Topic: An Alternative History of "Pop" Music

[jobotic]

She (and Flintlock) seemed to be fucking omnipresent on kids TV in the mid 70s. That lead singer was such an arse.

Aah. You must be just a few years older than me. I was a toddler then, thankfully by the look of it.

[jamiefairlie]

Flintlock were a 1970s pop group from Essex, England. Its members were Derek Pascoe (vocals/saxophone), Mike Holoway (drums/percussion), Jamie Stone (bass/vocals), John Summerton (guitar/vocals) and Bill Rice (keyboards).

look at him with his stupid face, like a hideous cross between Brian "ah c'mon Gail" Tilsley and Paul "reggae like it used to be, ah c'mon Pen" Nicholas .

[daf]

Dave Cassidy, Dozy, Cheeky, Dick and Tit

[daf]

Léne Lovich ‎– I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus



Released in November 1976 - did not chart

Lili-Marlene Premilovich was born in Detroit, Michigan, to an English mother and American father of Serbian descent. After her father had health problems, her mother took the 13-year-old Lovich and her three siblings to live in Hull, Yorkshire, England.

Over the following decade, Lovich attended several art schools, busked around the London Underground, appeared in cabaret clubs as an "Oriental" dancer, worked as a go-go dancer with the Radio One Roadshow, toured Italy with a West Indian soul band and played saxophone for Bob Flag's Balloon and Banana Band and for an all-girl cabaret trio called The Sensations. She also travelled to Spain, where she visited Salvador Dalí at his home, and recorded screams for horror films.

 

In 1975, Lovich joined The Diversions, a funk group that released three singles and an album on Polydor Records without success. In 1976, Lovich released a 7" three-track "maxi-single" in the UK under her own name, aimed at the Christmas market. In 1977, Lovich, along with recording engineer Alain Wisniak, provided lyrics for "Supernature", a song featuring music composed by French percussionist and disco music performer Cerrone.

[Brundle-Fly]

I bet they all went to stage school together, the precocious little narcissistic shits.

The Anna Sher mafia. Let it go, Jim. It's nearly half a century ago.

[daf]

Bill Oddie And The Superspike Squad (Featuring John Cleese) ‎– Superspike



Released in February 1976 - did not chart

This appears to have been an Olympics tie-in fundraiser for the International Athlete's Club. Despite not charting, the video was shown on a now wiped June 1976 edition of Top of the Pops - featuring cameos from the top athletes of the day.

 

[Brundle-Fly]

Four Wheel Drive - Racing Cars.  Released on Chrysalis in 1976.





Wallop, boyo!!

Welsh rock band, formed in the Rhondda Valley in 1973. They are most associated with their UK Top 10 single 'They Shoot Horses Don't They?', from 1977.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2kVLR-Rz30&feature=emb_logo

[jamiefairlie]

Time to turn another year folks, 1977 starts Wednesday PM

[daf]

Silver, Platinum & Gold - Just Friends



Opening track of their eponymous debut album, and released as a single in October 1976 - reached #63 on the US 'R&B' chart

 

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

(We Get Along So Easily) Don't You Agree - Morecambe & Wise



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nIN-xuY60w

No biog necessary for this pair.

[daf]

Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra - Opium



Released in Germany as the B-side of the single 'Ohne Dich Ist Es Nacht' by Sabrina

[daf]

Champs Boys - Tubular Bells



Released in April 1976 - peaked at #41 in the UK chart in June 1976

The Champs Boys Orchestra were a group of French session musicians. This song, possibly one of the first mash-ups, pairs various elements from Mike Oldfield's prog epic 'Tubular Bells' (part 1), with the fat bass-line of Donna Summer's 'Love To Love You Baby'.

Ah, the long hot summer of 1976 - I was five and a half, all the grass turned yellow, and the hill behind our house regularly went up in flames. You get a flavour of it from this performance of this song on Top of the Pops by the short lived Ruby Flipper in the parched Blue Peter garden.

[daf]

Matt Black & The Doodlebugs ‎– Punky Xmas



Released in December 1976 - did not chart

[daf]

Gabriel Kaplan ‎– Up Your Nose



Released in December 1976 - peaked at #93 on the Billboard chart in January 1977

Gabriel Weston Kaplan was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family. He began working as a bellman at a hotel in Lakewood, New Jersey. Touring comedians sometimes performed at the hotel, and Kaplan began to work toward his own career as a stand-up comedian. He appeared five times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from May 1973 to December 1974. During that time, he also recorded the comedy album 'Holes and Mellow Rolls', which included long routines about his high school days and other topics.

 

The sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter was in part based on his comedy act. In the sitcom, Kaplan played Gabe Kotter, who returns as a teacher to the dysfunctional high school where he had been a student. The series ran from 1975–1979, and Kaplan bought a home in Palm Springs, California with his earnings.

"Up your nose with a rubber hose!", sanitized from the original album line "Up your hole with a Mello-Roll!", became an unlikely catchphrase from the show. It became so popular that a comedy record by Kaplan, 'Up Your Nose', was released by Elektra Records.

[daf]

Roobarb - Roobarb's A Star



Released in August 1976 - did not chart

Roobarb (commonly known as Roobarb and Custard) was a British animated children's television programme, created by Grange Calveley originally shown on BBC1 just before the evening news. Each cartoon, written by Calveley and directed by Bob Godfrey, was about five minutes long. The narration of the series was provided by the actor Richard Briers.

Thirty episodes were made, and the show was first shown on 21 October 1974. The theme is that of the friendly rivalry between Roobarb, a green dog with an overactive imagination, and Custard, the mischievous laconic pink cat from next door.

   

An album 'Roobarb', featuring the flop single 'Roobarb's A Star', was released in 1976 on Bell Records.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Adrienne Posta - Cruisin' Casanova



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhUDvw1sb-Y

The theme song from the grotty British sex comedy Adventures of a Taxi Driver, starring Posta, Judy Geeson, Diana Dors and the ill-fated Barry Evans, who ended up working as a taxi driver when his acting career petered out. The bleak irony was presumably not lost on him.

[daf]

Keep mixing Barry Evans up with his Adventures sequels successor Christopher Neil - who I found a much more likeable character in these films.

Neil, of course, had a much happier post Adventures career than Evans - as the record producer behind some massive hits - including a number 1 with Celine Dion!

[daf]

Bob Williamson ‎– Kippers For Tea



Released in July 1976 - reached #48 in the UK chart

Bob Williamson, was born in Bolton, and became a staple of the burgeoning 1970s comedy-folk scene alongside Billy Connolly, Mike Harding, Jasper Carrott and Max Boyce. Williamson's forte was old-school gags and anecdotes, punctuated by parodies of popular songs.

In 1975 Williamson recorded a live album, 'Super Turn' at Greenmount Cricket Club in Bury on Sweet Folk All records. He was head-hunted by a major label, EMI, for whom he released two further albums: 'Greatest Hits!! (Volume 6?)' in 1976 - which featured the Brotherhood of Man parody single 'Kippers For Tea', and 'Still Hazy After All These Beers' in 1978 - recorded in Grizedale National Park in front of 'a room full of disappointed old ladies who thought they were going to the bingo'.

   

He was a frequent guest on The Wheeltappers And Shunters Social Club, alongside Bernard Manning and Colin Crompton, and explored his method-acting when he played Folk Singer Neil Collier in a talent show episode of Coronation Street, parodying his own anthemic 'Good Greenhalls Beer' by changing the brand to Newton and Ridley.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Neil, of course, had a much happier post Adventures career than Evans - as the record producer behind some massive hits - including a number 1 with Celine Dion!

I did not know that!

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I've not yet listened beyond page 57, but just checking over the past eight pages or so, i think around a dozen people have posted. The stuff people are posting is amazing (i think this thread might be the world's first bona fide perpetual motion machine), but if you've just been reading and listening and aren't sure whether to post or not - read the OP, think of a song, join in.

Seconded. Come one, come all.

[daf]

I did not know that!

'Think Twice" from 1994 - co-written by Pete 'Land of Make Believe' Sinfield.

Neil also did Shaky and Bonnie's "A Rockin' Good Way", James Bond's "For Your Eyes Only", the Minder theme, and last and probably least, both "Dancing With the Captain" and "Grandma's Party" by Paul 'reggae bowler hat' Nicholas!!

[jamiefairlie]

Roobarb - Roobarb's A Star

Only wrong idiots called it Roobarb and Custard, it was called Roobarb. Bah.

[Brundle-Fly]

Hey, Galaxy Man - Mike Mareen. Released on Philips in 1977.



I wonder if the follow up was Hey, Dairy Milk Man?

Mike Mareen was born on November, 9th 1949 in Berlin (West Germany). First, he was a drummer, but later he was the singer of the group Cemetery Institution (non-disco) and performed in Hamburg´s legendary Star Club, where The Beatles performed in their early days.

After becoming a sailor, Mike went to New York and spent a few years there. Upon returning to Germany, he released his biggest hit, "Love Spy," in 1986, followed by "Dancing In The Dark" and "Agent Of Liberty", a great disco track as well. In the same year Mike released his first album entitled: "Dance Control". The following year, he released his second album, "Let's Start Now". This album included his new super-hit "Don't Talk To The Snake". Both albums were released by well-known German label zyx Records


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAcYtXcZF7c

[famethrowa]

Keep mixing Barry Evans up with his Adventures sequels successor Christopher Neil - who I found a much more likeable character in these films.

Neil, of course, had a much happier post Adventures career than Evans - as the record producer behind some massive hits - including a number 1 with Celine Dion!

Wow quite a list there! The Living Years, For Your Eyes Only, Minder, Chart Music fave Dancing In The City, AND A Rockin Good Way

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Off to bed now, but as God is my witness I will be listening to this first thing in the morning.

[jamiefairlie]

Glory be, if it isn't 1977!

[jamiefairlie]

The Flys - Love and a Molotov Cocktail

https://youtu.be/dcl_vavnZQ4




Formed in 1976 in Coventry, this was their debut single. They released two albums and a few more singles before splitting in 1980. Singer and main songwriter was Neil O'Connor, brother of Hazel.

[Brundle-Fly]

Yes, We Can ! - Fritz Müller.  Released on Röth Handle in 1977.





Before Bob The Builder and Barack Obama there was Fritz ! Another top album it was difficult to choose a track from.

Fritz Müller is one of the most innovative musicians of the German Rock scene. Born in 1945 as Eberhard Kranemann in Germany, he studied classical double bass at the Dortmund Conservatory, playing Bach/Mozart/Telemann-orchestra music and with Jazz bands. Then he went to Düsseldorf to study painting at the Arts Academy. Besides experimenting with colours and painting abstract pictures, he experimented with sounds, at first on cello, clarinet, tenor saxophone, electric guitar, Hawaiian guitar, later with electronic instruments. In 1967, with other art students, he founded the experimental music group Pissoff. Critical of the social development in Germany and the conservative rollback roundabout, the band demolished the established rules of music. In their concerts they played free improvised music for three hours non-stop, everyone playing as loud as possible - without harmony, avoiding the correct pitch, defined structures, and norms - and people liked it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lspMDYnVH5Q&feature=emb_logo

[daf]

Le Pamplemousse - Le Spank



Released in October 1977 - reached #58 on the Billboard chart

During the mid to late seventies the production team of Laurin Rinder and W. Michael Lewis helped define the Disco sound that was coming out of Los Angeles. They did this through their work on such studio projects as El Coco, Saint Tropez, Le Pamplemousse and countless others. Le Pamplemousse released their self-titled debut album in 1976, followed by 'Le Spank' in 1977.

     

Laurin Rinder : "We lived in the studio, we really had cots, beds and the whole thing, we were just pumpin' them out. 7 days week, 3 different projects at the same time. I played drums on everything but had to play a little differently. I had to ask the engineer "What's the name of this group?" The sheet would say but I would have no idea and the next track might be El Coco. But Mike and I would decide and assign the track to different group names and listen and say "Hey that sounds like an El Coco track."

I think that grapefruit arse-cheek may be my favourite record cover of all time!

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Carl Bean - I Was Born This Way



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZsBjtlN9WE

An out and proud gay anthem. Disco doesn't get much more ecstatic than this.

I Was Born This Way is a disco song by Valentino, released in 1975, then by Carl Bean in 1977 (both artists for Motown). It was written by Chris Spierer and Bunny Jones. Frankie Crocker of WBLS Radio in New York first aired the song and it was an instant hit. The writers, Spierer and Jones, wanted to write a gay anthem and make the plight on gay issues known and bring it to the forefront. The song's lyrics are about a man who proclaims that he's a homosexual and that he was "born this way". It was one of the first gay disco songs written specifically for the gay community.

Carl Bean is a great bunch of lads, a former recording artist and the founding prelate of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a liberal protestant denomination that is particularly welcoming of lesbians, gay and bisexual African Americans. In 1982 Bean became an activist, working on behalf of people with AIDS.