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Post by johnstewart on Jul 29, 2014 19:50:44 GMT
Seem to recall a number of appearances on ITV where the Blood sweat and tears song SPINNING WHEEL was covered in a cabaret style. This was round 1969-70 and may have included Anita Harris on GOLDEN SHOT? Any suggestions?
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Post by robchapman on Jul 30, 2014 9:24:10 GMT
Can't really help with the enquiry John, but I will just say that Spinning Wheel was widely covered and as anyone who collects easy listening records will know it was compulsory for virtually every compilation issued between 1969 and 1972 to contain a version (along with MacArthur Park.)
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Post by Jeff Leach on Jul 30, 2014 9:26:02 GMT
Seem to recall a number of appearances on ITV where the Blood sweat and tears song SPINNING WHEEL was covered in a cabaret style. This was round 1969-70 and may have included Anita Harris on GOLDEN SHOT? Any suggestions? The Peddlers certainly did a great version |
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Post by Tony Walshaw on Aug 3, 2014 9:58:27 GMT
Yes, Shirley Bassey as well, on the 'Something' album, on which there were many rousing versions of contemporary songs. Winifred Atwell did an astonishing rendition of 'Spinning Wheel' on Wheeltappers & Shunters Club.  |
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Post by robchapman on Aug 3, 2014 11:37:32 GMT
Winifred Atwell did an astonishing rendition of 'Spinning Wheel' on Wheeltappers & Shunters Club. now, that I want to see! |
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Post by Alan Turrell on Aug 3, 2014 15:06:24 GMT
Winifred Atwell did an astonishing rendition of 'Spinning Wheel' on Wheeltappers & Shunters Club. now, that I want to see! And see it you shall. www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4AhkweJIG0 |
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Post by Stephen Doran on Aug 4, 2014 6:33:50 GMT
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Post by Tony Walshaw on Aug 6, 2014 7:35:10 GMT
Thank you for posting the link for the Winifred Atwell performance Alan. That version has to be played loud.  It would have been a cracking chart hit c.1970. WT&SC an interesting show, but the audience often nonchalant about the acts in front of them. |
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Post by robchapman on Aug 6, 2014 8:19:37 GMT
If you didn't have Winnie in vision you'd swear that for the first minute or so it was the Young Holt Trio or Ramsey Lewis. After that it gets a bit rigid but that's Spinning Wheel for you. Wasn't John Lennon a fan of Winifred Atwell or am I thinking of somebody else?
Agree about WT&SC. I used to love watching the reruns on Granada Plus. It was either young cabaret friendly acts on the way up, The Dooleys etc, Mud minus Les Gray as a backing band, or major stars on the way down (Buddy Greco for instance who at one time had been touted as the new Sinatra.)
Kathy Kirby gives an extraordinary performance on one show in full diva mode, ranting about how wronged she's been by the industry and uttering a curse word. Why hasn't there been a bio-pic about her life yet?
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Post by Tony Walshaw on Aug 7, 2014 7:21:18 GMT
Yes, WT&SC tended to have the acts you describe, either on the way up to, or down from, their popularity peak. But either way there was some great performances.
The Three Degrees did such a performance in one edition. This will have been after 'When Will I See You Again', so was quite something to have them on the show. Their easy-listening glamour was popular in the UK with the variety club audience.
Here is a much better quality clip of the Winifred Atwell performance, with introduction from Bernard Manning. She does 'Flight Of The Bumble Bee' and then 'Spinning Wheel'. This leads into the playout with Bernard doing the sing-a-long over Winifred's playing:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbdarK4zc0k
Having seen Bernard live doing his full-on act  , I now prefer to see him in full-flow as a variety compere.
P.S. I believe John Lennon was a Winifred Atwell fan. Kenny Everett's 'Auntie BBC Is The Groove' jingle owes a debt to Winifred as well. |
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Post by Liam Joseph on Aug 7, 2014 9:19:14 GMT
Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman were both big Winifred Atwell fans. Stands to reason as she was a very virtuosic keyboard player!
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Post by robchapman on Aug 7, 2014 16:01:27 GMT
regarding my earlier Kathy Kirby comments I checked out the relevant clip on You Tube www.youtube.com/watch?v=jktA5fxd8cAI was surprised to see it comes with most of the between songs rant excluded (there's an obvious clunky edit at 3.38 after Colin Crompton's comments) Very strange. |
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Post by Tony Walshaw on Aug 9, 2014 7:41:49 GMT
A powerful voice. She is quite under-rated comparatively.
The uploader must be a big fan who didn't want to portray her in a bad light.
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Post by Patrick Coles on Aug 9, 2014 19:45:49 GMT
The Late Kathy Kirby was a surprisingly well established major female artist in the early to mid sixties, her big chart hits included a swinging vocal version of The Shadows earlier chart topper 'Dance On', a beatier take on Doris Day's 'Secret Love', & the driving 'Let Me Go,Lover' while 'You're The One' shows her operatic style voice holding the high note for ages !
Kathy was in her chart and TV heyday right up there alongside the likes of Pet Clark, Alma, Dame Shirl, Cilla, Dusty, Lulu, Marianne Faithful, Billie Davis, & Sandie Shaw etc, as a major 'name' female popular singer & a much loved performer with her own BBC TV show which ran for three series (she sang a Eurovision song entry too in 1965)
- she was vocally totally at home with full concert or TV orchestra, big band, or beat group backing her (Bert Ambrose Orchestra in Kathy's case who mentored her pop & showbiz career) Kathy scoring chart hits & being a regular on 'Stars & Garter' TV show, while her image & look was very close to that of Deborah Harry in Blondie much later - Kathy also sang the theme from BBC's 'Adam Adament Lives' starring Gerald Harper (she COULD have easily sung a James Bond theme song so well in that period too)
Kathy's voice had tremendous range & lung power - her voice was as strong as Shirley Bassey anyday if in a different style (few could match her soaring range or ability to hold a note at ease for so long, certainly none of the later female singers of recent years that are so lauded)
Bert Ambrose death began the end of Kathy's heyday, the hits dried up by 1967 (a EMI Columbia album of hers issued that year is very expensive now)and even her Decca budget LP; 'The World of Kathy Kirby' with her big hits is not that common now, she has a low profile now (sadly) virtually forgotten by many, while singers with less impressive voices get BBC programmes devoted to them (full of the usual typically modern fawning insincere praise !)
Kathy like say Bobbie Gentry in the USA was content to remain 'retired' from showbiz ( Kathy had something of an ignominious fall from grace after Ambrose demise, as her style was very much out of fashion by the later sixties let alone the seventies when figures like gorgeous Clodagh Rogers in very short skirts were entrancing us - sigh !) sadly Kathy's mental health also went downhill too.
Kathy Kirby deserves to be reappraised as the excellent female vocalist of some considerable talent and standing that she was with her recordings for Decca & EMI/Columbia notably over the 1963-67 era.
There are at least a few good CD compilations available.
Re Winnie Atwell - Elton John was also a major fan of hers, paying tribute to her and Reginald Dixon in his latest 'Million Dollar Piano' concert in Las Vegas - nice to see Winnie and Reg getting some belated acknowledgment by the American audience !
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Post by robchapman on Aug 11, 2014 12:57:13 GMT
The uploader must be a big fan who didn't want to portray her in a bad light. yes, this was the conclusion I reached too Tony. I think her legacy and reputation are zealously (over)protected by a die hard group of fans who probably (and mistakingly) think they have her best interests at heart. Regarding Patricks comment below "Kathy's voice had tremendous range & lung power - her voice was as strong as Shirley Bassey anyday if in a different style (few could match her soaring range or ability to hold a note at ease for so long, certainly none of the later female singers of recent years that are so lauded)" just take a look at this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFXf_-raz2Yespecially the notes she holds at 1.50 and 2.20. the latter one she holds for ten seconds. It's from the NME Pollwinners concert and she looks as cool as ****. Its a real shame she couldn't have made that transition into the beat era, she was the equal of lulu, dusty etc. she just lacked the material. |
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It would have been a cracking chart hit c.1970.
, I now prefer to see him in full-flow as a variety compere.