for Sunday 30th April 1967

A promising start last week saw the Searchers coming straight in at #27, neck-in-neck with the Five Americans. Now both versions of Western Union have slipped down to #36. This Dutch picture sleeve of the Searchers is courtesy of Willy de Ruyter. The Five Americans were a Dallas-based band led by Michael Rabon, who had enjoyed a Top Ten hit in the US Hot Hundred.

Thirty-five years after claiming the FF #3, the 2002 line-up of the Tremeloes was on a UK tour called Call Up the Groups, with the Barron Knights (naturally), Fortunes, Marmalade and legendary guitarist Bert Weedon. Between them, the musicians performed over thirty of their million-selling hits. In recent years Silence is Golden has often been sung a capella by a choir comprising members of various groups on the bill, as a tribute to sadly-departed band members.

Shotgun Express existed for only a short while in '66 and early '67. Rod Stewart had joined as a vocalist after leaving Steampacket. He featured on I Could Feel The Whole World Turn Round, the first Shotgun Express single, which reached #15 on the Fab Forty for 13th November '66. However, he had left to join the Jeff Beck Group before this second single was recorded.

Other group members were Beryl Marsden (vcls), Peter Green (b Greenbaum) (gtr), Peter Bardens (org), Dave Ambrose (bs) and Mick Fleetwood (drms).

Beryl Marsden was no stranger to the Fab, having already appeared there solo in December 1965/January 66 with her single Music Talk.

Mick Fleetwood was already familiar to the Fab, as his only single with the Bo Street Runners, Baby Never Say Goodbye, had been at #28 on 8th August '65.

After Shotgun Express, Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood were briefly with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, (version #108, according to Pete Frame's Rock Family Trees) before forming Fleetwood Mac. Dave Ambrose headed for The Brian Auger Trinity and Peter Bardens went to The Love Affair. Mint copies of Funny 'Cos Neither Could I are now very collectable, fetching around £45.

Aboard the Galaxy this week

Radio London had chosen the Attack's version of Hi Ho Silver Lining (written by Scott English) as a climber for two weeks some time ago – 26/02/67 and 05/03/67. Decca released the single on 03/03/67, but it was dropped from the Big L playlist, in favour of Jeff Beck's version, which was issued 10/03/67 on Columbia. Whether or not the record companies intended a race for the charts, Radio London management was always more likely to favour Beck's version, because the B-side Beck's Bolero, was published by their company Pall Mall (with writing credit to Jimmy Page). On 12/03/67, Beck's Hi Ho... was picked as Tony Blackburn's climber and was soon scaling the Fab Forty.

The end of April /beginning of May would, therefore, seem rather late in the day to be promoting the Attack version, which had already been released for two months. Nevertheless, this week Big L was running a competition to give 50 copies of the Attack single away, even though the song had been a Fab Forty #4 for Jeff Beck only two weeks earlier and had already hit #14 in the Nationals!

The exact date when this competition began and how often it was repeated on air, is not known, but there is recorded evidence of it being aired in the early hours of May 4th, by John Yorke. Paul Kaye voiced the promo and gave the closing date as Monday 8th May. The audience was required to listen sufficiently closely to Hi Ho Silver Lining to count how many times lead singer Richard Shirman repeated the song's title. This odd choice of promotion did ensure further airplay, even though the record was no longer included in the Radio London playlist, but the publicity had come too late for the Attack. (Read the band's version of what went wrong on Marmalade Skies website)

Ashore

May 5th
Keith Skues interviewed the Beach Boys at the Finsbury Park Astoria. The interview, originally intended to be played during the 15-minute Coffee Break, became a one-hour special. The band appreciated that airplay on the offshore stations was the reason for their massive popularity in the UK and they expressed disappointment that their tour schedule did not permit them the time to visit the Galaxy.

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.