for Sunday 3rd July 1966
Last
This
Presented by Ed Stewart
Week
Week
8
1
Bus Stop Hollies
10
2
Get Away Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames
4
3
Sittin' On A Fence Twice As Much
18
4
It's A Man's Man's Man's World James Brown & the Famous Flames
9
5
Paperback Writer Beatles
2
6
Nobody Needs Your Love Gene Pitney
5
7
I Need You (EP) Walker Brothers
3
8
Hideaway Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich
15
9
I Am A Rock Simon & Garfunkel
1
10
River Deep Mountain High Ike & Tina Turner
13
11
The Music Goes Round Jeeps
23
12
Out Of Time Chris Farlowe
37
13
Black Is Black Los Bravos
30
14
This Door Swings Both Ways Herman's Hermits
25
15
I Couldn't Live Without Your Love Petula Clark
6
16
Sunny Afternoon Kinks
39
17
The More I See You Chris Montez
32
18
Lovers Of The World Unite David & Jonathan
40
19
Aggravation Chris Curtis
20
No One Will Ever Know Frank Ifield
22
21
You Gave Me Somebody To Love Fortunes/Manfred Mann
7
22
Along Comes Mary Association
24
23
Indication Zombies
24
Goin' Back Dusty Springfield
25
Oops Neil Christian
26
A House In The Country Pretty Things
12
27
Merci Cherie Vince Hill
28
Follow Me Mark Leeman Five
17
29
Don't Bring Me Down Animals
33
30
Friday Night Red Hawkes
38
31
Shades Of Blue Pirates
14
32
Over Under Sideways Down Yardbirds
33
It's That Time Of The Year Len Barry
26
34
Excuse Me Baby Magic Lanterns
28
35
Have I Stayed Too Long Sonny & Cher
34
36
Can I Trust You Bachelors
31
37
Crazy Stockings Marva Josie
38
Something's Going On In There Behind My Back Dick Jordan
38
Wigglin' And Gigglin' Roy Head
36
39
When You're In Love With A Girl Tony Barry
40
Midnight Mary Rockin' Berries
40
Nothing In The World Geneveve
26
34
Excuse Me Baby Magic Lanterns CBS 202094

Formed in 1962 in Lancashire, the Magic Lanterns line-up that recorded Excuse Me Baby was Jimmy Bilsbury, vocals, Ian Moncur, bass, Peter 'Coco' Shoesmith, lead and Alan Wilson, drums.

It was Roy Hastings (of C-A-R-O-L-I-N-E fame*) who, after compering a band gig, was sufficiently impressed to suggest that the Magic Lanterns make a demo disc. On the strength of that recording they were invited to London to cut Excuse Me Baby, written by Artie Wayne.

In an interview posted on Youtube, Ian Moncur recalls the excitement of the single being chosen as a Caroline Sure Shot and subsequently becoming #1 on the station. Although we know that the disc was a Sure Shot for 18/06/66, its highest recorded position in the Caroline Countdown of Sound, as broadcast from the South ship, is #13. If it did top a chart, it must have been on Caroline North. (Over on the City Sixty, it reached #20.)

Jon Myer of the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame did establish during an email exchange with the late Tom Lodge, that for at least part of Caroline's history, separate charts were compiled for the North and South stations. Tom told Jon, "The two ships were always separate. I created the charts on whichever ship I was on, mostly from Melody Maker. We made some subtle changes, but not much, mostly from information we would receive from sales and also feedback from the audience. But that was extremely minimal. Melody Maker was our main source. What was happening, chart-wise, on the ship I was not on, I have no idea."

While the Magic Lanterns made promotional appearances, including one at the Radio London Marquee Show on June 23rd, hosted by John Edward, Excuse Me Baby bounced in and out of the bottom end of the Nationals like a demented bungee jumper. The suspense for group members must have been terrible! The single came into the chart three times between 7th July and 11th August, but failed to climb beyond #44.

The Lanterns' follow-up release Rumplestiltskin went no further on the Big L playlist than being picked as Alan West's climber and when the next release, Knight in Rusty Armour, came out, the unfortunate band was obliged to share coveted Fab Forty placings with a rival version released simultaneously by the already-successful Peter and Gordon. In the City Sixty, both versions charted, but Peter and Gordon won the battle (or should that be 'joust'?) and their recording of the song was the only one of the two to appear in the Caroline Countdown of Sound. The Magic Lanterns were back in the Fab Forty at #15 in April 67, however, with Auntie Grizelda, a song popularised by the Monkees. Jimmy Bilsbury penned all three B-sides. Sadly, he died in Germany in 2003.

The Magic Lanterns fared slightly better on the other side of the pond with three of their singles nudging into the Hot Hundred in '68, '71 and '72. Highest-placed of the three was Shame Shame, which stayed in the US chart for twelve weeks, peaking at #29.

A newspaper clipping (posted ona now-defunct site) that told the full story of the band, revealed that the Lanterns performed the title theme for the Brigitte Bardot film Two Weeks in September – in which one of the co-stars was Mike Sarne.

Joe Dassin recorded Artie Wayne's song in French, retitled Excuse Me Lady, and took it to #3 in France in 1967.

*The Roy Hastings Caroline single was actually issued in June 1963 – long before Radio Caroline came on the air.

36
39
When You're In Love With A Girl Tony Barry Decca F12431, released 24/6

Tony Barry became member #311 of the Knees Club on July 9th when promoting When You're In Love With A Girl (which had a Pall Mall B-side, Oh My Love) at London's Marquee Club, during the Saturday afternoon Radio London Show. Tony's signature and agency addess, above, are from the Knees Club Book II. Under his real name of Tony Udy, he penned both sides of the single. Tony died in 2014.

Also at theMarquee on July 9th, Lynn asked Big L's Mike Lennox (#16) who was hosting the show, if he would marry her because he was the only person who could get her up in the mornings. He said 'Yes'.

The Knees Club Deep Purple Connection

Other new members who joined at the Marquee that afternoon, included two members of M.I. Five. With the current popularity of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (see Fab May 1st 1966), James Bond and other spoof-espionage films, all things spy-related were highly fashionable.

Rod Evans (#309), the band's vocalist, and Ian Paice (#311) the drummer, made a personal appearance on behalf of M I. Five. Groups rarely did live performances during the Saturday afternoon show, usually appearing simply for the purpose of being interviewed by the host DJ to promote a current single. An airing of said disc would be followed by an autograph session at the side of the stage. Either it had been deemed unnecessary for the whole of M.I. Five to attend the promotion, or the rest of the band was doing its bit elsewhere in London (probably at a Caroline Club Saturday afternoon function). M.I. Five's only single was called You'll Never Stop Me Loving You Issued 29th July. Members of the group not present at the Marquee were Chris Banham, organ, Roger Lewis, guitar and Eric Keen, bass. Ian Paice and Rod Evans were, of course, future members of Deep Purple. Only days earlier, on July 1st, two other future Purple people, Roger Glover (#305) and Ian Gillan (#306) had joined the KC when Episode Six signed up at Beaconsfield Youth Club.

The next person to join the KC was singer/songsmith Kenny Lynch (#312). By sheer coincidence, his own Top Ten hit of two years earlier was the similarly-titled, You Can Never Stop Me Loving You. Although the song titles are similar and Kenny Lynch does appear to have accompanied Ian and Rod to the Marquee, the M.I. Five record is a different song, written by band member Roger Lewis. The single was produced by Phil Jay. (We have been unable to confirm if this is the Radio City DJ, a fellow Knees Club member, who had joined on June 17th.)

Kenny Lynch's greatest songwriting success to date had occurred in February of 66 with the Small Faces' huge hit Sha La La La Lee, which he co-wrote with Mort Shuman.

25
Oops Neil Christian Strike JH 313

On April 25th, a couple of months before the other Purple people, Ritchie Blackmore had joined the KC from Neil Christian's Crusaders, becoming member #220 at Wycombe Town Hall.

Oops was banned from being played on both Ready Steady Go and Five O'Clock Club, as the lyrics were deemed overly sexually-suggestive for early-evening TV. Neil Christian (#218) had been on tour to promote his only national chart success That's Nice. His Crusaders backing group for that tour were Jimmy 'Tornado' Evans (#219), Tony Marsh (#221), Avid Andersen (#222), and Ritchie Blackmore (#220). Group Manager, (or Road Manager) Ron Watell also joined (#224). Sadly, the group decided to scribble fictitious names and vulgar comments in the sacred Knees Club Book. I obviously did not think much of them, as I wrote in my diary, "Haven't had such a lousy time in years".

Neil Christian was part of Radio England's 'Swinging 66' Tour. He died in January 2010, after a long illness.

My only assurance that the individuals listed above were indeed those Crusaders who had defaced the Knees Club book, comes from Pete Frame's 'Rock Family Trees', which lists the band's line-up (its sixth) for April '66. Thus, the KC had acquired Ritchie Blackmore, who was to be the first of five fledgling members of Deep Purple to join.

Click on the photo for more info on Rock Family Trees

 

22
21
You Gave Me Somebody To Love Fortunes Decca F 12429
22 21 You Gave Me Somebody To Love Manfred Mann HMV POP 1541

The two versions of You Gave Me Somebody To Love have been climbing the Fab Forty neck-and-neck, but next week, we find that the Fortunes have vanished and the Manfreds continue climbing on their own. However, the following week, July 17th, both versions are back in the Top Ten at #5.

The Fortunes were not assisted by the advert on the left (from The London Sound, courtesy of Brian Long) where the typesetter has managed to retitle the single "You Save Me Somebody To Love"! (As John Lennon once said, "It's somebody's bad handwrota!")

The group was managed by Radio City's Reg Calvert, who unfortunately never saw the single's release on June 24th, 1966, having suffered a fatal gunshot wound on June 21st.

The full story of the shooting can be found in the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame.

Besides climbers that were played at the time of the broadcast of the Sunday Fab Forty,
Alan kept a note of others he heard later in the week and incorporated them into his list.
DJ Climbers:
Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever Four Tops Tony Blackburn
Light Of The Charge Brigade Viv Prince Chris Denning
Hi-Lili Hi-Lo Alan Price Set Dave Dennis
Summer In The City Lovin' Spoonful Kenny Everett
Ninety Nine And A Half (Won't Do) Wilson Pickett Duncan Johnson
I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water Johnny Rivers Paul Kaye
Sweet Pea Tommy Roe Mike Lennox
With A Girl Like You Troggs Mark Roman
Counting Marianne Faithfull Keith Skues
The Man Who Took The Valise Off The Floor Of Grand Central Station At Noon She Trinity Ed Stewart
I Love How You Love Me Paul & Barry Ryan Tony Windsor

Aboard the Galaxy
July 8th
Willy Walker (#271) left Radio London and Norman St. John (#333) (below) joined Big L from Caroline to take his place. However, Norm was not allocated a climber for this week.

Climbers:  
32nd Floor Washington D.C.'s
Love Letters Elvis Presley
No 1 In Your Heart Herbie Goins & the Night-Timers
How Long Is Time Odyssey
Happy Summer Days Ronnie Dove
Disc of the Week:  
(Baby) You Don't Have To Tell Me Walker Brothers
Album of the Week:  
Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich

The Album of the Week for w/c 3rd July 1966 is something of a Fab Forty mystery. Alan Field heard the title announced as Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich, but in The London Sound, Brian Long lists the designated Big L AotW as the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.However, the latter had been out in the UK since May 16th, so it was not a new release.

Exactly why such a radical change would have been made, we may never know, but according to Alan's notes, Pet Sounds was never referred to on air as Album of the Week.

Unusually, the Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich LP has a spoken introduction by Kenny Everett, who, as reported previously, had played blocks on the band's Hideaway single (which is not included on this LP).

1966 Pet Sounds-related Fab Forty info:
Caroline No,
released as a single under Brian Wilson's name alone, had been a climber on April 4th, but vanished from the playlist after one week.

Sloop John B was Disc of the Week for the Beach Boys on April 10th and reached #1 on May 8th. Pet Sounds was released May 16th.

A cover of God Only Knows by Tony Rivers and the Castaways appeared on July 10th as a climber. The Beach Boys' own version arrived as TW's climber the week after, on July 17th; it held the #2 slot for 2 weeks on August 7th and 14th, held off the top position by the Beatles' Eleaner Rigby. God Only Knows made its final FF appearance on 28th August, the week that the Robb Storme Group's cover of Here Today spent one week at #40.

Brian Wilson's 21st Century live performances of Pet Sounds have been captured on DVD.
Click on the photos of the sleeves for full purchasing info from Amazon

'Brian Wilson Performs Pet Sounds Live in London' is a Fourteen-track DVD recording of one of his Royal Festival Hall performances. It incorporates extras:

Pet Stories – the ultimate inside look at the making of the original album, through new interviews with Brian, lyricist Tony Asher and others.

Brian Wilson Discography – complete details on every release in Brian Wilson's solo career.

Pet Sounds Live Photo Gallery - a collection of photographs of Brian and the band taken during the production of this DVD.

'Brian Wilson Performs Pet Sounds Live ' (right) is a Sixteen-track Japanese import DVD, with tracks differing from those on 'Live in London'.



The red addition to the climber indicates a single listed in Brian Long's book 'The London Sound' based on information typed in the Curzon Street offices or other sources.
Alan Field did not hear them played or announced as climbers.


The Caroline 'Countdown Sixty' chart (south ship) for this week is here

This week's Radio City 'City Sixty' on the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame (a partical chart this week) is here

Tune in next week for another Field's Fab Forty!


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