Search - Pretty Things :: BBC Sessions

The Complete Mott's

Kim Fletcher | Pattaya, Chonburi Thailand | 06/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Formed in the later stages of 1963, the Pretty Things arrived on the Londoner scene playing Berry/Diddley/Reed influenced raw rhythm and blues. The driving force behind the 'Pretties' were vocalist Brian May and Dick Taylor. (Taylor had left a version of the embryonic Rolling Stones with Brian Jones, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger because the three wanted him to play bass guitar while he was born to play lead guitar.)



The Pretty Things were contemporaries of 'The Rolling Stones' and 'The Kinks'. Of course there was also that little band with that funny name from Liverpool, the Beatles. This dog always had a soft spot for the `Pretties' as the Beatles were a little bit goody two shoes to be considered cool. I mean your parents liked them! The Rolling Stones were great, but always seemed to want to be Americans, denying their Dartford, Kent roots, and the Kinks could get a little whimsical at times.



The 'Pretties' had no image; music was their thing and hard edged rhythm and blues was the starting point. Their first seven singles all went top 50 in the U.K. (they did not mean a light in the U.S. of A., no image, nothing to promote). The sight of the `Pretties' standing on Top of the Pops, trying to hide their embarrassment as they mimed their way through their latest single, was a wonder to behold. Unlike most of their contemporaries their lineup was quite liquid, revolving around the main duo, the drum seat, revolving faster than Spinal Tap's.



In the late sixties the Pretty Things plunged head first, along with everybody else, into the psychedelic culture. Gone was all the straight ahead music and in came sitars, thousands of overdubs on all guitar parts, and kaftans and beads. Although huge on the underground scene, this did not exactly get the till bells ringing over, and in a state of confusion Dick Taylor left the band to settle down into production work. Away from the chaos of life on the road, Taylor produced the first albums from Hawkwind and Cochise.

Taylor was quickly replaced in the band, which imploded within the year.



But famous rocking's roll manager Bill Shepherd, upon hearing of the 'Pretties' demise, tried to persuade them to reform, telling them that the `Pretties' were too good a band to lose. How right he was. With a new dual lead guitar partnership in place, the mercurial Peter Tolson and Gordon Edwards, they were ready to roar again. After six weeks rehearsal they went into the studio to record the seminal 'Freeway Madness'. The `Pretties' had now put the entire wishy-washy psychedelic behind them and come back with a new hard-edged sound, combining their love of American harmony vocals and crunchy guitar licks with screaming solos.



This gained them enough attention to get them to be the first signing to the newly formed Swansong label, the brainchild of Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant. Two wonderful albums were released over the next two years, but, although critically acknowledged, both failed to dent the charts. Once more the band fell apart in 1976, when Phil May decided enough was enough.

The band came together again in the late nineties, including old running mate Dick Taylor on lead guitar, and in 1999 they released 'Rage Before Beauty', an apt title if you consider what had gone before. The band still plays gigs to this day.



This collection of work from the B.B.C. Sessions gives you an overall view of the 'Pretties' career from 1964 to 1976. All the early singles are here. (The Pretty Things had a surge of popularity stateside when David Bowie covered their first two singles 'Rosalyn' and 'Don't Bring Me Down' on his album Pin Ups. To many Americans this was the first time they ever heard of the 'Pretty Things'.)



It all goes a bit pear shaped in their psychedelic era, but then it did for a lot of people (remember the Stones? Or Their Satanic Majesties Request?), but on their return to hard edged rock 'n' roll, like on the Radio One 'In Concert' show to promote 'Freeway Madness', the band is so hot, it is incendiary. Nobody can throw caution to the wind with such abandon and still nail a song down like the 'Pretties' like 'Onion Soup' and especially 'Route 66'. The live sessions for the following two albums are a little more controlled, but equally as exciting.



This album is not only a good overview of the Pretty Things' career, but also a good overview of British rock in this era. If you are not familiar with the Pretty Things, this album would be an excellent way to find out.



Mott the Dog"

The Pretties' BBC Legacy

Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 05/27/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Pretty Things were no strangers to the various converted theatres, cinemas and hotels that made up the suite of studios in which the BBC recorded radio light entertainment shows, gardening forums, dance hall orchestras and rock bands.



In fact the earliest session here dates from October 1964, which coincides with the release of only their second single, Don't Bring Me Down. The five track session is included in full and includes Don't Bring Me Down, Big Boss Man (which had been the B-side of the first single) and R&B selections from their future first album, Pretty Things, including two by Bo Diddley, from whose song Pretty Thing the band took their name. On the two singles session drummers had been employed, so here is a chance to hear the tunes performed exclusively by the band.



It isn't clear how many sessions and concert appearances the band made between 1964 and 1976 when the band were mothballed for quite a while, but sixteen are drawn from on these two discs. In the sixties these were taken from Saturday Club and John Peel's Top Gear programme, but in the seventies they are drawn from various presenters' shows, including David Symonds, Alan Black, Mike Harding and John Peel. Broadcast dates are given, but further details such as recording dates, line-ups and studio locations are skimpy at best.



There are two recordings of their minor 1966 hit Midnight To Six Man, one for a TV show (in very poor sound), the other far better performance from Saturday Club, and, like the single, featuring the tinkling ivories of session pianist Nicky Hopkins. After this came a swift change of direction, when like a lot of bands, they temporarily ditched soul and R&B and fully embraced psychedelia. In the case of the Pretties this included sitar-soaked pieces such as Defecting Grey and Turn My Head (a song that never got a commercial release), and then the full blown and highly influential mini-opera S.F. Sorrow, from which all of their 1968 session for Top Gear was drawn.



The Pretty Things were in a constant state of flux with frequent changes in line-up and neither of the two songs included from their 1969 session made it onto a record either. By 1970 even founder-guitarist Dick Taylor had left the band leaving only original vocalist and songwriter Phil May from the line-up that had recorded Rosalyn, their first single from 1964, though Dick Taylor did make a guest appearance on their 1972 re-visit to the song for Top Gear. Nevertheless, the Parachute album material and the various tracks from singles that make up what they recorded for the BBC on the rest of the first disc show a lively, focused, inventive band very much on top of their live performances, with the new members clearly being allowed full creative input.



Disc One's final track and the first four songs on Disc Two all come from the same concert, recorded in stereo on 9 August 1973 at the Golders Green Hippodrome, for the In Concert programme, introduced by Pete Drummond. Indeed, at a approximately half-an-hour it probably represents the full segment of the Pretty Thing's part of the hour long show, and includes an uncredited performance of Onion Soup/Another Bowl. Most of this featured on their album Freeway Madness, though also included is their cover of Route 66, a song also covered by the Rolling Stones, a group with which the Pretties were often compared in the early days, especially since Dick Taylor had been a member of an early version of that band before they were signed. Onion Soup and Route 66 also featured on a studio session for Bob Harris's Sounds Of The Seventies recorded a fortnight later, and on which they previewed Atlanta, which was to figure on their album Silk Torpedo in 1975.



Two sessions for John Peel recorded at Maida Vale (and not for In Concert or in front of an audience as stated in the booklet notes) in December 1974 and July 1975 conclude the second disc. They mainly again draw from Silk Torpedo, though there are two surprises. The first is an unlikely version of Dudley Moore's instrumental theme tune for the series Not Only But Also, probably led by recent keyboard recruit Gordon Edwards, and the other is a stomping return to Big City, a song written by their manager Jimmy Duncan from their eponymous first album of a decade earlier, Pretty Things.



It is fascinating to retrace the rocky road travelled by the band over this eventful decade in these unique and valuable recordings. Some of them come from transcription discs made for World Service broadcasts, without which many of these and other priceless sessions by other bands and artists would not have survived at all. How much more of their BBC work has survived isn't known though there are hints in the booklet that there may be more to come on further releases, which I for one will be keen to explore."

Pretty Things - 'The BBC Sessions' (Repertoire) 2-CD

Mike Reed | USA | 02/06/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Two discs,total of 41 tracks from when the Pretty Things performed at the radio sessions at the BBC Studios between 1964-75.A good compilation to have,showing the band's wide variety of material.Disc one shows you where the band had developed into pscychedlia,with tunes like "Roadrunner","L.S.D.","Buzz The Jerk","Ballon Burning" among many others.Then disc two lets us know how they changed their music direction to a rather punk-like/R&B style,with cuts like "Route 66","Havana Bound" and "Come Home Momma".Don't despair,it all makes for good listening.Check this one out.You won't be sorry you did."