Anyone remember the Britannia Music Club ? It was a mail order company/membership thing for buying records. When you joined they gave you this great offer of buying 4 LP’s for £1 each but you were then tied in for 2 years and you had to buy X amount of records in year 1 and a lesser amount in year 2. The reason I mention this is that in the early 80’s I joined the Britannia Music Club mainly because of that 4 LP’s for £1 each offer, and in the two years and possibly a dozen albums I bought, this is the only one I remember getting from them. It is a belter tho’.

“Howlin’ Wind” was the debut album for Graham Parker & The Rumour. Parker had spent the late 60’s and early 70’s working odd jobs and playing music around France, Gibraltar and North Africa. After returning to London he advertised for musicians to play with and through a fortuitous series of connections was introduced to Dave Robinson (later to form Stiff Records) who had a small recording studio above the Hope & Anchor pub in Islington and they began recording demo’s. One of those recordings ("Nothin's Gonna Pull Us Apart”) was played on Charlie Gillett’s “Honky Tonk” show on Radio London and caught the ear of Nigel Grange at Phonogram Records. Robinson acted as Parker’s manager and he was signed to Phonogram.

Produced by Nick Lowe, the recordings that became “Howlin’ Wind” started. But Parker needed a band and via Robinson and Lowe’s connections in the London Pub Rock scene they helped put together the Rumour, Brinsley Schwarz (lead guitar) and Bob Andrews (keyboards) (both formerly members of the band Brinsley Schwarz along with Nick Lowe), Martin Belmont (rhythm guitar, previously in Ducks Deluxe), Andrew Bodnar (bass) and Steve Goulding (drums). Bodnar and Goulding went on to play for Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and The Mekons among many others.

What Parker and the Rumour cooked up was a blend of Blue Eyed Soul with an occasional hint of reggae and some good old pub rock ’n’ roll. The finished article is not a million miles different to Bruce Springsteen’s “The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle” (in fact E Street organist Danny Federici did play on a later Parker album) and the sound of Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes. “White Honey” and “Soul Shoes”, the two songs that kick off each side, are both tuff blue eyed groovers. The version of "Between You and Me" is the demo originally recorded with Dave Robinson as when the Rumour attempted to record it it was decided they couldn’t capture what had been done in Robinson’s little studio in Islington. Side 2 closes out with that hint of reggae on the title track and one of Parker’s two hit singles "Don't Ask Me Questions" (aka "Hey Lord, Don't Ask Me Questions" when it was a hit, although that was a live recording, not this one). My absolute highlight however is the ballad “Gypsy Blood” on side 1 where our Graham pours out how he feels about his sweetie and her “red hot gypsy blood, keeping me warm tonight”. I’m a sucker for a good ballad and this is a beauty.

Graham Parker & The Rumour have always been highly regarded in British music circles. They had one other hit, a cover of The Trammps “Hold Back The Night”, and recorded together until 1980 when Bob Andrews left the band. They reformed in 2012 for a really good album, “Three Chords Good”. 

Gypsy Blood - https://youtu.be/UJnh6mEICrA?si=ffvu2x7sJ4WJH3Xq

I encountered the Milltown Brothers in September 1991 when they were booked as the support on The Wonder Stuff’s “Never Going To Memphis” US tour. We all got on immediately and they were great company on that month long tour. I got on particularly well with their roadie, Spike, a joke cracking ball of energy from Leicester. It was his first time in the US of A and by this time I felt like a bit of a veteran, this being my third swing through America. It was great to see them all being as blown away by the country as we were.

The Milltown’s were a five piece featuring brothers Matt and Simon Nelson up front and, unusually for the time, heavily featuring Barney Williams and his Hammond Organ. That’s one of the things that drew me to them cos I bloody love a swirling Hammond. They wrote great, hook laden songs that reminded me of the Teardrop Explodes, 60’s psychedelia and had a hint of the Manchester Baggy thing going on in places.

Side 1 is superb. The first 4 songs, “Apple Green”, “Here I Stand”, the gorgeous ballad “Sally Ann” and their Top 40 single “Which Way Should I Jump” leave you breathless. Side 2 lets up on the pedal , but not much. “Seems To Me” is a banging, Hammond driven, air punching singalong and it all comes to an end with the gentler “Sandman” and “Real”.

I did a couple of gigs working for the Milltown’s in 1992 as, in the early part of that year, we got the tragic news that Spike had been killed in an accident on the autobahn while out on tour with another band in Germany. On 19th March 1992 The Wonder Stuff appeared billed only as “very special guests” (and there’s a whole other story around that gig) on a bill with the Milltown Brothers and Crazyhead at Leicester University to raise money for his family.

I have nothing but great memories of my time around the Milltown Brothers. This is a great record and I’m really happy to have it on vinyl at last. I gotta admit whenever I hear “Sally Ann” I always tear up a bit remembering singing along to it at side of stage with Spike. Sleep well my friend x

Sally Ann - https://youtu.be/1qdNN9T61A0?si=AToQyLVwInnn_C7c

We’d heard all the crazy stories about Lee Mavers. Always off his head on something, refusing to record on any equipment made after the end of the Sixties, churning through band members and producers, never being satisfied with any recordings and all this culminating in record label Go! Discs telling (final) producer Steve Lillywhite to piece together an album from whatever recordings he had as they had already spent so much money on it they needed to release something. It was bound to be a mess, right ?

Then sometime in the mid-90’s I picked up a cheap CD of it just to have a listen and…hell’s teeth what a bloody wonderful album this is. Yes it’s hugely influenced by the sound of 60’s Liverpool but it is unmistakably not of the ‘60’s. And oh those songs. I’m pretty sure everybody reading this will be familiar with their single “There She Goes”, and great as it is that’s not even the best thing on here !

“Timeless Melody”, for that is most certainly the greatest thing on here, is a thing of absolute beauty and wonder. I cannot even imagine what it would feel like to sit back after having written something like this but I’d be willing to give up at least one major limb to find out. The melody, the rhythms that are weaving in and around the lyrics, all of it completely transfixes me whenever I hear it. The lyric “The melody chord unwinds me, The rhythm of life unties me, Brushing the hands of time away” sums up perfectly that moment you get completely lost in the music. Ian Prowse is wont to add a little of “Timeless Melody” into the end of “Does This Train Stop On Merseyside ?” when he plays live which floored me the first time I heard it and also reinforces the position the song holds among Liverpool musicians. It is quite simply one of the greatest songs to come out of Liverpool, and it has some competition !

Elsewhere “Son Of A Gun”, “Doledrum” and particularly side 2’s opener “Feelin’” have a sound and quality to them that I’ve mentioned before. They are pieces of music that could only have come from Liverpool. There is a joy and a cockiness and a sense of rhythm about them that shouts “we’re scouse la’ !” at you. The album ends on “Looking Glass”, an almost 8 minute pop-psychedelic mantra which finishes on the lyric “The glass is smashed, The change is cast”…almost prophetic.

It took 3 years to make this record. Producers like John Porter, (Roxy Music, Killing Joke, The Smiths) John Leckie (Magazine, XTC, The Stone Roses), Mike Hedges (Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Cure, Wah!) and finally Steve Lillywhite (U2, Simple Minds, The Pogues, Kirsty MacColl) tried to capture the sound Lee Mavers heard in his head, but failed. As soon as the album was released the band (Mavers ?) disowned it and The La’s never made another record. John Power, the only other permanent member of The La’s, went on to form Cast and is still recording and touring under that name today.

If you have any sort of interest in great songwriting and somewhat 60’s influenced guitar pop and you’ve never heard this record then I’d urge you to remedy that very soon starting with clicking the link below, turning your chosen device up loud and bathing in the glory of “Timeless Melody”. I would never be so bold as to suggest that Lee Mavers was wrong in what he thought of it but, to my ears, “The La’s” is a masterpiece.

Timeless Melody - https://youtu.be/1Cveh8ycOgA?si=3XK6CBZ6ow9gD0AE