Master's Apprentices - Undecided 7" GER Metronome M-981, 1967

Here's a undeniably handsome German sleeve for the Masters Apprentices first single. The band photo is great, the red song titles are florid, and of course the music is pretty damn good too. A double sided masterpiece in fact.

Quite astounding that this got a release in Germany. Go!!, which was distributed by Astor, was proactive in getting their records out outside Australia, but Astor itself wasn't. Mind you they didn't release a lot of Australian bands, really. And on the other hand they did distribute a lot of overseas labels and bands, and I assume they had reciprocal arrangements with some of them. 

I think I've got the line-up in the photo right - it's a 1967 photo. From left to right: Jim Keays, Steve Hopgood, Gavin Webb, Mick Bower and Tony Sommers. The actual line-up that recorded the single had Rick Morrison and Brian Vaughton instead of Sommers and Hopgood. The Australian issue was Astor A-7071 from November 1966.

Ray Columbus and The Art Collection - Kick Me 7" USA Colstar 67-1001, 1967

Take yourself back to the first time you heard this monster. For most of us it was probably on Ugly Things 2 in 1983, or maybe Off The Wall in 1981, or maybe you held an original copy prior to that. Whenever, I hope your memory is similar to mine - that is being sat flat on your arse by the song. And for me, ignoring the previous 19 songs on that Ugly Things (no slouches amongst them) to play Kick Me over and over again.


Fast forward to this millenium and a copy appears on eBay circa 2005, in a lot with some other Ray Columbus 7"s on the same label. From memory that first lot went for about $500. Straight away another went up and we saw the start of the classic exponential decay of price curve that accompanies quantity finds. I think I got the fourth or fifth one by which time it had dropped to $150 or so. There haven't been too many times since then that copies haven't been up, usually from that same seller. A copy will set you back somewhere between $75-125. What are you waiting for?


There was a quantity find - the seller bought out the back stock of the label. Which reminds me of my favourite part of the legend (since I'm a record collector): the only copy of this found in the wild in NZ was at an Op Shop under the office of Ray Columbus's manager. For the rest of the story perhaps head to Andrew Schmidt's account of Ray's time in San Francisco - and at the bottom there's a clip of the song itself.


What hasn't been touched on too much elsewhere is the re-recording of She's A Mod. While enthusiastic, I've always found the original version with the Invaders to be sappy and twee. Here it is somewhat updated - the major improvement is two 12-string tinged guitar breaks and a mild freakout replacing the well known crescendo at the end. The mid-song scream is definitely better on the earlier version though.

The Loved Ones EP FRA Festival FX 1528 M, 1967

This one's quite well known, but what a great sleeve. The photo is cool, though they do all look like they are leaning to the right.

So, typically great sleeve design, for which the French are justifiably famous. But I just noticed the typo - Everlovin' Man has become Ever Lovin'man. Apostrophes always throw graphic designers. Aujourd'hui we have a mid-word French variation.

W&G released The Loved Ones EP in Australia, this French version replacing Blueberry Hill by More Than Love.

Where do you classify The Loved Ones? The Loved One itself is prime punk for me, the rest is slightly off-kilter rhythm and blues and downkey oddities (The Loverly Car for example - bizarre).

Lastly, I should mention there's a French jukebox 7" pairing The Loved One and Everlovin' Man.

Jon - Upstairs, Downstairs 7" NZL Leedon, LK-1667, 1967

Here is Jon's fab, Gibb brothers penned ode to Anglo girl desire. A particular favourite of mine, seething with obsession and need; her mysterious ways "tor-men-tinnngggggggg myyyyyyy braaaa-iiinnnn..."

But wait on, I thought this blog was about odd O/S pressings? Well look closely - this one's 'Made in New Zealand'. I've only seen a few records like this and this seems to be the only one I've kept. I mean sure there's Delltones and Johnny O'Keefe NZ pressings - but what else is there from the more interesting end of the Leedon spectrum? Hint: Other Leedons from around this time are Tony Cole, a couple of Pogs, Others, Syssys, R. Black and the Rockin Vs...

The Aussie Leedon press has exactly the same catalogue number. Hear the track on Pretty Ugly and Peculiar Hole In The Sky.

Peter Best - Carousel Of Love 7" USA Capitol P 2092, 1967

What a mess! That's my first reaction on hearing these kitchen sink psych operettas - orchestration, sound effects, rich melodies which fall down, break or twist (to replicate the psychedelic experience). Or is the breakdown to replicate the cycle of falling in love, then everything falling apart? Overall a good pop-psych track - hear it on A Forest Of Gold Tops.

This Peter Best was a member of the Pogs from Sydney's North shore. He has a mess of songwriting credits on late 60s records (Tony Shepp's Pretty Dull for one), and two solo singles of his own (this one came out on Columbia here (DO 5039)). Later he composed film scores - Bazza McKenzie is one of his. Interestingly at least half the internet still thinks this single is by the Beatles' drummer, which may have been at least some of the thinking behind Capitol's original US release.

Billboard also reported he'd made a colour film to go with the song which he was sending over to Capitol. I wonder what became of that. They also tantalisingly mention a possible Dutch press - contact me if you're holding (not talking about microdots).

Clefs - Bring It To Jerome 7" GRE Leon LE107, 1967

One of the most unknown overseas pressings is this Greek release of an already obscure Adelaide recording originally on Melbourne label Phono Vox. The general commentary attached to this is "How the hell did this get a Greek release?," and I suppose I'd like to know the answer too.

A good, driving r&b workout with plenty of punky attitude evident. Of course being the Clefs the organ is upfront, though not overly so - guitar and bass get equal time.

The Greeks, as is their wont, flipped the backside and frontside. A Boy Like Me, the Australian A-side, is an organ driven number, and it's alright. Hear both sides here, where there's also photos and history of the band.

Cherokees - I've Gone Wild 7" NZL Salem XS115, 1967

I love a song with just two, two-line verses; then third verse - same as the first. But Melbourne's Cherokees' finest moment has so much more - rollicking punk rhythms, guitar (or rudimentary electronics, or theremin or something) freakouts, screams, plaintive pleading.

An old garage taxonomist once observed "if it mentions 'brain,' it's punk; and if it mentions 'mind,' it's psych". Here we have "Feel what you've done to my brain" and "Please let out of my mind", so I suppose we have punk/psych. No arguments here.

Regular Australian release on Go!!, here's the NZ issue on Salem who put out a handful of Go!! records there. Hear it on Ugly Things Volume 2.