The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Kinks and The Animals are all bands synonymous with the Swinging Sixties.
But there’s one little-known band that deserves recognition in this arena of pop and rock ‘n’ roll goliaths – The Pretty Things.
The five-strong band were at the forefront of turning millions of British teenagers onto rhythm and blues.
Rather than merely being content as being one of the bands at the centre of a musical revolution, in 1968 The Pretty Things also released what is largely considered to be the first rock opera/concept album, SF Sorrow.
Although SF Sorrow was largely ignored upon release, the album has since gained cult status as is regarded by some as one of the most important albums of all time.
And half a century later The Pretty Things are celebrating their 50th anniversary by playing a series of live dates around Europe.
This is something that must have seemed unimaginable in 1962 when Dick Taylor gave up the bass player role in the unsigned Rolling Stones in order to study at London’s Central School of Art.
But in a curious twist of fate Taylor met singer Phil May while studying and together they formed The Pretty Things.
After a short period playing the London rhythm and blues circuit, they built up a strong live following.
Their reputation as an exhilarating live act grew far and wide and, for a year or two at least, they were regarding as being as exciting as The Rolling Stones and The Who onstage.
In 1964, The Pretty Things signed to Fontana Records and quickly released their first single Rosalyn.
The track landed just outside the UK top 40 but was hugely popular among young fans, one of whom was a young mod by the name of David Jones who eventually became David Bowie and covered Rosalyn on his 1973 Pin Ups album.
Four months later the band’s breakthrough came when Don’t Bring Me Down hit number 10 in the UK charts and a wave of publicity.
The Pretty Things became one of the most controversial bands in the country with singer Phil May claiming to have the longest hair in Britain at a time when long hair was a topic for national debate.
Drummer Viv Prince boasted bizarre on-stage antics such as setting fire to curtains and chopping up the stage with an axe while the band was still playing!
Following another top 20 hit with Honey I Need, and a successful eponymously-titled debut LP, The Pretty Things lost their momentum rather quickly.
Each single and album provided diminishing returns and aside from Midnight To Six and LSD, which both became underground classics, The Pretty Things were more or less dismissed by the end of 1966.
After they split from Fontana Records in 1967, they signed with EMI Records and hooked up with Record Producer Norman Smith who had previously worked with The Beatles and had also produced Pink Floyd’s debut album, Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.
Smith was creative, experienced and interested in musical experimentation and with this he managed to give The Pretty Things a new lease of life.
The band began recording SF Sorrow with Norman Smith in the autumn of 1967 taking almost a year to put the finishing touches to it.
The album was to become The Pretty Things masterpiece – it also became the first album to tell a story from beginning to end, giving birth to both the concept album and rock opera.
Disappointingly for the band however a lack of investment and promotion from EMI records meant that the album barely registered on the public’s radar and sank without a trace.
The following year, disillusioned with SF Sorrow’s failure, Dick Taylor left the band. The Pretty Things continued to record and released a number of albums through the early 1970s until Phil May quit the group in 1976.
Over the next 20 years the mod revival, the second summer of love and Britpop, the band’s early singles and SF Sorrow in particular, were rediscovered by many with Kasabian and Noel Gallagher both citing the band as a major influence.
To celebrate their 50th anniversary, The Pretty Things will be playing material from throughout their career at Band On The Wall, Manchester on September 13.
Picture courtesy of Phillipe Brizard, with thanks.
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