Marilyn Powell

Marilyn Powell, born in Kennington, London, took to the stage at the age of three singing at concerts given by her local dancing school. In the Sixties, at the age of 15, she started her recording career making 9 singles for Philips/Fontana and CBS Records and appearing on many TV and radio shows including "Thank your Lucky Stars" and "The Simon Dee Show". She has her place in history for being the first female singer to cover a Beatles track with her first single, "All my Loving". Later Marilyn went on to record 2 albums for the U.S.A. One for United Artists in Los Angeles and one for Manhattan Records in New York.
Here is "All my Loving" Fontana Record Label TF 448 From 1964. Enjoy.

Sounds Incorporated

Sounds Incorporated, first recorded as Sounds Inc., was a British instrumental pop group which recorded extensively in the 1960s.
Sounds Incorporated formed in early 1961, in Dartford, Kent, and gained a reputation in nearby South London for the fullness of their saxophone-led instrumental sound. In August 1961, after Gene Vincent's band, The Blue Caps, had been denied permission to work in the UK, Sounds Incorporated won the opportunity to back Vincent on his British tour and on recordings in London. This led to further opportunities to back other visiting American artists, including Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Brenda Lee and Sam Cooke.

Their only record with Parlophone, "Mogambo", failed to achieve significant sales. The band then moved to Decca, where they released a trio of singles, the last of which was recorded with producer Joe Meek, again with little success. However, while performing in Hamburg in Germany, they met and befriended the Beatles and in 1963 signed to Brian Epstein's management company, NEMS. In the same year, they appeared as musical guests in the film Live It Up!

The band's first two singles on new label Columbia, "The Spartans" and "Spanish Harlem", made the UK Singles Chart in 1964. These were the only successes that Sounds Incorporated enjoyed in their home country. That same year they became Cilla Black's backing band, and released their first album called Sounds Incorporated. It contained many stage favourites, but not their recent chart successes. The group's third Columbia single, a version of the "William Tell Overture", was included and turned out to be their greatest success in Australia, where it reached number 2.

The group toured the world as the Beatles' opening act, including the August 1965 concert at New York City's Shea Stadium. Sounds Incorporated's continuing popularity ensured a stream of work, including backing duties at the televised NME awards. In December 1964, NME reported that Sounds Incorporated would appear at the Hammersmith Odeon at the "Another Beatles Christmas Show".

Unusual musical instruments were a feature. The battery-operated Clavioline keyboard (as used by the Tornados) is heard on "Keep Movin'", but is also heard prominently on their previous disc before Meek, "Sounds Like Locomotion". Al Holmes played the lead melody on flute throughout "The Spartans".

1966 was the first year the group released no singles in their home country, although they recorded a second album, again simply titled Sounds Incorporated. This was released on EMI's fledgling Studio 2 label, primarily to show off EMI's mid-1960s advances and developments in stereo recording techniques. Any singles taken off the LP for foreign markets were in that format's standard mono, however, making these unusual items for UK collectors of the group.

By 1967 the band's name had been truncated to "Sounds Inc". The Beatles invited Cameron, Holmes and West to be the saxophone section on their track "Good Morning Good Morning", from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. After this guest appearance, Sounds Inc left EMI and released a solitary single on the Polydor label. Titled "How Do You Feel", it was their first single release to feature vocals.

The group began to disintegrate in the late 1960s. Drummer Tony Newman left to work as a session musician and at one stage joined the Jeff Beck Group. He later joined Reid Hudson and James Black to form British/Canadian power trio May Blitz.

For the remaining members of Sounds Inc, Cameron's departure for a career in A&R left a gap, which was filled by Terry Fogg (percussionist and drummer) and Trevor White, the band's first true vocalist. The group soldiered on, moving to and mainly playing in Australia for their final years together. Their act became more middle-of-the-road, exemplified in their final LP, which was released in many territories but not the UK, containing more vocals than instrumentals. Sounds Inc finally broke up in 1971.
Here is "William Tell" Columbia Record Label DB 7404 1964 Enjoy.

The Bystanders

One of the few Welsh bands to release records on a fairly regular basis in the mid to late '60s, the Bystanders are chiefly notable not for their own derivative music, but because they evolved into the Welsh progressive rock group Man. As the Bystanders, they managed to release eight singles in the U.K. between 1965 and 1968, competently plugging into Merseybeat, blue-eyed soul, and harmony pop trends without developing any clear vision of their own or landing any superb material. Slight psychedelic hues colored some of their final tracks, which pointed the way into more original and progressive directions that the group would embrace when it mutated into Man.

The Bystanders formed long before the dawn of Man in the South Wales town of Merthyr Tydfil in 1962. They made one Merseybeat-Four Seasons hybrid single for the independent Pylot label (in fact, it was the only record the company ever released) in 1965 before picking up a new manager, George Cooper, who had handled major British pre-Beatles rock singers Joe Brown and Marty Wilde. In 1966 they got a contract with Pye, who put out seven singles by the group over the next couple of years without breaking them as a significant seller.

Perhaps, surprisingly given their later excursions in Man, the Bystanders were very much a pop group, giving the impression of sailing whichever way the wind was blowing, and writing little of their own material. Their early singles showed the pronounced influence of American harmony groups with high vocal lines, such as the Four Seasons, Beach Boys, and lesser known pop acts like the Happenings. In 1967 and 1968 they moved into somewhat more sophisticated, but still poppy, material that recalled the fluff of late '60s California sunshine pop. The group, which had not recorded any of their own compositions prior to 1968 (except on their debut single), finally did write their two final B-sides, which staked out a psychedelic pop direction. With the departure of singer Vic Oakley and the addition of guitarists Deke Leonard and Martin Ace (both from the Dream) in the late '60s, the Bystanders changed their name to Man and embarked on a different course.
Here is ""When Jesamine Goes", written by their manager Ronnie Scott and Marty Wilde under the pseudonyms of Frere Manston and Jack Gellar, which was later covered by The Casuals as "Jesamine" and got to No. 2 in the UK Chart. They also recorded sessions of cover versions for the BBC as rules restricting needle time required "live" performances between the records during the 1960s; becoming regulars on the Jimmy Young Show, the David Symonds Show and others. Enjoy.

The Peasants

Here's a MONSTER slice of MOD FREAKBEAT!!! It's a storming double-sider from THE PEASANTS!!!! All I could find out about the group was that the lads came from High Wycombe, to the West of London. "Got Some Loving For You Baby" is a superb shaker, in the mould similar to that of The Thyrds' "Hide 'N' Seek". The flipside, "Lets Get Together" is a driving tour-de-force and borrows heavily (in terms of its riff) from tunes such as Roscoe Gordon's "Just A Little Bit" and Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me". There's absolutely NO doubt that this is a fantastic record and its no surprise why its so heavily sought-after.
The Peasants  (High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire UK)
Record: Got Some Lovin' For You Baby / Let's Get Together  (7”)
Label: Columbia ‎(DB 7642)
Date: July 1965
Written by: Robin Bransbury, Peter Robinson, Douglas Ives, Anthony Merrell.
Here is "Got Some Lovin For You Baby" Enjoy.

The Bootles

She loves you, instead!
The Bootles were another bandwagon response to the Beatles' invasion of the States. Issued on the Crescendo label before the Seeds and Jazz artists gave them cred, it's generally thought to be studio cats and kitties with four models vamping for the 45 sleeve. The mystery vocalists have that unmistakeable New York swagger and tough sass, and you can virtually hear the transition from the Ronettes to the Shangri-La's around the corner. Though this is a studio knock-off, it has a greatness that Beat and Garage fans revere. But there was plenty of the real thing to come...

The Beatles' electric energy catalyzed their generation into making rock'n'roll. The myriad of boys get their due, but the girls deserve their spotlight as well. This video highlights some of the most revered girl Beat bands from around the world. So let's hear it for:
The Liverbirds, who also went from Liverpool to Hamburg's Star Club; Les Beatlettes, who later morphed into Les Guerrieres; Goldie and the Gingerbreads, the first all-girl rock band signed to a major contract; The Girls, who were the Sandoval Sisters (a.k.a., the Moon Maids); 'The Sweetles' from Germany; chameleonic Jackie DeShannon, whose songwriting and guitar chops earned her a tour with the Beatles and hits for the Searchers; The Daughters of Eve; The What Four; The (original) Pandoras, spiritual big sisters of Paula's great 80's group of the same name; Sally & the Alley Cats; Sanjalice from Yugoslavia, in the latter 60's; the absolutely essential Luv'd Ones, whom leader Char Vinnedge steared from Merseybeat and Surf into Garage and gloriously  fuzzy Psyche; and the Pleasure Seekers, starring 16-year-old Suzi Quatro and her sisters, Pattie and Arlene.         

To all of these pioneers and their kindred sisters,  "we love you, yeah yeah yeah!" (Credit To Funk-n-Roll)

Here is "I'll let you hold my hand" Vocalion Pop Label V-N 9216 From 1964 Enjoy.

John Cleese

John Marwood Cleese (born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, voice actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he co-founded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus. Along with his Python co-stars Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman, Cleese starred in four Monty Python films: And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.

In the mid-1970s, Cleese and his first wife, Connie Booth, co-wrote the sitcom Fawlty Towers, and starred in it, alongside Prunella Scales and Andrew Sachs. The series resulted in Cleese receiving the 1980 BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance, and additionally it topped the British Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. In the 80's and 90's, Cleese co-starred with Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis, and former Python colleague Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures, both of which he also wrote. He also starred in Clockwise and has appeared in many other films, including two James Bond films (as R and Q), two Harry Potter films (as Nearly Headless Nick), and three Shrek films.

With Yes Minister writer Antony Jay, he co-founded Video Arts, a production company making entertaining training films. In 1976, Cleese co-founded The Secret Policeman's Ball benefit shows to raise funds for the human rights organisation Amnesty International. In 1996, he was offered a knighthood, and later a life peerage, both of which he declined.
Here is " The Ferret Song" Enjoy.