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!

The Same - Just Not The Same

Another female band that the sixties, in particular the late sixties, gave birth to were a high school quintet that went by the name of The Same. Hailing from the Arlington Heights area in Illinois, they managed to record at least one single at the Valentine Studios in California, the release Sunshine, Flowers and Rain/If You Love Me, Really Love Me. Members included Judy Selman (lead gt.), Debbie Reiss (rhythm gtr.), Vicki Selman (bass gtr.) , Donna Smelak (drums) and Vicki Hubly (lead singer). The group toured several towns in their homestate, and various venues in Chicago, including The New Place, The Crimson Cougar, and the Dark Spot while sharing the bill with bands such as The Cryin' Shames and Michael and the Messengers. Judging by the paisley glory of the girls threads they tried to encapsulate that flower power vibe flowing at the time - plus if you download the songs you'll hear how they pull the same thing off with their sound! Other outfits included pink 'poor' sweaters and maroon skirts. A newspaper article from the time explains that the girls were not allowed to pratice during the week, but their parents do not object alltogether as they see it as an overall postive experience for them. While not performing the girls enjoyed ordinary teenage activities including listening to records, going to dances and talking on the phone in-between doing homework.

While not anything spectacular, they're still another fascinating entry in the annals of 60's female bands! As one student at the time comments "I think 'The Same' is groovy, and they show what really good music a group consisting entirely of girls can produce"!

Dig The Same Here!

Sunshine Rays of Los Massot

Hey! So so sorry for such a delay in postings - middle of moving house blah blah yadda - but here's something fun for February! Just picked up this today for the grand sum of 25p - wahey! The group Los Massot hail from Majorca but that's all I've really gathered of them so far! Included are the songs Un Rayo De Sol and slightly skewed cover of Sugar Sugar - of course no cover could beat the original!

Download Please!

The Bantams - Follow Me

Hey! Just to continue the kid-pop theme here are The Bantams performing 'Follow Me Girl' - great stuff and enought to cheer up any old January day! And once I get their LP (eventually!) you can be assured you'll here it here!

Tinkerbell's Magic Fairydust *

Hey! This week's feature is by the wonderful Tinkerbell's Fairydust, all the way from 1969. Perhaps one of the rarest albums of that decade, it never saw a full release, making it just only to the test pressing stage - hence the rarity value! ($$$$$) The band released their first single, Twenty Ten, in 1967 to unsuccessful sales on the UK Decca label. This was followed by another two, Lazy Days and Shelia's Back In Town, in the following couple of years, again to little success 'old blighty. However in Japan the story was quite different, with Lazy Days reaching number 2 in the charts, just shy of Hey Jude at numbero 1. Band members included: Stuart Attride (g, Key, vo), Dave Church, Barry Creasey, Steve Maher (g, vo), Chaz Wade (ds, vo), Ged Wade (b, vo).

The album itself is a mixture of Pop-Psych, Sunshine and harmony. Maybe not as far out as its contempoaries, it does manage to shine with a blend of covers and originals. They remind me a lot of The Montanas sometimes, which is of course, a very good thing!

Anyhow the following download is from the reissue/first issue from 1998. Enjoy!

I Am A Download!

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