"Distant smile" b/w "Don't know which way to go" by Cuby + Blizzards, Philips JF 333 902 (1967)

On 26 September 2011 Harry "Cuby" Muskee, singer of Cuby + Blizzards died at the age of 70, bringing to a close the history of the leading Dutch bluesband Cuby + Blizzards (C+B) who had emerged in 1966. This was their 7th single, released when the band had just broken up for the first time. Pianist Herman Brood (who started a successful solo career in 1976) had just been incarcerated for the possession of drugs during a musicians party, a drugs bust affecting four Dutch top groups at the time: apart from C+B The Motions (Gerard Romeijn and Jan Vennik), Q'65 (Jay Baar) and After Tea (Polle Eduard).
Singer Harry Muskee and guitarist Eelco Gelling had a falling out and decided to continue with separate bands. The A-side was a great original that remained in C+B setlist right up to the end. The B-side was covered from Buddy Guy and showcased Eelco Gelling's incredible guitar work, leading to interest from such luminaries as John Mayall and Van Morrison for this virtuoso guitarist. But Eelco tried to form his own group with bass player Jaap van Eik and the pair was coaxed into a reformed C+B when the band was awarded an Edison music award (like a Dutch Grammy) and Herman Brood was released from prison. Thus there are clips of C+B plugging this single with Dick Beekman replacing Hans Waterman (who's on the single) and Jaap van Eik standing in for original Blizzard Willy Middel on bass.
Rating: *****

"Another day another road" b/w "Feeling like a suitcase" by Cuby + Blizzards, Philips JF 333 856 (1967)

Although Herman Brood appeared on the picture sleeve of "Just for fun" this was the first C+B recording he played on. Brood dominated the A-side with his barrelhouse piano. Very short single, both songs are under the 2-minute mark. Eelco Gelling does some great solos on both sides and the B-side wouldn't have been out of place on their 1967 album "Groeten uit Grollo" (yes, at the time still with one "o" at the end).
Rating: ****

"Appleknockers Flophopuse" b/w "Because of illness" by Cuby + Blizzards, Philips JF 336 071 (1969)

The title song of their forthcoming album of the same name was the first single with Helmig van der Vegt on keyboards replacing Herman Brood. To this day guitarist Eelco Gelling claims this was "the beginning of the end" as the band with out of balance with three virtuoso instrumentalists from Blues Dimension in the band.
"Appleknockers Flophouse" is a slowed-down heavy rewrite of the band's first single "Stumble and fall" down to the key (C) and most of the chord changes. The B-side is an instrumental 12-bar, judging from the title recorded because singer Harry Muskee was too ill to record.
The sleeve was a portrait of Helmig pasted onto a publicity picture that originally had Herman Brood sitting down in the bottom. During this period Harry Muskee took to dyeing his hair black.
Rating: ***

"Nostalgic toilet" b/w "116A Queensway" by Cuby + Blizzards, Philips JF 334 650 (1968)

This was a strange single. It crept into the lower regions of the Dutch Top 40, probably on the strength of the B-side. It seems Alexis Korner lived at 116A Queensway in the Bayswater area in London, but when I went there in 1972 he didn't or at least: not anymore. The A-side had a melody I can't even remember up until this day. But Queensway had great guitar work from Eelco Gelling, the main attraction of C+B. Last thing the band recorded with Herman Brood on piano until his return for the Farewell concerts in 1973 and 1974.
Rating: ***

Dead links

Due to the closure of Megaupload all of the links to my singles are dead. I'll be considering how to proceed.

Embassy label - The Typhoons - Beatles hits 1963/1964

This month a series of budget cover versions. These records were released mainly between 1960 and 1966, although in the UK the Top Of The Pops series continued deep into the 1970s.
One of the most collectable labels became Embassy. It was the houselabel of British department store Woolworth and their "beat group" were The Typhoons. In fact, there was not such a group as The Typhoons. Their "lead singer" was a session singer called Ray Pilgrim, a former big band singer, who also recorded under dozens of aliases. For the rest The Typhoons were whoever was available for a session in the Oriole studio in New Bond Street (London).
Oriole was taken over by CBS in 1965 and soon after Woolworth decided to stop selling budget records as the standard of living was rapidly rising and people could afford "the real thing".
Ironically CBS revived the Embassy name for a series of budget albums (by the original artists) most of them reissues of CBS albums.

Rating: ***

Discofoon label - The Bottles - Beatles hits 1963 - 1964

There were many Beatles covering "beatgroups" in the 1960s and one of those had the not so original name The Bottles. Records by The Bottles were released on the Discofoon label from The Netherlands (some also were sold on the Belgium market on the Smash label). Discofoon was the houselabel of department store chain Vroom & Dreesmann (V&D). They leased tracks from both the British Embassy label (CBS) and the Top Six label, which was controlled by Pye records in the UK.



The Bottles recordings came from Top Six, but the UK releases were anonymous, so in England nobody knew about The Bottles. Those tracks were also released by the German Pye distributor Deutsche Vogue in an LP series on the POP label called Original Beat aus England (aus=from). Bottles tracks appeared on those LP's under names like The Beat Kings when they were covering the Beatles, but The High Tops sounded conspicuously similar.
The Bottles were one of the best Beatles cover bands at the time. Their version of I wanna be your man beats both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones versions.

Rating: ****