- FROM THE SHEL TALMY VAULTS
Another instalment drawn from the one of the most significant
catalogues in UK 1960s rock history: the vault of legendary producer
Shel Talmy. Over half the contents are previously unreleased, and
feature scintillating outtakes and alternate versions alongside
acknowledged classics of the beat group genre, many featuring a young
guitar slinger by the name of Jimmy Page.
From his efforts with the Kinks and the
Who alone, the Shel Talmy sound would wield considerable influence
during the crucial mid-60s episode in popular culture. But for every
‘You Really Got Me’ or ‘My Generation’, there were dozens of also-rans
that have since become underground classics or, such as the contents of
“Planet Beat”, lie waiting to be re-evaluated. This new collection
features a handpicked selection from the remarkable cadre of beat and
R&B recordings Talmy produced or handled between 1964 and 1966, all
redolent of a time when not only was his work rate alarmingly
prodigious, but the batting average high, aesthetically if not always
commercially.
You might say the timing was perfect. With his
arrival in London the summer of 1962, the nervy American walked into the
British music business at the precise moment the beat scene was in
ferment. True, most of his early Decca production work focused on
vocalists past their sell-by date or pop schlock such as the Bachelors,
but as these discs were also amongst his first successes, it makes sense
that Talmy maintained that route. Having cut his teeth as a recording
engineer in Hollywood, he was also au fait with the full range of pop
music archetypes and could bring an American methodology to the making
of records that was unusual in the British industry at that point.
By the time Talmy had struck out on his own as an independent in the
spring of 1964, he had further honed his techniques. He established a
relationship with a recording studio, IBC Sound in London’s Portland
Place, whose facilities delivered the sonics required, and focused on
session musicians who could quickly deliver what some of the less
disciplined players in the self-contained beat group environment were
less able. His personal picks soon devolved to Nicky Hopkins on piano,
Bobby Graham on drums and Jimmy Page on guitar. The three are all over
many of the tracks here, and in particular regard to Page, the
compilation acts as an interesting and unique survey of his first major
sojourn in the studio.
As for the featured artists themselves,
their stories are all likely typical of that era, with the occasional
historical wrinkle that makes for a wonderful tidbit (such as the
presence of future participants in both Emmerdale and Game Of Thrones).
It was an innocent period when the bright lights of Denmark Street
attracted many a provincial beat group anxious to follow in the wake of
the Beatles. Eventually, frustrated with a relative lack of autonomy
when it came to his releases, Talmy started his own short-lived Planet
Records imprint in late 1965.
While the label missed the main thrust of the beat age, Planet’s
release schedule nevertheless contains several worthy examples of the
genre from the Trekkas, Tribe and League Of Gentlemen, all included
here. They join alternative versions of well-thumbed beat nuggets such
as the Breadcrumbs’ ‘Everybody Knows’, Wayne Gibson’s ‘See You Later
Alligator’, and the First Gear’s ‘Leave My Kitten Alone’. Rare singles
from the Dennisons, Lancastrians, Zephyrs and Untamed join unreleased
excitement from the the Liberators, Talismen, Presidents, Pathfinders
and Johnny B Great. Taken together, they constitute as much a reminder
of the signature qualities Shel Talmy brought to British record-making
as they do of the glory days of this country’s rock’n’roll past.
ALEC PALAO