Mr Piller’s 2nd Volume of “Mod Sounds” from the Sixties. I don’t own the first volume as, after reading the track list, and with all due deference to Eddie and his impeccable Mod credentials, it struck me as a collection of stuff that someone looking back from the 2020's imagines as Mod sounds of the period rather than it being what London’s 60’s Mods we’re actually listening to back then (I’m pretty damned certain there was no Tom Jones, David Bowie, The Hollies, Dusty Springfield or Manfred Mann getting spun by DJ Guy Stevens at the Scene Club in Ham Yard). Now I understand that when you are compiling huge collections like this you can't get everything you want and have to fill the gaps, but still I gave Volume 1 a miss.

Eddie Piller is a broadcaster, DJ, compilation compiler and the head honcho at Acid Jazz Records. As I said earlier his Mod credentials are impeccable (his Mom ran the Small Faces Fanclub !) so I expected better of Volume 1 but thankfully he redeemed himself with this one. We all know what is meant by Psych, right ? But Freakbeat is a somewhat more esoteric genre to nail down, we talked about it a little back in July when we were looking at Les Fleur De Lys (https://www.whiterabbitrecords.co.uk/blog/read_204279/2023-albums-thing-140-fleur-de-lys-circles-the-ultimate-fleur-de-lys.html). It’s a term coined in the 1980’s to describe records made by exclusively British (I think I’m right there, I can’t think of any US records described as Freakbeat) Beat combos who had discovered the fuzz pedal and were transitioning between R&B rooted beat music and Pysychedelia/Prog between 1965 and 1967. A perfect example of Freakbeat would be Les Fleur De Lys “Mud In Your Eye” which appears on this comp and you can listen to at that link just a couple of sentences back.

This is a huge 91 track collection across 6 LP’s pressed on (deep) Purple vinyl with an extensive booklet filled with notes and pictures (of record sleeves and labels mostly which I find fascinating). I do own many of the tracks included already on CD box sets like “Nuggets” and “Acid Drops, Spacedust And Flying Saucers” but the chance to get some of these on (purple) vinyl was too tempting to resist. Of the Psych tracks some to look out for would be Dantalion’s Chariot “Madman Running Through The Fields” (featuring a pre-Police Andy Summers), Kaleidoscope “Flight From Ashiya” and “Rainbow Chaser” by Nirvana (no, not them !).

If you’re looking for further examples of Freakbeat then look no further than Wimple Winch and the raucous “Save My Soul” 7” copies of which start at around £1000 theses days, Tintern Abbey’s “Vacuum Cleaner” (the B-side of their only single whose A-side was titled “Beeside”), the John Peel endorsed Misunderstood and their “Children Of The Sun”, The Mickey Finn’s rollicking “Garden Of My Mind” and the Apostolic Intervention with “Tell Me (Have You Ever Seen Me)” including a not at all disguised Steve Marriott on backing vocals.

The songs by The Action, with the superb “In My Dream”, Timebox and “Gone Is The Sad Man” plus The Move with “Disturbance” are all great 60’s pop songs with a sprinkle of the flower power that was heading this way. Times were changing, music was changing and it’s all charted in these songs. It’s been said that you can chart the changes in British music by which drugs were popular at the time and the amphetamine rush of the Mod days is definitely ceding ground to the psychedelics of the later 60’s and you can hear it in these records. 

There are things here you’ll all know too, The Who “I Can See For Miles”, Keith West “Excerpt From A Teenage Opera” and Staus Quo “Pictures Of Matchstick Men”. There are bands here containing names we’ll get to know better in a few years time, we’ve already mentioned Dantalion’s Chariot, John’s Children “Midsummer Night Scene” features the unmistakable vocal stylings of Marc Bolan, Sam Gopal (formerly Sam Gopal’s Dream) had a singer name of Ian Willis aka Ian Fraser Kilmister who became better known as Lemmy when he joined Hawkwind, Tomorrow’s guitarist Steve Howe would go on to find fame with Yes, the guitarist in The Birds was one Ronnie Wood, The Idle Race was Jeff Lynne’s home before he skipped across town to join The Move and we have a solo Alex Harvey before he hooked up with his Sensational band. I’m sure there are others. 

It’s a huge collection, beautifully compiled and presented marking a changing time in 60’s music. Good work Mr. Piller. 

Wimple Winch “Save My Soul” - https://youtu.be/gi9GXxVDJQg?si=RwLQrTxi11xBTn6T

The Action “In My Dream” - https://youtu.be/pFm2wyGQWgY?si=0_a37MDZhI_h8AUZ

Now here’s something different. Released in November 2023, the claim is that these are songs written in the late 19th and early 20th century by Music Hall artiste Max Champion. Max’s burgeoning career was cut short by the First World War, and his songs faded into obscurity. That is (it is claimed), until 2014, when Max Champion sheet music started to surface, first in Malta, then in England, and, intriguingly, in Belgium, where Max probably met his end in the trenches. By 2019 enough songs had been found for Joe Jackson to take it upon himself to record these “lost” Max Champion songs for posterity which is how we come to have this album. Jackson said of the songs “These were wonderful songs in their time, but they're surprisingly modern, too. Sometimes it's almost as if Max is speaking, from his London of the early 20th century, directly to us in the early 21st.”…wink-wink…

Now then, track 5 on side 2 is entitled “Health And Safety” and I can’t imagine that a songwriter whose career was cut short before the start of the 1920’s was writing odes to health and safety rules back then, we’re there any? Which kinda puts the kibosh on the idea that these are period songs…or does it ?

Whatever the authenticity questions, Mr. Jackson has conjured Max Champion to existence and has written him a pretty convincing set of early 20th century music hall tunes, from songs about how much he hates participating in sports to the maudlin tearjerker about his dear old Mum and ribald ditties jam packed with double entendres (a “French” phrase which hasn’t been commonly used in France for centuries BTW). The only thing I can liken it to is Tommy Steele belting out “ Flash Bang Wallop What A Picture” in the musical “Half A Sixpence”.

If you’re expecting “Is She Really Going Out With Him” or “ Steppin’ Out” then forget it, that Joe Jackson ain’t here. The cockernee accent is turned up to 11 (which is weird as he’s from Portsmouth) and if you were played this without being told who was singing I’m pretty sure Joe’s name wouldn’t even cross your mind. 

The Sporting Life - https://youtu.be/5WGQjNXxDT4?si=AGjnxpo1YhbDoHa8

WHAT A RACKET! - The Documentary - https://youtu.be/sLN9OehqnrY

The only Classical music record in my collection, and I bet you can’t guess why. This completes my David Bowie collection, that doesn’t mean I have everything he ever did on vinyl, that’ll never happen as since his death whoever owns the rights to his music has been punting out any old shite they can find so long as they can put his name on it, it means that albums wise I have all the ones I want…for now.

This album features Bowie narrating Prokofiev’s “Peter & The Wolf”, a children’s story where characters are represented by different instruments of the orchestra, on one side and a recording of Benjamin Britten’s “Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra” on’ t’other. Both pieces were written as a way of introducing children to orchestral music and on here both are performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra (although the Britten piece was recorded 2 years prior), one of the USA’s “big five” orchestras don’t you know. My Dad had a recording featuring both which he used to play to us, I’m sure in a vain attempt to have me and my brother develop an appreciation of “proper music”, but I don’t recall who narrated that one.

Prokofiev wrote “Peter And The Wolf” in 1936 and there have been over 400 recordings of it including those narrated by Leonard Cohen, Sean Connery, Boris Karloff (!), Dame Edna Everage and one with Vivian Stanshall which includes appearances by Brian Eno and Chris Spedding (now there’s one I’d love to hear). For this recording RCA asked both Alec Guinness and Peter Ustinov to narrate but both declined so Bowie stepped up. He wanted to make it for his son Zowie/Duncan who was 7 at the time. The music was recorded in Philadelphia and Bowie added his narration in December 1977 at RCA Studio B in New York after completing promotional duties for “Heroes”.

It seems the orchestras conductor, Hungarian violinist Eugene Ormandy, was not entirely convinced about Bowie’s involvement. He had no idea who he was and when told he was a rock star was singularly unimpressed. He did however enjoy the finished performance. As did others as on release in 1978 it reached #136 on the Billboard chart and in 1979 was nominated for the Grammy for Best Children’s Recording (it lost out…to the soundtrack from The Muppets !)

Yes it’s one for the Bowie nerds but that describes me perfectly so yah-boo-sucks. Lastly, isn’t it a shame the Philadelphia Orchestra isn’t the string players who appeared on Philadelphia International Records, that woulda made this whole thing much more funky.

Peter And The Wolf - https://youtu.be/9vr4JRbz8Yg?si=9ej4BtnpFwn82o-N