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Remo Four Smile!, Peter Gunn And More (CD)

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1-CD-Album Digipak (4-plated) with 30-page booklet, 17 tracks. Playing time approx. 58 minutes.... more

Remo Four: Smile!, Peter Gunn And More (CD)

1-CD-Album Digipak (4-plated) with 30-page booklet, 17 tracks. Playing time approx. 58 minutes.

One of the greatest Star-Club groups! Managed by Brian Epstein and later backed George Harrison on his 'Wonderwall Music' album ! Includes two top musicians of the UK Pop History, Tony Ashton and
Colin Manley! British R&B par excellence. A sought after collectors' item! Rare bonus titles!

Many Star-Club bands were audience favourites without becoming as big as the Beatles, who also started there. But there was one group that towered above their competitors for their outstanding musical quality, and it was another band from Liverpool, The Remo Four. In the early and mid-sixties the Remo Four became backing musicians for solo singers - and were among the best bands to ever touch the hallowed stage of the legendary Hamburg club. By 1967, they were among the best bands from England.

Charismatic singer/organ player Tony Ashton (1944-2001) and guitarist Colin Manley (1942-1999) were brilliant instrumentalists, and their solos were solidly backed by the band's rhythm section: ace drummer
Roy Dyke and bass-player Phil Rogers. The Remo Four were the first among equals with an excellent fusion of rhythm, blues, brass-free soul and even gospel snippets - with Tony proving how such a mixture could be sung perfectly and soulfully alike.

Songs such as Sing Hallelujah, Brother Where Are You, the fantastic Jive Samba, to name but a few, are excellent examples of the quartet's outstanding groove. Their greatest success had come in 1966 with the Peter Gunn instrumental, which made them stars in Germany after a legendary live performance on the famous 'Beat-Club' TV show.

These days The Remo Four's only album 'Smile!' is insanely rare and expensive as an original, but even the CD edition - off the market for many years - has become a sought-after rarity. Now this outstanding slice of mid-Sixties music is available again with eight extra songs (A&B sides of two singles plus four tracks unreleased at the time). With this fabulous release, Bear Family finally fills in a missing link in the musical story of the 'Swinging Sixties'.

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Article properties: Remo Four: Smile!, Peter Gunn And More (CD)

  • Interpret: Remo Four

  • Album titlle: Smile!, Peter Gunn And More (CD)

  • Label Bear Family Records

  • Preiscode AH
  • Genre Beat

  • Artikelart CD

  • EAN: 4000127171054

  • weight in Kg 0.115
Remo Four - Smile!, Peter Gunn And More (CD) CD 1
01 Heart Beat Remo Four
02 The Skate Remo Four
03 No Money Down Remo Four
04 Rock Candy Remo Four
05 The 7th Son Remo Four
06 Roadrunner Remo Four
07 Brother Where Are You Remo Four
08 Jive Samba Remo Four
09 Nothin's Too Good For My Baby Remo Four
10 Peter Gunn Remo Four
11 Mickey's Monkey Remo Four
12 Live Like A Lady Remo Four
13 Sing Hallelujah) Remo Four
14 Dancing And Singing Remo Four
15 Sing Hallelujah (alternate take) Remo Four
16 Live Like A Lady (alternate take) Remo Four
17 Live Like A Lady (instrumental) Remo Four
The Remo Four Roy Dyke, who played drums with the Remo Four and went on to an illustrious... more
"Remo Four"

The Remo Four

Roy Dyke, who played drums with the Remo Four and went on to an illustrious career, sums it up like this: "There were 500 bands in Liverpool alone. We were all in some kind of a big pot, and only the Beatles really got out of it and had great success. But none of us ever had the feeling in the beginning that the Beatles had shaken us off or were far ahead of us. There was no professional jealousy. We all did our own thing, but of course we also lived in the aura of being from Liverpool, knowing the Beatles personally and having had coffee with Paul McCartney more than once in our lifetime."

Dyke’s Star-Club colleague, John Lennon, came up with an interesting analogy, comparing music and chairs. According to Lennon, the blues is such a chair. Every musician builds and uses the chair in a different way. It is not made for looking at, but for using. "And because we were brought up on a different kind of music and atmosphere," said Lennon, "the Beatles’ songs were our version of the chair. We were building our own chairs."

For some reason the Remo Four’s chair was never finished. Although they existed for almost a decade, they never found commercial success. These days, publications from 'All Music Guide' to 'Record Collector' praise their work, and so acclaim has come late...but not too late. Perhaps their lack of success in the 1960s came down to the arrogance of the British media who might have thought that something not home-grown in the U.K. (and worse yet, grown in Germany) had nothing to offer the local music scene. Perhaps the Remo Four were thought of as a backing band. One thing is for sure: The album you hold in your hands is the only one the group ever produced, and it has weathered the years well.

What’s not in question is that the Remo Four had the right stuff for success: They were excellent, hard-working musicians, and thanks to their experience as a backing band they could handle many different styles. In 1961, they reached No.3 in the 'Mersey Beat' poll, and the Beatles were among their buddies. The Shadows only played the legendary Cavern Club once. It was in 1961, and the Remo Four were onstage that night, too. They got a better reception than the Shads that night, but that might have had something to do with the Shads' Jet Harris drinking too much and falling off stage.

So why didn’t it work out commercially the way it should? Roy Dyke has a very simple explanation: "We never had any so-called hits, because we were on stage permanently. We had no time to go into the studio."

Let’s go back to Liverpool, 1958. The city still was in the midst of post-war reconstruction. That was the year Colin William Manley (lead guitar and vocals) and Don Andrew (bass) – both classmates of Paul McCartney at the Liverpool Institute for Boys – founded the Remo Quartet together with Keith Stokes (rhythm guitar and vocals) and Harry Prytherch (drums). Their name derived in a roundabout way from an Italian singer and bandleader who’d appeared at the London Palladium, Marino Marini, and from there they thought of Italy’s San Remo Music Festival, and that in turn led to the Remo Quartet.

The following years were predictable: parties, competitions, and any kind of show that would have them. They played instrumental music by the Shadows and Ventures, and worked up tight harmonies like the Everly Brothers. Like the Beatles, the Remo Four were among the regular groups at the Cavern Club in 1961/62, and their names are on old posters alongside Rory Storm & The Hurricanes (featuring a drummer named Ringo Starr), Gerry & The Pacemakers and Kingsize Taylor & The Dominoes. And then came the decision on whether to go professional. Prytherch and Stokes voted against it and were replaced by Phil Rogers (rhythm guitar, ex-Dale Roberts & The Jaywalkers) and Roy Dyke (drums, ex-Karl Terry & The Cruisers).

Dyke had just turned 17 at the time. He’d admired the band and his legs almost turned to jelly when the job was offered: "The Remo Four were in a totally different league to Karl Terry & The Cruisers. They were three times as good as us. We had a gig in Southport, and suddenly [the Remo Four’s bass player] Don Andrew came up to me and asked me, if I wanted to be the new drummer. Harry Prytherch had to leave the band, because his father wanted him to take care of the family’s company, and Harry proposed that I would be the best substitute around. I really felt totally flattered. The boys were only three or four years older than me, but I felt like a child among adults." Shortly afterwards, in the middle of 1962, they joined forces with Johnny Sandon (real name: Billy Beck), who’d just split from the Searchers. Ironically, right after Sandon left, the Searchers produced hit after hit – but that’s another story.

The next step took the band to the continent on a tour through France to play for the American National Guard. The Cuban missile crisis was at its height and the American government wanted to build a buffer zone between the USA and Russia. The tour lasted seven months. Roy Dyke, still far from coming of age, remembered: "We wanted to be professionals, so we responded to an ad which one of the concert agents had placed in the 'Melody Maker.' The man seemed to have good contacts on the continent and wrote: 'O.K., guys, you come to London for an audition'. Wow, that was cool! London! Piccadilly! A real audition! The only condition was that we had to have a girl singer – sure, we were to play for the GIs, so we needed a girl singer.

That wasn’t such a big problem, because Phil had this girlfriend named Ellen Bee – she couldn’t sing, but at least she tried. She looked fine, was perfectly shaped, so we took her. We got the contract without any problems and then went to France, from Army Base to Army Base on a monthly basis. It was incredible! The Americans had everything: big clubs, the whole range of entertainment from bands to theatre. That’s when we really turned professional, because we were playing all the time, several times a day. The only problem was our girl singer, because all the soldiers were after her, and we weren’t paid the way it had been agreed upon. We always had to chase after the money."

Remo Four
Smile!, Peter Gunn And More (CD)
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Review 4
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Customer evaluation for "Smile!, Peter Gunn And More (CD)"
29 Dec 2020

Virtuose Band mit einer einmaligen Mischung aus 60s-Beat und Hammond-Jazz mit viel Soul.

Wirklich brillant gespielte Musik, die mit ihrem warmen, räumlichen und klaren Sound trotz des Aufnahmejahres (1966/67!) auch High-End-Ansprüchen gerecht wird. Ein echter Hammer!
Dass eine Band mit einem derartigen Potential nur dieses eine reguläre Album hinterließ, ist eine Schande und auch im Vergleich zu vielen anderen tollen Bands der 60er kaum nachzuvollziehen. Vielleicht war die Musik zu anspruchsvoll für den Massenmarkt oder haben die Plattenfirmen damals geschlafen? Auf jeden Fall hatte die Band enormen Groove und Spielfreude, tolle Instrumentalisten (nicht nur an Gitarre und Orgel) und einen richtig guten Sänger. Ich hätte die Jungs gerne einmal live erlebt. Bei diesem Album handelt es sich um einen echten Schatz, nicht nur Fans der 60er. Denn es klingt keinen Tick verstaubt, sondern frisch und kraftvoll.

13 Jul 2019

Smile

Da ich vom Alter her die goldenen Star Club Zeiten nicht mit erleben konnte, bin ich erst viel später auf diese großartige Band aufmerksam geworden. Dank der Schallplatten Firma LINE; die etliche Starclubalben wiederveröffentlichte, kam ich 1986 in den Besitz der Remo Four LP "smile" ( in weißen Vinyl). Die dreizehn Titel dieser LP gehören meiner Meinung nach, zu den besten Aufnahmen die je für die Star CLub Records produziert wurden. Dass auf dieser wunderbaren Bear Family Zusammenstellung noch weitere Titel und auch alternative Aufnahmen zu hören sind ist schlicht weg genial. Der Song : " Brother where are you " ist für mich der absolute Höhepunkt dieser phantastischen CD. Volle Punktzahl

4 Mar 2019

Super!


Günther W., Erzhausen
25.02.2019
Ganz kleine verschmerzbare Mängel im Booklet. Hat wohl ein wenig Feuchtigkeit abgekriegt. Sieht aus wie Rostspuren im Mittelfalz evtl. durch die Klammerung. Dafür ist das aber eine tolle Raritäte, die man nirgendwo anders findet Auch sonst sehr gute Auswahl und gut gepflegtes Sortiment.

15 Jun 2016

eine der der besten Scheiben der 60iger

Zufällig ging mir vor ein paar Tagen die Melodie von the 7th son durch den Kopf. Ich erinnerte mich an die geile Version von Remo Four. Da man für die Vinylscheibe viel Geld hinlegen muss, hab ich's bei der Bear Family versucht. Mit Erfolg Danke

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Tracklist
Remo Four - Smile!, Peter Gunn And More (CD) CD 1
01 Heart Beat
02 The Skate
03 No Money Down
04 Rock Candy
05 The 7th Son
06 Roadrunner
07 Brother Where Are You
08 Jive Samba
09 Nothin's Too Good For My Baby
10 Peter Gunn
11 Mickey's Monkey
12 Live Like A Lady
13 Sing Hallelujah)
14 Dancing And Singing
15 Sing Hallelujah (alternate take)
16 Live Like A Lady (alternate take)
17 Live Like A Lady (instrumental)