Isomatic UK Weblog

This evening we went to The Regent Centre in Christchurch to see Marty Wilde and the Wildcats perform songs from the 1950s and early 60s. The theatre was packed to capacity with an enthusiastic audience, all paying the 'concessions' price. In the first half the Wildcats performed without Marty, all but the drummer singing at some time. Our favourite number from this set was Be Bop A Lula, composed by Gene Vincent, who performs it on this link. Note the great guitar backing by the greatest rock guitarist of all time, Cliff Gallup. He sounds even better on Race With The Devil.
For the second set the Wildcats were joined by Marty, who looks incredibly young for his age. He performed numerous songs, including his big hits:
Donna, written and originally sung by Ritchie Valens;
Danny, written by Ben Weisman with lyrics by Fred Wise and recorded for the film King Creole but eventually eliminated. I remember listening to it on the juke box in a cafe in Plaistow as a teenager;
Bad Boy, Marty's own composition
Teenager in Love, written by Doc Pomus with Mort Shuman and originally sung by Dion and the Belmonts.
However, our favourite was Apron Strings, written by Aaron Schroeder with George David Weiss and first recorded publicly by Cliff Richard, although Elvis Presley had already made a home recording not intended for release.
A great evening of nostalgia that had us all singing along.

Labels: Pop Music

This evening we went to the The Barrington Centre in Ferndown to see Marc Robinson and the Counterfeit Crickets. Marc looks and sounds like Buddy with ace lead guitarist Adrian playing the original backings brilliantly. There was also a Billy Fury tribute singer.
It is hard to pick favourite numbers as they were all equally good. The one that I am still humming is Blue Days, Black Nights, Buddy's first published recording. We have it on a cassette tape of early recordings that I bought in Phoenix, Arizona and played over and over all the way to the Grand Canyon and Back.
If Marc or any of the band should read this, why not perform:
Listen to Me
Midnight Shift
and
Words of Love.

Labels: Pop Music

We visited our local Dorset pub twice today, first to devour steak pie, now home-made, and later to see the group Wayward. It comprises amplified acoustic guitar, electric bass guitar and electric drum kit, with the drummer providing the vocals. At first they attracted no applause due to numbers fading out rather than ending. Once we understood this we led the applause and others followed. Our favourite numbers were:
1) Sunny Afternoon written by The Kinks' chief songwriter Ray Davies. They released it as a single on 3 June 1966 and it went to number 1 on the UK charts on 7 July 1966, remaining there for two weeks. The link is to that version.
2) Angie written primarily by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and recorded in November and December 1972. The link is to that version.

We danced to three numbers, Selina wearing her little black dress and new black tights, showing off her fabulous legs, easily equal to those of the many mini-skirted young women present. A Canadian guy put his arms around us, saying how great we are.
He wished he had a girlfriend with whom he could dance. I said he should find one. Thinking about it since, there must be thousands of lonely women and an equal number of men moaning about not having one. I say to you all "Log on to the internet dating sites, now !"

Labels: Pop Music

After the chat at the George & Dragon on Tuesday about Mama Cass Eliot singing Dream a Little Dream of Me, it was an amazing coincidence that BBC4 dedicated an hour this evening to The Mamas and The Papas, one of the great groups of the sixties. Only two of them survive but past interviews with all four were shown. Note that Cass is on the right of the picture, thus not showing what a big girl she was.

Labels: Pop Music

After twice watching the television programme celebrating Les Paul's 90th birthday (he is now 92) we searched the HMV site and bought the Very Best Of Les Paul & Mary Ford.
It has now arrived and is delightful. It includes Mary singing, in her beautiful voice, tracks such as:
'How High The Moon', by Morgan Lewis with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and first featured in the 1940 Broadway revue Two for the Show;
'The World is Waiting For the Sunrise', by Ernest Seitz (pseudonym Raymond Roberts) with lyrics by Gene Lockhart and first published in 1919;
'Vaya Con Dios', by Larry Russell, Inez James, and Buddy Pepper, and published in 1953.
The wonderful Les Paul instrumentals include:
'Little Rock Get Away', by Joe Sullivan with lyrics by Carl Sigman (1938);
'Mammy's Boogie', a Paul original boogie-woogie guitar version of 'Mammy's Little Baby Loves Shortening Bread' originally written by James Whitcomb Riley in 1900;
'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles', Jaan Kenbrovin (James Kendis, James Brockman and Nat Vincent) with lyrics by John William Kellette (1919) and now the West Ham football anthem, originally referring to Billy J. 'Bubbles' Murray who played for the local Park School and resembled the boy in the famous Bubbles painting by Millais used in a Pears soap commercial of the time.
Browse the Very Best Of Les Paul & Mary Ford for a listing of all 25 tracks.
Pop music from the 1950's is still alive and well. Don't expect the same to be said of today's pop music in 50 years time.

Labels: Pop Music

We mentioned to Brian at the Cricks one night that we always find New Year's Eve a problem. The following week he gave us a typed invitation to dinner at his house followed by music at Guildford Corporation Club. Yesterday evening Brian provided pate, trout from the Goldaming trout farm, toffee cheesecake, chardonnay, coffee and then champagne with Brian's friends Tanya and Robert. Brian then drove all of us to the club, where we were entertained by The DISCiples. They played rock/pop from the 60s onward, rather too loudly for us, particularly when dancing near them. Andy on lead guitar was good.
Thanks Brian for a good evening.

Labels: Eating out, Pop Music

On Christmas Eve we went to the Europa in East Molesey where Henry Trezise was singing and playing keyboard. He is a very versatile performer, covering a wide range of styles, but it was the '60s numbers that the audience all wanted. Our request for the two best Beatles songs ever were quickly played. They were If I fell and And I Love Her. Click on the links for the lyrics.

Labels: Pop Music

On Christmas Eve we went to the Europa in East Molesey where Henry Trezise was singing and playing keyboard. He is a very versatile performer, covering a wide range of styles, but it was the '60s numbers that the audience all wanted. There were only two requests that he felt unable to satisfy and our two brought an instant response. They were If I fell (The Beatles) and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (Carole King, The Shirelles). They don't write songs like those any more !

Labels: Pop Music