lebeatbespoke4

***A BESPOKE THANK YOU***

photo  © NUTs/Pip! Pip!/The Sonics              

SONICALLY SPEAKING... A BESPOKE THANK YOU!
After a couple of days recovering I would just like to say thanks to everyone who came and made Le Beat Bespoké 4 so much fun and such a huge success! Hope you all had a safe trip home and look forward to seeing you again soon. Check out the website next week with lots of new photos from the event!

A bespoke special thanks to all my team Pip! Pip!, Carolina, Ellie, Carla & Tim, Kolorz, Bertie, Paul ‘where to squire’ Owers, Horst, Pat Long, the lighting team Big Dave, Jo and Gary. The venues The Forum and 229
for being such excellent hosts. All the bands, DJs and go go girls that performed a blinder over the weekend thank you so much.

Cheers Rob Bailey, Easter 08

THE SONCIS + VIP support! at THE FORUM!

 

COOL SONICS SITE HERE!
SONICS VIDEO HERE!

THE ORIGINAL PUNK ROCK BAND. Back in the mid-1960s, the legendary Sonics took rock'n'roll by the scruff of the neck and thrashed it to within an inch of its sorry life, leaving a legacy of some of the most savage, visceral recordings ever made.
Dirty fuzzed up guitars twisting old blues licks. Songs about cars, girls and of course psychedelics set to some wacked out garage sound. Three minutes of snappy pop punk to set those feet a tapping, those girls a running and those snakes writhing on the wallpaper. Distortion...hip but not hippy The Sonics. There was none dirtier or majestic than The Sonics. This band had it all, fuzzed up guitars, great riffs, screaming vocals akin to Little Richard. This band rocked from 1964-67 giving us classics such as The Witch, Strychnine (later covered by The Cramps), Boss Hoss, Psycho and Louie Louie. "IF our records sound distorted, its because they are...they were always overdriven. My Brother Larry ... he was disconnecting the speakers and poking a hole in them with an icepick. That's how we ended up sounding like a train crash." Sonics bassist. Essential super fuzz. A tough new sound blending rock 'n' roll, singers like James Brown and the Yardbirds and early Stones.
The Sonics rode the wave of Pacific North-West American garage rock in the early and mid-1960s, pioneered by The Kingsmen and The Wailers (not to be confused with Bob Marley's reggae band). Other (less successful) members of the scene were The Drastics, The Regents and Paul Revere & The Raiders. These guys together are credited with starting up the Seattle music scene that has had more successes since - the grunge scene in the 1980s and 1990s including Nirvana, Mudhoney and Alice In Chains, for example.

Music

The Sonics' sound is noticeably rougher, cruder and more brutal than all of their musical peers. Although they had a fairly standard instrumental line up for the time, the Sonics made their unique sound with wild arrangements, often disturbing lyrics (sung peppered with screaming and howling) and guitars played through customised amplifiers tampered with to achieve the harshest tones possible. Although their brief period of success was coincident with the release of Gibson's first fuzzbox, the Sonics amazingly fuzzy sound was entirely of their own creation.

The songs they played were a mixture of garage rock standards (Louie, Louie), early rock n roll (Jenny Jenny) and original compositions such as Strychnine, Psycho and The Witch, which used pretty simple chord sequences, played hard and fast.

The lyrics of the Sonics' original material dealt with early 60s frat-culture; cars, guitars, surfing and girls (in songs like 'The Hustler' and 'Maintaining My Cool') along side many dark and frankly sinister themes such as drinking strychnine for kicks, witches, psychopaths, and satan (in the songs 'Strychnine', 'The Witch', 'Psycho' and 'He's Waiting' respectively).

Crew

The classic Sonics lineup, as recorded on 'Here Are The Sonics' and 'Boom':

• GERRY ROSLIE: Organ_music, piano, lead vocals
• ANDY PARYPA: bass guitar
• LARRY PARYPA: lead guitar, vocals
• ROB LIND: saxophone, vocals, harmonica
• BOB BENNETT: drums

Brief Biog

The evolution of the Sonics began in 1960 in Tacoma, Washington, with a band hardly like the eventual lineup. Larry Parypa used to play the guitar with a drummer, Mitch Graber, another guitarist named Stuart Turner, plus a saxophonist and an acoustic bassist. In 1961 Larry's big brother Andy replaced the bass player and a guy named Tony Mabin took over as their new sax player.

Stuart Turner left for the army and Rich Koch (who had previously played with 'The Wailers') joined as a new lead guitarist and Marilyn Lodge joined as the band's first singer - they had been an instrumental combo until this point. A new drummer, Bill Dean then replaced Mitch.

Rich Koch and Marilyn Lodge left the band in 1963. The local star Ray Michelson became the band's singer after having sung with a handful of other popular bands on the local scene.

Still 1963, Larry started looking for a drummer to replace Bill Dean, who was uncommitted to the band, and found Bob Bennett playing in a band called 'The Searchers' with Gerry Roslie and Rob Lind. Ray Mitchelson wanted to get married and start a family, so 'The Sonics' - Larry and Andy Parypa, got Bennett, Roslie and Lind into the band, ditching their previous saxophonist Mabin. The classic era lineup was in place, but the Sonics' career as loved by their continuing cult following did not begin until 1964, when Gerry Roslie started singing lead vocals...

With Roslie as lead singer the band started playing gigs at local halls, sometimes on big dancehall lineups, or sometimes just in halls that the band rented. The local circuit at the time included the 'Red Carpet', 'Olympia's Skateland', the 'Evergreen Ballroom', 'Pearl's', the 'Spanish Castle Ballroom' and 'St Mary's Parish Hall'.

They were soon scouted by Buck Ormsby, bassist in the Wailers, and signed to the Wailers' own label Etiquette Records. The first single they cut was 'The Witch' (with Little Richard's 'Keep A Knockin' as the B-side), in November 1964. This was immensely popular with local kids, and went on to become the biggest selling local single in the history of the North-West, despite its radio airplay being restricted because of its bizarre and possibly mysogenistic subject matter. Early 1965 the Sonics went into the studio to record an LP - what would become 'Here Are The Sonics', which they did on a two-track tape recorder, with only one microphone to pick up the whole drum kit. It was here that they began to pioneer some of their infamously reckless recording techniques. The next album, 'Boom' followed in February 1966. During the recording the Sonics ripped the soundproofing off the walls at the country and western oriented Wiley/Griffith studio, to "get a liver sound".

This heyday began to wane when the band transferred to Jerden Records in late 1966, and headed to Hollywood to record the unappreciated album 'Introducing The Sonics' with Larry Levine in the Gold Star studios. The band later called this cleaner, slicker recording "the worst garbage".

The original band fell apart between 1966 and 1968, members leaving to go to university or to join other bands. During this time their sound changed, incorporating string and horn sections, but the kids didn't like it, and they passed into (even greater) obscurity.

The original Sonics did reform briefly in 1972 for a Seattle Paramount live show, and the recording of this show was released as "Live Fanz Only" by Etiquette Records.

the Sonics speak...

• "We were a wild, dirty, kickass band" - Bob Bennett
• "We were nasty. Everything you've heard people say about us is true" - Larry Parypa
• "If our records sound distorted, it's because they are. My Brother (Larry, guitar) was always fooling around with the amps. They were always overdriven. Or he was disconnecting the speakers and poking a hole in them with an ice pick. That's how we ended up sounding like a train wreck" - Andy Parypa

Influence

The Sonics had an often overlooked but immense influence on subsequent rock music, not just in the Washington area. They are often-cited contenders for the title of 'the first punk band', due to their wild, twisted and unconventional style. Gerry Roslie was the first white man to record a frightening rock 'n roll scream in Ernest, thus influencing Iggy Pop and the rest of proto-punk, such as The New York Dolls. The band also have a clearly marked influence on golden age punk bands such as The Sex Pistols and The Dead Boys in their brash, teenage, masculine style and posturing, and on the nineties grunge bands (who originated in the same area), especially Mudhoney, who adopted some of the darker themes from Sonics music, and a lot of their groundbreaking techniques on over-driving and distorting electric guitars. As well as all these, there have been whole generation of garage-rock revival bands (such as The Things) who make no bones of plagiarising the Sonics and their like.

Releases

LPs

• HERE ARE THE SONICS (Etiquette ETALB 024/ET-LPS 024) - 1965
• MERRY CHRISTMAS (Etiquette ETALB 025) - 1965
• BOOM (Etiquette ETALB027/ETALBS 027) 1966
• INTRODUCING THE SONICS (Jerden JRL 7007/JRLS 7007) - 1967

45s

• The Witch/Keep A Knockin' (Etiquette 11) - 1964
• The Witch/Psycho (Etiquette 11) - 1965
• Psycho/Keep A Knockin' (Etiquette 13+) - 1965
• Boss Hoss/The Hustler (Etiquette16) - 1965
• Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark/Shot Down (Etiquette 18) - 1965
• Sonics: Don't Believe In Christmas/Wailers:Christmas Spirit (Etiquette 22) - 1965
• Cinderella/Louie Louie (Etiquette 23) - 1965
• You Got Your Head On Backwards/Love Light (Jerden 809) - 1966
• Like No Other Man/Love Light (Jerden 809) - 1966
• The Witch/Like No Other Man (Jerden 810) - 1966
• Psycho/Maintaining My Cool (Jerden 811) - 1966
• Love-itis/You're In Love (Jerden 909) - 1967
• Lost Love/Any Way The Wind Blows (Piccadilly 244) - 1967
• Any Way The Wind Blows/Lost Love (UNI 55039) - 1967
• Dirty Old Man/Bama Lama Bama Loo (Burdette 106) - 1975
• The Witch/Bama Lama Bama Loo (Great Northwest 702) - 1979
• The Witch/Keep A Knockin'   (Norton 811) - 1998
• Psycho/Have Love Will Travel (Norton 813 ) - 1998
• Cinderella/He's Waitin' (Norton 815) - 1998
• Boss Hoss/The Hustler (Norton 816) - 1998
• Strychnine/Shot Down (Norton 818) - 1998
• Sonics: Louie Louie / Wailers: Louie Louie (Norton 819) - 1998
• Don't Believe In Christmas/Santa Claus (Norton 066) - 1998

THE HORRORS

They might be the most exciting British band since the Sex Pistols, but there’s very little that could’ve prepared The Horrors for what’s happened to them since they played their first gig in September 2005.
A mess of sharp elbows, big hair, feedback and monochrome clothes, since that gig at The Spread Eagle in Shoreditch, the band have played gigs everywhere from LA to Hull and Tokyo, been tipped by Jarvis Cocker as the future of British rock and appeared on the cover of NME after only two singles. They’ve made a video starring acclaimed actress Samantha Morton with legendary director Chris Cunningham and then had the same video swiftly banned by MTV for excessive strobe use and general gruesomeness. They’ve seen UFOs at 3am on the way back to London from a gig in the grounds of a stately home in Derbyshire. They’ve caused $10,000 of damage during a near-riot at a gig in New York after signing to Island Def Jam in America. And they’ve released a four dark-hearted singles that have annoyed as many people as they’ve enthralled.

"It’s weird, because when we do gigs we just set out to play our songs and not annoy or wind up anyone - but we often cause loads of trouble in the process", explains keyboardist Rhys ‘Spider’ Webb evenly. "Still, we’re not interested in pleasing everybody. And we certainly don’t have a problem with pissing people off in the process. We don’t care what people think of us. If we upset people we’re not bothered in the slightest."

Likely to win over the floating voters more than annoy them, it’s little wonder that The Horrors’ debut album sounds so assured – this band have squeezed more into one 18 months than most groups do in a lifetime.

It also helped that, all being fanatical collectors of vintage music from ‘50s rockabilly and ‘60s garage to ‘70s post-punk and ‘80s no-wave, the band had a very clear idea of what their first album should sound like.

"With ‘Strange House’ we wanted to capture the energy and enthusiasm of a band that had quite little experience of either being in a band and playing" Webb continues. "So this album documents the journey from walking into a rehearsal room a year ago and playing covers of ‘Jack The Ripper’ by Screaming Lord Sutch and ‘The Witch’ by The Sonics up until touring the world."

www.myspace.com/thehorrors

*STOP-PRESS* 2ND SONICS SHOW ADDED!

Now in its fourth glorious year, the wildest weekender in the World returns to London this Easter Bank Holiday with its best bill yet. Yes,coinciding with the release of his new mix album, 'Le Beat Bespoké 3' (Circle Records), our host Rob Bailey and the NUTs team are throwing another 3-day global bash, tailor-made for all lovers of the '60s underground and far beyond.

This time they've really outdone themselves, managing to snare the first-ever European appearances by first-wave 1960s garage legends The Sonics. The wildest, dirtiest, rawest band to emerge from mid-'60s America. The Sonics reformed in New York last year, playing together for the first time in 40 years and now topping an international bill that includes Austria's The Staggers and The Jaybirds, UK bands the Good Time Charlies and rockin' blues act The Excellos, The Phantom Keys and Los Chicos from Spain,  and Sweden's The Branded.

Plus the second Sonics gig will see a supporting bill that includes The Horrors - Southend's goth-garage trailblazers who played an early gig at Le Beat Bespoke 2 back in 2006 and have since gone on to build up a loyal fanbase of identically-dressed teenage cavemen from Mexico to Japan.

It's a party planned by people who like good music for people who like good music - so you can expect to hear the very best in everything from Garage to Rockabilly, Folk to Funk, Psych to Soul, Freakbeat to Britpop, Ska to Club Jazz and all points in between!

Plus! 10 more live acts - as well as the most beautiful go-go girls, the trippiest eye-candy visuals, the freakiest cult cinema. Not forgetting the worlds' best DJs spinning records from dusk until daybreak in 3 rooms with an all night-bar! There's also a huge retro market selling choice vintage furniture, clothes, vinyl and pop artefacts and Art exhibitions. To top off the day there is also a cross-town scooter run on the Saturday afternoon.

Le Beat Bespoke 4 Weekend ticket includes admission to ALL EVENTS including a ground floor ticket for ONE SONICS gig at the FORUM.

Friday 21 March – Guest Club nights – Brainwashed & the Pow Wow : £8
Saturday 22 March – Daytime – Dirty Water records showcase/record fair & market : £6
Saturday Evening – Le Beat Bespoké 4 allnighter inc guest club nights : £12
Sunday 23 March – Crossfire + (Sonics aftershow party) : £12

*Please note a 2nd show for the Sonics @ the Forum has been added on Sun 23 March.
Your weekend ticket includes groundfloor admission to ONE Sonics show ONLY.       

Friday 21st March show if you booked before 21 Feb.                      
Sunday 23rd March show if you booked after 22 Feb

*Individual 'Sonics' ticket holders will have free entry to the aftershow party here at 229 on a strictly first come first served basis.
 

 

Pat Long NME

Event details and regular updates go: www.newuntouchables.com
Ticket hotline go: www.229thevenue.co.uk 
or Tel: 020 7323 7229

Mojo Magazine Says...

The Sonics: Have Love, Will Travel!

Matching the raw wail of Little Richard with the stomp-and-fuzz of The Troggs, US garage punk legends The Sonics created some of the wildest ‘60s recording of all-time. Now, forty years after they initially split, the North West outfit have reformed and are set to play the annual Le Beat Bespoke Weekender.

Now in its fourth year, the ‘60s-styled, MOJO-sponsored festival will take place in London on Easter Weekend (March 21-23) and is promoted by the New Untouchables –champions of 21st Century Modernist And Sixties Underground Culture, an organisation with a lengthy track record of putting on unique ‘happenings’.

The Sonics themselves reunited last year to play New York’s annual garage shindig, Cavestomp, in November where they re-ignited their fearsome reputation in front of audience that included long-time fans ranging from Steve Van Zandt to The Hives.

“Just like The Action gigs we did a decade ago this was the band everyone wanted to see,” comments New Untouchables head honcho Rob Bailey. “After an awesome display in NYC last November the clamour to bring them over intensified so we pulled out all the stops to bring The Sonics to the music and culture capitol of Europe for the band’s first ever show outside their native USA. The response has been amazing. The bands influence and fanbase is colossal and growing all the time.”

While LBB4 will use 229 Great Portland Street as its principal venue for the festival, The Sonics show will take place at The Forum in Kentish Town on Friday March 21.

As well as The Sonics, LBB4 will feature an international line-up of bands as well as customary clubs nights, record fairs and a full retro market. Weekend tickets cost £47 (including admission to The Sonics show) although individual gig tickets are available for the Forum show.

Hotwax Weekender 3/4 May 2008

A Superb New Midlands Event aimed at lovers of rare black sounds, set in a superb location, with the cream of the crop in terms of DJ talent! Book Early! Not to be missed!

Circle Records

Check out the superb catalogue of releases on Circle Records on their website here
www.circlerecords.co.uk

Dr Rob Bailey (NUTs, London)

Who are you?
Rob Bailey aka Dr Robert head ‘honcho’ of the New Untouchables a London based organisation that promotes Mod and 60’s events and club nights and compiler of the compilation album series entitled ‘Le Beat Bespoke’ go new untouchables homepage  or myspazz page,  for more info. I also sell rare Freakbeat, Garage, Psych and Mod 45s and Albums. Go to: rnb - hip records for sale here> 

When and how did you got involved in the scene?
Through kids at school, The Jam, Mum and Dads record collection, School teacher playing 'Green Onions' at our school disco I bet they don't play that anymore.

Fave styles of 60s music?
I love it all from 50's blues through to late 60's Rock and all points in between. I will be playing Freakbeat, Garage and Psych in the Purple.

First DJ spot... where and when?
Way back in the last century. Started Djing at the local community centre where our local scooter club held nights at the tender age of 14 years old with Kent compilation LP's and UK Tamla 45's borrowed from Mum and Dad’s collection, not forgetting local bands records like the Prisoners and Milkshakes records. First serious DJ spots with original 45s were at the Bizz Club, Tooley St, London Bridge and at CCI rallies during 1987-88

The Highlights of your "Dj life"?
Really hard question.
Playing to two thousand Mods in the UK at CCI events during the late 80's at the age of 18 was pretty mind-blowing. Japan was amazing experience and always enjoyed Italy, Germany and of course Spain.
Probably the most consistent thing I've enjoyed has been the Mousetrap.The amount of amazing tunes that have come out of the club the last 16 years has been truly inspirational.

Hobbies?
Playing football (badly these days) and supporting the famous CFC. Riding my two vintage scooters and collecting records.

Fave film and book?
Italian Job, Caine at his best, it captures the period brilliantly and has everything great story line, humour,
beautiful cars, women, clothing a great soundtrack and a brilliant ending. Book would be the Keith Moon biography what an amazing life Moon the loon led.

Current play list in no particular order:

I can't help thinking of you - the Bucket
Good times - Unreleased acetate
Forest in black - Dirty Filthy Mud
Tears in my eyes - One way Street
Girl - Johnny Kendall & the Heralds
The lesson - The Cords- Unissued acetate
Sorry Mr Green - The Waltham Grn East Wapping Carpert cleaning rodent & boggit exterminating assoc.
Tread softly for the sleepers- The Hi Fi’s
10,000 words- Aquarian Age
Frozen sunshine - Rick McClellan

'Le Beat Bespoke volume 3' album will be on sale easter!
Full tracklisting will be up on here soon.

PAT LONG (N.M.E)

Pat Long Live Editor. NME
A 29-year old record geek trapped inside the body of a 29-year old record geek! Really looking forward to playing records at LBB4 2008 and especially seeing the Sonics live again. I play US garage and driving beat from around the world, like:

The Darelycks - Bad Trip
The Vestells - Won't You Tell Me
The Malibus - Cry
David Clayton Thomas And The Shays - Take Me Back
The Snobs - Ding Dong

SPIDER WEBB n COFFIN JOE (THE HORRORS)

These 2 young horrors play Organ and Drums respectively, in one of the UKs toppermost, horror, trash, garage beat mash-up combos, often seen on TV and in the papers, they even recently appeared in an alter-ego band THE BLACK TUBES (thin drainpipe legs zufan fans!) in THE MIGHTY BOOSH TV series. Often still finding time to chip in DJ slots for the various NUTs and 60s type events in and around the smoke, together they have an increasingly large and diverse collection of dark wax gems that they spin for the benefit of long hot sweaty nights of dancing and partying!
Expect rare beat, garage, gritty rnb, psych and no holes barred rock n roll mayhem!

Spider Webb current spins

Children Of Tomorrow - Mike Stuart Span
Dandelion Seeds - July
Shes A Girl - The Attraction
Finding It Rough - Hat And Tie
Loves Imortal Fire - The Sleepy

Coffin Joe Nails this top 5

Voodoo medice man- Jerry & Jeff
Foresr in black- Dirty Filthy mud
Lady Margeret- The capes of good hope
Mr Genie man- Society's Children
Alright mama- The Cousins