Fly Records News March 2008 Full Articles
FLY RECORDS (a division of ONWARD MUSIC Ltd)
Our 40th Anniversary re-issue series, released in association with SALVO, continues with a remastered & expanded edition of the label’s debut album release from 1970, The Move’s ‘Looking On’. Hot on the heels of the runaway success of the label’s debut single, T Rex’s ‘Ride A White Swan’ (UK No 2, Oct 1970) , The Move’s album-promoting single ‘When Alice Comes Back To The Farm’ met with rave reviews. NME gave it their key single of the week slot, heralding “.. it’s extremely commercial with a catchy melody line for the youngsters to join in”, an instruction the said youngsters chose to rebel against. In the six months from their Top Ten hit ‘Blackberry Way’, Roy Wood & Bev Bevan recruited Jeff Lynne from his band The Idle Race with the sole intention of forming the Electric Light Orchestra to pioneer a new sound. Lynne’s appearance on The Move’s album had been intended to draw a line under the group’s production contract with Essex music’s Straight Ahead Productions company. The Move’s previous albums (‘Move’ & ‘Shazam’) had been released by EMI’s imprint Regal Zonophone under a licensing deal with Essex, but when Essex decided to launch there own label, Fly Records, it became the de facto home for what was intended to be the group’s swansong album. Ironically, as both the band and label seemed to view this as an issue of fulfilling their contractual obligation, the freedom this lack of intervention or expectancy from the label manifested itself in a carefree crucible of craftsmanship that allowed Wood & Lynne the space to organically find a funnel that combined their creative paths. To punctuate the matter, EMI, somewhat put out by the instant success of the Fly label with T Rex (though they were the manufacturers and distributor for Fly product), signed The Move with a reported six figure advance even before the group had delivered the finished album to the label. Unexpectedly, ‘Looking On’ suddenly became their penultimate album.
Without a hit single to ignite the album’s release, and with Fly aware the band had already signed a deal with EMI, ‘Looking On’ soon languished in the canon of lost gems.
Until now.
With the inclusion of their Top 10 hit ‘Brontosaurus’, and 8 bonus tracks, ‘Looking On’ is re-issued in deluxe packaging next month.Hear music from this album by clicking here.
FLY’s HIDDEN GEM OF THE MONTH : BEVERLEY KUTNER (nee MARTYN) says ‘Happy New Year’ to RANDY NEWMAN !
With the strong media focus on the Sixties, this month we focus on a very special recording session that took place on the 23rd March 1966. It spawned a cover of a Randy Newman song ‘Happy New Year’ which is released this month on an ACE Records 26-track compilation of rare Newman songs performed by various artists entitled ‘On Vine Street’ . Hit producer Denny Cordell (Moody Blues ‘Go Now’ UK No1 1965; Georgie Fame ‘Getaway’ UK No 1 1966) set up a production company with David Platz at Essex Music, called NEW BREED. Arranging a licensing deal for their productions with DECCA’s newest ‘hip’ imprint DERAM – in an attempt to mirror the success of EMI’s Parlophone imprint – New Breed’s first signing was a key figure in the burgeoning Folk scene in London, Beverley Kutner. Her partner at the time was an American singer/songwriter struggling to find a foothold in the music world. Paul Simon. On the 23rd March 1966, Denny assembled a band that included Jimmy Page (guitar), John Paul Jones (bass) & Nicky Hopkins (piano).
It’s a wonderful slice of joyous mid-Sixties celebration, spotlighting Cordell’s trademark electrifying, spirited production.
Amazingly, it bombed on release. Platz & Cordell had to wait to sign The Move before they could assault the charts (‘Night Of Fear’ No 2 1967).
Last year the original session multi track tapes for 'Happy New Year' were relocated, and a new stereo mix was made by Rob Keyloch who skilfully kept the vibe of Denny Cordell’s original mono mix.
Beverley released only one more single from her New Breed period, but the tapes recovered reveal almost an album’s worth of recordings, including titles such as ‘Get To The One I Want To’, ‘Tomorrow Time’, ‘Where The Good Times Are’ & ‘Sweet Honesty’, all of which would be re-recorded a few years later when producer Joe Boyd put together his first album with the newly married John & Beverley Martyn, the classic ‘Stormbringer’ album.
Happy New Year edit by Beverley Kutner