Sweet Anki

One of Finland's brighest talents to emerge from the sixties was the amazing Anki Lindquist, a folk-pop singer who went on to forge a successful career in the industry beyond the end of the decade. The understated beauty and charm of this lovely lass is completely captavating - and then we get to her voice! Along with original works, she covered artists such as Marianne Faithfull, Francoise Hardy, Jacques Brel, Joni Mitchell...and The Kinks! In fact her covers of Francoise come close if not on par with the original versions. Sadly Anki passed away in 2007 but here she is in 1965 performing the traditonal folk song Barbara Allen - hope you fall in love as much as I did!

Way Fun Bantams!

Enough of the girls - here fantastically are 3 young lads who recorded under the name - The Bantams! I've previously posted a (now defunct) video of the group, of the amazing sunshine trip Follow Me - and now I've collated that ditty along with the rest of the singles, Meet Me Tonight Little Girl, I'm So Lucky and Good Lovin' Girl - all pure pop perfection! In contrast to their full length album, entitled Beware The Bantams, the group are judging from my ears backed by a studio group instead of playing their own instruments - consisting of drums, guitar and bongos - and subsequently have a more polished sound - all for the better too! Here's a wee piece on them from a news article :

"Beware The Bantams! This "out of sight" group on Warner Brothers Records is billed as "The Biggest Little Band In The Land." Three pre-teens with a rocking sound three times their size.

What is the Bantams formula?....1) Start with those freckles (you count 'em) 3,605 freckles a piece; 2) Special Award winners in the National Band Championship at Pacific Ocean Park, Santa Monica, California. They look like three finalists in the National Dennis-the-Menace-Look-Alike-Sweepstakes. They are 31 years old if you add up their ages, 12, 10 and 9. Only one of them is named Fritz; the other two are Jeff and Mike - all part of one family. Jeff, Mike and Fritz have three more brothers and two sisters. One of the sisters has waist-length blond hair and she sometimes joins the group as their own bam-bam Wa-Wa-Watasui dancer. She is seven."

Cannot express how much I love these singles - definitely some of the best unabashed sunshine pop garage going! And as such if it doesn't make the corners of your mouth turn upward in a gawping grin - well.....this is the wrong place for you!

Finally here's a vid of them performing one of their album tracks!

Follow The Bantams Here!

Bella Anna!

Just a quickie to display the wonderful talents of Italian Anna Identici - here singing my favourite song by her - "Una Lettera Al Giorno" - in some spaghetti western of some sorts! It seems to have disappeared from YouTube .... so here it is again!