Viv Prince (1941-2025)

 

I just read Mike Stax's post about Viv Prince's passing. Prince made Keith Moon look like a Catholic schoolgirl in terms of both drumming and wildness, partying and lunacy! According to Jimmy Page, the young Keith Moon attended several Pretty Things concerts in order to study Viv's style. Prince was also the one to coin the nickname 'Moon the Loon' for Keith, with whom he was on good terms.

He was the first British rock 'n' roll musician to face a drug-related charge in court. The Kinks repeatedly approached him to become their drummer, but he chose to join the wildest of them all, The Pretty Things.  The mayhem culminated in a tour of New Zealand in August 1965, during which he paraded around in a leopard-skin pillbox hat and carried a dead crayfish on a string. He also started plotting pranks and setting fires on stage, resulting in a lot of bad publicity. Following an altercation with the crew, he was thrown off the plane taking the band home after the tour and had to find his own way back to England. He was quite a character, as well as a musician. Safe travels motherfucker!

The Pretty Things - Mayhem In The BBC (White Trash Soul R&B Series No.4)

It pisses me off that the wildest 60s combo at least in the UK, only has a bunch of BBC live recordings to document their legendary untamed performance. The 15 recordings I've compiled are, as the title suggests, from officially released sources and pretty well recycled over the years. But if you're looking for a place where all their recordings up to 1966 are packed into one place, here's your chance. Not nearly what I've read over the years of the witnesses to their gruesome rituals, but fierce enough for British broadcast, I guess. There's a Dutch TV performance on YouTube, but as far as I know there's never been a proper bootleg release. 

The Pretty Things - "The Pretty Things" (Fontana, 1965)

I've read already countless times that The Pretty Things debut long play was "a legendary exercise in anarchy". As much as a cliche this might sound, it's the least you can say about it. Fontana records chief Jack Baverstock when arrived to oversee his label's newest 'hitmakers', "walked out after half an hour with us" as the liners point out. Indeed, the Pretty Things were no less than five unruly, filthy and dirty to the max youths with a never-ending hunger for rhythm & blues! When you're going to read something about 'em the word 'mayhem' appears on the script immeasurable times. No wonder why Mick Jagger used all his connections to keep them down and even if those creeps sang the opposite, this indigestible prick finally succeed. But tapes and records are still here to remind us who were the filthiest of them all. The spiritual godfather of this album is the Man, Bo Diddley. Chuck's here too but his tunes Diddleyfied so much that sound to these ears like Bo's tracks or as i read somewhere else, like outtakes of the "Two Great Guitars" sessions. No less than four McDaniel toons appear in here. But the whole 'jungle beat' filtered and distorted through over-amped guitars, crushing drums and snarling vocals. Again, this is really one of the places where punk started. A roaring example of how garage was born. Sometimes i wonder how the rock & roll history would have be if the Pretties weren't THAT MUCH suicidal. The ironic front sleeve is perfect introduction of what are you going to witness. Five bumps who dare to provoke and even if you try to beautify them, the end result will be a total disgust! Is that punk or what? That's British R&B at its rawest and dirtiest and if the Rolling Stones are too pussy for you, well here's your chance. And Vivian Prince fuckin' rule!

The A-Bones drum head with Viv Prince