Bedazzled!

The French Connection: Anarchy in No Man's Land (1972 - 1978) June 2002

(reedited and corrected from a June 2002 article in "the Lance Monthly on the net") by Astro le Mocker

     

There was a time when French rockers were in sync with the US and UK scenes: The Punk years! It's no mystery, considering the fact that the formative years of Punk were made up of intellectual artists in Manhattan who dabbled with the avant-garde and actually knew how to read decadent literature by Oscar Wilde, Rimbaud, Verlaine, or Burrough, and were inspired by the Situationnists' and the Dadaïsts' movements. It naturally appealed to the intellectual side of the French, and it gave credibility to French rockers with some kind of a seal of approval by the academics as long as it stayed in the art circles and didn't spill out into the streets (the Londoners, as we all know, took care of that!).

In fact, Punk in France was all about a small elite group who congregated around "Open Market," the record shop of Marc Zermati (the notorious owner of the Sky Dog label which once relaunched the dying career of Iggy pop and who now resides in Japan where he takes care of Japanese underground rock groups!) mainly situated in the middle of Paris, in the world renowned 1st district called "Les Halles." This shop was truly a rallying center for wired-up people who had assimilated subversive literature and were very hip rock fans searching for obscure, US garage-rock memorabilia like the Shadows of Knight or the Nuggets' comp.

All the French bands, who were to become important in the scene, already existed in the early '70s in the wake of the Velvet Underground, the New York Dolls, Stooges/ MC5s and Andy Warhol's Factory : Asphalt Jungle, Métal Urbain, Stinky Toys, Marie et les Garçons, and Electric Callas even though the Sex Pistols made their first and only appearance at the Chalet du Lac night club, in the woods of Vincennes on the outskirts of Paris, in September '76. Most of them had already seen the 'Pistols the year before in London, anyway! In fact, the gig of the New York Dolls in Paris much earlier was the true turning point which enabled a lot of active people to meet, so that when the punk scene was taking place in '76/ '77, people already knew each other and had already played on the same stage!

Deram DM 121 - The Quik - "Love Is A Beautiful Thing"

The Quik release the first of their three singles on Deram with DM 121, a cover of the Young Rascal's "Love Is A Beautiful Thing" If The Quik are known today, it's more for the B side of this 45, the instrumental "Bert's Apple Crumble". But we are sticking to A sides! The Quik were described as "soulbeat". OK. Released in April of 1967. Didn't chart and I'm not really surprised.

 

Deram DM 120 - The Warm Sounds - "Birds and Bees"

For DM 120, the duo called The Warm Sounds sing about the "Birds and Bees". Denver Gerrard and Barry Younghusband supposedly met in a publishers office in 66, formed Warm Sounds and this was released in April of 67. By now Mike Hurst was doing a lot of production work for Deram and this has his signature sound. Pretty infectious pop tune, with a string quartet popping in in the middle. They made a little noise on the charts with this one. They released 2 more singles on Deram before calling it a day. Denny Gerrard went on to release a solo album in 1970 and produced High Tide, whose album some consider a psych classic.

 

Deram DM 119 - The Gibsons - "Magic Book"

DM119 was the 2nd single by The Gibsons on Deram, "Magic Book". Nice little morality tale with a 'happy chappy' sound. Of their 8 singles from the 60s, this may be the best one. They moved on to Major Minor after this failed to chart. Written by the hit makers Greenaway and Cook and released in March of 1967.

 

Deram DM 118 - Cat Stevens - "I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun"

Deram DM 118 was Cat Steven's follow up to his huge hit "Mathew and Son" and it was a step backwards, frankly. "I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun". Not sure what he was thinking with these lyrics in the UK in 1967. I love early Cat so he gets a bye for this atrocious record (sorta). Released in March of 67, it did spend 5 weeks in the charts. Has the typical Mike Hurst production that Deram used for all of Cat's early records. This is taken from the June 24th airing of the German show "Beat Club". He's introduced by Dave Lee Travis, a English presenter who could jump from German to English. I always had a crush on his co-presenter, Ushci Nerke!

 

Deram DM 117 - The Move - "I Can Hear The Grass Grow"

Deram DM 117 changed me. "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" by The Move. When I first heard this on Radio Luxembourg in March of 1967, I really couldn't believe what I was hearing. This record transcended music, and spoke to me in a spiritual way, as strange as that sounds. I quickly headed to a local department store in Trier, Germany, to the 'schallplaten' department, and bought the 45. I joined The Move Fan Club. I played this record continually. There are a number of 45s that I bought back in that era that mean a lot to me. They helped me cope with being in the Army at the time. This is one. "Painter Man" by The Creation was another. "My Friend Jack", "Defecting Grey". I still have them all. Whenever I turned on the radio, I felt like I had a good chance of hearing something amazing. And I usually did. This record spent 6 weeks in the charts and really put The Move on the map. Watch the video that Spike posted earlier from a French TV show of this song. It shows how powerful a live band they were. Ahh, yea, The Move!

 

The Jickets - Hello Recording Club EP

I saw the Jickets open for They Might Be Giants at a club called "Neither Nor" on the LES sometime in the early mid 80's. They were pretty hilarious. They were kind of a teeny bopper band parody, in fact I came across a xerox-ed "fanzine" they had made about themselves in a Rivington St. bookstore years later. Most of their songs have the word "Jicket" in them (I love when bands do that self referential thing...). My old roommate Mark Spencer is an even bigger Jickets fan than me and actually covered The Manhattan Bridge song with vocals (the version here is instrumental). This came out on the Hello Recording Club label which has something to do with They Might Be Giants.

UPDATE: Drummer Petey comments: "Nice of you to mention the Jickets. However, the only Jickets song that mentions "Jickets" is in fact "Jicket Island!"

01 Jicket Island.mp3
02 The William Smith Story.mp3
03 Manhattan Bridge.mp3
04 Tell The Seeker.mp3
05 Good Day For Ya.mp3

Vamp - "Floatin" (featuring Viv Prince on drums)

Stepping outside of the Deram series for a second, I'd like to occasionally post a BritPsych 45 from the 60s that I really like, and might not be so well known. There were so many great bands that released one or two singles and then disappeared. Vamp only released this one single, "Floatin", but what a trippy sounding record it is. I love the dreamy vibe it has. "Close your eyes and you're floatin". Vamp consisted of Viv Prince on drums, who had been in the Pretty Things. Andy Clark was on organ, and Mick Hutchinson on guitar. They formed Clark-Hutchinson after Vamp. Finally, on bass, Pete Sears, who was in loads of bands from Sons Of Fred, Steamhammer, Silver Metre, Les Fleur Des Lys, Rod Stewart, Stoneground, and of course, Jefferson Starship.

 

Deram DM 116 - Sir Alec And His Boys - "I'm A Believer"

OK, it was inevitable that I would strike out completely on at least one of the Deram releases. DM 116 was a cover of "I'm A Believer" by Sir Alec And His Boys. They only thing I can think of is that it was Sir Alex Ferguson, a football coach, and this was a terrace chant. I really doubt it's worth looking into anyway. Next.

Deram DM 115 - Double Feature - "Baby Get Your Head Screwed On"

Deram knew that they had a hot song writer in Cat Stevens, so they brought in producer Mike Hurst to record The Double Feature do a pretty straightforward cover of "Baby Get Your Head Screwed On" for DM 115. I have always loved a chugging cello, and this song delivers! The Brum duo turn it into a bit more of a soul experience than Cat. Nice use of a fuzzed up guitar. "Your paper daddy is in the house." Released March of 67