The Beat Merchants - Pretty Face b/w Messin' With The Man (Columbia - 1964)

The place is Horsham in West Sussex, the year was 1964 and a band by the name of The Beat Merchants released one of the finest 60s beat 45s that the country has offered.

As a resident of West Sussex myself and living in Billingshurst which is 8 miles South-West of Horsham (it being the nearest town), I would call Horsham home and thus it makes me feel exceptionally proud that a great band like The Beat Merchants came from my neck of the woods as it were.

Weirdly I feel I am the only person in Horsham district making any music of any real worth today and so consider myself as the next best thing after the Beat Merchants, I just hope my own 45s are considered as legendary as theirs one day. 

Another weird and slightly boring fact for those who are reading this, is that my Barber Allan, claimed to have cut these guys' hair back in the day and he is still in the profession today and cuts my hair.

Anyway... moving on to the music.

The Beat Merchants were originally a beat-instrumental group in The Shadows vein and went by the name of Peter and The Hustlers until the time the Rolling Stones played a gig locally at St Leonards Hall and what appears to be over night, these local Sussex lads ditched their matching suits and reverb units and what came forth was a ferocious sound of the highest 'mod' order.

Armed with Burns Guitars, Vox Amplifiers and style to boot, The Beat Merchants formed and instantly worked hard playing the South Coast gig circuit and recording a couple of Acetates at the infamous Regent Sound complex on Denmark Street in London, also Acetates were made for Oak Records and Emidisc.

The Beat Merchants were -

Geoff Farndell - Bass

Chris Boyle - Vocals

Vic Sendall - Drums

Gavin Daneski - Rhythm Guitar & Harmonica 

Ralph Worman - Lead Guitar

The Beat Merchants were fortunate that their acetates got picked up and they had two released singles on Columbia.

Pretty Face b/w Messin' With The Man (which this post will honour)

&

So Fine b/w She Said Yeh

The track 'So Fine' was the b-side on a split-single with Freddie & The Dreamers which got to Number 1 in America.

'Pretty Face' entered the UK charts at number 44, which during the 60s was a pretty cool position to be in, especially if you were from a middle of no-where town like Horsham.

The Beat Merchants split up in late 1966, which is a shame cos they could of gone on and done great and wonderful things, an example of these songs are on the recently compiled 'The Beats Go On' cd which compiles all the band's recordings, my personal favourite being the track 'What Have I Done' which should have been a 45 of its own.

Both tracks of their debut 45 are found beneath the label pics below, copies of the original 45 are somewhat easily obtainable and can be found on Ebay and the like from time to time, I found my copy in one of the Record Shops in Guildford for £30, although copies of both Columbia 45s have been known to sell for over the £100 mark at times.

As stated above a really cool cd called 'The Beats Go On' is available and can be found both cheaply and easily and as mentioned there are some pretty cool unreleased cuts that never saw the light of day until now on it.

Enjoy the West Sussex Beat Music.

Paul

The Honeycombs - That's The Way b/w Can't Get Through To You (Pye - 1965)

Inspired by a recent blog post by Anorak Thing, he made mention of his favourite Joe Meek produced songs, in the cannon of Joe Meek productions there is a wealth of amazingly weird and wonderful treats, some of these treats were found onsome of the most popular british pop singles of the day.

My own personal favourite Joe Meek production also happens to be one of Joe Meek's own songs, the ever warped and demented genius of 'Can't Get Through To You' which was recorded by The Honeycombs.

The Honeycombs were a popular beat group in the UK during 1963-66, they reached their height of popularity in 1964, The Honeycombs were somewhat popular in America during the British Invasion and had major success in the UK having sold a million or so copies of their hit single 'Have I The Right?' again produced by Meek.

The Honeycombs were -

Colin Boyd - Vocal & Guitar

Rod Butler - Lead Guitar & Vocals

Eddie Spence - Organ & Vocals

John Lantree - Bass

Honey Lantree - Drums & Vocals.

Honey Lantree was one of the first female drummers in a pop group.

The story of Joe Meek deserves a blog post of it's own as it was full of complexities, fantastic stories and a troubled life and soul of a very talented man. Meek was a unique studio producer during the early to late 60s, his records influenced generations of people in the UK and across the pond in the US and to this day are heralded as great amongst fans of music.

I wish to speak about the man's music rather than his personal life at this stage, I may write a biopic as such at a later point in time.

In regards to the killer cut I am sharing on this blog, 'I Can't Get Through To You' is one of (in my opinions) Joe Meek's top masterpieces. Meek was a homosexual man during the 50s and 60s and in the UK during this time it was highly taboo to be gay and it was even illegal and could get a man arrested at one point, Meek was already an emotionally charged guy who showed early stages of schizophrenia to those around him, he was also highly egotistical and you can hear all of this internal madness and frustration on this record in particular.

'I Can't Get Through To You' is a wild amplified Rock 'n' Roll number recorded by The Honeycombs, who gave it their fullest on this recording (probably under the strict whipping leash of Meek himself at his infamous Holloway Road studio), The cut is a worthy piece of studio experimentalism as the drum's sound kind of looped and the backing track has been sped up on the tapes, making it a great piece of early experiemental music in a pop setting. Lyrically this record is what 'frustration, confusion and angst' sound like in the mind of a madman before the onset of a moment of dementia.

I spent a good 40 minutes listening to this track on repeat driving in my car with the windows down... I was in a demented head space and this record was my remedy and saviour.

So without futher a do.... here is the killer piece of British Beat from 1965, this wipes the floor with most other recordings by other British groups of the time.

Dig it and the more chart friendly A-side below.

Can't Get Through To You

That's The Way

Thanks

Paul