Why Were The Pretty Things Banned for Life in New Zealand?
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- In August 1965, the Pretty Things toured New Zealand with Sandie Shaw and Eden Kane.
Fueled by a baiting sensationalist tabloid press, the Pretty Things’ loud and anarchic rhythm and blues and their outrageous antics on and off stage ignited a national scandal and a public outcry that would spread from the newspaper headlines to the Houses of Parliament. The Pretty Things were eventually banned from ever returning to New Zealand. And here's why.
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It's nice remembering back to when rock and roll was still dangerous, still considered a threat. As opposed to today...
The Pretty Things banned for life, now that's a surprise lol!
You should make a video about Dusty Springfield's 1964 tour of South Africa. She was also banned and kicked out of the country because of apartheid laws.
Being banned in the US, the ban on the Kinks ….I think they would have traded country bans. Happy birthday Ray Davies.
Well the US welcomed The Kinks back, but NZ didn't want the Pretty Things back. So if I were Ray Davies, I'd have matters alone.
Of course The Kinks ban was due to having a horribly incompetent tour manager.
@@jeffcrowtherjr.7861 What was it that ultimately got them banned from the States?
@@williamr3840 It was mainly due to the musicians union in America not wanting any of dem dere foreign bands taking jobs away. With The Kinks being in their crosshairs.
@@jeffcrowtherjr.7861 dey terk err jerrbs!
The Pretty Things have been one of my favourite groups since 1965. A truly great, very under appreciated band. RIP Phil May.
@neilfriedman This is the same group that made S.F. Sorrow, which is one of my favorite albums and covered by Ulver and Bowie?
Agreed, brilliant band.
@@YesterdaysPapers been listening to Parachute Reloaded this week, by the XPT's, (ex Pretty Things), it's a wonderful reworking of my favourite LP.
Indeed, their "Rosalyn" is one of my all-time favorite tunes. These blokes were not afraid to let their freak flag fly.
Dick Taylor Jagger's college friend was in the first Keith and Mick formation : Little boy blue and the blue boys and for a few months official bassist of the Rolling Stones, but he don't wanted play bass so he left and founded the Pretty Things with Phil May, 1963.
The mother who wrote the letter likely had a strong NZ accent as opposed to a US midwest accent.
Kiwi here, thanks for the mention! I remember the controversy at the time, but I was a few years too young to go to such shows. Even at that young age I could tell it was just newspapers whipping up a frenzy for sales. It was another ten years before I realised they were actually a good rock band.
Cheers.
The pretty things Phil May had hair that made Lord Sutch and the stones look like Telly Savalas!
In those days, it was Dave Davies and Phil May who had the longest hair - and to make matters even more "outrageous", they parted theirs in the middle - absolutely unheard of, then - and so suspiciously "feminine" and even "homosexual". It's amazing how the entire subject of long hair on men, which was once so dangerously controversial, has been forgotten.
Nik Cohn once wrote that next to them the Rolling Stones seemed "like the proverbial tea party at the vicarage".
Not enough people know The Pretties nowadays. They've been forgotten when great British bands are talked about.
Fascinating video as ever! Always liked the Pretty Things since I bought their first single ‘Rosalyn’ b/w the great ‘Big Boss Man’ back in ‘64. They had a very exciting sound, and an early run of terrific singles that should have charted a lot higher than they actually did.
For some reason I never saw them live until their farewell concert at the Indigo O2 in 2018. It was a great show with Van Morrison & Dave Gilmour making guest appearances, but for me the stand out performance was Dick Taylor on guitar. Until then I hadn’t fully appreciated what a superb guitarist he is, but he gave a masterclass in R&B, rock & roll, and straight ahead blues guitar that night!
Yeah, Dick Taylor is a great guitarist, very underrated.
His guitar solo break on Midnight To Six Man is one of the finest in music history.
They did the best ever version of the Blues classic Big Boss Man, easily enough to make Elvis' version sound tame.
I forgot The Animals also did a great version as one of their four Newcastle recorded demos of late 1963 that were issued on a Decca E.P. about three years later.
This band is another perfect example why it is so difficult for later generations to connect with what was happening. When you're conditioned by everything that came later how can you possibly understand the impact of this craziness. The Rolling Stones were banned on radio stations in the early sixties for their offensive blues. To judge these bands by 2020 standards is assinine and foolish. Wait till these kids are in their 80's and find out what they have to say. I'll be interested.
So true.
I think they’re very first single B-side, stoned was banned by the BBC and that was just an instrumental. They did not want a single on the air with even a drug reference in the title.
@@michaelrochester48 That was their second B side in the UK. Their first UK single which only reached number 20 here was Come On/I Want To Be Loved. Come On was their version of the Chuck Berry song. But in many countries, their second UK single was their first.
Great job w another mini doc !
`Whoever photographed the gig did a great job, epic.
“Viv Prince… the drummer carried a rotting crayfish with him.” Doesn’t everybody? 😂 I got a creek close to my home and I pick up crayfish/crawdads all the time. The Press are a bunch of duds!
Hahaha!
"The Truth said..." That says it all. In the 80s there was a latex puppet show - Public Eye, based on Spitting Image - and one of my all time favorite sketches had the typical Dave n Doreen type in bed of a Sunday evening, he is reading The Truth, she is reading Womans' Weekly. She pipes up with the line, "... it says here that Elvis is alive and well and living in Oamaru". He snorts back, "Don't be silly. No-one's alive and well and living in Oamaru." Those were the days.
I’m a fan of both The Pretty Things and Sandie Shaw. Both recorded some fab music back in the 1960’s. 😊
They really did make The Stones look like choirboys. They issued the first ever concept album-"S.F.Sorrow! Then they ended up in "The Monster Club"!!
So, they were a bad influence on... grown ups like Sandie Shaw's dad?
Hahaha, yes!
I was gaga for Sandie Shaw so I would’ve been on team Sandie for that tour.
Thanx for posting this episode. I had the chance to meet Dick and Phil, a few years ago, real nice guys, so humble.
Rest in peace, Phil May.
Probably, along with The Small Faces, one of the most underrated bands of the 60s. The studio albums don't do them justice either (bad engineered?): the live versions on the BBC are epic (Hey Mama, Midnight to six man, SF Sorrow is born...): in comparison, The Stones sound like Sonny and Cher
I agree the live BBC versions of some of those songs slightly surpassed their studio versions. The only problem is that their compere was Brian Matthews.
@@paulgoldstein2569 And nNoOooOW a shor of rhyyyyyythm and blues by the PreeeeeeeeeeTtTyY TthiiiiinNNNngGssssss!!!!
Gracias!!! Como siempre, sensacional informe sobre una de mis bandas de cabecera. El segundo disco de The Pretty Things, es uno de los 5 mejores LP en la historia del rock. 1965 tambien es mi año favorito del rock. Saludos desde Argentina! 🇦🇷❤🎸🎼🎹🥁🥁🥁✨✨✨⚡🙌🙌🙌🙌
To be fair, the Pretties' behaviour was quite outrageous for the day, and they played it up even more after the controversy began 😂. But the NZ reaction was stiffly prudish. Even in Australia the pubs closed at 6pm in those days: the hour before was known as "the six o'clock swill".
A few years later, the Australian tour of the Who and the Small Faces caused similar controversy, when news of the lads' drunk behaviour on the flight had preceded their landing. The disaster apparently contributed to the Small Faces' break up. Irreverend behaviour was guaranteed a reaction down here in the 60s.
The Pretty Things joined Bad Company as the first bands signed to Swan Song the boutique label of Led Zeppelin.
They should make an independent movie about this tour in New Zealand which featured The Pretty Things, Sandie Shaw, etc. Have Gemma Arterton play Sandie Shaw for a start, not sure who you could have play members of The Pretty Things. As for the director, get Richard Curtis, the same one who directed Pirate Radio.
Viv Prince was allegedly thrown out of the Hells Angels for being a bit too hectic.
I know that the Pretty Things set fire to something on stage in the Opera House New Plymouth
Yep the fire setting is the one 'antic' I side with the authorities on.
Fire's in packed venues can kill hundreds.
Think 'Great White' or Bradford.
One of first garage punk expression on stage presume...
Pretty Things were early punks
The squares really ran the show back then. You make KILLER videos and I dig 'em. Rock on.
Cheers Buzza.
The Prettys are a great band. Amazing singles like Come see me, Midnight to Six Man and Rosalyn. Emotions is underrated . Get the Picture and SF Sorrow are their finest albums.
I agree, Maurice. "Get the Picture" and "SF Sorrow" are also my favourites. I really like "Parachute", too.
Neither side was entirely in the wrong, or entirely right, either. It's just that the Pretties were pretty far in the lead of wild pop star behavior, and New Zealand (lovely though it may be) was lagging in isolation. An ugly confrontation waiting to happen.
Interesting story! Nicely put together! Bonus was seeing a very young Jimmy Page at the end!
The Pretty Things, who consciously tried to outdo The Stones in épater les bourgeois outrageousness in the '63-'66 period, are criminally underrated, and had little exposure here in The States. Dick Taylor had of course been a mate of Mick and Keith's in the early days and a member of The Stones in their nestling period of 1962 before they had a stable lineup. Their 1968 rock opera "S.F. Sorrow," preceding the release of The Who's "Tommy" by several months, was a seminal event in rock history, but their early work is important as well. The PTs broke up in the late 2010s after one final farewell tour. (RIP Phil May 1944-2020). Thank you again, YP!
It must've been pretty exciting and a little scary to be a rock group back then, specially one that was breaking conventions with the conservative society back then
It' makes a lot of sense that Keith Moon idolized these guys and you can see how that worked out.
Headline Pretty Things Invade New Zealand Conquered and Left Only Rubble and Extatic Fans !! Job Well Done Lads ! Thanks YP CHEERS !!
Cheers!
Great video and thanks for posting. It seems the Pretty Things were a fun loving group that met their match with the stuffy New Zealand press and politicians but it is 1965 so I do give the New Zealanders some slack because even though they were silly in 2024 in the USA some communities have banned drag shows flying the gay pride flag and banning books about slavery the holocaust and gays and I doubt New Zealand in 2024 is doing something stupid like that.
“Book about book bans banned by Florida school board.” Oops! 😂
@@reddykilowatt yes that is crazy.
The Pretty Things never caught on here in the States, as for the critique at the start New Zealand is in many ways a miniature Australia so they have that same macho mindset. Many drummers seem to be the wild men of the bands. Think John Bonham of Led Zeppelin and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. From what I've heard back then Australia and New Zealand seemed to lag behind America and Europe but today in the digital age not so much anymore.
I had their first 2 albums when I was 17-18, and some EP,s.....in Launceston, Tasmania. We were the only ones digging the group , no one else had any idea who they were !! But we loved it !! I still watch their clips in youtube, its my vanished youth you see !! Don't worry...we had THEM, THE ANIMALS, CREAM, HENDRIX, MUDDY WATERS etc etc etc.....need I say more ???
Saw them open for status quo in 75 at the Pool
Love it, proto punks.
Things haven't changed that much in small town New Zealand. There are still old timers living in the 1950's who have the same attitudes they had in the 60's. Some have never used a computer or mobile phone. Good to see this stuff about New Zealand though. I know a few of the people whose names are mentioned by the Chicks.
If the NZ Truth was anything like the Truth we had in Melbourne then it was a filthy rag, gutter press sex and scandal. Given the advertisements, the letters and pictures, found within, the absolute hypocrisy of such a paper criticizing anyone's behaviour is outrageous.
Kiwi here, I can confirm the NZ Truth "newspaper" was very similar.
@@flamencoprof I can confirm that too - my dad used to buy The NZ Truth every Sunday - it was an education, page 3 girls included.
@@wsmccallum5069 Hah! IIRC I I never in my life bought it. Maybe I saw it in a Barbers or something. Mainly I remember the lurid Billboard Headlines.
It was JUST like the one in Melbourne ( minus the footy pages).
Another underrated band
Great music ❤
Accidental urination? Sure, that's just the nature of rock and roll sometimes in dark places. I'd rather be pissed off than pissed on not
I must admit I was totally unaware of The Pretty Things until this video.
Listen to S.F. Sorrow.....one of the great psych lps from 1967
@@JustineLaLobaAnd hugely underated too!
Might be due to their lack of a really big hit single.
I don't know what drugs The Pretty Things were on, but if they got banned from this so-called "New Zealand" they must have had the good stuff.
I mean come on, "New Zealand" next thing you're gonna tell me that there is "Unicorns" or "Elves" or that "Paul McCartney didn't die in that car crash."
From the UK, I lived in Australia 1973-75 (I was 15-16). Aus felt like it was 5 or so years behind the UK culturally, even more educationally (Aus finally got colour tv a few weeks before we left). We came back by sea and had a day stop-over in Auckland on the way. From what we saw in a day NZ felt at least 10 years behind Aus!
And now the UK is 10 years behind Aus and becoming more culturally irrelevant by the year, the 80's was the last gasp from you.
@@sg-yq8pmOnly ten? I thought we were much further behind than that! It must be all this "cultural enrichment" that our politicians keep telling us is making us the envy of the world.
The Pretty Things are bad ass… I always liked their music, but I had no idea about all their crazy hijinxs. Thanks for another outstanding video .
I didn't know they were banned for life in NZ. Didn't they play in NZ in the 2000's?
Yes, as stated at the end of the video, the ban was lifted in 2012.
@@YesterdaysPapers Sorry I couldn't watch the entire video before will do it again. thanks
I got a best of the Pretty Things CD a few years back, it covers about 1964-1980 and they had some good stuff, garage rock, psychedelic pop/rock, even early heavy metal if you've heard "Old Man Going" the penultimate track on S.F. Sorrow, that snarling guitar riff.
IDK, those beautiful NZ streets in 65 look like heaven. I'd trade a hundred "Pretty Things" for that. Everything's turned to sh.t, hasn't it?
I grew up in Detroit Michigan. My favorite groups are The Move & The Pretty Things. All my friends that liked the Beatles, Stones, Animals, Kinks, Cream etc, (love these bands myself) thought I had strange taste in music. I also liked jazz, they didn't, so I guess I did.
I wonder if New Zealand really was as bad as that in the mid '60s, I mean the Pretty Things I guess stood apart from the other bands even in the UK, but I've read comments of other British entertainers who toured NZ at that time, the Beatles apparently complained about how little there was to do for entertainment and threw their dinner at the TV when they realized that the one TV channel closed down at like 9pm or something. John Cleese judged NZ really harshly in his biography, he came here in like '64 as part of the Cambridge Circus comedy troupe and wrote about NZers like they were a bunch of cavemen or something. I've heard the '60s recordings of NZ comedian/musician Rod Derrett, "Rugby, Racing and Beer" etc. where he pokes fun at NZ and its ways.
As an Italian I visit NZ 10 years ago I was surprised how NZ is still more conservative than European/western countries. This is not negative it's just the way NZ is. Beautiful country and lovely people. I'm not surprised about this news 😂 thank you for sharing
Or "Hick NZ boomers meet punk's first band".
in 1965 N Z was like England just after W W 2 old cars people always talking about the war
But why does the guy quoting the paper have a faux Aussie accent? Not kiwi at akl....
Yeah, Mike Stax did his best with his book about PT NZ tour.
No wonder most rock groups avoided New Zealand as it was a very backward Country back then and very Conservertive.
Thank god this ban saved so many kiwi souls from a life of dabauchery and otherwise downright terrible behaviour!
“They can’t sing…”, comment sold me with The Pretty Things. Another band to hunt down.
The North of NZ is more Christian Conservative......
Same AI voice as all those fake health products "This one weird fruit melts fat" etc.
NZ is not like this anymore. It's only about fifteen years behind the rest of the world now... 😱
Was Viv considered for Zeppelin? Imagine him as a millionaire! 🙂
Thanks for covering this one :) NZ Pretty Things fan here. They weren't 'banned for life though. If they had been, I wouldn't have been able to see the Pretty Things perform at the Powerstation in Auckland in 2012. And their show was off the scale. :D
Cheers! It's mentioned at the end of the video that the ban was lifted in 2012.
@@YesterdaysPapers Thanks for all the great videos you do. I have been collecting 60s stuff since the 80s and you persistently cover bands even I have never heard of. If you want to do any more NZ content, look into the histories of the La De Da's and the Human Instinct, Ray Columbus & The Invaders, and the Avengers. There should be enough videos of them on-line for visual material too.
Another INCREDIBLY interesting and fun video! Your knowledge and research are astounding and the presentation is perfect! I always gain so much information from watching your videos, and I LOVE your channel!
Cheers!
Yikes! It's like they were a rock & roll group or something! 😱
Ah The Truth. Always a shit tabloid. My granddad used to read it avidly.
Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo 🎸
Great documentary, as usual, I was 15 when the Pretty things burst on the scene,
all the lads I knew thought they were great.
That natty animal print pill box hat was stolen from one of the women sent along to look out for the safety of the Chicks ?
Definitely drove a few mama's and papa's insane
wait,we had the wheel in nz in the 60's? i thought we all had flintstone cars
Great video, loved the history of this band.
Who was that old cow from down under who said The Pretty Things could not sing? There was nobody with a more tuneful voice than Phil May.
But it is a job to tell whether some of what was mentioned was really true.
But how did Eden Kane get on the tour, when he was a complete has-been by then, unless he was mysteriously still popular in New Zealand, but why specially New Zealand.
I don't like this new RUclips layout. Maybe I'm going to have to get used to it.
Mismatched artists on tours were common in the sixties, I think the promoters idea was to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. For example my sister went to see the Walker Brothers early in sixty seven, on the same bill was Englebert Humperdinck who was someone your parents would like, but anyway all she could talk about when she got home was a then little known band called The Jimi Hendrix Experience who I think must have stunned everyone in the audience.
Well, what to say? Next episode on John's Children? 😂
Cheers Edwin! Maybe in the future, cool band!
Great episode Yesterday! Love the Pretty Things! Too bad they threw it all away for psychedelia. Could’ve been England’s best RnR band. Cheers!!
Cheers Jon! Glad you enjoyed it. This era of the Pretty Things was truly wild!
I looove the song " Talking about the good Times" and some more, but unfortunately the late 60s were not a good time for blues. Even John Mayall, Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Winter had to find a way to make ends meet.
Are there any potential mini-docs forthcoming on other lesser-known groups from the era, particularly the American garage rock/Nuggets ones?
Yes, but I stll don't know which bands I'm going to cover.
@@YesterdaysPaperslots of Standells footage out there
More banned members than band members. :0)
Is the song "Oh you Pretty Things" by David Bowie, about this band? Because the line "Don't you know you driving your mamas and papas insane" very appropriate.😅
@@Blisteryn Yes. The Pretty Things were one of Bowie's favourite bands.
Nowadays they would just be jailed for hurting someones feelings
Bye todays standards you wouldn't mind them going out with your daughter
The original shoey!😊😂
NZ is still stuck in the 60's...
First 🥇
What a fantastic video have a wonderful weekend also happy first weekend of summer ❤❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😊😊
cause they sucked?
Interesting slice of when rock still could outrage. The Who and SF tour of Oz and NZ would make a good vid also.
Naughty boys!
The Who and Small Faces were BANNED from Australia in 1967 for the behaviour on planes and on stage! Two of my fave bands from my [British] mother's youth growing up in Australia. She is 69, my [British] partner is 74 and I'm [Australian] and 40! ❤😂 Love The Chicks!
Your channel is amazing..I’m shocked you watch that cult ‘tv show’. Utter horror show.
Thanks buddy love your video of Ray Davies slamming Revolver.
Thank you, YP. Excellent job on this!👍"Rosalyn", though recorded and released in the UK during the summer of 1964, was not given AM radio airplay in my area (New England, US) until June of 1965. It never became a hit, locally, but its effect on me, as a 12-year-old, was tremendous. While I was never able to find its 45 in the record stores I frequented, I did find and buy their debut LP the following summer in a Providence, RI shop.
In the earlier days of the internet, I found an email address for the late, great session drummer, Bobby Graham, who played on "Rosalyn", and sent him my thanks and appreciation for his work on it. Amazingly (to me), he wrote back to thank me for that "thanks" and included me, for several years, on his Christmas email list.
RIP Robert Francis Neate (Bobby Graham), 1940 - 2009
ETA: It's also amazing to find out about the super-sized egos of certain pop stars (Sandie Shaw)..
Cool story about Bobby Graham, unbelievable drummee.
@@YesterdaysPapers He was the drummer on The Kinks' breakthrough hit You Really Got Me, with Mick Avory reduced to tambourine, obviously due to the persistence of their producer Shel Talmy who often preferred to use sessionist who he was acquainted with.
@@paulgoldstein2569 Graham played on hundreds of records in the 60s.
His Wiki page lists a few more:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Graham_(musician)
The lead singer didhave crazy-long hair for 1965.
Love this mini doc. Don’t really know much about the Pretty’s, only found out about them via SF Sorrow, some years ago, when they re-created the album live in Abbey Road studios where they had recorded the original album at the same time as the Beatles were recording Sergeant Pepper, and Pink Floyd was recording piper at the gates of dawn. And apparently, they inspired Pete Townshend to write the rock opera Tommy
In reply to a replier to my comment below, also on that tour was Cat Stevens. This was when the Walker Brothers (nothing to do with Walkers' crisps) were on the verge of disbanding, as their hits were running out, obviously due to the persistent shifts in musical trends, when musical trends were shifting fast and furious, and Hendrix had already become God. I think this was just before he appeared at the Monterey festival. But if you think Engelbert was entirely for the parents and could not rock, take a listen to this.
ruclips.net/video/zQANOfKS3iA/видео.html
Crikey.
Ugly Things magazine is a great resource for info about the Pretty Things. Mike Stax is the man behind it !