Sunday, January 24, 2016

#142

A very intertwined bunch of tracks on this one, centred around Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons and The Sports.

Firstly the "pre everything" Pelaco Bros - a lineup including Mssrs Camilleri and Cummings along with Ed Bates ( future Sports mk1 ) Johnny Topper, Peter Lillie and Carl Wolfe from a 6 track ep recorded live ( at Melbourne Uni ) ( on a label called Ralph Records, but this is not the latter day US label ).

Then "Hit And Run" the first single from the Screaming Targets album ( the first of 2 albums produced by Pete Solley - I guess in between working on the 2 albums he produced with The Sports ).

After that it's the whole catalogue ( minus one ) of Jo Jo Zep's 'indie' label called "Mighty Records" - that is all except "Nosey Parker" by Joey Vincent ( ie Jo Camilleri himself ), which was already featured here years and years ago on Sideroom #22.

The artists on this label were Joey Vincent / The Creatures / The Honeydrippers / Highrise Hilton & The Skyscrapers / Gary Young and Gulliver Smith - with most of these artists being aliases for various Falcons members.

There was a box-set of the singles for this label ( sadly I have lost the actual box they came in - but not the records obviously ) - and it's all very confusing with what was in the original box in Melbourne shops - I say Melbourne because the box I got at the time up in Sydney at the time of release only had 5 records in it - no Gulliver Smith ( which I got separately later )  So not sure if Gulliver Smith was in the original box or not,  just it never made it to my box up here in Sydney (  sold out ? withdrawn ?.. help ? anybody !... ).

And starting our run of Mighty Records is The Creatures who were Jeff Burstin /Tony Faehse / John Power and Gary Young,  ie nearly all of the Falcons, and I actually chose "Sea Fury" what seems to be officially the b-side of the single ( despite the cover indicating it's the a-side ) ( ! confusing ! ). Then it's the Gulliver Smith single from the set - of course not a Falcon, though his earlier career ( of many bands ) included Company Caine ( which at one point DID feature Falcons John Power and Jeff Burstin ). Then ( self explanatory ) it's Gary Young the Falcon's drummer with Ubangi Stomp, followed by The Honeydrippers "Can't Hold Back the Tears" - and again we run into memory problems with facts here. At the time I am pretty sure I read / heard ( on 2JJ ) they were an O.S. band - though not the latter day Robert Plant Honeydrippers. Now I could be totally wrong - but I just base this on the fact at the time I was an acned faced teenager obsessed by every little trivial detail I could suck in and those facts seem to have stuck in the amazing thing that is the 'human memory' for all these years regarding this Honeydrippers record. Another theory I read subsequently on a music forum was that they were somehow connected with another Melbourne band called The Bel Aire Bandits but I can neither confirm or deny - again help ? anybody ?.

Lastly on Mighty Records it's Highrise Hilton & The Skyscrapers which was an alias for John Power.

Phew ! That was a lot to get through...

We then move onto the section with some singles from The Sports - their debut indie ep "Fair Game", followed by a re-recording of the song "Reckless",  ie a new version of the title track from their debut album - Pete Solley involved in producing this version versus Joe Camilleri on the first - given away a bonus in the first run of their ( second ) album "Don't Throw Stones". Finishing off with "Black Stockings For Chelsea" which was a posthumous 7 inch; a song originally on the "Sondra" album ( but not a single at that time ) and to coincide with the release of the "All Sports" best of compilation in 1982 ( possibly as late as November of that year ),  some time after the band had split.


#142 - via Box



Sideroom Singles Podcast #142
1. Conga Line - The Pelaco Bros ( Ralph Records Aust 1976 )
2. Hit And Run - Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons ( Mushroom Records Aust 1979 )
3. Sea Fury - The Creatures ( Australia ) ( Mighty Records Aust 1980 )
4. Don't Keep Doin' It, Duke - Gulliver Smith ( Mighty Records Aust 1980 )
5. Ubangi Stomp - Gary Young ( Mighty Records Aust 1980 )
6. Can't Hold Back The Tears - The Honeydrippers ( Mighty Records Aust 1980 )
7. Rocket 88 - Highrise Hilton & The Skyscrapers ( Mighty Records Aust 1980 )
8. ( Right ) Thru Her Heart - The Sports ( Zak Aust 1977 )
9. Reckless - The Sports ( Mushroom Records Aust 1979 )
10. Black Stockings ( For Chelsea ) - The Sports ( Mushroom Records Aust 1982 )
( duration 29.22, vbr lame mp3 )





2 comments:

dicky said...

Wow, nothing for eight months and then it floods!
You even manage better than one post per month average, so we still have nothing to complain about, just a lot of listening to catch up with.
Welcome back and thanks for keeping this going.

sideroom said...

thanks and as long as your forgive my eternal slackness then all is good !