Your personal British Invasion top-ten countdown
- Thread starter Charlie Bernstein
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johnreardon
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The Applejacks are very much in the also-ran category. They must have been AWOL when the invasion transport ships crossed the Atlantic. I know about them only because of their bass player who is mentioned in the Honey Lantree clip Mr. Ashton posted above.
They seemed to have had a bad relationship with their label, Decca, the label that turned down the Beatles..
They never made a dent in any charts outside the UK -- their records may not have even been released outside the UK..
But John Lennon and Paul McCartney met them and liked them well enough to pen a song for themto give them a song (technical correction by Walrus), but not even that helped them much.
The Lennon and McCartney tune:
The Applejacks are very much in the also-ran category. They must have been AWOL when the invasion transport ships crossed the Atlantic. I know about them only because of their bass player who is mentioned in the Honey Lantree clip Mr. Ashton posted above.
They seemed to have had a bad relationship with their label, Decca, the label that turned down the Beatles..
They never made a dent in any charts outside the UK -- their records may not have even been released outside the UK..
But John Lennon and Paul McCartney met them and liked them well enough to pen a song for themto give them a song (technical correction by Walrus
The Lennon and McCartney tune:
We supported them in 1965The Applejacks are very much in the also-ran category. They must have been AWOL when the invasion transport ships crossed the Atlantic. I know about them only because of their bass player who is mentioned in the Honey Lantree clip Mr. Ashton posted above.
They seemed to have had a bad relationship with their label, Decca, the label that turned down the Beatles..
They never made a dent in any charts outside the UK -- their records may not have even been released outside the UK..
But John Lennon and Paul McCartney met them and liked them well enough to pen a song for themto give them a song (technical correction by Walrus
The Lennon and McCartney tune:
The Applejacks were from the Midlands and they were fairly unique, for the time, in that they had a female bass guitarist, called Megan Davies. They had some success the previous year, with a record release called ‘Tell Me When’. I think it had entered the top ten of the hit parade, as we called it at the time.
Our bass guitarist remembers talking to Megan Davies in the gymnasium, which was used as a dressing room. She then decided to have a go on the trampoline. Being a perfect non-gentleman he says he continually looked up her dress as she bounced up and down. He was not sure whether Megan knew what he was doing, but she kept bouncing up and down for a long time.
davidbeinct
Member
Surely by now he realizes she knew exactly what she was doing.We supported them in 1965
The Applejacks were from the Midlands and they were fairly unique, for the time, in that they had a female bass guitarist, called Megan Davies. They had some success the previous year, with a record release called ‘Tell Me When’. I think it had entered the top ten of the hit parade, as we called it at the time.
Our bass guitarist remembers talking to Megan Davies in the gymnasium, which was used as a dressing room. She then decided to have a go on the trampoline. Being a perfect non-gentleman he says he continually looked up her dress as she bounced up and down. He was not sure whether Megan knew what he was doing, but she kept bouncing up and down for a long time.
johnreardon
Member
I hope so. They demolished the place quite a few years ago.
Your son sounds like me! When I was a kid it was much harder to get all this info than it is today, especially stuff like bootleg demos, etc.
The Beatles Anthology book and DVD collection alone is a treasure trove of information! How I would have loved that as a kid!
If he doesn't have it, a copy of the the Beatles Christmas album stuff would be a great gift!
walrus
Canard
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Every girl in the neighbourhood had Herman's Hermits records. Almost none of the guys did.
How do you make a Rickenbacker sound like an old music hall banjo?
Noone later kept trying to escape the twee image of Herman. But as with David Cassidy and Donnie Osmond, etc, there often is no escape.
He had a band called the Tremblers (short for Knee Trembler - slang for a standing parking lot shag outside a pub) which was quite edgy. They were quite good, I thought. And even though he used a Guild with the Tremblers, he could not escape Herman. Here, they cover an Elvis Costello song, I think.
The Guilds of Grot
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GGJaguar
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Searchers 1964. @johnreardon did you ever play at the Iron Door Club where The Searchers got their start?
I think it was done with one of those awful mute things that Gretsch and Fender had going in the early 60's.
I recall a band apparently somehow related to Savoy Brown or Foghat in the early 80's named the Knee Tremblers, which I thought was a singularly awful name, but had no idea where it came from. I'm not sure this newly found knowledge makes it any better.
Prince of Darkness
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The Easybeats are interesting in being an Australian band composed entirely of people who were born outside Australia! Singer Stevie Wright and drummer Gordon "Snowy" Fleet were born in England, rhythm guitarist George Young, older brother of AC/DC guitarists Malcolm and Angus, was born in Scotland, with lead guitarist Harry Vanda and bassist Dick Diamonde being born in the Netherlands.
Young and Vanda went on to have a very successful career as a songwriting and producing duo and were also mentioned in the Dire Straits song Sultans of Swing as "Guitar George" and "Harry"
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Canard
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Sorry. Some things once seen/heard/read cannot be un-seen/heard/read.
Nuuska
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THAT explains why they were photographed in front of Australia House on their promo picture waaaayyy back then.
johnreardon
Member
No we never ventured up to Liverpool. We played the West End Ballroom in Birmingham 3 or 4 times, but apart from the odd occasion over the Welsh border, we stayed in WalesSearchers 1964. @johnreardon did you ever play at the Iron Door Club where The Searchers got their start?
Canard
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The Moody Blues in their first iteration as a Beat band, with Denny Lane, didn't make much of an impact in North America. One single made it to number 10 in the US charts. I do not recall ever hearing it in Canada. Nobody I knew had any of their records.
And for a while they floundered on the margins of the popular music charts.
Their line up changed in 1966.
Their slow fuse rocket ship, Days of Future Past, released in 1967, took off in the US almost five years later , perhaps the first (soft) Prog Rock album ever.
The first iteration
According to the Beatles (peripheral) documentary, Good Ol' Freda, The Moody Blues played in Liverpool. The Beatles almost fired Freda as their secretary because she spent too much time hanging around with The Moody Blues.
And for a while they floundered on the margins of the popular music charts.
Their line up changed in 1966.
Their slow fuse rocket ship, Days of Future Past, released in 1967, took off in the US almost five years later , perhaps the first (soft) Prog Rock album ever.
The first iteration
According to the Beatles (peripheral) documentary, Good Ol' Freda, The Moody Blues played in Liverpool. The Beatles almost fired Freda as their secretary because she spent too much time hanging around with The Moody Blues.
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Charlie Bernstein
Senior Member
No one can top a line like "Doo-wah diddy diddy-dum diddy-doo."
"Oblah dee, oblah dah" and "Goo-goo ga-joob" come close, but that only counts in horseshoes. Which this ain't.