Their stage act was theatrical including wearing full pirate costumes (complete with Kidd wearing an eye-patch and wielding a cutlass) which echoed some of their Rock 'n' Roll contemporaries like Screaming Lord Sutch & the Savages and Nero and the Gladiators. In a way, their approach anticipated and possibly inspired theatrical rockers of the 1970s such as Alice Cooper and David Bowie plus others.
The original group came under the management of Guy Robinson and was signed to HMV in 1959 under the auspices of producer Walter J. Ridley. Their first single was the raw "Please Don't Touch", penned by Kidd and attributed to "Heath/Robinson" (Heath was Kidd's real name). This became a minor hit reaching number 25 on the UK singles charts in 1959. Although only a minor hit the song has been covered many times since, most successfully by the team of Motörhead and Girlschool known as Headgirl.
After this initial success the band was reorganised to streamline the sound and visual appeal. Kidd naturally took centre-stage at the front. Drummer Clem Cattini (drums) sat directly behind. Flanking Kidd on either side would be Alan Caddy (guitar) and Brian Gregg (bass). Kidd would high-kick in time to the beat. In an attempt to re-create the feel of his recordings Kidd employed an echo unit to process his vocals, one of the first instances of a UK rock act attempting this on stage.
When the group appeared on Saturday Club between 1959 and 1961 Mike West and Tom Brown shared the vocals with Kidd.
Kidd and the Pirates' finest moment was the powerful song "Shakin' All Over", which features memorable opening guitars and solo from Joe Moretti, and reached number one in the UK singles charts in 1960. The song was recorded and released in 1961 by Vince Taylor And His Play-Boys. The song and the group's proto-power trio line-up both made a strong impression on the Who, who would cover it in their 1970 album Live at Leeds, whose CD liner notes proclaim the original to be the UK's best pre-Beatles rock single. Canada's The Guess Who reached #1 with a cover version in early 1965. It was covered again in 1984 by the California band "Pegasus" with Tedd Armstrong and Steve Caton on their "Pegasus Takes Flight" EP. Music critics Roy Carr and Tony Tyler would later write that "Shakin' All Over" was the second-ever genuine British rock classic, following Cliff Richard's "Move It".
According to Keith Hunt in his biography of the band, "Shakin' All Over - The Life And Times Of Johnny Kidd", HMV offered the band the chance to write their next B-side, though the night before the session they still had nothing. A song was written in a hurry while sat in the basement of Chas McDevitt's Freight Train coffee Bar, and recorded the following day in one take, plus minor overdubs (mainly Joe Moretti). On hearing the finished song, the intended A-side (a revival of the oldie, "Yes Sir, That's My Baby") was instead relegated to the flip. The band's mix was repeated on the atmospheric "Restless" which also featured Moretti, also making the charts in the wake of "Shakin' All Over".
Despite some interesting cuts the hits tailed away. The swansong recording of this line-up in 1961, "Please Don't Bring Me Down" missed the charts entirely. However, it featured a B-side which turned out to be a minor UK rock 'n' roll classic. "So What" featured a racy piano solo from Morgan "Thunderclap" Jones. When the single failed to chart, the Pirates - Clem Cattini, Alan Caddy and Brian Gregg - decided to jump ship and joined Colin Hicks as his "Cabinboys" on a 6-week tour to Europe. After this liaison ended, Cattini and Caddy joined a Joe Meek backing band who evolved into the Tornados. (Brian Gregg joined them once bassist Heinz Burt quit for a solo career.) Kidd meanwhile cut a "solo" single backed by a bigger band sound. "Hurry on Back to Love" was more bluesy than anything Kidd had previously attempted and indicated a possible new musical path.
A new Pirate trio was recruited. Johnny Spence (bass), Frank Farley (drums) and Johnny Patto (lead guitar), had recently backed Cuddly Dudley as "The Redcaps". Patto soon left and was replaced by Mick Green (lead guitar), who had also backed Dudley. The new line-up's first single with Kidd, "A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues" (coupled with "I Can Tell") managed to break Kidd's dry spell, entering the lower reaches of the chart toward the end of 1962.
Over time, Kidd developed a visual show. The group would deck out in 19th century pirate costume in front of a huge backcloth of a pirate galleon, Kidd toying with a cutlass to great effect. Many a wooden stage received scarring from this prop until insurance cover could not be obtained for it. The group's German tours tightened their sound, as it did with many Liverpool combos who also made the trip. A projected single in keeping with the new sound, "Some Other Guy" was left unreleased in early 1963 allowing The Big Three to score their first chart entry. The explosive rise of the 'beat groups' in 1963 outshone the slow-burning R&B scene; without a single release Kidd and his Pirates were losing valuable momentum on the chart front.
By now, the band were managed by Gordon Mills who also wrote songs. It was no surprise then, that Kidd opted for the safety of Merseybeat with Mills' "I'll Never Get Over You", which reached number 4 on the UK chart in the summer of 1963. The hit put Kidd and the Pirates firmly on the beat music scene. The follow-up, "Hungry for Love", was also written by Mills and broke into the top twenty during the autumn. This recording session saw the Pirates record their own single. Both sides, "My Babe" and "I Can Tell" were recorded in one take each, a sign of this Pirates line-up's power, ability and confidence. According to Mick Green, this single was issued to test the waters whether Kidd and the Pirates could be split into two successful acts.; however the single wasn't a hit which put a stop to any further experiments on this front.
In 1964, the Pirates added organist Vic Cooper to their line-up. The hits again tailed away and the long-awaited debut album, featuring the expanded line-up with Vic Cooper on organ/piano duties, was never mastered for release. One step behind the Beatles and losing ground, Kidd abandoned dual-tracking his powerful voice and switching back to R&B where his vocal strengths lay. After 1964's "Always And Ever", Mick Green left during the summer season at Blackpool and joined Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. The Tornadoes were on the same bill in Blackpool, so their guitarist Stuart Taylor filled in until Kidd found John Weider, a fan of Green's, to come aboard.
Eventually the group parted company with Kidd. Johnny Spence, Frank Farley and guitarist Jon Morshead (who replaced Weider) continued as The Pirates (keeping the name with Kidd's blessing) and recorded one single, "Shades of Blue" for Polydor before a lack of success calling it a day in mid-1966. Kidd, meanwhile, kept recording and gigging with an anonymous group of backing musicians. His penultimate single "It's Got To Be You", and an unreleased version of Otis Redding's "I Can't Turn You Loose", showed that a mix of R&B and soul may have been where his future musical path lay.
In 1966, one of the anonymous musicians, organist Ray Soper contacted some mates. Mick Stewart (lead guitar), Nick Simper (bass) and Roger Truth (drums) came together with Soper and presented themselves to Kidd as his new Pirates. With his newly-christened "New Pirates" (necessarily distinguishing them from the other "Pirates"), a revitalised Kidd worked towards a comeback to the point he spoke about the possibility of recording a new album. On returning from a cancelled gig at the Imperial in Bolton, he was killed in a car accident near Bury, Lancashire, on 7 October 1966, with companion Nick Simper being injured.
The group had a new single. "Send For That Girl", (coupled with a version of the Lee Hazlewood-written "The Fool"), which was released posthumously in November but failed to chart. This line-up of the Pirates (with John Kerrison replacing Truth at late notice) carried on in tribute once Simper had recovered, though there were no further recordings. As the pop scene changed and bookings became harder to obtain, the group split in May 1967.
Here is "You Got What it Takes" (Gordy-Davies-Gordy) issued Feb 1960 on HMV POP 698 with "Longing Lips" Enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment