Georgie Flame and the Blue Flames

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 10:49 am

I was on the phone with Time Warner this am, and I happened to get a British lady. I am not sure how we got there, but we started talking about music in the sixties, and she said she followed the Animals (some relation to the drummer, mentioned that her auntie lived next to Roger Daltry so she always got grat seats for Who gigs.

Anyways, I mentioned Long John Baldry, and she told me to check out Georgie Flame and the Blue Flames. I guess this is the right place to bring it up. I have never heard of them...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HkThiQGSYq0

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 11:14 am

That song was a bit of a hit down here, Charly. Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames were a pretty cool and accomplished outfit.

dedicated_follower · Post by **dedicated_follower** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 11:23 am

Charly, I know they are British, but their single of Bonnie & Clyde was out when the film was out with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Did you not hear that? Also he did some duets with Alan Price of the Animals.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 12:03 pm

I have this 45, they were, at least on this song very influenced by Mose Allison. I always loved this song, was a big hit here in old MA.

eatswodo · Post by **eatswodo** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 3:37 pm

What a great memory, Charly - I remember being captivated by 'Yeh Yeh' when I first heard it as a callow youth....

A bit of YouTube spelunking turned up this great duet with Alan Price:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=no2ICU58Cgk&mode=related&search=

And this much more recent performance:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3xbM8AMTHtg&mode=related&search=

I have an album of his just called 'Georgie Fame' from 1974, which i haven't listened to in years - it will go nicely together with a game of pool in the basement this weekend.

mgauction · Post by **mgauction** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:21 pm

I was in London last year and saw an 'old' BBC show from the 70s, I think, called "The Price of Fame" with Georgie Fame & Alan Price. Sorry we never got them here.

longboard_ric · Post by **longboard_ric** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 6:55 pm

Georgie had a few hits in Oz, Yeh Yeh, Bonnie and Clyde and Get Away come to mind. I saw a documentary last year (I think) on early sixties British music. It featured Georgie who had a few stories to tell, and others such as Lulu, Eric Burdon, Chris Farlowe and Tom Jones.

Out of all the performances my lasting memory of the show is Tom Jones singing straight ahead pure blues.......unbelievable.

royclough · Post by **royclough** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 10:24 pm

Blue Flames originally started out as the backing group for Billy Fury an enormously popular artist in UK in 60;s but meant nothing in UK, Billy was really the first act to make it big from Liverpool, before the word Merseybeat had been invented.

Billy and The Blue Flames parted company very early on and they teamed up with Clive Powell (aka Georgie Fame).

As Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames they had 6 top 40 hits in UK including two number ones

They had one top 40 hit in US, Yeh Yeh (number 1 in UK, 21 in US) as a solo artist, GF had a further 6 top 40 hits in UK including a number 1 Ballad of Bonnie of Clyde, this became his biggest and only hit in US making number 7.

He did, as correctly stated, team up with Alan Price and as Mike points they did a TV series called the Price Of Fame, from memory I think they only released one album though and only one single Rosetta made the UK charts.

Fame featured on nearly all Van Morrison solo albums on keyboards.

If the average person in the street, of our age, were asked to name a GF song I think Yeh Yeh would be the only one they would come up with.

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 2:16 am

I think your last paragraph sums it up, Roy. Pity....... he was and is a great talent.

Thanks for the clips, David. The first one is a classic! As were those spunky hot pants....... hubba hubba!!

harvey49 · Post by **harvey49** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 1:25 pm

I love it when someone posts clips from the past, how many great songs there were from that era. I guess we were really spoiled in that time weren't we. I'd completely forgotten those songs, and was great to hear them again.

Thanks for the opportunity to "remember when....."

eatswodo · Post by **eatswodo** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 3:11 pm

I hated 'Rosetta' when I first heard it - pure 'bubblegum', and I, of course, was way too cool to appreciate it.

Now I'm older and (perhaps) wiser, I can appreciate it as a finely crafted pop song, performed by two great vocalists. Great stuff.

winston · Post by **winston** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 6:37 am

Yeh Yeh is a great tune. So Georgie Fame backed up Van Morrison on most of his records? Did he also tour with Van? Because if he did, I don't remember seeing him with Van when my then active production company hired Van Morrison to play in Vancouver Canada back in the early 70's.

royclough · Post by **royclough** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:21 am

Georgie was not with Van in the 70's and in retrospect my statement he played on nearly all Morrison's solo albums should have stated in the 90's, apologies for the misinformation, he was also a member of Morrison's band in the 90's.

einar · Post by **einar** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:45 am

I think Georgie Fame is touring with Bill Wyman now, but I may be wrong..
A funny thing, is that his Bonnie and Clyde hit was NOT in the film! Just as The Byrds' Ballad of Easy Rider wasn't in THAT film either..

royclough · Post by **royclough** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:07 am

Don't believe former ever had anything to do with the film Einar.

Ballad of Easy Rider was in the film played over closing credits but it was a different version to The Byrds version, believe it was just McGuinn but I'll stand corrected.