Friday 23 May 2008

The Syndicats: Howling Wolves!

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If there ever was a Freakbeat anthem that must be "Crawdaddy Simone" a song that's been appearing in several comps over the last twenty years or so.
The Syndicats are usually mentioned by the mainstream, if at all, because they were Steve Howe's first band, he later achieved greater fame with Yes but for me and a whole lot of other people he reached his peak with Tomorrow.
In fact as far as I'm concerned Yes were better in the beginning with original guitarist and former Syn, Pete Banks.
(The Syndicats did NOT become The Syn...)
Actually "Crawdaddy Simone" is the only recording that does not feature Mr.Howe, he was replaced by Ray Fenwick.
That is the band in the above picture with Fenwick second from the left.

There is an absolutely wild, must see appearance at the UK TV show "The Beat Room", that you can not miss!
Syndicats Live & Wild at the Beat Room, 1964

They were formed in 1964 and saw several line-up changes.
Their three singles on Columbia (EMI) were produced by the legendary Joe Meek, with the first one not particularly brilliant and posted here for completeness's sake.
The second 45 is fantastic with a great B-side too featuring a kind of haunted house organ.
Syndicats Live & Wild at the Beat Room, 1964 (part 2)

Discography:
Maybellene / True To Me, April 1964
Howling For My Baby / What To Do, January 1965
On the Horizon / Crawdaddy Simone, September 1965
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Tracklist:
01 Bo Diddley Medley (Live at The Beat Room, 1964)
02 Howling For My Baby" (Dixon)
03 What To Do" (Howe/Truelove/K. Driscoll/T. Driscoll)
04 Crawdaddy Simone" (Fenwick/Williams)
05 On the Horizon" (Leiber/Stoller)
06 Leave My Kitten Alone" (John/Titus Turner/James McDougal)
07 Don't Know What To Do" (Howe)
08 Maybellene" (Berry)
09 True To Me" (Ladd/Howe)
tracks 6 & 7 previously unreleased

NEW LINK (16 Jan 2009)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/axytykznydj/SYNDICATS.rar

11 comments:

Robert Charbonnier said...

No comments ! When the music's so good, the post so documented and all ! Don't discourage, keep on your very good work, for all us listeners, even the lazy ones ;)

aldo said...

Hi Victor,
thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed some of my posts...and I might add few things here and then.
This was originally just a one-post blog! (Chilean 60s...)

The Bomber said...

Hi Aldo...
our frien Stuart is asking for a re- up of this comp...

indeed...I have to be honest... I ve missed this post! ! !

really really good job here...as usual.

aldo said...

NEW LINK!
http://www.mediafire.com/file/axytykznydj/SYNDICATS.rar

Enjoy it!

The Bomber said...

UFF...gracias!
ahora falta que lo vea Stu.

A darle una escuchado Aldo, justo ahora estoy por tierras chilenas, en San Felipe cerca de Los Andes estoy, te ubicas ah?

Saludos viejo

Anonymous said...

Hi Aldo,

Absolutely brilliant stuff - I've burnt the tracks to CD, and I'm listening to to it loud for about the 4th time today!!! I've a few of the tracks, but the ones I haven't are incredible, so a thousand-and-one thanks for putting a link back up!

Cheers,

Stuart

aldo said...

Hola Pablo,

San Felipe queda cerca de Santiago, el viernes tocó el grupo MATORRAL con J.M.O'Brien de LOS VIDRIOS QUEBRADOS y Carlos Fernandez de EMBRUJO...acá en Aysén estamos tan aislados y a más de 1.600 km que era imposible para mi haber llegado...

Stuart,
i'm happy you enjoyed those tracks, you're more than welcome!
All of the tracks apart from the Diddley Medley were gathered on a Steve Howe CD that also had stuff by The IN CROWD, TOMORROW and Bodast but no "Crawdaddy Simone" of course since he's not on it..

v said...

Hey, just discovered this band through a few videos on youtube. Came here but the link says the file is set to private. Is there any other link you can give me for the file, if it's no bother?
Thanks, great blog btw, I'll be trawling for some gems.

aldo said...

Hey v...link is available just now, I'll put it back to private in a couple of days.
Send me an email if you're interested in any of the other links.
I had enough of stupid comments and what have you...also all of this stuff had been up for quite some time.

Everything You Do Is A Balloon. said...

hey! sorry to annoy you but would it be possible to make the link public again? would love to have this!
cheers.
-marc

aldo said...

Hi Marc,

links available just now...