The Koobas singles 1965-1968...most of it!

I first came across The Koobas about 20 years ago when their 1969 self-titled LP was reissued by Bam Caruso. I loved that record, I even liked the strange name of the band...In the liner notes it said something like "too Pop for the Underground, too weird for the Pop fans".

They were from Liverpool and like The Beatles played the Star-Club in Hamburg in December 1963 and were even signed by Brian Epstein the following year. Initially called The Kubas, they started in 1962 with Stuart Leathwood and Roy Morris both on guitar and vocals, John Morris on drums (replaced by Tony O'Reilly), and Keith Ellis on bass.
They released several singles prior to that album and this post tries to collect them all... Their debut single, "I Love Her" b/w "Magic Potion," failed to chart, as did its follow-up, despite the exposure the group received opening for the Beatles on their final British tour.That first B-side is in fact missing, as well as "Sally" and "Take me for a while" perhaps somebody can fill the gaps...

They switched from Pye Records to EMI-Columbia in 1966, and continued playing live both in England, including a January 1967 appearance with the Who and the Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Savile Theatre (owned by Brian Epstein), and Continental Europe with a tour of Switzerland with Hendrix and appearing on TV shows in Germany.


The Koobas had several singles released in various European countries, like the above Danish 45 with a B-side unique to it, a song originally written and recorded by Bert Jansch. That one is included in the link below.
They did a great version of "The first cut is a deepest" a minor hit in Europe...or maybe not! Nevertheless it's a great single and I particularly like its B-side.

Here's their UK single releases:
I Love Her / Magic Potion 1965
Take Me For A Little While / Somewhere In The Night 1965
You'd Better Make Up Your Mind / A Place I Know 1966
Sweet Music / Face 1966
Sally / Champagne And Caviar 1967
Gypsy Fred / City Girl 1967
The First Cut Is The Deepest / Walking Out 1968

http://www.shareonall.com/koobas_-_singles_1965-67_jzgd_rar.htm

Olympic: Big Beat from Prague (1967-1968)

Olympic were the most important group during the 60s in what used to be Czechoslovakia, a country that spawned many great groups like The Matadors or the Slovakian Prudy to name just a couple. The Matadors are probably better known amongst foreigners since most of their stuff was recorded in English.
That was not the case with Olympic since, even though they started playing rock'n'roll covers, when they begun writing their own material they were the first to do it in their native tongue.
OLYMPIC: Czech Beat Greats! (FULL CLIP)

They released several singles, EPs and recorded the first album in Czech Rock's history in 1968 "Zelva" (The Tortoise). That year the band was touring France were an EP was issued with 3 songs in English, "Midsummer night" being one of my favourites showing the band going crazy, totally freaking-out, a must hear!
OLYMPIC "I'm stupid" (Ptak Rosomak)

"I'm stupid" is the English version of "Ptak Rosomak" (The Wolverine Bird!) which is also the title of their second LP released in 1969. The band had gone back home despite the events of 1968 when Russian tanks rolled into the country to put a stop to the so-called Prague Spring that had started earlier that year...

You can find "Zelva" the album thanks to http://faintlyblowing.blogspot.com or most recently http://onwingsdream.blogspot.com/.
Here is that French EP that was released under the name The Five Travellers!
The rest was released as singles in 1967-'68, also included two more English versions of their songs that were featured on the compilation LP "Night Club '67".
http://www.shareonall.com/OLYMPIC_jkes_rar.htm
Tracklist:
01. Please don't leave me
02. Thoughts of a foolish boy
03. Story of a wonder
04. I'm stupid
05. Midsummer night
06. Pohreb sue vlastni duse (My funeral march)
07. Zelva
08. Snad jsem to zavinil ja
09. Dej mi na klin oci unaveny
10. Nejim a nespim
11. Krasna neznama
12. Ptak Rosomak
tracks 1 & 2 from "Night Club '67" LP, 3-6 "Five Travellers" French EP 1968, 7/8 single 1967, 9/10 single 1967, 11 single 1968, 12 single 1968.

Flowers are Flowering (14 Blossoms from the UK 1965-'69)

A collection of UK bands from the second half of the 60s.
Included are some of the very best and famous like The Kinks and The Move both with tracks that were never released at the time and some very obscure ones...all very well known by the fanatics of course!

The Kirkbys had some great singles out that were collected in the great retrospective dedicated to 23RD Turnoff of the magical "Michaelangelo" fame together with some demos, here are a couple of my favourites, they probably had alredy changed name by then...
Around that time Kaleidoscope were recording some of the most wonderful examples of UK Psychedelia and here is a demo of an unreleased song possibly from late 1966, maybe early 1967 when the band had just adopted their new moniker.
Same with The Syn that famously played "The 14th Hour Technicolour Dream" event headlined by The Pink Floyd and recorded a song of the same title, but here is an early garagey demo from their beginnings.
The Brood? They changed their name to Turquoise and went on telling us tales of Flossie Fillet, while the trio that called themselves Friday's Chyld changed their name to Fire and released the great "Father's name was Dad".
Some of the rest was properly issued, like my favourite song on the great Bee Gees first album,the often comped but never tired of "I don't want you" by the brilliantly named Anteeeks all the way from Kilmarnock,Scotland and a cool one from Status Quo's second LP otherwise a much inferior effort to their debut.
Tracklist:
01.The Anteeeks I don't want you (1966)
02.The Bee Gees In my own time (1967)
03.The Brood Wrong way (demo 1966)
04.The Syn Merry-go-round (acetate 1965)
05.The Kinks Time will tell (prev.unreleased 1965)
06.Friday's Chyld I didn't know you (demo 1967)
07.The Move Vote for me (prev.unreleased 1967)
08.The Kirkbys/23rd Turnoff You sing your own song (demo 1967)
09.Majority One Depths of my mind (1969)
10.Friday's Chyld I just can't wait (demo 1967)
11.The Kirkbys/23rd Turnoff Flowers are flowering (demo 1967)
12.Status Quo You're just what I was looking for (1969)
13.Kaleidoscope You're not mine (prev. unreleased 1967)
14.Giles Giles and Fripp Under the sky (prev.unreleased 1968)
http://www.shareonall.com/UK_Beat_Sike_knmm.rar

THE MOVE: They were something else...LIVE !!!

Here is some great live footage by the original five piece MOVE.
Thanks to the great German TV shows "Beat Club" and "Beat Beat Beat" (from where this footage is taken) we can enjoy some spectacular performances like this one and often by obscure and forgotten bands.

The Move was a great act live as you can tell by watching these live versions of "Night of Fear", "Walk upon the water" and the brilliant "I can hear the grass grow" (always loved that title!)... even though there are no explosions or smashing TV sets!
The MOVE!

One person that was really impressed by them was producer Joe Boyd that saw them first in 1966 and says in his book "White Bicycles" how he fantasized about what would have happened had The Move made the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. He thinks Americans would have been astonished by them as they were by The Who and The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Joe Boyd wanted the Move to sign for Elektra but it did not work out...
On 27th February 1968 The Move recorded a live set at the famous Marquee and in September they released an EP "Something Else from The Move" that included live tracks by the Byrds and Love.

http://www.shareonall.com/Something_Else_from_the_Move_hqpz.rar

The Scorpions: Brits in Holland, 1965 -1966!

While at times it’s been assumed The Scorpions were a Dutch band they actually came from Manchester. They formed in 1961 and moved to Holland in July 1964. They released several singles in different European countries with Holland and Germany being the main ones.
In Holland they had 3 albums released (4 if you count the two versions of the second LP).
Their first LP “Hello Josephine” was named after their biggest hit, released as a single at the end of 1964. The album is made up of their first 5 singles released between August 1964 and January 1965 and a couple of extra numbers. While lacking in original material there’s a lot of energy and excitement in the performances, with a great original song “Baby back now” saved until the end of the record.

On their second album “ Climbing the Charts” (also released as “Sweet & Lovely”) there is one of their very best song, “Hey Honey” that has been covered many times since the eighties by bands like The Tell-Tale Hearts and The Thanes among others.
It was first released as the B-side of “Greensleeves” a big hit for the band and recorded by the original line-up.
By the time of this second album though, only a couple of the original members were left.
Due to problems with working permits the line-up kept changing and in 1966 they released a final album “Keep in touch with…” together with 3 singles. It’s my least favourite album showing like many other groups of the time a “new” Soul direction but also including a Fab original, “Too many lovers” also the B-side of their final single.

German picture sleeve

Here are those three Dutch albums which is virtually everything they recorded including all their singles sides.

http://www.shareonall.com/Scorpions_Hello_Josephine_LP_Holland_1965_qdqq.rar

http://www.shareonall.com/Scorpions_Sweet__Lovely_LP_Holland_1965_sdjd.rar

http://www.shareonall.com/Keep_in_Touch_with_The_Scorpions_LP_Holland_1966_osal.rar

More Wonderful Eastern (European!) Sounds from ILLES!

This is the first album I heard by ILLES, thanks to a tape that my dear friend Lenny Helsing made for me.
It's the second and the most consistent of their 60s albums. I love this band especially their unique Eastern flavoured sound that you can hear on several of their songs.
I've added no less than 5 bonus tracks, all from singles and all from 1968, the best year in the recorded output of ILLES.
This post too would have been impossible without my friend Gyula Dudas, owner of the original LPs.

With so much stuff around the web these days it's easy to just pass by something like this and infact I've found next to nothing by them...don't be put off by being all in Hungarian: do yourself a favour hear ILLES, hear them now!!!

Tracklist:
1.Oh, mondd
2.Nehéz az út
3.Amikor én még kis srác voltam
4.Sárga rózsa
5.Átkozott féltékenység
6.Little Richard
7.Eltávozott a nap - az azonos című filmből
8.Nézz rám
9.Ne gondold
10.Szerelem
11.Az ész a fontos, nem a haj
12.Mondd, hogy nem hiszed el
Bonus tracks:
13.Nem érti más csak én
14.Teli alom
15.Régi dal
16.Holdfény ’69
17.Alig volt zöld

link:
http://www.shareonall.com/ILLES_68_skyu.rar

The Druids Of Stonehenge LIVE FOOTAGE!!!

I decided to put these two clips up since I read some recent comments from original Druids here http://peppermintstore.blogspot.com/2008/01/druids-of-stonehenge-creation.html
Druids of Stonehenge LIVE!!!

The band is having a reunion concert "in NYC (at a club called Havana Central) -- some time on the weekend of April 26/27." according to Tom Paine Workman.
About these performances Carl J. Hauser says "The experience on the Joe Franklin show was just another Spinal-Tap-like Druidic cut-up. we did that after we came back from our soujourn in San Francisco...
At that point I moved over to rhythm guitar and we were *really* good. David and I were writing great songs (most were never recorded) and Elliott was a GREAT soloist..."
Druids Of Stonehenge LIVE!!! (Part 2)

"Then some bright-eyed assistant producer got the 'old meets new' idea (..OF COURSE!) and they told us we could do one of our songs (Mumsey) if we'd also do "God bless the child". Now we all loved Billie Holiday, but that's no song for a rock and roll band (as later proved by BS&T's BUTCHERY of it.) So we decided to "Paint it Black" in protest. It was all live TV in those days, so we just DID IT. I can remember the look on Joe Franklin's face to this day. I think if there'd been a couple of peanuts on his desk his wig would have jumped off and ate 'em"

Sundazed has recently released a 10" with some great versions of "Who do you love", "Baby please don't go", "I put a pell on you" and "Pretty Thing" recorded in November 1965 when they were still simply the Druids.
There are also 3 tracks recorded later that did not show up on their lone album.
Meanwhile here are those performances, I'm sure you'll all agree that's GREAT stuff that makes you wishing there was more but then again...I never thought I would see this!
ENJOY IT!