people's names wrong.) The same photo also appears in the programme below, but band members are not named individually.

John Cotter added to the story and kindly contributed the theatre programme below. "There is very little to be found about them online, but The (Kent) Sundowners were the 'house band' on a Larry Parnes package tour that I went to in 1964, which included some big names like The Crystals and a couple of up-and-coming male singers. They must have been quite good musicians to get that slot."

(Right) Enlarged text of the programme blurb about the band

Scottish Sundowners

The website for the Pavilion Ballroom in Strathpeffer, Ross and Cromarty, lists several appearances, both as The Sundowners and as Tommy Trousdaleand the Sundowners. In 1967 they were billed as 'Scotland’s Top Showban, Tommy Trousdale and the Sundowners', so it was clearly a name worth retaining.

The Scottish Sundowners in the early Sixties comprised Jim Patterson (lead guitar), Eric McLauchlan(Rhythm), John Waugh (bass) and Eric Swindon (drums), formed in 1963 by vocalist Tommy Trousdale as his backing band. (As per the EP sleeve on the right, kindly contributed by Bruce.) Glasgow's Thistle label specialised in folk, county and football-related music.

London Sundowners

Two singles listed in the The Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide as releases on Columbia and Spark in 1968, were recorded by the Hackney Sundowners, comprising of Steve Robbins (bass, vcls) Dave Silverman (various instruments) and Barry Weitz (banjo, gtr, vcls).
Dave's nephew Simon kindly got in touch to confirm that these Sundowners had no connection to the Scottish band.

The clipping on the left provided by Simon refers to the band's appearance on Granada's TV talent show First Timers, which ran from May '67 to April 68 as short inserts into a daily news programme. It evolved into New Faces, in a half-hour slot hosted by Big L's Tommy Vance.

 

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."

Owen Gray biography

Gonna Work Out Fine was recorded by Ike and Tina Turner and released on Sue, in 1964.

Aboard the Galaxy this week
'The Herald of Truth', a new religious programme, commenced on Sunday mornings, 0730 -0800, while Garner Ted Armstrong's 'The World Tomorrow' aired nightly between 1900 and 1930. Also starting on Sundays was 'UK Tops the World', a weekly pre-recorded show presented by Martin Lock and sponsored by Miners' make up.


Tune in next week for another Big L Fab 40!

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