The Mickey Finn 1964/1967

Description

The Mickey Finn lived the life. They may not have notched up any hit records, but their sixties adventures took them from the East End of London to trendy clubs in the South of France and the Bahamas. Along the way they left behind a tidy pile of sought-after 45s, one - "Garden of My Mind" - a freakbeat monolith revered as one of the era's best. This collection of their work is an impressive tribute to their maverick, hedonistic spirit, comprising all their released recordings plus some - unissued at the time - 1966 tracks that have never been available on vinyl before. It includes a couple of Shel Talmy productions and Jimmy Page features over a repertoire that combined hip bluebeat arrangements of blues classics, solid soul numbers and punk R&B originals. Over 50 years after their break-up, their brilliant 1964-1967 recordings, collected here on vinyl for the first time, are still generating heat and moving feet. Guitarist Mickey Waller and drummer Richard Brand formed the earliest incarnation of the group in London's Bethnal Green in 1962. Originally known as the Strangers, by late 1963 they'd added bass player John Burkett and lead singer Alan Mark and changed their name to the Central Sound, Bethnal Green being on the Central Line of London's Tube system. In 1964 the Blue Beat label had just released a single recorded by members of the Checkmates but credited to an as-yet fictional group, Mickey Finn & the Blue Men, "Tom Hark" b/w "Please Love Me." The record needed to be promoted, so at their manager's insistence the Central Sound changed their name to Mickey Finn & the Blue Men. Since there was already a Mickey in the group, Mickey Waller was designated as Mickey Finn. They were now "recording artists" before ever having set foot in a recording studio. After adding a new member, John "Fluff" Cooke on keyboards, the group began its real recording career in March 1964 when Oriole released a single featuring hip bluebeat arrangements of two R&B numbers, Bo Diddley's "Pills" and Jimmy Reed's "Hush Your Mouth." For the recording session at Regent Sound, they were joined by their friend Jimmy Page on harmonica. Page also played a handful of gigs with them and also blew harp on their next single, a version of Chuck Berry's "Reelin' and Rockin'" backed with an excellent punk R&B original, "I Still Want You." Shel Talmy took over production duties for their next single, released on Columbia in March 1965, a strong version of the traditional blues song "This Sporting Life". It was on the B-side, though, that they really cut loose. On "Night Comes Down" Mark's brooding vocal is underpinned by a tense descending bass line by new member Mick Stannard, atmospheric keyboards from Fluff, and some wild, dissonant guitar work from Mickey Waller and Jimmy Page. Another Talmy-produced track, "It Ain't Necessarily So," also dates from this period. Although the group was kept busy with live work, they went out on a package tour with the Kinks, the Yardbirds, an