Posted in Billboard, Bubbling Under The Hot 100, Cashbox, Deram, Gordon Neville, Island, Jess Roden, Little Anthony & The Imperials, MGM, Mike Hurst, NME, Record World, Robert Palmer, The Alan Bown!, Top Of The Pops | No Comments » Tags: Billboard, Bubbling Under The Hot 100, Cashbox, Deram, Gordon Neville, Island, Jess Roden, Little Anthony & The Imperials, MGM, Mike Hurst, NME, Record World, Robert Palmer, The Alan Bown!, Top Of The Pops Can you imagine the unspoken competition? An even odder coincidence being that by then, The Alan Bown!, Robert Palmer and Jess Roden were all signed to Island and no doubt seeing each other regularly in the label’s infamous canteen. This pattern must have gotten pretty boring for Alan Bown himself. Next stop for The Alan Bown! was Island in ’70, where Robert Palmer’s vocals on the upcoming album, LISTEN were re-recorded by new vocalist Gordon Neville once he chose to leave for a solo career. Singer Jess Roden up and left to go solo, with Robert Palmer replacing him, and re-recording many of the vocals on the new album. Treading water through ’68 – ’69, they signed with Deram releasing my other favourite 7″ from them, ‘Gypsy Girl’. Listen: Gypsy Girl / The Alan Bown! AlanBownGypsy.mp3 Therefore with no copies in the stores, their single fell out of the NME chart, where it was #26 at the time of broadcast and that was that. In the UK, the week the band got their Top Of The Pops appearance, their current UK label, MGM, had a pressing plant strike. ‘Toyland’ really did deserve to be heard and become a hit. Not the case with ‘Toyland’ in Billboard’s ‘Bubbling Under The Hot 100′ section, hence I missed out on the single’s activity, not having regular access to Cashbox. Usually when a single would get into the 90′s on Cashbox, Billboard or Record World, it would at least ‘bubble under’ the other two publication’s charts. Until recently, I had no idea it charted on the Cashbox Top 100, peaking at #96. The Alan Bown! recorded a pop-psych classic OUTWARD BOWN, simply titled THE ALAN BOWN! in the US, from which ‘Toyland’ was the second single. Switching labels, name and genre in ’67, and jumping on board the psychedelic train that seemingly overnight had a lot of passengers, they hooked up with the Mike Hurst who did their future productions.
Listen: Toyland / The Alan Bown! AlanBownToyland.mp3 At the time though, ’65 – ’66, they struggled. Previously monikered The Alan Bown Set, and then leaning more toward a sometimes noisy soul sound, the band covered Little Anthony & The Imperials’ ‘Gonna Fix You Good (Every Time You’re Bad)’ and proceeded to get Northern Soul love years later. Need a band name? Take the band’s leader, put ‘The’ in front of his name, then add an exclamation point at the end. Listen: Gonna Fix You Good / The Alan Bown Set AlanBownSetGonna.mp3
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