The Green Telescope - The Green Telescope Complete? (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.6)

The brilliant early '80s garage/psychedelic band from Edinburgh, Scotland. I mean, fuck yes! The Scots have produced so many amazing bands in so many genres and styles over the years, from garage punk and neo-psychedelia to C86, jangle pop, shoegaze and noise pop. I guess there must be something in the water.

I had the pleasure of meeting Lenny many years ago at a Thanes gig in Athens, Greece. Most of the conversation was between John Alexopoulos of The Sound Explosion and Lenny. I was just sitting there, watching in awe at how well-informed he was. Back then, I was more into the Velvet Underground-inspired bands than the Velvets themselves. But Mr. Helsing put an end to that.

Anyway, the band's original line-up consisted of Lenny Helsing on guitar and vocals, Bruce Lyall on organ, and Colin Blakey on bass. Before any records were made, Colin Blakey left and was replaced by Alan McLeann and the group then added a drummer, Gavin Henderson, soon after. Steve Fraser temporarily took over from Alan, playing bass on the three tracks the group recorded for the Psycho label compilation, 'The Waking Dream'. He also played on the recording of Pink Floyd's "Scream Thy Last Scream", which featured on the Syd Barrett tribute LP 'Beyond the Wildwood', released on Alan Duffy's Imaginary label a few years later, in 1988. The "Face in a Crowd' b/w 'Thoughts of a Madman" debut single was issued in 1986 with a new drummer, Mal Kergan on Wump.

The four-piece line-up of Helsing, Lyall, McLean and Henderson recorded the 'Two by Two' EP for Imaginary again. After this they would change their name to The Thanes Of Cawdor then shorten that to The Thanes. For some (really) strange reason, this outfit lacks a proper reissue treatment of their records or a complete works compilation, so I had to create one myself to secure new fans for them and their legacy.

Dig!

Gang War – These Boots Were Made For Fighting / Rumbling In Ann Arbor Michigan (Missing In Action Records, 1989 - White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.5)

Johnny called me up, one night, all excited, to tell me that he was starting a new band with Wayne Kramer, which, of course, I thought was fucking great. They wanted to start recording right away and needed a drummer. I was in New York and they were in Michigan but before I could blink they had me on a plane that very night and in a studio in An Arbor moments later. I was thrilled to meet Wayne who turned out to be even cooler that I had imagined. There were no rehearsals or anything. Ron Cooke, a friend of Wayne from Detroit was on bass, great guy too. I just sat at the drums having no idea what we were gonna do. They rolled the tape and Johnny just looked at me and said “Bo Diddley” and so I started ..Bam-ba-bala-bam bam-bam.. and we recorded Who Do Voodoo on the spot. Then we did M.I.A., then it was Just Because I’m White, Fats Domino’s I’m Gonna Be A Wheel and I’d Much Rather Be With The Boys, from The Stones. They didn’t like the studio we were in, so the second night we went to another one. One funny thing that happened was that when we got to that studio, the guy who owned it got a little freaked out when he saw us arrive and asked to see everybody’s I.D! Gang War’s “manager” told him:

“You must be joking! These guys happen to be very famous musicians! This is Wayne Kramer from The MC5, and you got Johnny Thunders from The New York Dolls over here!” The owner didn’t seem convinced at all and spat back “Don’t try to pull a fast one on me, buddy, my son was a big fan of The New York Dolls and he’s right here!”. He then proceeded to call his son “HEY, BILLY, COME DOWN HERE A MINUTE, WOULD YOU ?!” and out comes the fat kid in bermuda shorts, eating a sandwich.. “Is this one from the New York Dolls?” he asked, pointing at Johnny. The kid took a close look, hesitated a bit, then declared, amazed “It’s Johnny Thunders, dad, their guitar player!!”. So they let us in…

Johnny put me up in this real nice house where he was staying with his wife Julie and their two babies. We recorded for three nights in a row. The band being brand new, Wayne and Johnny were obviously thrilled to be playing together and sparks were flying! Back in New York, I wasn’t sure what to do, but I couldn’t just dump my own band, you know, we were totally into it.  Gang War wanted to tour and The Senders were already booked here and there, so it would have been hard to be able to do both. In the end, for some strange reason, I kinda concluded that, with Johnny on board, Gang War may not survive very long, and decided to stick with my own droogs. But my three nights in Michigan as Gang War’s first drummer remains one of the best memories of my life.

Excerpt from...

Special thanks to Steve!

Knave - Detourists (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.4)

This band seems to have been forgotten by the gods of rock 'n' roll. Try doing a Google search and you'll find even fewer of the kids on your street who picked up instruments a week ago and are brazenly playing in their old man's garage. Even their label, the legendary Detour Records, which is well known in garage, mod and freakbeat circles, only shares two lines about them in their website and points that they were former members of The Clique. And that's it! Their two singles are available for download only and if you want something more, you should go to Discogs and try your luck there. And yet, Knave was a short-lived band that had nothing to envy from its cult ancestors, The Clique!

If the aforementioned had the mid-60s mod/R&B zeitgeist in mind, as well as the freakbeat that came a little later, Knave seem, to my ears at least, to be a missing link between the hard psychedelic soul of the late Small Faces and the garage punk that was revived by the Prisoners, the one who wasn't ashamed to say that he liked Jimi Hendrix and early Deep Purple as much as The Who, The Creation and The Fleur De Lys. 

As far as I know, the tracks you'll find here are all those that have been released in one way or another, officially. I'm pretty sure though that there are still some more in some old dusty box of tapes, but I'll have to wait until someone bets on a certain economic failure and makes a compilation with the ones you'll hear here and the ones all the rest of us haven't heard. Yet...

The Boys - "Boys Only Demos 1980" (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.3)

Boys' fourth album, 'Boys Only', remains a divisive record. People either praise it or slaughter it; there's nothing in the middle. The truth is that their last album of their first period — I mean, before the mid-life reform — was a bit deranged. I have no problem at all: power-pop, guitar-driven brilliance, and quite possibly a template for later bands like The Exploding Hearts or The Cute Lepers. As a long-time fan of theirs, I'm not objective, but I'm trying, as you can see. Anyway, the demos they cut for this LP are unbeatable, and to my ears they sound far better. It's raw, hard-edged pop, just like the early Romantics releases or anything Bomp! issued back then. You should definitely try them.

Dedicated to the memory of Honest John Plain.

Purple Hearts - The Jimmy Pursey & Paul Weller Demos (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.2)

The Purple Hearts were one of the leading bands of the UK mod revival of the late '70s/early '80s and they recorded the community's enduring anthem, "Millions Like Us". At times, they closely resemble the '66 Who, and they even lend more credibility to a '66 Bowie single than the original. Of course, The Jam's influence was apparent. These are some basic and brief things that someone unfamiliar with Purple Hearts should probably know. Today's post is not intended as an introduction, but rather, it is addressed to those who have been in the know for ages. So, I collected all the studio demos they recorded with punk rock/mod punk figures like Jimmy Pursey from Sham 69 and Paul Weller from The Jam, supervising these sessions, in one place. The six Polydor demos produced by Jimmy Pursey show a rougher edge than the final versions of the well known songs like "Millions Like Us", "Frustration" and "Jimmy" (my fave one by them ever!) and they are in fact early versions of their brilliant singles! The two demos produced by Weller, "Plane Crash" and "Concrete Mixer" were originally intended for Modfather's own Respond label. They were recorded at Polydor again in 1981, but went unissued. And they're all awesome, trust me!

The Taxi Boys - Taxi Boys (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.1)

 

The poor sales of the Real Kids’ first LP prompted Felice to become a roadie for the Ramones, but soon after returned to Boston and formed the Taxi Boys (the name was obviously taken from an old Real Kids song), whose two EPs continued the Real Kids' tradition of the highly energetic 60s influenced garage rock 'n' roll, only a little poppier production wise. Felice and the gang (half former Real Kids members and half future ones) are in fine form on both. The Taxi Boys dates from 1980 to 1981, and the last thing they released was in 1982, but by then they had returned to the Real Kids name again. After all, all these songs were written as Kids songs, according to John Felice. 

Gathered here are all their recordings as Taxi Boys of course and if you need a few pointers to go on, there's still plenty of Eddie Cochran guitars and Heartbreakers-esque melodies, only this time filtered through the Shoes or the Flamin Groovies from the late 70s point of view.