for Sunday 5th March 1967

An innovative influence in music and broadcasting arrived aboard the Galaxy this week, in the shape of John Peel

Fond farewells feature heavily in this week's Fab, appropriate to the recent departure of Norm St John, with Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye, #1, Wish You Didn't Have To Go, #5, Love Is Here And Now You're Gone, #10, I'm Going Out (The Same Way I Came In), #18, You'd Better Get Used To Missing Her, #35, and Darling Be Home Soon, #38. Climbers from the departure lounge were Walk Away Renee and It's All Over.

The 1967 Fab Forties include two songs called Humming Bird. This one by Herbie's People which disappears from the chart after this week, was penned by band member Bill Bates. On March 19th, another song of the same title appears in the climber list recorded by Jackie Trent. This second song was written by Cat Stevens.

11 9 Peculiar Situation Young Idea Columbia DB 8132 "We were very chuffed at the reception our record got as we were not sure if it had been widely heard in the North" Young Idea were Tony Cox, from London on piano, guitar and vocals alongside the grandly-named Douglas Ugo Granville Allesandro MacRea-Brown, (known for short as Douglas MacRea-Brown) from Florence, Italy on guitar and vocals. Last seen in Field's Festive Forty, Dec 25th '66, with Gotta Get Out Of The Mess I'm In, Young Idea were currently on their first nationwide tour with the Hollies, Paul Jones, The Spencer Davis Group and the Tremeloes. The group's account of their experiences on the tour, as told to Record Mirror, can be read by clicking on the picture. Unfortunately, nobody thought to caption the photo as to which of the Young Idea is Tony and which is Douglas. They were concerned that only Radio London and other southern pirates were playing the record and it was unknown outside their transmission areas, but it transpired that those up North were airing it too. The duo was probably included on the tour because Messrs Clarke, Hicks and Nash wrote Peculiar Situation. like the Keith climber, Tell Me To My Face*, the song was from the Hollies 1966 album For Certain Because.

Kiki Dee received a great present for her twentieth birthday, March 6th, when she saw her single shoot nineteen places up the Fab to #18.

Aboard the Galaxy this week

March 8th:
Norman St John's place aboard the Galaxy was taken by John Peel. Nobody could have guessed what an impact his five-month stint on Radio London would make on the world of music and radio, although his famous late-night mish-mash of blues and psychedelia, The Perfumed Garden, did not begin to creep its way into the ears of late-night Radio London listeners till May. It is easily forgotten that The Perfumed Garden, that far-cry from the Fab Forty, was not the only programme John presented on Big L. He would probably have preferred to forget that he ever did 'live-read' commercials for 'Look' cooking film and 'Green Shield stamps', but a great audio clip from that period reveals that he did do so. In an extract from the three-till-six show on Saturday, July 1st, Peelie has problems with an uncomfortable chair, memorably describing it as, "Designed to be capable of overthrowing the existing form of government."

Webmaster note: What a shame nobody thought to prevent the passing of the Marine Offences Bill, by infiltrating the Houses of Parliament with a batch of decrepit chairs.

During the show, Peel plugs the following day's Fab Forty, revealing that he has a great climber. (It transpires to be Jeff Beck's Tally Man.) The clip also includes a strange edition of the news, where Peelie reads the first item and Keith Skues takes over the rest of the bulletin.

Martin van der Ven's Offshore Radio Guide contains some wonderful slides taken aboard the Galaxy, including the one above, of Peelie in his bunk.

Brian Long reports that Tony Blackburn appeared on the cover of 8mm magazine, to tie in with a promotion which was being advertised five times daily, commencing March 10th. The magazine was giving away the prize of a Bauer Super 8 movie outfit, worth an impressive £225. At around that time I (Mary) was earning about £9 per week, which was an above-average wage for a girl of seventeen. The prize-winner was to be "invited to Radio London to try the equipment". Assuming that this meant a trip to the Galaxy, rather than the Curzon Street Offices, someone must not only have walked away with a truly 'Super' prize, but have used it to take some fantastic footage. Are you out there, lucky prizewinner? We'd love to hear from you!

On Saturday, March 11th, I noted in my diary that Keith Skues said hello to me and Knees Club Official, Jenny Mance. At work the following Monday, someone told me Keith had mentioned the Knees Club on Sunday 12th, possibly on the Colgate-Palmolive Request Show. It has been impossible to establish whether the person had actually heard the Saturday mention and mistakenly thought it had been on the Sunday, or whether Keith deemed the Knees Club worthy of a plug two days in a row.

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.

As far as it has been possible to establish, Mustang or The Mustang, according to some references, were American. The single issued in the UK on Parlophone on March 10th '67, came out in the States on Ascot 2231. Lennon/McCartney's Here, There and Everywhere, from the Beatles' Revolver album, was on the flipside. Previously, we had erroneously named Why as a McGuinn/Crosby song, recorded by the Byrds as the b-side of Eight Miles High. However, Margaret Still kindly corrected that information and tells us that she owns the single, where the songwriter is credited as 'Sheldon'.

Unfortunately, Chuck Blair's climber remained a climber for only two weeks (not designated as anyone's 'pick' in week two) before disappearing without entering the Fab Forty. The single appears to be equally collectable on both sides of the pond, commanding around £22 here, $30 in the US.

Another hairdresser shapes the playlist! With former clipper, Barry Benson already at #25, here comes Kenny Everett's climber by Steve Gold and Frank Aiello! The clipper in question is Steve, who met Frank when Frank popped in to have his mop-top trimmed. Truth, from North London, chose their moniker from a Ray Charles song, Tell The Truth. Following a race for chart honours against St Louis Union with a cover of the Beatles' Girl, the duo had reached #14 in the Fab of 15th May 1966 with their follow-up single, the Ray Davies composition, I Go To Sleep.

Truth's next release, Jingle Jangle, appeared as a climber for one week on Nov 6th 1966, but failed to chart. The group made a better impression on the Fab in March 1967, taking their cover of Left Banke's Walk Away Renee to #13.

Climbers:
You Can't Fool Me	Chanters
Saturday Morning Man	Paul Stewart Movement
If I Were A Rich Man	Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
Tell Me To My Face*	Keith
Hung Up In Your Eyes	Brian Hyland
I Will Be There	Shirley Abicair
Fragile Child	Chances Are
Ain't Nobody Home	Chants
Hold On	Mirage
Don't Do It	Micky Dolenz
Hi Ho Silver Lining	Attack
Bernadette	Four Tops
I'm Hooked	Ike & Tina Turner
The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage	Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
Disc of the Week:
Somethin' Stupid	Frank & Nancy Sinatra
Album of the Week:
Matthew And Son	Cat Stevens

Alan Field notes: The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage is the first Miracles single to be issued with top billing for Smokey Robinson.
That record, plus the Ike & Tina Turner track I'm Hooked were both released 10th March 1967.

Fragile Child Chances Are Columbia DB 8144 Little is known about Chances Are (shown on the record label and the music paper promotion on the left as 'The Chances Are') a 5-piece outfit that included Dave Sealey, who penned the Pall Mall-published B-side What Went Wrong, and Johny Flambe. Fragile Child was penned by John Fogerty and Tom Fogerty, who recorded it as the Golliwogs, a couple of singles before changing the band name to the rather more PC Creedence Clearwater Revival. (See Fab Forty 12th March '67). Mint copies of the vinyl changes hands for around £40. The track can be found on the Rockin' With the Pirates CD and is also available as a download.

Ashore this week Sunday 5th The Big L Discoveries of Tomorrow talent contest continued at the Uppercut Club Thursday 9th Also at the club, Tony Blackburn presented the Big L Party Night featuring The Style and the Jeff Curtis Set. Ex-Radio England DJs Roger Day, Bill Berry and Paul Hobbs were regular weekend hosts at the Uppercut

The blue additions to the climbers indicate singles listed in Brian Long's book 'The London Sound' based on information typed in the Curzon Street offices or other sources.

Green additions to the climbers indicate singles sourced from 'Monty's Diary'. (See Fab Forty for 010167). Monty has noted that two climbers from last week, Don't Do it and Hi Ho Silver Lining, (the Attack version) were retained for a second week. Bernadette appears two weeks before being listed as Tony Blackburn's climber. After this week the King George B-side, I'm Gonna Be Somebody Someday is no longer on the playlist. The record is consistently listed, across all sources, simply as Drive On James.

Mauve additions to the climbers were kindly contributed by Hans Evers

Alan Field did not hear the records listed in blue, green or mauve played or announced as climbers.

* See notes in the previous Fab Forty concerning the title change of Keith's single to Tell Me to My Face.

The Caroline 'Countdown Sixty' chart (south ship) for this week is here

Tune in next week for another Field's Fab Forty