Monday, November 16, 2009
The Ferris Wheel - lost 60's sounds from England..
The Ferris Wheel - lost 60's sounds from England..
LISTEN TO SONG - clicl link above...
LISTEN TO SONG - clicl link above...
The Ferris Wheel - lost 60's sounds from England..
The Ferris Wheel - lost 60's sounds from England..
The Ferris Wheel were one of England's great lost musical treasures of the middle-late '60s -- immensely popular among club audiences, they were never able to translate their ability to win over crowds into chart success, but they made some great records while they were trying. The group came together out of the remnants of two earlier British bands, Emile Ford & the Checkmates and West Five. Dave Sweetman (saxophone), George Sweetman (bass, vocals), and Barry Reeves (drums) had played in the Checkmates, the backing band to Emile Ford (who was half-brother to Dave and George Sweetman), while Mike Liston (keyboards, vocals) had been with a group called the West Five. Trinidad-born Diane Ferraz (vocals) had recorded as part of the duo of Diane & Nicky, in tandem with vocalist Nicky Scott, under the auspices of Simon Napier-Bell, best remembered as the second manager of the Yardbirds; and guitarist Keith Anthony filled up the last instrumental spot in the group. The band's original name was Diane Ferraz & the Simon's Triangle, but that arrangement -- with the others designated as Ferraz's backing group -- proved awkward and irrelevant when the whole act jelled as a unit, and Sweetman and Liston also both proved good vocalists in their own right. For a new name, they selected the Ferris Wheel, taking off from Ferraz's family name.
The Ferris Wheel quickly became one of the most popular club acts in England, with their mix of soul music spiced with the influence of the psychedelic music that was starting to spread across the pop world. Vocally their sound was centered around Motown, but instrumentally they were very much a part of the London scene of the time -- there were no Mellotrons or sitars, but lots of guitar arabesques and extended ornate organ swells, and all of it was woven together well with the soul sound. Ferraz showed herself capable of crossing swords with Diana Ross or Martha Reeves or, together, all three vocalists could sound as smooth as the Fifth Dimension. The group was signed to Pye Records by producer John Schroeder, who was, himself, a major figure in soul music in England, having arranged for the release of many of Motown Records' early singles on that side of the Atlantic. It was Schroeder who decided to break the group by issuing a complete LP, Can't Break the Habit, rather than starting with a single. This was a bold and appropriate decision -- the group's range was so great and its command of various musical idioms so strong, and its act honed so well after six months of playing clubs, that it was well capable of delivering a dozen worthwhile songs. The Supremes, Carla Thomas, and other influences abounded, and all were given a unique spin. A trio of singles followed, drawn from the album, but none of them charted. The sextet stayed together for another year, but there followed a label switch and numerous membership changes over the next couple of years, most notably Ferraz's departure (from the music business as well, to raise a family), to be replaced by Marsha Hunt and then Linda Lewis. The group issued one more album, a self-titled release on Polydor in England and the MCA subsidiary label Uni in America (though they never had any impact in the United States. In subsequent years, George Sweetman passed through the line-up of Medicine Head while Barry Reeves joined Blossom Toes and Brian Auger & the Trinity, and latter-day drummer Dennis Elliott was subsequently a member of Foreigner.
The group was mostly forgotten during the later '70s and '80s, and Can't Break the Habit was one ofthe rarest LP releases in the Pye catalog. The burgeoning nostalgia for mid-1960's mod and "freakbeat" records, coupled with the ubiquitous Northern Soul boom of the late '90s, seemed to make a rediscovery not only called for but likely. In 2000, Sequel Records issued an expanded edition of Can't Break the Habit, complete with annotation that included reminsicences by Diane Ferraz......
The Ferris Wheel were one of England's great lost musical treasures of the middle-late '60s -- immensely popular among club audiences, they were never able to translate their ability to win over crowds into chart success, but they made some great records while they were trying. The group came together out of the remnants of two earlier British bands, Emile Ford & the Checkmates and West Five. Dave Sweetman (saxophone), George Sweetman (bass, vocals), and Barry Reeves (drums) had played in the Checkmates, the backing band to Emile Ford (who was half-brother to Dave and George Sweetman), while Mike Liston (keyboards, vocals) had been with a group called the West Five. Trinidad-born Diane Ferraz (vocals) had recorded as part of the duo of Diane & Nicky, in tandem with vocalist Nicky Scott, under the auspices of Simon Napier-Bell, best remembered as the second manager of the Yardbirds; and guitarist Keith Anthony filled up the last instrumental spot in the group. The band's original name was Diane Ferraz & the Simon's Triangle, but that arrangement -- with the others designated as Ferraz's backing group -- proved awkward and irrelevant when the whole act jelled as a unit, and Sweetman and Liston also both proved good vocalists in their own right. For a new name, they selected the Ferris Wheel, taking off from Ferraz's family name.
The Ferris Wheel quickly became one of the most popular club acts in England, with their mix of soul music spiced with the influence of the psychedelic music that was starting to spread across the pop world. Vocally their sound was centered around Motown, but instrumentally they were very much a part of the London scene of the time -- there were no Mellotrons or sitars, but lots of guitar arabesques and extended ornate organ swells, and all of it was woven together well with the soul sound. Ferraz showed herself capable of crossing swords with Diana Ross or Martha Reeves or, together, all three vocalists could sound as smooth as the Fifth Dimension. The group was signed to Pye Records by producer John Schroeder, who was, himself, a major figure in soul music in England, having arranged for the release of many of Motown Records' early singles on that side of the Atlantic. It was Schroeder who decided to break the group by issuing a complete LP, Can't Break the Habit, rather than starting with a single. This was a bold and appropriate decision -- the group's range was so great and its command of various musical idioms so strong, and its act honed so well after six months of playing clubs, that it was well capable of delivering a dozen worthwhile songs. The Supremes, Carla Thomas, and other influences abounded, and all were given a unique spin. A trio of singles followed, drawn from the album, but none of them charted. The sextet stayed together for another year, but there followed a label switch and numerous membership changes over the next couple of years, most notably Ferraz's departure (from the music business as well, to raise a family), to be replaced by Marsha Hunt and then Linda Lewis. The group issued one more album, a self-titled release on Polydor in England and the MCA subsidiary label Uni in America (though they never had any impact in the United States. In subsequent years, George Sweetman passed through the line-up of Medicine Head while Barry Reeves joined Blossom Toes and Brian Auger & the Trinity, and latter-day drummer Dennis Elliott was subsequently a member of Foreigner.
The group was mostly forgotten during the later '70s and '80s, and Can't Break the Habit was one ofthe rarest LP releases in the Pye catalog. The burgeoning nostalgia for mid-1960's mod and "freakbeat" records, coupled with the ubiquitous Northern Soul boom of the late '90s, seemed to make a rediscovery not only called for but likely. In 2000, Sequel Records issued an expanded edition of Can't Break the Habit, complete with annotation that included reminsicences by Diane Ferraz......
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The comedy of John Lennon. -
TO LISTEN - click link above
John Lennon was my favorite Beatle as he was
off beat yet wise well beyond his years...
This amazing video link made me smile.....
Listen to the Dave The BoogieMan Power Pop Plus radio show...
Dave The BoogieMan - LISTENING LINK--
Plus other great programs of
11L - Radio New York International
John Lightning - Big Steve Cole
Friday, October 23, 2009
Soupy Sales 2009 RIP
Soupy Sales, Sandy Becker, The Superman TV show, Abbot & Costello, Jerry Lewis,
Warner Brothers & Max Fleischer cartoons were the main influences in my early life....
I am sad to say at Soupy Sales has passed..
Kids, go into your parents wallet and take $5 out and send it to
11L -Radio New York International for Soupy....
11L Radio NewYork International - John Lightning
Dave The BoogieMan - 11L Radio New York International
Comedian Soupy Sales Dead At 83
The comedy icon made pie-in-the-face gag a pop-culture phenomenon.
It was a simple gag, but one that made Soupy Sales a household name: a pie in the face, or 20,000 pies, to be exact. That slapstick comedic trick, along with a warehouse of goofy faces and wacky characters helped elevate Sales (born Milton Supman) to one of the country's most beloved comedians in the late 1950s. Sales died on Thursday at the age of 83 at a hospital in the Bronx, after several years of declining health.
"We have lost a comedy American icon," longtime friend and manager Paul Dver said, according to CNN. "I feel the personal loss, and I also feel the magic that he had around him being gone. That's a much more severe loss than a loss of a friend."
With his loose-limbed physicality and malleable face, Sales honed his craft on children's television programs in the 1950s, blazing a trail for everything from "The Simpsons" to Pee-Wee Herman by cracking wise for kids while making jokes their parents found funny too. He's best known for his long-running kids show "Lunch With Soupy Sales," where he originated the pie-throwing gag. He moved on to "The Soupy Sales Show," which ran for 13 years in Detroit, New York and Los Angeles, before being picked up in other cities and overseas.
The program was salted with silly puppets named Pookie, White Fang and Black Tooth, but it was Sales who commanded center stage with his pratfalls, campy jokes, loopy characters and puns. The obligatory pie-in-the-face gag became such a phenomenon that the Los Angeles Times noted that stars such as Frank Sinatra, Mickey Rooney, Tony Curtis and Sammy Davis Jr. lined up to be smeared for its hip cachet.
Sales was born in the tiny town of Franklinton, North Carolina, on January 28, 1926. He was the son of the only Jewish family in a town where his father's dry goods store sold sheets to the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan. The family's name was so often mispronounced as "Soupman" that his parents jokingly nicknamed his brothers "Hambone" and "Chickenbone," bestowing on him the name "Soupbone," which was eventually shortened to Soupy.
After fighting in the Pacific in World War II and participating in the invasion of Okinawa (while honing his comedic chops aboard his ship's public address system), Sales returned and began his entertainment career in 1949 in Cincinnati, where he worked as a morning DJ and did stand-up in local clubs. By the early 1950s, he did stints as a script writer at radio stations in West Virginia and Cleveland, while moonlighting as a stand-up comedian and DJ.
He launched his TV career in 1953 with the live children's show "Soupy Sales Comics" on a Detroit station, which led to a nighttime show called "Soupy's On." The show was renamed "The Soupy Sales Show" in 1955, and it was in that version that he honed his stable of wacky characters, such as seductive Marilyn Monwolf and her vampiric neighbor the Count, Willie the Worm, "Onions" Oregano and private detective Philo Kvetch. While meant for kids, the show developed a cult following among adults in the early 1960s as it spread in syndication, with Sinatra's pie-slap helping to open the door for a series of celebrity pie cameos.
Along with his signature gag, the show featured jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington in the pre-civil-rights era, when black performers were rarely seen in prime-time slots. The show earned Sales a spot in the pantheon of iconic TV funnymen, alongside such legends as Red Skelton and Jackie Gleason.
But he almost blew it on New Year's Day in 1965 when he had to vamp for a minute while producing a show for a New York affiliate. Sales told the kids watching to find their parents' wallets and "get some of those funny green pieces of paper with all those nice pictures of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Alexander Hamilton" and mail them to him. He promised a postcard from Puerto Rico in return. When he repeated the gag in Los Angeles and Detroit, it led to a complaint from a viewer to the FCC that got Sales' show suspended. After a flood of complaints about the cancellation, though, many of them from teenage fans of the program, the show was back on the air within a week.
While his TV fame had faded by the late 1960s, Sales continued to be a staple in the medium, thanks to appearances on TV game shows such as "What's My Line," "To Tell the Truth," "Match Game" and "Hollywood Squares." Modern comedians like Howard Stern continued to sing his praises to a new generation. His sons, Hunt and Tony Sales, performed with rock icon David Bowie in the band Tin Machine in the late 1980s and served as the rhythm section on Iggy Pop's Lust for Life album.
Thanks for making my childhood full of pie...Perhaps the New York Yankees could learn where the pie in the face originated from ....
Warner Brothers & Max Fleischer cartoons were the main influences in my early life....
I am sad to say at Soupy Sales has passed..
Kids, go into your parents wallet and take $5 out and send it to
11L -Radio New York International for Soupy....
11L Radio NewYork International - John Lightning
Dave The BoogieMan - 11L Radio New York International
Comedian Soupy Sales Dead At 83
The comedy icon made pie-in-the-face gag a pop-culture phenomenon.
It was a simple gag, but one that made Soupy Sales a household name: a pie in the face, or 20,000 pies, to be exact. That slapstick comedic trick, along with a warehouse of goofy faces and wacky characters helped elevate Sales (born Milton Supman) to one of the country's most beloved comedians in the late 1950s. Sales died on Thursday at the age of 83 at a hospital in the Bronx, after several years of declining health.
"We have lost a comedy American icon," longtime friend and manager Paul Dver said, according to CNN. "I feel the personal loss, and I also feel the magic that he had around him being gone. That's a much more severe loss than a loss of a friend."
With his loose-limbed physicality and malleable face, Sales honed his craft on children's television programs in the 1950s, blazing a trail for everything from "The Simpsons" to Pee-Wee Herman by cracking wise for kids while making jokes their parents found funny too. He's best known for his long-running kids show "Lunch With Soupy Sales," where he originated the pie-throwing gag. He moved on to "The Soupy Sales Show," which ran for 13 years in Detroit, New York and Los Angeles, before being picked up in other cities and overseas.
The program was salted with silly puppets named Pookie, White Fang and Black Tooth, but it was Sales who commanded center stage with his pratfalls, campy jokes, loopy characters and puns. The obligatory pie-in-the-face gag became such a phenomenon that the Los Angeles Times noted that stars such as Frank Sinatra, Mickey Rooney, Tony Curtis and Sammy Davis Jr. lined up to be smeared for its hip cachet.
Sales was born in the tiny town of Franklinton, North Carolina, on January 28, 1926. He was the son of the only Jewish family in a town where his father's dry goods store sold sheets to the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan. The family's name was so often mispronounced as "Soupman" that his parents jokingly nicknamed his brothers "Hambone" and "Chickenbone," bestowing on him the name "Soupbone," which was eventually shortened to Soupy.
After fighting in the Pacific in World War II and participating in the invasion of Okinawa (while honing his comedic chops aboard his ship's public address system), Sales returned and began his entertainment career in 1949 in Cincinnati, where he worked as a morning DJ and did stand-up in local clubs. By the early 1950s, he did stints as a script writer at radio stations in West Virginia and Cleveland, while moonlighting as a stand-up comedian and DJ.
He launched his TV career in 1953 with the live children's show "Soupy Sales Comics" on a Detroit station, which led to a nighttime show called "Soupy's On." The show was renamed "The Soupy Sales Show" in 1955, and it was in that version that he honed his stable of wacky characters, such as seductive Marilyn Monwolf and her vampiric neighbor the Count, Willie the Worm, "Onions" Oregano and private detective Philo Kvetch. While meant for kids, the show developed a cult following among adults in the early 1960s as it spread in syndication, with Sinatra's pie-slap helping to open the door for a series of celebrity pie cameos.
Along with his signature gag, the show featured jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington in the pre-civil-rights era, when black performers were rarely seen in prime-time slots. The show earned Sales a spot in the pantheon of iconic TV funnymen, alongside such legends as Red Skelton and Jackie Gleason.
But he almost blew it on New Year's Day in 1965 when he had to vamp for a minute while producing a show for a New York affiliate. Sales told the kids watching to find their parents' wallets and "get some of those funny green pieces of paper with all those nice pictures of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Alexander Hamilton" and mail them to him. He promised a postcard from Puerto Rico in return. When he repeated the gag in Los Angeles and Detroit, it led to a complaint from a viewer to the FCC that got Sales' show suspended. After a flood of complaints about the cancellation, though, many of them from teenage fans of the program, the show was back on the air within a week.
While his TV fame had faded by the late 1960s, Sales continued to be a staple in the medium, thanks to appearances on TV game shows such as "What's My Line," "To Tell the Truth," "Match Game" and "Hollywood Squares." Modern comedians like Howard Stern continued to sing his praises to a new generation. His sons, Hunt and Tony Sales, performed with rock icon David Bowie in the band Tin Machine in the late 1980s and served as the rhythm section on Iggy Pop's Lust for Life album.
Thanks for making my childhood full of pie...Perhaps the New York Yankees could learn where the pie in the face originated from ....
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