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Post by Paul Watkins on Sept 9, 2016 14:12:55 GMT
Anyone know which show this is from?
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Post by paul carney on Sept 9, 2016 15:02:28 GMT
Can't place the show but clearly early 1970s. The Trems were fortunate that all four members of the band could carry a tune. Dave Munden does a pretty good job on this vocal. Also in other trivia the three surviving members of the band (Alan Blakely died in 1996) are apparently still married to the women they married in the 1960s. Surely some sort of record for the music industry?
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Kev Hunter
Member
The only difference between a rut and a groove is the depth
Posts: 608
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Post by Kev Hunter on Sept 9, 2016 15:25:41 GMT
Here's another performance from the same show (whichever it was)!
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Post by williammcgregor on Sept 9, 2016 19:33:12 GMT
Anyone know which show this is from? It's from the Basil Brush Show on the 12th March 1970.
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Post by paul carney on Sept 9, 2016 22:58:46 GMT
Well done William. BOOM! BOOM!
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Post by williammcgregor on Sept 10, 2016 3:56:08 GMT
Nice one Paul! I've actually got both these performances on a DVD somewhere, but my filing system has let me down and I can't find the it just now. But I will.
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Post by Paul Watkins on Sept 10, 2016 9:39:23 GMT
Anyone know which show this is from? It's from the Basil Brush Show on the 12th March 1970. Thought it was, just that the lack of audience applause and the fact there were 2 performances, i wasn't sure.
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Post by paul carney on Sept 10, 2016 10:24:54 GMT
These performances are quite important in the history of the Tremeloes. They were offered Yellow River as a single but after recording it turned it down as they were trying to move away from their good time pop image. The song was then released by Christie and went on to be a world wide hit that has been covered by numerous artists. They wanted to concentrate on songs written in house by Alan Blakely and Chip Hawks,hence the release of By The Way ,which flopped. They continued to release Blakely/Hawks singles for some years with little success.
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Post by simonkay on Sept 10, 2016 20:53:18 GMT
Hi all I have just logged on to find this new thread I have been Jeff Christie's drummer in Christie since 1990 I know from a conversation with the late Alan Blakely at a tv show for ZDF in 1992 that the Trems all liked Yellow River and had recorded it but it was Me and my life that won the day Alan told me that the Trems suggested that Jeff put his lead vocals on their backtrack and release it himself The rest was history but as a footnote we as Christie did an oldie show in Neisky in Germany and Chip Hawkes got up with us and played bass when we did Yellow River....a great memory from 1998
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Post by Stephen John Connett on Sept 11, 2016 8:19:16 GMT
is this the group that were signed instead of The Beatles in the infamous "Guitar groups are on the way out" Decca Records meeting?
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Post by simonkay on Sept 11, 2016 11:37:47 GMT
Hi Stephen The major Decca mistake was back in 1962... they made up for it by signing the Stones ..Christie were signed in 1969.....The dj demo disc with the big red A side came out in April 1970...it still plays
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Post by Ray Langstone (was saintsray) on Sept 11, 2016 12:14:36 GMT
My mate Chesney used to play his Dad's song live in the early days when he was doing piano gigs and i used to occasionally do a song with him. The reason that By the Way was not a bigger hit was because there was a pressing plant strike. It's well known that the Trems were offered Yellow River but turned it down.
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Post by williammcgregor on Sept 11, 2016 12:48:03 GMT
These performances are quite important in the history of the Tremeloes. They were offered Yellow River as a single but after recording it turned it down as they were trying to move away from their good time pop image. The song was then released by Christie and went on to be a world wide hit that has been covered by numerous artists. They wanted to concentrate on songs written in house by Alan Blakely and Chip Hawks,hence the release of By The Way ,which flopped. They continued to release Blakely/Hawks singles for some years with little success. In the NME dated the 3rd Jan 1970 Alan Blakley of The Tremeloes was asked this question...Did The Tremeloes still intend to release "Yellow River" as the follow-up to "Call Me Number One" Alan Blakley replied in the affirmative... "A fellow played us about a hundred and fifty songs when we went to Blackburn and this was among them," he went on. "That was ages ago and it was meant as an LP track, like 'Number One' but we decided it was too good for that. It's not a clever number, it's just such a flipping good one we don't want to miss out on it."
Fast forward to the NME dated 23rd May 1970 this is part of an interview with the group Christie at number 4 in the UK charts with "Yellow River"... Mike Blakley (The brother of Alan from the Tremeloes) said "We even had to take the day off work to record "Yellow River"...
before the rather subdued Vic Elmes revealed, "In fact we only gave up our day jobs last week."...
The NME interviewer (who knew that The Tremeloes had seriously considered recording "Yellow River") then asked... So what happened?...
Jeff Christie replied "I wrote 'Yellow River' 18 months ago and I sent it down to their office with some other material, where it just laid around for ages." Apparently the Trems liked it and were going into the studio to record it. That was before they had such a monster hit with their first self-penned 'A' side 'Call Me Number One.' After that they dropped it in favour of more of their own material.
Brain Longley our publicist had always liked 'Yellow River' and was certain that it would be a hit for someone. Well he eventually persuaded me to travel down from Leeds, and after an all-night discussion we decided to get hold of Mike and Vic, whom I already knew, to form a group and record the song."
Mike interjected "Though the Trems did'nt record 'Yellow River' they still have been most eager to help. Sometimes it can be a great help having a brother in a top group." he grinned.
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Post by Richard Marple on Sept 11, 2016 18:12:52 GMT
My mate Chesney used to play his Dad's song live in the early days when he was doing piano gigs and i used to occasionally do a song with him. The reason that By the Way was not a bigger hit was because there was a pressing plant strike. It's well known that the Trems were offered Yellow River but turned it down. I presume that's the "One & Only" Chesney Hawkes?! A few songs that were tipped to be a hit have been affected by pressing plant strikes, was Kirsty MacColl's original of They Don't Know is a good example.
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Post by Patrick Coles on Sept 12, 2016 13:24:45 GMT
Re Decca signing The Tremeloes and not The Beatles
Mike Smith had wanted to sign BOTH Bands but was told he could only take one of them - The Trems were a more local group from Dagenham where as The Beatles were from distant Liverpool (back in those pre-motorway days of 1962)
- I think it was Smith's boss at Decca who infamously said 'groups of guitars are on the way out...'
also The Beatles then had Pete Best on drums and were mega nervous at their audition (only George sounded on top of his game) where as The Tremeloes sounded far more confident at their audition and featured keyboards and sax besides guitars & drums in their instrumentation
Obviously nobody back then knew how The Beatles would quickly progress (almost every record company turned them down before George Martin heard their next demos)
The Tremeloes had UK chart hits from 1963 to 1970 with a couple of number one hits and a string of well remembered songs so they were a classic pop group and quite a strong rock band later
you can understand Mike Smith's position at the time, and if he'd been allowed he would have signed both groups
- George Harrison later advised him and Decca to take a look at The Rolling Stones...
Re Jeff Christie's song 'Yellow River' - despite what that interview says The Tremeloes actually DID record 'Yellow River' in two versions (never believe NME articles as being 100% fact)
- they cut both an English and Spanish version of 'Yellow River' / 'No Comprende' which can be found on CD compilations 'Silence is Golden - The Very Best of.....' and 'Good Day Sunshine; Singles A's & B's' and they provided the backing for Jeff Christie's hit version as Christie overdubbed his lead vocal in place of Dave Munden's original vocal (I have both Christie and The Tremeloes versions, the backing is identical).
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