The Action: Supreme Mods, A History |
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- The Action were one of the most exciting bands to come out of the mid-60s London mod scene. Led by vocalist Reg King, the Action blended the finest R&B covers with their own harmonizing and crunchy instrumentation to create a unique sound that flooded the clubs. Though they couldn't find a wider audience their music, much of which was produced by George Martin, is some of the freshest of that period. Their original compositions are also strong as they veered into psychedelic territory by 1967
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Alan King eventually did find himself in a group with a hit: The group was Ace with the 1975 recording of "How Long."
The song was about a musician moonlighting
I didn't know that! Wow small world. Thanks
I was a "Mod" in Melbourne, Australia, during the early 1980s mod revival (it was actually a really fun, vibrant scene). 'I'll Keep On Holding On' was a guaranteed dancefloor filler EVERY. SINGLE.TIME. My first Action compilation was one called 'The Ultimate Action' with sleeve notes by Paul Weller. I wore the grooves off that thing and could never understand why all their singles weren't big hits (much like the Creation). Reg King's voice was so strong, natural and distinctive. Phil Collins was a superfan of the band back in the day and I can totally understand why. Thanks for this video, I learnt so much that I never knew before. Cheers mate!
Got that LP around the same time in Sydney, the Action were the greatest.
Me too, melb scene was unique, still listen to the Action. Stay tuned for Electric Relfs re union, Scene club cred returns!
Another fellow Aussie here - YES agree with all your thoughts, superb band !
Same time , similar memories, although I'm in England 👍
The Action, The Creation ,Fleaur de lys, The Eyes, St Louis Union ,The Attack soooo many great 60s mod bands
Interviewer to Ringo-" Are you a Mod or a Rocker"? RINGO - " I'm a Mocker"
Matt, I bought the original compilation, "The Ultimate Action", back in the early 80's when it was available as an import, on Edsel/Demon records. It had a mostly black cover design, with just a tiny picture of the band in a circle, but no other group shot elsewhere. Paul Weller wrote the sleeve notes on the back ("...A piece of the Action! YES PLEASE!), dated November 1980. It had 14 tracks. Later on, I bought a CD compilation called "Action Packed" which added 3 extra songs to the original 14 from the Ultimate Action LP.
Rolled Gold fabulous. I drive past Reg Kings house most weekends
Unreal great record. “Brain” is just beyond. Reg’s voice…
I'm loving these deep dives into less well known artists. Can I suggest The Misunderstood, another "why on earth weren't they famous" band, with a checkered history and a fine collection of music.
Thank and I appreciate the request!
Vietnam got in the way, Damn you Uncle Sam
Oh yes. Love the Before the Dream Faded CD.
There is a terrific Ugly Things podcast with Rick Brown of The Misunderstood (on Apple podcasts). Definitely worth a listen.
@@dompicksley3900 Cheers!
I'm an American, but I find these lesser known UK bands (to Americans) far more interesting and their music much more exotic than the Stones, The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, etc who have become over-exposed and over-explained here in the US. I'm really getting music like The Action, The Nice, The Small Faces, The Move, the Creation, Screaming Lord Sutch, and Graham Bond
Wow The Who & Small Faces dominate my collection when it comes to 'mod' youth music but this was a real revelation ... why didn't the 60s rock gods shine their light on this band ... thanks Matt!!
I have the CD box set, which I haven't listen to in quite awhile. I'll have to give it a spin again.
Have you ever thought about doing a video about Spirit? That's a band that's ripe for one of your deep dives.
I will certainly do Spirit - great band!
Good one, Matt. Keep doing these obscure bands.
I was 13, and totally unaware of these guys. In any era there are countless musicians that are fantastic, but virtually unknown.
All the reason to always support Matt and his channel----- learning about bands and topics we may have missed.
The favorite band of a young actor and model called Phil Collins. He raves about them to this day.
I always confuse them with The Attack, another mod outfit with an impressive array of strong material.
I'm a 22 yrs old mod from Belgium and I'll be following this channel from now on!
Welcome! Plenty more to come.
I'm a modette from Germany and have a 45s collection of Mod, Freakbeat, Psych, GaragePunk, R&B, Northern Soul etc. I have the ultimate Action on Vinyl and really really love this band. Your videos are great! Since today i'll be following your channel too.
@@hollybolly7073 Thank you, I appreciate that.
KTF sister
“Why you wanna make me blue “ was a Temptations cover, “In My Lonely Room “ Martha and the Vandellas, and “I’ll Keep Holding On” the Marvelettes. The Rolled Gold stuff sounded excellent!
Every "mod" in the 80's Melbourne scene knew and loved this band.
The 80's, you caught up 20 years later then? 🤣
@@bobburroughs6241 ha! So youre 80 now?😎
@@Colin-o9t I think you misunderstood mate. The Mods were the 60's, it typically took Aussies 20 years to catch up.
@@bobburroughs6241 i know my stuff, mods existed here in the sixties too but you wouldnt know about that would you?
The Mod revival was a big thing in the UK in the late 70s/early 80s thanks to the film Quadrophenia, and bands like the Jam, Secret Affair etc.
I was 10-11 years old and listening to AM radio constantly, but they're the first you've pulled out of the way back machine that I don't remember. I would've appreciated their musicianship...thanks, and keep 'em coming, Matt.
Never knew the connection between Mighty Baby & The Action. I still like Egyptian Tomb. Also, India relates back to The Corporation, which originally brought me to your channel. Groovy 🫡✌️
Yes, I was delighted to find the Action's version of India. Thanks for the support, Bob!
I believe that , to create or write a hit song, its gotta sound like a hit song. They were great musicians but I didn't hear not one, great song. The Beatles The Rolling Stones , Stevie Wonder, Brian Wilson, and Motown etc...made it look so easy.
I always thought In my dream has a really strong hook and could’ve made the charts
There are hundreds of regional songs that didn’t make national hit status due to circumstances such as lack of promotion, payola, release timing, bad luck, management issues, small labels, etc. etc. You ability to hear a hit after it is a hit is called 20/20 hindsight. The “hit” song artists you mentioned are so ingratiated into your thinking that apparently it’s difficult for you to hear or think about potential contenders.
In the summer of '67, I regularly listened to Radio Luxembourg at night high up in a little mountain village in the Swiss Alps. And there they all came, See Emily Play, Flowerman (Syn), Revolution (Tomorrow), Burning Of the Midnight Lamp, Itchicoo Park, On Love (Skip Bifferty), Tallyman (J. Beck), A Bad Night (Cat Stevens). And of course Shadows And Reflections. Simply great songs.
What a great time to listen to the radio!
This group was totally unknown to me and I know a fair amount of littlt known (over here) British bands. On top of that they were interesting . I was surprised to hear them singing a Marvelettes song, but later take off in new directions. Rolled Gold sounded quite good.
It's fantastic, one of the greatest 'lost' LPs ever.
Terrific video Matt on The Action 👌 Another underrated band that should have made it Big, especially having George Martin on their side as a producer.- Reg King had a Great voice and a talented front man that should have had successful solo career, like Rod Stewart or Steve Winwood, Also what a crying shame that material such as Rolled Gold didnt get released til many years later. -I really love their cover of the song Harlem Shuffle Waaaay better than The Stones version of the 80's,, but The Marvalettes I'll Keep Holding On is my go to pick.
Thanks Ernie - glad you liked them!
Been loving Mighty Baby for quite a while, and knew they came out of the Action, but I never looked into the Action's recordings. Now I will have to give them a listen or two.
Kudos to you Matt for this video,one of the most underrated bands ever
Agreed!
Brain is a masterpiece.
It sure is, the greatest 'lost' LP ever imo.
These guys are one of my favorite bands of all time! Thank you so much for this story!
My pleasure.
I have a CD called Rolled Gold which has all these album recordings, and man, that’s some great stuff! It sounds like one step from Oasis and 90s Brit Pop sometimes.
Thanks for covering the Action Matt, they were the greatest mod band ever imo, especially because of Reg King's voice which was ultra soulful but he was never a screamer. Rolled Gold is the best 'lost' LP ever, an incredible original mix of powerpop, psych, freakbeat, rock and soul - they flowered into a band of great vision and creativity. I never tire of it, so glad it finally came out. BTW they did some reunion gigs in the late 90's and even a VHS doco In the Lap of the Mods that now is almost impossible to get - does feature gushing super fan Phil Collins, there was also a coffee table level book. On RUclips there is a great snippet of them doing a few songs as well as hanging out with their manager, no full version of their take of The Ronettes 'Do I Love You' which is a real bummer as it was one of the best covers, not avialable anywhere I don't think in full. ruclips.net/video/F5lUQrUM-Hk/видео.html
Thank you, Mark - this was a fun one to do!
Great job. I was fortunate enough to have seen them, not in 1965 but when they reformed in the late 90s or early 2000s they had Phil Collins on drums, along with Roger Powell, Collins is a massive fan, also got to meet ALL the band after the gig they signed my records for me and I had a long chat with Roger, about drums, mods etc. Great memories.
I was at the 100 club gig & at the Dome - well done Rob Bailey for pulling those gigs off 🌞🎶😎🙌👍
I immediately recognized Bam King from his later stint with Ace (and “How Long”). Their debut album, _Five-A-Side,_ is uniformly excellent and hints at how awesome they must have been on the early-70s UK pub-rock circuit. (Paul Carrack, however, was later quoted as saying that the other members of Ace were the “laziest” people he’d ever known.) It should be noted, also, that “I’ll Keep Holding On” and “Shadows and Reflections” both appear in Rhino’s _Nuggets II_ compilation, which is a sort of “rest of the world” counterpart to the original _Nuggets_ collection. (I snagged _Nuggets II_ in the file-sharing days, but of course it didn’t come with the liner-notes booklet, so I still have no idea what was said about any of the groups.)
Edsel/Demon label did a really good vinyl comp in the 1980's which is how I discovered this great underrated band.
Great video The Action is one of the first mod bands I have came across it’s a shame there songs didn’t become popular they had some great cuts I hope you cover Dave Dee, Dozy,Beaky Mick and Tich one of these days.
Mighty Baby were habitués in the bargain bins Didn’t Roger Glover end up in Deep Purple? Ian Whitman is the man who converted Richard and Linda Thompson to Islam if I recall.
Mod? No. Band in search of a song and style. I was 12 in ‘64. Every track same echo voices is boring. Should have got into Hollywood scene. Lots of bad music like theirs in movies back then. If they had one good song to hit but really not there.
I don't know it seems to me all their stuff just doeen't grab me, lots of songs with no standouts. They certainly tried, it's sad.... and even with George Martin at the helm. I love 60s pop but all their songs seemed to follow a formula and were not particularly memorable. Just my opinion don't kill me 😅
Thanks for this video, there were so many great groups in the UK in the 60s, the Fleur deLys, Birds, Pirates, and of course the Action.
'Rolled Gold' was the Action's peak, musically, IMHO. It was a shame that it was never recorded properly back in the day. However, at least the music industry eventually had the good sense to release the demos, which are terrific -- some of the best pop songs of the 60s, I think. "I've Got Something to Say" should have been a big hit.
Oh yeah, that and Icarus are my favourites off the album.
very interesting. Never heard of these guys. I keep expecting you to run out of bands to spotlight!
Nice one Buddy. We Mod revivalists in the 80's knew them. They were great. "Rolled Gold" is Fantastic. Reg King is Today recognized as one of the Finest British Rawk Vocalists. I think America didn't want "Mod" covers of Motown and Soul when we had the Original although the Mod versions Were different. The Action did some of the Best Motown covers. I think The Who made it in the USA because they had a Bit of a "Novelty" element going on which Townsend did Intentionally. The Small Faces only had one American Hit "Itchycoo Park" and that was during their Psychedelic period, none of their Mod stuff was popular in the USA. I think The Small Faces, The Action and The Creation were just Too "London" to translate.
Thanks for the comments, Pontiac!
Rolled Gold is mandatory listening!
I've always liked that Mighty Baby album, ha! What an interesting video, there's so much to The Action's tale that I never knew!
Excellent overview. Like many others, my introduction was The Ultimate Action (with Paul Weller sleeve notes) and the accompanying single I’ll Keep on Holding On. With bands writing their own material this held back the Action as they were mainly a covers band, albeit very good with their own sound.
Petula Clark also did a nice version of " Wasn't it you"
I did not know that! Thanks.
Matt, you should do a video on Mods, the mod scene and its various off shoots, although with your attention to detail it might take a couple of videos.
INCREDIBLE research and presentation! Thanks man. Off to Amazon........
I'm in England was a Mod from the Revival and through the 80's . The Ultimate Action from 1980 was a must have LP , with a cool insert and sleeve notes by Paul Weller.
I bought the album as an import (I'm in the U.S.) in the early 80's and the only insert it came with was a list of the Edsel/Demon records catalog. What was the "cool" insert that came with the LP in England?
@@terrynak It was a full fold out biography with some photos.
@@shaunw9270 The "new" LP I bought didn't have that insert - either Demon Records pulled it out before importing to the States or the store owners (Rhino Records store in Westwood, L.A.) pulled it out of the LP before restocking it on the shelves. The album was not shrink-wrapped, but came in a plastic sleeve that was open at the top and folded over with tape. I suspect foul play...
I worked in London at the Press Association in the 1990s and one of our music writers introduced me to one of his friends - 'Reg' - when we were down the pub after work. I asked 'Reg' if he was in the music business. His reply was 'Yeh, well I was in a group called The Action, but we never got anywhere...' At that point, I realised who I was talking to! He seemed a bit unhappy talking about the 1960s to be honest. His most notable comment being: 'I was a star for about 60 minutes every time we played the Marquee, but no-one gave two f***s about us after we left the stage.' He died a while later and even today has no gravestone where he is buried as far as I believe.
At least he felt some love at their reunion shows, what a voice!
Not being picked by Decca, working and being dismissed by George Martin and being forgotten for decades makes the whole band a bunch of Pete Bests.
😂😂😂
Definitely hear an influence on Supergrass
Very cool band Matt! I have to be honest, I may have heard of them, but I certainly have never heard any of their music. What a shame because they are fantastic. They definitely deserved at least some recognition similar to the accolades The Who received. Great mod sounding band. Loved hearing about their history. My father had that album by Ace, believe it or not! What a coincidence! Cheers ❤🍻
Hey Matt! Glad you liked them!
The Action are such a huge band for me. Thank you for this video. It’s a shame they never got the attention they deserved. Just yesterday I was listening to The Free Design and the same thought occurred to me about them, as well.
The Free Design is high on my very long list!
@@popgoesthe60s52 I'll be looking out for that one!
I wonder if the mod bands that didn't make it was too soft. It seems like Kinks and the Who played a harder rock than the rest.
Look at Todd Rundgren's band, Utopia.
There catalog is amazing and they should have been more appreciated.
"Brain" is a great song. I'll have to check out the rest of that album.
"This is the group that a lot of people are saying will be the next big thing on the scene!" -- I wonder how many times a DJ has said that, or something similar, only for the prediction not to pan out, sadly.
Incidentally, Yes also did a really good cover of "I See You" on their debut album.
I was listening to the first Yes album yesterday on my way to a Jon Anderson concert with his new band. I commented to my friend that this song was sung by the Byrds. Funny that the song is mentioned in this video.
I appreciate these types of videos. I feel like round out my understanding of '60s bands beyond the ones that "made it." The Action sound like a more pop version of The Yardbirds. The excerpts sound like really good songs. It's a shame they didn't have a hit. If you can't get George Martin to produce a hit for you, something's not working.
Thanks for the comments, Greg. Plenty more obscure bands to come!
Thanks for this superb history and analysis of the band that I would come to know and love as Mighty Baby during their heyday when they were constantly on the festival circuit with Hawkwind, Twink, Pink Faries, The Deviants et. al. I particularly like the attention you pay to the changing sound of the The Action as different drugs became fashionable. Such a valuable critique is to be saluted because it provides a very welome and reasonable taxonomy with which to categorize not only the music of The Action but all musical trends across the board. Richard Meltzer used this approach to some extent in his crticism, but the last music journalist I can remember who applied this method in the widest sense possible has to be Joe Carducci in the first edition of his Rock and the Pop Narcotic. Thanks again!
Thank you for the kind words. It's interesting to me how the "fashion of the drug culture" changed the music.
late to the party on this group, but I just ordered 3 CDs. I really like how you handle all these groups and the research you do to make your videos stand out above the rest. Take care
Thank you, Robert - much appreciated.
I heard of the Action but not their music.
They were good. I am surprised they never broke through.
Great video Matt
Very informative.
Thank you, Patrick!
There’s a great BBC sessions album by The Action which is highly recommended- especially their version of Coltrane’s India. Mighty Baby have had several live albums released all of which showcase their long psychedelic guitar workouts. After Jug of Love Mighty Baby released an album of psychedelic Islamic Sufi music.
I show all of these on my RUclips channel Take444 in which I trawl through my psychedelic record collection.
Thanks Mark, I'll check out your channel!
Interesting video, after hearing snippets of their songs, to me they all sound the same. There was definitely something missing with this band sound. Not sure what, but I can hear why they never struck it big. Sad.
Yes, I could not find anything to hook me. They sounded fine but are missing some key ingredients.
A cool story, Praise JESUS
Who's next? The Move???
I'm ready for the Nice!
I'll keep on holding on is one of my all time favorite songs.i heard it for the first time 40 years ago and I'll never get tired of it
Another thing I’ll never fathom is why, why, why, did the rock scene in general ditch the flairful, impossibly cool Carnaby Street stylage for that bland Rip Van Winkle hippy thing, pretty much overnight. The music by and large became pretty boring, with standout exceptions of course. But what do I know; I’m just a hillbilly.
My amateur-basis recording studio is called “Our Studio Is Red, With Purple Flashes”, lol.
My theory is that the "swingin' London" period came to a crashing halt with the arrest of the Stones in 1967. Lines were drawn between pop and rock and rock became the music of the counter culture. By 1968 Carnaby Street was played out and infiltrated by hustlers and people copying trends and therefore, uncool.
I love the Action, especially Rolled Gold, every song a gem. Thanks for this!💋
I saw The Action at The Marquee Club in the sixties. I also bought the 'I'll Keep on Holding on' single.
That must have been a fun scene, back then.
Always loved “Brain”,odd lyrics but movingly delivered around a sublime guitar riff.
Wow I was listening to these guys a few days ago and thought Pop Goes the 60s should do a video on them and look!
I take requests telepathically as well!
I love these potted band histories, thank you! I think this story proves that with all the great music out there in the mid-sixties there just wasn’t space in the charts for a band as good as The Action. Incidentally, guitarist Alan “Bam” King did end up having a bonafide international hit in the ‘70s as part of the group Ace with the single “How Long” (#20 in UK, #3 in both US and Canada).
Keep up the great work, would love to see you do a history of The Pretty Things at some point! 🤞
Hello, Matthew. Yes the Pretty Things will be a fun one to tackle.
The Pretty Things👍👌
I have the Edsel compilation, truly wonderful band. My mod friends got me into them in Belfast. My old friends turned me on to so much great music from the sixties, even if I wasn’t a mod myself.
Reg had a beautiful singing voice and they a proper group like the Small Faces were.
The Action were just unlucky I suppose. But they have not been forgotten - even all these years later, so perhaps they did succeed in the long term.
Great video Matt, really enjoyed this.
Thanks, Ed!
Great video. I've been a fan of The Action for years now and still can't believe they never made it. I don't think they were helped by constantly switching musical styles - although covering a few genres brilliantly - and basically not writing their own material. But can you imagine how great Rolled Gold would have been if properly produced (a bit like Rainbow Ffolly's Sallies Forth album)? That is essential listening even in its demo format. Just stunning. A great shame as well that Reg King, with one of the best voices in 60s music and beyond (and far, far ahead of anyone in todays' contemporary music scene), is barely more than a footnote in pop history, rather than lauded as the fine exponent he was, and died in relative anonymity. To think that Freddie & The Dreamers, Cilla Black and even Ken Dodd had big hits, and The Action had nothing.
Some of the "cool" bands like the Action, really weren't defined by chart success but they really needed it to keep working. The "uncool" performers could play to the pop charts and surprisingly it often worked! Ah, the taste of the mass market!
Life is sure unfair!
I've always said that must of the songs they have in the Rolled Gold album could have been perfectly recorded by any brit pop bands from the 90's 'cause they sound so ahead of it's time.
Very interesting. I heard about this group on another youtube music channel, but not this in depth. These bands like The Action deserved better. When you consider electric gummies such as Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich getting away with such big saccharin hits with virtually no lasting legacy to speak of, it's a real shame that an edgy band like The Action lands in the same spot.
I started this channel to highlight the overlooked bands with high quality material. Thanks for the comments!
I love 'I'll Keep Holding On' and 'Never Ever'/'Twenty Fourth Hour', but George Martin was an absolutely terrible fit for The Action. They were a mod/RnB band and would have been much for suited for Dream/Decca under the production of Denny Cordell. As he had done with The Move, magnifying their assets. G Martin pointed them toward jangly pop, more similar to, say, The Marmalade. But to be very honest, The Move, DDDBMT and even Marmalade had better songs than The Action could write or were offered. That's my opinion at least.
@@zabadakxanadu You mention The Move. I think they are the best group that didn't make British Invasion. They are really good.
Actions Speak Louder Than Words is one of my all time favorite pop psych records and it is a serious shame no one heard it at the time. Thank you for the excellent video.
brilliant band!
Wonderful group.First saw them supporting The Who at The Marquee Club in 1965.Was very happy to release first ever vinyl album on My Edsel label in 1980 as The Ultimate Action with liner-notes by Paul Weller.Should have been a big group.Still sound great.
1960s british blue eyed soul at it's best, an authentic mod group, not manufactured, the real deal.
Me too. Discovered The Action through Paul Weller in the 1980s. Their music is consistently great.
Great review Matt. I use to hang around The Marquee quite a lot, especially weekends. I've not heard of The Action. I've just ordered both albums.
Enjoy your 60s 'Lost Bands'
Still waiting for your review of
Iron Butterfly
Thank you, Graham! I hope to get to the Butterfly this year so stay tuned!
Awesome!!! You should TOTALLY do one for West Coast Pop Art or The Millenium!!
Bought the ultimate Action album from Penny lane records in Liverpool 1983! Blew my mind... We are the mods forever!
Although The Action didn't chart on the official UK -charts, with they're 1967 single : "Shadows and reflections", I do remember this tune got a lot of airplay on pirate Radio London during the summer of that year. They even made it to no.17 on the Radio London Fab 40 ;) Great record!
The Shadows box set is great. Worth mentioning first time stereo mixes of the singles (and very good mixes too...).
Thanks for mentioning that! Much appreciated.
FYI Wasn't It You came out on the German issue of Harlem Shuffle. Such an incredible group. BTW My old mate Nick Jones co-wrote Something Has Hit Me.
Heard a snip of 'just once in my life' I remember the R-Brothers recording, very similar treatment as 'you've lost that luvin feelin' & 'soul+ inspiration' . Not more cowbell more Reverb.
Thanks for giving some attention to these guys, much deserved. When I think of The Action I can't help but also think what a tragic story it was in that they should have had been signed, had some degree of success (at least in the UK) and released at least 2 LP's by '68. With George Martin backing them (to a degree) it's hard to understand what went wrong, why labels were 'passing' on them. They were obviously more talented then your average 'Mod' band. In addition they successfully changed with the times musically, going from R&B/Northern Soul to all out psych to then rural 'hippie', not easy to do. Also worth mentioning that they did put out one final LP under the name The Habibiyya - "If Man But Knew" in 1972 minus Martin Stone. These recordings are more Eastern influenced as the band was well into their Sufi journey. In addition to the Action box set there is also a great Mighty Baby box set "At A Point Between Fate and Destiny: The Complete Recordings" which was released in 2019. I would highly recommend to anyone interested in them.
Thanks Matt! The Rolled Gold stuff sounds a bit like a mishmash of The Guess Who and The Small Faces with a bit of Badfinger in there. Surprised they never made it bigger.
Thanks, Matt. I've known about The Action for ages via my love of The Who and Yes (Chris Squire was a big fan), but I've never heard any of their music. IMO, Reg King and the other guys may have been fine singers, but they clearly couldn't come up with that *breakthrough song*. Also, is it just me or is the drumming on a lot of those songs, well... limp-wristed. To be fair, it WAS a very competitive scene and luck had as much to do with it as anything. Also, George Martin may have been their producer, but a lot of those recordings have that 60's squashed mono sound that any producer could have come up with. I wonder how involved he really was.
The Dick Clark TV show clip is on RUclips in really horrendous quality. The band looked bored and aimless as rolls of toilet paper are repeatedly thrown over them. The band did have one single released in the United States on Capitol in 1967 "Never Ever" b/w "Twentyfourth Hour".
I almost feel that if their song "Brain" would have been called "Remember Me" instead, and some DJs gave it some maximum airplay, it would have shot up the charts !
After I watched this, I went to Amazon and downloaded several albums. Once I have a chance to listen, I’ll pop back on and comment further 😁
The Action were great. My fave thing about the MOD bands was the fashion. I wish todays rock n roll (males) had more fashion. Whenever I go to see a local band, the 7 or 8 people there think I'm in the band :) .... until the four guys and seperate table in torn jeans, shorts, tropical shirts or another's bands tee get up and climb on stage. (ugh)
Another album worth noting that not many Action fans know of is Reggie King “Looking For A Dream” on circle records. Demos of songs written by Reg between rolled gold and his solo album with all of the action members performing on it. Very acoustic but the songs on it rival rolled gold.
Also agree with if George Martin stayed with them to do Rolled Gold they would have had a far better album than their contemporaries. Once the action got around to writing their own songs they actually became almost better than the songs they were covering
I had the album on Edsel i think it was around 81, thanks to Paul Weller praising them when he was in the Jam. The 60s/ Mod type band i was in at the time covered I'll Keep On Holding On.
Check out the re-recording of Rolled Gold by Sidewalk Society called “Strange Roads” its excellent
In the day, there were a lot of hot live bands who never managed to translate into solid studio bands.
Poor produciton choices (audio clutter), lack of time in the studio, weak original material. I have seen even mediocre bar bands lift a room on a Saturday night with Land of a Thousand Dances but why would anyone purchase a 45 rpm cover of that song when the Wilson Pickett classic was readily available?
When the singles market turned to an album market around 1967, a lot of talented bands fell through the cracks, many never to be heard from again.
I`m glad they had a renaissance of sorts down under in the eighties.
I'd heard of The Action but knew nothing about them, until now! I didn't know that George Martin produced some of their singles. They recorded some strong material so it is puzzling why their singles made no impact on the charts. Reg King was a very strong vocalist. Thank you, Matt, for this deep dive into a very underrated band!
You are quite welcome, Nick!
One band who's story I'd like to see is Herman's Hermits: A British beat band that was arguably bigger in America
Great episode Matt. I never heard of this group. Hard to believe with George Martin at the helm that they just couldn't get a hit, but the quality of music in 1966-69 was so high across the board that it was really tough to break thru.
I also sort of wonder if Martin's work with the Beatles made him hesitant to change or make suggestions to other acts, given that he had been sort of wrong about a lot with the early Beatles. The Beatles fought him often and always ended up being correct, and Martin may have got into a mindset that ALL musicians knew themselves the way the Beatles knew themselves. Of course the Beatles were high order geniuses of pop/rock. I guess what I'm saying is maybe Martin got inclined to let the bands do their own thing rather than interfere and while that worked with the Beatles it may not have worked with lesser acts.