7 inch Singles Collection: Peter Noone & Hermans Hermits - Lady Barbara

Popular in the 60's,now trying to take on the 70's...

PETER NOONE & HERMAN'S HERMITS

A: Lady Barbara

B: Don't Just Stand There

(RAK 1970)

Herman's Hermits had an odd sort of career; over here in the UK they were purveyors of fine crafted pop hits (Silhouettes, No Milk Today, I'm Into Something Good, There's a Kind of Hush - all bona fide sing-a-long classics), but  in the states they seemed to be some kind of slightly jokey music hall act having big hits with I'm 'Enery The Eighth, and Mrs. Brown, You've Got A lovely Daughter. An interesting approach to take - presumably distinguishing themselves from the other first wave of British invasion acts by add an extra amount English eccentricity to their output. Fair-do's to them it seems to have worked-at least until the 60's gave way to make way for a new decade, and this is where we find them in 1970, with what turned out to be their last single. 

I don't know if the band knew at the time it was going to be their last record, but billing them as Peter Noone* & Herman's Hermits, says that someone at the record company knew that this was the end and labelling it as such would be a great way to transition into the lead singer's solo career. Which incidentally went nowhere fast, apart from an unlikely hit version of Bowie's Oh!You Pretty Things.

Lady Barbara** is an odd song (especially for a band winding down their career) - it doesn't really have echoes of the poppy sensibilities, or indeed their more vaudevillian excesses. That's not to say that it's not catchy (one of the writers was Errol Brown - soon to be making an impact upon the charts with the smooth pop stylings of Hot Chocolate). The song is a bit all over the place starting slowly with a slightly folksy feel with a tremulous backing of what could be lutes, mandolins or balalaikas, which then sudden steps up a (slight) gear when a full string backing pops up with the main melody. The acoustic nature of the piece gives it a bucolic ambience, but this is not your rural rustic idyll, but instead the song breaks down briefly into something that wouldn't sound out of place to one of those formal balls that crop up in adaptations of Jane Austen novels, it then turns into a bit of a slow sing-a-long, before returning to the more up-tempo melody, and then back to the Gavotte again and so on. A strange record, but not unlikeable for all that.

Flipping the disc over we find something more traditional in the shape of Don't Just Stand There. There the expected guitars, bass and drum sound of the beat era - but this isn't fast paced belter. Once again we're going for the slower ballad, and this one has an added melancholy curtesy of an honky-tonk piano there's some country guitar sounds in the background, and you think were headed out west with a a sad country song. Then it starts building up speed, and sticks a jazz organ in the instrumentation for the chorus, and even starts to sound a bit jolly in places, and suddenly we've got an up-beat country pop fusion that swings and sways quite pleasantly lead.

And so Herman's Hermits*** end their career not with bang, but not with a whimper either, instead with an enjoyable curiosity. This may not be an essential record, but it's an engaging detour

Next time some irresistible porcine funkiness...

* Honestly 7 years later he could have just added a hyphen and become Peter No-One, and fitted nicely into the Punk/New Wave nihilistic aesthetic.

**For ages I thought this was a song about someone from the Salvation Army until I realised that I was conflating it with the film Major Barbara

***A band who got their name because a pub landlord thought that Peter Noone looked like the character Sherman from the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons.

7 inch single collection: The Distractions - It Doesn't Bother Me

Something a bit post-punk new wavey...

The Distractions

A: It Doesn't Bother Me

B: One Way Love
(Island 1970)

Who these guys are I don't know, and whether this single bothered the charts or not I don't particularly care. What's important (to me!) about this record is that it's on white vinyl. That is almost certainly the thing that attracted me to this record in the bargain bin. I'm a complete sucker for something a bit different to get me to part with cold hard cash for a record.

When leafing through my record collection the impression that I get whenever my eyes alight upon this particular specimen is a feeling of - it's good and I like it - but inevitably it will get passed over for a listen for something else.

It Doesn't Bother Me is a bright upbeat  slice of post-punk power-pop. It's upbeat with a crisp and clean guitar sound , with an unusual and welcome background organ punctuation. I bounced along to this song, and sang along with the chorus. There was a good false ending, on which I particularly enjoyed the drum sound.

Flipping this lovely milky white disc over we find One Way Love (not the 60's big, bold, brassy pop song by Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers, for those of you who were wondering - I was).  It's equally up-tempo, with the kind of four-square rhythm that almost forces you to clap along with. It terms of overall sound it's not that different to the a-side, but that's no bad thing. Then it stops before it has the chance to go on to long and bore you..

This was a really enjoyable record, that three minute after I'd finished listening to it I couldn't remember the tunes or the words - they'd just gone. It was, appropriately, a distraction, but a welcome one. I expect next time I'm flicking through my record collection I'll see it and nod and smile in recollection of a good record, but still won't play it.

Next time a bit of dodgy 80's American rock...

7 inch singles collection: Patrik Fitzgerald - The Paranoid Ward E.P.

Here's the punk poet I promised:

PATRIK FITZGERALD

The Paranoid Ward EP
A-Side: 1. The Babysitter (Tippy Toe Music)
             2. Irrelevant Battles
             3. The Cruellest Crime
             4. The Paranoid Ward
             5. The Bingo Crowd (instrumental)
B-Side: 1. Ragged Generation For Real
             2. Live Out My Stars
             3. George
(Small Wonder 1978)

My good friend Jex introduced me to Patrik Fitzgerald sometime in the early 80's, and this was the first record of his that I ever heard. Jex copied it onto a mix tape for me (which I still have somewhere), but after years of searching I found a copy of my very own in a charity shop.

This as you can see is a full blown E.P. and not your bog-standard 4 track affair, but 8 whole tracks of lo-fi goodness. It list 9 tracks on the cover, but if you look at the sticker in the bottom right of the sleeve, they couldn't fit one track on! I'm not going to go into every track on this record, click on the Youtube link for Babysitter, then look up the other tracks.

The whole thing sounds a little bit ramshackle and spur of the moment, but it works wonderfully. Most of the tracks feature Patrik singing out his polemic over an acoustic guitar strumming catchy tunes and rhythms. The exceptions to this are The Paranoid Ward which is spoken word piece, and the seaside organ instrumental of The Bingo Crowd. Both The Paranoid Ward and Babysitter are little odd thoughts that might catch you unawares, whilst most of the rest of the record deals with political and social issues. Patrik doesn't have many solutions, but is interested in speaking his thoughts, which while they may not be revelatory or new, they are sincere and occasionally witty.

Live Out My Stars is less about politics and a much more personal and plaintive song about dreams and ambition. The whole thing probably feels a bit shambolic, take for example when Patrik introduces George by saying "It was called George Davis is innocent, until Sham brought out a record called that, (and also somebody said that he wasn't, so...)" but that just adds to the charm of the record.

I'm never going to convince anyone that this is a great records, especially if you don't like the low-key approach combined with the Patrik Firzgerald's unique singing  voice, but I like it and I'm glad that we've got a favourite of mine early on in this experiment - it encourages me to go onwards. If and when I get a fantastic record player that is capable of converting vinyl to MP3 - this will be one of the first records I convert.

Next time we go full out Goth!