Pretty Things
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The Pretty Things are a 1960s and 1970s rock and roll band from London. Guitarist Dick Taylor was an original member of The Rolling Stones before founding the Pretty Things with singer Phil May at Sidcup Art College in September 1963. They caused a sensation in England and their first three singles -- their first single, "Rosalyn" #41, "Don't Bring Me Down" #10, and the self-penned "Honey I Need" at #13 -- charted in the UK in 1964-65. They never had a hit in the US but had considerable success in their native United Kingdom and in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and the Netherlands in the middle of the decade. In the US they, along with the Yardbirds and Van Morrison's Them, were a huge influence on hundreds of garage bands including the MC5 and the Seeds.
Their early material was hard-edged blues-rock influenced by Bo Diddley (they took their name from Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing") and Jimmy Reed, much like that of their contemporaries the Stones and The Yardbirds. They were known for wild "rock and roll" behavior and shocking the establishment; their song "Midnight to Six Man" defined the Mod lifestyle.
After an uncomfortable flirtation with mainstream pop on the Emotions album in 1967, they embraced psychedelia, producing the groundbreaking concept album S.F. Sorrow during 1967-68. This album, released in late 1968, is arguably one of the first rock operas, beating out Pete Townshend's Tommy by about a year. It was recorded in the legendary Abbey Road Studios six months later than The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and each album shares a similar forward-thinking late-1960s psychedelic sound (as well as sharing a producer, Norman Smith, with the Floyd).
From this point on, the group enjoyed less in the way of commercial success but the devotion of a strong cult following, especially with critics and other rock musicians. Their material in the early 1970s tended towards more the hard rock and early heavy metal end of the spectrum, on albums like Silk Torpedo, although still blues-based. 1980's Cross Talk saw them incorporating influences of punk and New Wave into their hard rock sound; like most of their records, it was an artistic but not a commercial success.
With a new manager, Mark St John, they gigged sporadically during the 1980s/early 1990s until in 1995 they reformed the Cross Talk lineup and added Frank Holland on guitar in place of Peter Tolson. Their label Snapper issued remastered CDs with many bonus tracks plus a DVD of the internet recording of S F Sorrow (with Dave Gilmour & Arthur Brown guesting).
In 2003, Alan Lakey's biography of the band, Growing Old Disgracefully, was published by Firefly. The book dealt with the long and involved history of the band and paid special attention to the legal proceedings issued against EMI in the 1990s.
The band are currently working on a new blues album for relase at the end of 2005.
The band also managed to make some extra cash by recording a number of songs for the DeWolfe Music Library that eventually were featured in several low-budget films during the 60's and early 70's. Some of these films include 1969's What's Good For the Goose and 1969's Haunted House of Horror and even a couple of soft porn films. Not intended for official release, these songs were later compiled on to records and released under the alias Electric Banana: 1967's Electric Banana, 1968's More Electric Banana, 1969's Even More Electric Banana, 1970's Hot Licks, and 1978's Return of the Electric Banana. The initial releases featured one side of vocal and one side of instrumental tracks. Subsequent releases of these albums generally keep the true identity of the band secret.
The Pretty Things were amoung the many band and artists that employed session drummer Bobby Graham, who played on their first two albums.
