Everybody Surf! With The Surfin' Savages
One of British rock 'n' roll's most colourful characters is Freddie 'Fingers' Lee [Fred Cheeseman], a guy who never lost the true spirit of rock 'n' roll. Freddie's career started in the fifties as a guitarist in a skiffle group, playing between films on the Star Cinema circuit. His life profoundly changed in 1957, when Jerry Lee Lewis released 'A Whole Lotta Shakin' and that inspired him to take up the piano. Freddie said, "All I had heard as a kid was Winifred Atwell and I just didn't believe that a human being could play piano like that."
Freddie started down the road to nuttydom playing piano for Screaming Lord Sutch, his long time partner in crime, while the young Ritchie Blackmore took over his job on guitar. He later joined Eden Kane's band touring with Cliff Richard and Marty Wilde until, like many other British acts in the sixties, he found his way to Hamburg, initially playing with Sutch and later joining the houseband at the legendary Top Ten Club and The Star Club. When asked the inevitable questions about the Beatles, Freddie said "Lennon was a nut case but they were the same as the rest of us, just a bunch of working-class lads playing the circuit, we didn't see them any differently; it just happened for them and they got on." Years later Paul McCartney paid Freddie the ultimate tribute by inviting him on stage at The Hammersmith Odeon. It was, however, visiting Americans who made Hamburg memorable for Freddie, when he met and sat in with all of the rock 'n' roll greats. "I played with Jerry Lee Lewis for a week, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Crickets and Gene Vincent, I also met Sam Cooke there, who was a real gentleman".
These musicians, particularly Jerry Lee, remained an enduring influence on Freddie's prolific writing career which eventually resulted in 19 singles, 8 albums, 12 compilations and had stars such as Tom Jones and Charlie Gracie covering his songs. "In my mind and in my music, I stayed in the fifties; I love country music though and do a few country numbers in the set, there are so many facets to it, from Cash to Lewis. Rock 'n' roll is pure excitement, there is nothing else that can make an entire audience, of all ages and descriptions, start stamping their feet. It's that incessant drive in the beat. Fads come and go but rock'n'roll has stayed. I have been playing it since day one and I'm still playing it now".
For many people, Freddie burst into prominence with the 1979 revival of the Jack Good TV show 'Oh Boy' which made him a household name, especially on the continent. "I have followed the re-runs of it right across Europe, playing major dates of the back of it. 'Oh Boy' sparked a massive following in Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Germany and, believe it or not, in Africa". Freddie's life now consists of jetting backwards and forwards across European capitals playing festivals and TV dates, sharing billing with his own heroes like Sleepy Labeef, Scotty Moore and Chuck Berry. "I'm glad that the TV success happened later in life because I could handle it, a lot of people couldn't. It also saddens me that some missed it the second time around, people like Johnny Kidd who could have taken the whole scene by storm".
Freddie Lee is an unassuming bloke, with no time for the superstar syndrome he simply reckons that "If you can't mix with people what can you do? I am lucky to have travelled the world, met some great people and got paid for what I love to do". Freddie insists that his band also get a mention "these are faithful guys who have followed me through thick and thin. If I can, I fly them out where ever I go. Robin Murly plays Bass, Les Bailly on drums, they have played with just about everyone in the game, and Pete Davenport plays guitar. Pete also works with The Comets and deps for Scotty Moore." /rockabilly.nl
>Everybody Surf! With The Surfin' Savages
this album will be reprinted - as limited LP edition of 1000 copies. The release is scheduled for August 2010.
The Marketts were an American instrumental rock and pop group, formed in Hollywood, California. They are best known for their 1963*/64 million seller, "Out of Limits." The Marketts' line-up constantly changed, being made up of various session musicians from the Los Angeles area. The group's direction was spearheaded by producer Joe Saraceno, although Saraceno did not arrange or play on any of the group's material. They are best remembered for their surf rock hits, though not all of their material has this sound; Saraceno took the group's style in whatever direction he thought would catch the record-buying public's ear. They scored three Top 40 hits in the U.S., and had two popular albums.
Sleeve of the original DOLTON release, according to their homepage: 1963
ybody who owns a real camera knows about the problem if you want to shot something in the foreground AND some small lights in a dark background.
And finally a curious reprint from Japan (2006)
Alan Turner, the lead singer in The Equadors, a Philadelphia rhythm and blues band, composed the song “Sputnik Dance,” which the group recorded in early 1958. Track 2 on this side was the song “I'll Be the One.” The other side had songs “A Vision” and “Stay a Little Longer.” The Equadors later renamed the group The Modern Ink Spots, and sang for several years...
homepage
"Telstar" – is a 1962 instrumental record performed by The Tornados. It was the first single by a British band to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and was also a number one hit in the UK. The record was named after the AT&T communications satellite Telstar, which went into orbit in July 1962. The song was released five weeks later on 17 August 1962. It was written and produced by Joe Meek, and featured a clavioline, a keyboard instrument with a distinctive electronic sound. "Telstar" won an Ivor Novello Award and is estimated to have sold at least five million copies worldwide. This novelty record was intended to evoke the dawn of the space age, complete with sound effects that were meant to sound "space-like". A popular story at the time of the record's release was that the weird distortions and background noise came from sending the signal up to the Telstar satellite and re-recording it back on Earth. It is more likely that the effects were created in Meek's recording studio, which was a small flat above a shop in London. It has been claimed that the sounds intended to symbolize radio signals were produced by Meek running a pen around the rim of an ashtray, and that the "rocket blastoff" at the start of the record was actually a flushing toilet, with the recordings made to sound exotic by playing the tape in reverse at various speeds. [wikipedia]
George Bellamy: rhythm guitar
Everybody Surf! With The Surfin' Savages
The Barracudas are an English based Anglo-Canadian band formed in the late 1970s. The band's original lineup consisted of: Jeremy Gluck (vocals), Robin Wills (guitar & vocals), David Buckley (bass & vocals) and Nick Turner (drums). They are notable for their summer 1980 hit "Summer Fun", which started with an excerpt from a spoof 1960s advertisement for the Plymouth Barracuda, in which one of the announcers has difficulty pronouncing the word barracuda. The single reached number 37 in the UK singles chart. Originally perceived as a novelty surf act due to the first album, subsequent recordings showed them to be a fierce garage rock and roll band, in the mold of the 13th Floor Elevators and The Seeds. The band split in 1984, but reformed in 1989 to record "Wait For Everything", and then again in 2005 for the self titled album on NDN. (wikipedia)
Yes, that's a pretty nice sleeve.
