(1974 Album) Fat Mattress – Fat Mattress

Fat what now?

I do believe this is another album purchased “on sale” at one of Eastleigh’s record emporiums. If I was a betting man I’d guess Woolworth’s clearance bins.

In terms of pedigree, Fat Mattress’ is quite the intriguing mish-mash.

The band was formed by Jimi Hendrix’s bassist Noel Redding on the precept that it would allow him more freedom than he was able to enjoy as a member of the Experience.

Redding added Neil Landon, an ex-vocalist with The Ivy League (who had enjoyed a few 60’s hits including “Funny How Love Can Be“) who was also the singer on The Flowerpot Men’s wonderful beach Boys pastiche “Let’s Go To San Francisco” in 1967.

Landon and Redding were joined by guitarist Jim Leverton and drummer Mike Dillon, the latter of whom was snagged – I kid you not – from… Englebert Humperdinck’s backing band!

Given the Hendrix connection Fat Mattress were quickly signed to the Polydor label in 1969. The same year saw the release of this eponymous debut album, a hit single in Holland, an appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival and a tour of America supporting… let’s see now… oh yes, the Jimi Hendrix Experience! Redding would actually play in BOTH bands every night.

The band released a second album in 1970 (entitled “Fat Mattress 2” – *sigh*) and then… promptly split up.

I know nothing more about this album, could not even tell you the title of one track, let alone hum it. I seem to vaguely recall eventually trading it with one of the guys I worked with at Lancaster & Crook, but for what I can’t remember.

I was obviously still buying albums based on price and ‘on a whim’

(1974 Album) Pink Floyd – A Nice Pair

Once naive little record collector that I was, it actually took me a few years to realise that “A Nice Pair” was actually a repackaging of Floyd’s first two albums, “Piper at the Gates of Dawn” and “A Saucerful of Secrets“

I think I bought this album cheaply from Martin’s newsagent in Eastleigh’s Market Street. For some reason this newsagent had a record section where it would sell shrinkwrapped albums off relatively inexpensively, probably as an early form of ‘loss leader’, later perfected by the supermarket chains following the advent of CD.

I’ll be honest and say I can’t remember playing it very much. True, “Piper…” contained the magnificent “Astronomy Domine” and “Interstellar Overdrive” but I favoured the MUCH quirkier Syd Barrett composition “Bike” which closed the album.

“Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” aside, “A Saucerful…” never sat very easily with me even after I started to get older and wiser and appreciate the band a lot more.

Truth be told I may have just bought it for the naked boobs on the front cover?!

(1974 Albums) Atomic Rooster – Made in England

Oops!

Apparently, in 1974, I ponied up for an Atomic Rooster album?!

Doutbless swayed by the prior Carl Palmer (of ELP) connection I can only assume I either discovered this album languishing in a bargain bin somewhere OR it was some kind of balancing karma for me having successfully palmed off that awful Uriah Heep live album a few weeks ago.

Whichever it was, I think its VERY safe to say that the peculiar heavy jazz-rock meanderings of Mr Vincent Crane - which are said to linger on this particular album – did not remain with me for my entire life. Indeed, they probably didn’t stay with me for more than one or two listens…  but naturally my diary does not go into such intricate detail.

Trivia freaks may wish to know that vocals on this album are handled by Chris Farlowe. Yes, that Chris Farlowe, hitmaker behind the magnificent Jagger/Richards-written No.1 single “Out of Time” in 1966. Shall we have a spin of it to take the awful taste of Atomic Rooster out of our collective mouths?

(1974 Album) Hard Stuff – Bolex Dementia

Yet another album that I had to research before I could ‘remember’ anything.

Except, even after researching, I still couldn’t recall a damned thing about this… not even the sleeve.

All I can tell you is that it was released on Deep Purple’s own “Purple” label and that Hard Stuff were a heavy rock band and were considered something of a supergroup at the time.

A “supergroup” I hear you mumble? Yes, two members of Hard Stuff came from the recently broken up Atomic Rooster whilst the third came from… erm… Quartermass

No, I don’t know why I had this album. But if I still did I could sell it for upwards of $130 on eBay these days, original pressings (which mine most certainly would have been) regarded very much as ‘collectors items’

Atomic Rooster? Blimey, would ANYone want anything related to them?… apart from maybe their magnificent hit singles?

1974 School Reports

Following on from my 1973 reports (for which I received several sarcastic comments offline) I bring you my February 1974 school reports… which appear to show little or no improvement…. indeed a worrying lack of concentration. Bear in mind these reports followed up my mock O-Level examinations, the real ones (in July) representing the kick-start I would require for the rest of my working life and career. (In theory)

“Patchy” eh? “Doubts” regarding my “willingness to work hard” eh? I guess I made up for it all when I left school and college.

So, my mock O-Levels yielded scores below 50% and Mr Middleton asks me for ’steady effort’. I think we all know where this is headed, don’t we?

It’s that ‘persistence’ that might let me down!

“Some evidence”…. “but only with a considerable effort”. Dr Erasmus was no fool was he?

Looks like Mr Bulmer has given up on me as much as I have given up on myself? … “he has now left himself far too much to do”. Nothing like a bit of encouragement is there?

Oooooh….. someone got a typewriter for Christmas didn’t they?

Remember how Physics was my best subject? Bugger.

“So, this pound note, a shekel and a rouble go into a bar…….”

 
“Worked hard”….. but “is still below standard”. Story of my life really!

(1974 Albums) Mott the Hoople – The Hoople

1974 was quite the year for Mott the Hoople.

Flush from the band’s single success in 1972 with the Bowie-penned “All the Young Dudes“, Mott had already enjoyed follow-up hits with songs like “Honaloochie Boogie” and “All the Way from Memphis“.

(Not before Mott had turned down another offered song from Bowie though… a certain little ditty entitled “Drive-In Saturday“)

Late 1973 saw the band having to live up to a “glam” moniker that they were never really happy to embrace. They were always lumped in with the likes of Slade, T.Rex and the plethora of bubblegum glam bands who filled the charts in the early 70’s and this only served undermine the stronger songs the band put out. (If Mott were considered “glam” I’ve always questioned why Deep Purple were never tarred with the same brush?… big hair, satin trousers, slightly androgynous appearance etc)

Tensions in the group began to surface, various members leaving and joining well into 1974,  the most notable of which was when Bowie’s guitarist Mick Ronson replaced Ariel Bender.

Despite all this, and at the start of 1974, Mott issued what was (and is) for me their finest album… even if other fans disagree with me, often citing it as uneven and “too much Hunter, no Mick Ralphs”. (Ralphs had left the band following the release of the previous album, “Mott”, leaving Hunter as the prime songwriter)

The Hoople kicks off with a spoken word intro into ”The Golden Age of Rock & Roll” a celebration to the band’s craft which goes out of its way to suggest Hunter was giving more than just a cursory nod to the style their famous benefactor had offered them with “All the Young Dudes”. Other than the gregarious boogie-woogie piano, the song structure with its brass elements and guitar riffs could most certainly have come from Bowie’s pen.

Mick Ralphs, later of Bad Company

“Marionette” remains one of my very favourite non-single Mott songs. It’s an ambitious dig at rock & roll management and how they always try and manipulate artists to do what they want rather than what the artist wants to do themselves. Lyrically it’s admittedly a bit suspect, but the song itself thunders across your eardrums from the get-go, going off on several rhythmic (almost operatic) twists and turns on the way. The manic laughter halfway through never fails to slightly un-nerve me.

Those pair of adrenaline-infused numbers then morph into “Alice” a pretty standard ‘rock song’ about a New York hooker which is saved from obscurity ( at least for me) by the lyrically-wonderful chorus of
“Alice you remind me of Manhattan,
the seedy and the snaz,
the shoe boys and the satin“

The listener is quickly revived by “Crash Street Kidds” a fierce guitar-riff led rocker, albeit one with a silly and somewhat unnecessary ‘false ending’ after just a few minutes and the questionable ‘dalek-voice’ ending

“Born Late ‘58” is the only song on The Hoople not written by Ian Hunter. Pete ‘Overend’ Watts’ tale of escaping a one-night stand with an underage teen “jailbaiter” is infused with a guitar riff to die for, some fabulous boogie-woogie piano (a Mott trademark) and just rocks and rocks

“Trudi’s Song” is Hunter’s soppy little tribute to his wife, replete with a Bowie-esque “woah-oh” opening and a song structure that somehow reminds you of many other ballads, not least of which is Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe“. It seems heartfelt enough though.

“Pearl’n'Roy (England)” has apparently become something of  Mott “classic” over the years. Personally I’m a little at odds with this. It’s a good little rocker packed with good moments and I think it fits into The Hoople’s line-up of songs wonderfully, but if I were to hear it out of context I would consider it average.

For me, the worst song on the album is “Through the Looking Glass“. It feels like Hunter channeling Bowie again.. and failing miserably. It’s certainly not helped by its weak symphonic structure, electronic string section and Ian’s peculiar vocal phrasing.

Clutching victory from potential defeat however is the album’s closer, the utterly magnificent “Roll Away the Stone“. The album version is different from the single release which had already been a hit in 1973, Mick Ralphs guitar contribution having been replaced by Ariel Bender’s. Admittedly there’s not much to pick between the two, however trivia freaks may care to know that the vocal bridge on the album version (the “well I got my invite” lyric) is spoken by none other than waif-like 70’s folk-pop singer/songwriter Lynsey De Paul

So, The Hoople starts well, ends well and only has couple of dodgy tracks along the way. As I said I know many people prefer the previous year’s “Mott” album, but for me “The Hoople” triumphs.

The album went to #11 on the UK chart and #28 on the American chart.

A live Mott the Hoople album was also released in 1974. Ironically, its release coincided with the announcement that the band had broken up. Mick Ronson collaborated with Hunter on his follow-up solo projects and the pair continued to work together on and off right up until Ronson’s untimely death in 1993.

Here in 2009, and Ian Hunter already having celebrated his 70th birthday (yes, really), the band reformed – for the first time in all these years – to play three sold out “40th Anniversary” concerts at London’s Hammersmith  pre=”Hammersmith “>Odeon (I refuse to call it the “HMV Hammersmith Apollo” unless I can do so derogatively).

I will settle for having seen the band play at the Southampton Guildhall in 1974. As if to horrify myself however – and my readers – I recall that I was actually more impressed with the support band Sailor than I was with Mott and… left the gig early. (Yes, I may need shooting)

(1974 Album) Byzantium – Byzantium

Confession time…. I remembered NOTHING – not a jot – about Byzantium until I started researching them earlier today.

Even the album sleeve – seen right – is little more than the vaguest memory. I think I bought this album as a ‘cut out’, a deleted release signified by having a hole punched in the upper right hand corner, or in some cases having the entire corner cut away.

Cut-outs were always sold cheaply by shops – so it seems as if I was again drawn in by ‘price’ rather than knowing anything about the album. D’oh!

My online research conjured up a surprise “MySpace” page by the band, which includes some song snippets and short biography.

None of the info rang any bells at all – apparently the band started off as an acoustic duo and later dabbled on the pub rock circuit… really? – but I was blown away when I spotted the name of one of its members.

Chaz Jankel.

The same  Chaz Jankel who later  soared to stardom as the funkmaster general for Ian Dury’s Blockheads, providing the rhythms for albums like “New Boots & Panties” and hit singles such as “Sex & Drugs & Rock’n'Roll “

January 28th until April 17th 1974

Sorry – nothing

Whoooooooooooosh!

There goes almost three months of the year in one foul swoop.

I do not know why my diary became a barren venue for my thoughts for all this time, but it does seem to have been a trend in 1974, for whatever reason.

I only have my memory to fall back on …. and – as regular readers will now have become accustomed – that cannot be counted on at all.

Was I still seeing “Angela”? I can’t honestly say we were an ‘item’ – as current punditry would have it – but I suspect we hooked up from time to time at (probably) the cinema for a movie or two for some back row Fanta and grubby fumblings in the dark. I don’t think I ever considered her ‘my girlfriend’, but maybe she was ‘my bit on the side’ from my true love of music?

It’s somewhat depressing to realise there’s this massive ‘hole’ in my teenage recollections. Especially when this was quite an important time of life, leading up – as it does – to my GCSE O-Levels in the summer.

As I have already done, I will continue to ‘pad out’ this blog with reviews and comments about the albums I bought, together with other “1974 items” that may – or may not – be of interest to you.

Once again, I can only ap0logise for the ‘break in transmission’

(1974 Album) Man – Golden Hour of Man

The Golden Hour record label was a budget offshoot of the Pye label, and – at least as I remember it – tended to concentrate on novelty compilations by has-been singers or TV actors trying to be crooners.

Man had been signed to the Dawn record label – also a subsidiary of Pye – in 1968 to what now seems like a ludicrously unfair deal where the band would receive a mere 0.75% royalty rate on the sales of their recordings.

Needless to say, this probably didn’t constructively persuade the band to conjure up their ‘best’ material.

“Golden Hour of Man” is no more than a shoddy repackaging of the group’s first two albums; the whole of “Revelation” plus all but three cuts from ”2 oz of Plastic with a Hole in the Middle”

As if to highlight just how little Pye Records thought of – or knew about- Man, the label actually managed to miss off the strongest cut from “2 oz…” the badly named but impressive “Spunk Box“

There’s little on this album for me to recommend otherwise. Man’s glory years were certainly from 1970 onwards, when they were signed to United Artists. Once again, I probably bought this album based entirely on the price, misguidedly believing that it would provide me with the same listening pleasure as the band’s other releases which I was enjoying.

I wonder how long it would take me before I cottoned on to the fact that, most times, it’s on a budget label for a reason?!

(1974 Albums) Classical Albums

Can you see what Emerson, Lake & Palmer did to me?

Yes, courtesy of budget labels MFP (Music for Pleasure) and (I think it was) Hallmark, I stuck my proverbial toe in the murky waters of classical music, snapping up Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition“, Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” and Tchaikovsky’s magnificent “1812 Overture“

It would be years later before I expanded my ‘classical tastes’ further – courtesy of, strangely, my accountant who listened to no other genre – but for a 16-year-old with a musical sense for ‘all things” I don’t think I did too badly for starters did I?

The Mussorgsky purchase was most certainly based on my love for ELP and their interpretation of “Pictures…”. I guess I needed to hear the source of Mr Emerson’s inspiration?

I think the New World Symphony came about because it was featured in “Soylent Green“, a film I had seen the previous summer. Specifically the scene where old-timer Sol (a stupendous acting performance by Edward G Robinson) – in what has otherwise become a desolate world – offers himself up for euthanasia and before ‘departing’ is treated to great food, pretty visuals and a soundtrack of his choosing.

As for the 1812, I have no idea why it may have fallen across my radar in 1974. Maybe it was played at a TIBS meeting? Whatever the reason it remains a stunningly broody piece of music, culminating as it does with those booming canons.

(1974 Album) Various Artists – Bradley’s Roadshow Live

I’ll openly admit I had to look this up, not knowing what the hell my entry referred to.

“Bradley”? “Live”?

A google search eventually managed to jog my memory as what album I bought. I remembered the sleeve when I saw it…. but absolutely nothing else whatsoever.

Further research informed me that Bradley’s Roadshow was a concert album showcasing some of the peculiarly diverse acts on the short-lived Bradley Record label, which was an offsoot of the more famous ATV music publishing group.

Apparently, the acts on this album were Paul Brett (a guitarist), Hunter Muskett (a folk-rocker) and Kala (a prog-rock act). No I haven’t heard of any of them either.

I have no doubt in my mind that I bought this album based on the retail price of just 95p – indeed, I may have even bought it cheaper from the clearance bins near the front door of Jack Hobbs’ record shop in Eastleigh.

If Jack Hobbs were still in business I suspect there would STILL be copies of this album gathering dust somewhere on the premises.

(1974 Album) Focus – At the Rainbow

Once again I fell for Holland’s finest prog rock export.

Focus at the Rainbow was, as the name suggests, a recording of a live performance by the band at the Rainbow Theatre in London’s Finsbury Park.

The sleeve was another of those die-cut affairs that were all the rage at the time, cardboard flaps opening left and right to eventually reveal…..um, actually I can’t remember!

It may have been the first live album I ever bought.

If it was, then it kicked off a lifelong disinterest in live recordings. Unlike many other music fans, I have never really embraced the notion of “in concert’ albums and in all my years of buying records or CD’s I have amassed just the merest (one) handful of them to listen to.

This may be surprising to some of my readers. I just reckon live versions of songs are never anywhere near as good as studio originals, no matter how much ‘energy’ is exhibited. Plus there’s that whole “audience joining in” rubbish which has never struck me as listenable.

I know I’m in a minority with this point of view. On the upside however I have never, ever had to invest in dodgy bootleg recordings of my favourite artists – something which a lot of my ‘musical’ friends feel is necessary to their collections.

So, in 1974 I bought “At the Rainbow” and I’ll bet it wasn’t played more than a half a dozen times before I got rid of it.

January 25th / 26th / 27th 1974

• “back to Normal lessons + Back to work”
• “At work stock taking”
• “Went to Ch”

So, after two gruelling weeks of mock exams – broken only by some religious retreat rudeness – it’s back to the ‘daily grind’ for this particular 16-year-old teenager.

School lesson have returned to their usual mundane ubiquity, and I’m back at Lancaster & Crook stacking shelves, sweeping floors, serving customers and going out on that bloody delivery bike. It’s the supermarket’s end-of-year stock taking too – such a pleasant chore/bore.

I went to church too. Not, I’m guessing, for any religious purpose, but probably to see if “Angela” was there and if I couldn’t drag her off to some vestry somewhere for a bit more grubby fumbling.

Let’s face it, I was already beyond saving.

January 24th 1974

“Played T.Tennis in aft”

There’s another reference to some kind of ’sporty exercise’.

I almost had to sit down when I read it.

January 23rd 1974

“TD2 -> Easy”

Ooh, a day of cocky nonchalance about the exams!

What’s the betting it blew up in my face?

January 22nd 1974

“last nite went to see Canterbury Tales – dirty but boring”

I vaguely remember taking “Angela” to this movie at the Regal in Eastleigh.

Remember that scene in “Taxi Driver” where DeNiro’s “Travis Bickle” character takes Betsy (Cybil Sheppard) out on a date to a porno movie in New York and she is throughly appalled by it all?

Somehow, I get the feeling that Angela may have responded to ”Canterbury Tales” - and thus me – in an entirely similar manner.

Whilst its true that Geoffrey Chaucer’s original 14th Century collection of stories is something of a slog to read, I think its fair to say that Italian director Pasolini’s interpretation of 8 of them could be considered a ‘travesty’. Poking fun at social graces, the film includes scenes of sodomy, incest and more, all presented with copious levels of nudity.

For a ‘boyfriend’ I must’ve been a real bloody prize.

January 21st 1974

“Economics -> Hard” / “Geog (Europe World) -> Hard”

The mocks continue to mock me back!

(1974 Album) Gong – Camembert Electrique

Given my disdain for “all things Soft Machine” why on earth would I have bought an album by ex-Softsman Daevid Allen’s Gong?

I can tell you precisely why. Because, like Faust’s “The Faust Tapes” before it, the still-fledgling Virgin Records label sold it for just 49p!

However, unlike The Faust Tapes – which I still adore 35 years later – Camembert Electrique thankfully fell off my personal radar a couple of decades or so ago.

For the purposes of this blog entry I listened to an online stream of it – including the humourously-titled  cut “Squeezing Sponges Over Policemen’s Heads” – a listen which merely confirmed my attitude towards it.

Fiddly-twiddly rubbish. Noises, sounds, swooshes and wooshes with the occasional (and odd) backward vocals over the top. It’s the kind of electronic ‘experimentation’ where, quite frankly, you hope for a power cut.

The cover was cool though.

January 18th (Part 2) / 19th / 20th

• “Go to Alresford”
• “Good laugh at Al. Usual missing of clothes etc”
• “Got home about 5:30″

Old Alresford Place was built in the 17th Century as a country parish rectory.

In the 1800’s it became the home of the Rt Hon Reverend Sumner, whose wife Mary  founded the Mothers Union, now a worldwide christian organisation boasting a membership of over 3 million grassroots volunteers and helpers.

The lovely building became a stylish commercial “christian retreat” deep in the heart of the Hampshire countryside.

Here’s what I remember – and what I am willing to openly divulge – about my two night stay there in 1974…

• It was run by a bunch of nuns. If not nuns, then women who dressed in some kind of nun-like garments

• The dining room was massive, containing a HUGE and very solid dining table that sat around 30 or more people

• I was there for some kind of ‘religious’ retreat thing organised by my TIB group, a group which included Val (my unattainable crush), one of my best teenage chums (Trev) and sundry other nefarious characters.

• Also in attendance – from another religious group that presumably ran ‘parellel’ to ours – was Angela (again, name changed to protect her identity). Yes, the same Angela with whom I had shared a certain ‘ religious experience ‘ during a sleepover at a vicar’s residence in February 1973.

• All the different groups got together for praying and general religious brainwashing in a chapel somewhere on the premises.

• We also had writing and drawing lessons and I seem to recall some singing songs rubbish one of the afternoons whilst our vicar played a guitar. There was also a crappy football match.

• I can CLEARLY remember spending (at least) a couple of hours sat – with my feet dangling outside – one of the dorm room windows on the upper floor with my little cassette player blaring (and I mean BLARING) the opening sequence from The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” on constant repeat. I don’t think alcohol was involved, but I can’t be 100% certain. (Funny how certain things can’t be forgotten isn’t it?)

• I remember seeing Angela in the grounds below looking up at me and smiling & waving. Then coming to our dorm room and quietly asking me if we were going to repeat our ‘time’ of a year or so earlier.

• Each dorm room slept 8 teenagers.

• In the most respectful way I can possibly express this, let me say that our dorm room slept nine.

This religion stuff wasn’t all bad.

January 14th / 15th / 16th / 17th / 18th (Part I) 1974

• “History -> Hard” / “RE -> ?”
• “Geog (Ord Surv Brit Isles) -> Bloody Hard”
• “Eng Lit -> Easy” / “French -> Hard”
• “Physics -> Hard”
• “TD -> Hard”

The mock O-Levels continue, seemingly relentlessly

Most things seem as if they were ‘hard’.

Geography scored “bloody hard” (“No surprise there” says Mrs EFA70sTRO), whilst Religious Education was noted as no more than one big question mark.

Ooooh… “18th (part I)”… does this mean there will be something interesting tomorrow I hear you ponder?

Well, yes and no actually.