Clough's Classic UK Instrumentals

[royclough]

Whilst there can be no doubt The Shadows reigned supreme in this genre, before The Mop Tops came along record companies were always on the lookout for the next "Shadows", so over the next weeks etc I will post some of my own favourites but feel free of course to join in or comment, always appreciated.

To start here is one of my own Favourites still love it 46 years later. Minor hit made number 33 in UK charts in February 63.

Suffered because it received hardly any airplay, due to BBC still being a bit toffee nosed and there was outcry in some quarters that a bunch of scruffy guitar twanging kids could insult one of the great classical composers.

I prefer this

Ladies and Gentlemen - Saturday Night At The Duckpond

PLAY IT LOUD

[kiramdear]

An unforgettable interpretation. Tell Tchaikovsky the news.

Thanks for sharing, Roy Your resources seem inexhaustible and your choices are always top drawer.

[hamilton_square]

Roy, many thanks for putting up the topic because the first instrumental track that came into my mind was the Theme from Peter Gunn. Though to be fair Duane Eddy wasn’t a UK artist but nevertheless, I did a search to see if it had been covered by any UK groups and what I found on YouTube was a performance that took me back years.

At the time, Liverpool’s answer to the Shadows and Hank Marvin was a group called the Remo Four and one Colin Manley. George Harrison is on record as saying that Colin Manley was arguably the finest guitarist ever to come out of Liverpool.

Now remember this is 1996 and Jimi Hendrix has just burst onto the UK scene from apparently nowhere. Now watch Colin Manley doing this live version of Peter Gunn. I’m sure that he is doing some kind of Hendrix send up because he was never usually that animated on stage.

[royclough]

Yes typo there, do them all the time 1966.

Remo Four never really made it but Colin joined Swinging Blue Jeans years later, sadly passed away too soon, nice guy., never took himself seriously and always had time to chat to anyone who wanted to.

[hamilton_square]

I seem to recall another little known UK instrumental group who never seemingly got their just desserts during the early 1960s but nevertheless, refused to lie down. Eventually getting something of a second life on the revival circuit in and around London and the Home Counties.

Hailing from Battersea on the south-side of the River Thames to London’s Palace of Westminster, the Barber brothers, Ted and John, morphed The Scorpions out of the remnants of the Penitentiary Skiffle Group in 1959. After trying out various drummers they settled on one Ivor Knight and began to partly model themselves on Buddy Holly and the Crickets. They got picked up by EMI and went into Abbey Road Studios during January, 1961 to cut this British cover version of Ghost Riders in the Sky.



However, The Scorpions' instrumental I always liked was this atmospheric sound track they did for the 1961 film Jungle Street.

[royclough]

Yes one of the best if not the best version of Riders In The Sky.

They only released two singles officialyy but over the year CD-R's have surfaced some put out by the band themselves. They reformed in the 90s essentially to do a one off gig promoted by a specialist instro mag called Pipeline.

They still play from time to time here's a couple of rare track by them.

One of them Jungle Street so grab it while you can Peter.

Scorpions

[kenposurf]

Good one Roy..I like the middle eight and that double picking toward the end also

[brammy]

Rene and his Alligators - Gipsy rock ( instr. guitar) 1963
VERY similar to Sat Night at the Duckpond... both 1963.... hmmmmmm

[brammy]

1964.... compare this to what the Beatles were putting out and it's no wonder nobody (except for perhaps Roy?)
has ever heard this song. I sure hadn't.

[royclough]

Both these acts Telstars and Rene and the Alligtors were Dutch and I believe i am correct in saying these were not released in UK.

We Know that you have posted Kent has me racking my small brain, I seem to know the song by someone else but for life of me can't pin it down.

Thanks for posting

[royclough]

Can't wait till Sunday so here's my second selection for your delight, another variation on a classic released in 1961 second of three singles this did chart for one week at number 48 but at one time banned by BBC because of the spoken intro, can you believe, a Joe Meek production.

Clough's Classic Instro 2 - Nero And The Gladiators

[hamilton_square]

caan you believe, a Joe Meek production.

Yes I can, for it’s very much got the feel of that trademark Joe Meek acoustic echoing sound that makes the lead guitar come across at times like its being played in another room - which it probably was. Because musicians who Joe Meek recorded tell tales about how he would have them set up their instruments in different parts of what passed for his somewhat bizarre and eccentric recording studio divided over three floors above a leather goods shop at 304 Holloway Road, Islington.

While I can’t seem to recall one Nero and his Gladiators, In the Hall of The Mountain King is seared into my long-term memory and is one of the reasons why in my approaching dotage I can still type at a fairly rattling pace.

My story goes that during 1962 / 63 I attended a commercial college and one of the skills I was taught was to touch type and I was taught to do so listening to music. The class sat at desks on which were placed, even for that period, vintage and well used Smith Corona Manual Typewriters. The instructor stood at the head of class and amongst other items on his desk, was an old fashioned portable wind-up gramophone and several large 78 rpm black vinyl records in stiff brown paper covers.

At the start of a typing exercise, students would be given a page of text to type. The instructor would then wind the gramophone up and play us orchestral versions of either In the Hall of The Mountain King or the Blue Danube. We then had to type out the given text in time to the music without having to look at the keyboard too many times. Then when the record finished, the instructor would ask each student to hand what they had typed to a classmate to read aloud the last sentence typed. Being that dependent on the exact duration of the recording and the last sentence typed, the instructor would then be able to calculate and make a written note of the typing speed achieved by each student.

Even after all this time, I am not likely to forget I sat in that class for the best part of two years bashing typewriter keys to the sounds of In the Hall of The Mountain King and the Blue Danube.

[royclough]

Now you can learn all over again!

[royclough]

Hope to stir up some more interest here and so a couple more in the Clough's Classic Instro file.

1964 Les Reed Combo released a great track called Spanish Armada which sank without trace, Reed had at one point be a member of The John Barry Seven but really hit the big time as a songwriter when he co-penned It's Not Unusual for Tom Jones and subsequently Delilah. He went on to write a lot more hit songs for other artists.

What is interesting about this little know release is that in 1999 The Ventures picked up on it and included it on a new album and roped in one Duane Eddy to play lead on it.


Hope you enjoy both versions

Spanish Armada

Les Reed Combo (video wrongly credits this to Les Redd Orchestra- minor point


Ventures/Duane Eddy

[royclough]

Not the interest I hoped here but hopefully can elicit some response to this.

Released in 62 this was the first single by The Fentones who were essentially the backing group for one Shane Fenton who later emerged in 70s as Alvin Stardust but always be Shane to me.

The Fentones released only three singles this made number 41 and follow up made number 48.

I thought they were very underated and difficult to choose which of their hits so to speak I was going to post first.

Cloughs Classic UK Instro

The Fentones - The Mexican

Play It Loud!!