THE
NASHVILLE TEENS
THE MUSIC
1. SAMPLE MEDIA
2. FILMS & VIDEOS AVAILABLE
3. DISCOGRAPHY
4. BRITISH BEAT 1960-1969
The Nashville Teens are indebted to Jim Howell for compiling our discography..
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THE
NASHVILLE TEENS
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The Nashville Teens are indebted to Jim Howell for compiling our discography..
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1 SAMPLE MEDIA Music and video can take some time to download - please be patient These clips, and others, are all available on You Tube.
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2 MUSIC The following CDs are available from specialist
retailers around the World or (using Paypal) from this website. |
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VIDEO The following film and DVD issues are currently available to buy. During the sixties we had no MTV and the concept of music videos was still way off in the future - even TOP OF THE POPS - the weekly British TV programme which pioneered pop publicity, was broadcast live. We didn't have video recorders either, and the BBC was piss poor at archiving - especially archiving phenomena which its controllers doubtless regarded as a transient fashion. As a result there is not very much TV type video footage of the early sixties music scene. Luckily there were some films we could watch at the cinema. Some were just filmed pop music shows and some had a loose (and often ludicrous) plot to give an excuse for a lot of different musicians to appear and perform their then current songs. We know of three such films still available in which the NASHVILLE TEENS appeared. BE MY GUEST A corny monochrome film starring an exceedingly young David Hemmings who outwits a roguish local promoter who is trying to establish "The Brighton Sound" The NASHVILLE TEENS appear singing I'm Gonna Make Love To You. The scenes of the female audience screaming when Ray sings the chorus line reminds us that the Teens were the ultimate boyband of their day. The film also includes a guest appearance by Jerry Lee Lewis - extending an association with the Teens, who backed him on early tours of the UK and Germany. GO GO MANIA Originally released in the UK as POP GEAR. This colour film is a straightforward music show with each act introduced by a beaming young Jimmy Savile. The NASHVILLE TEENS perform Tobacco Road. GONKS GO BEAT Another corny plot in which Kenneth Connor is an intergalactic agent tasked with sorting out a feud between "Beatland" and "Ballad Isle" and in which love - predictably - plays a role in uniting the types of music. The NASHVILLE TEENS play a rocking version of Poor Boy in this colour film, which also stars Terry Scott, Frank Thornton and Arthur Mullard. The film also has a very young Ginger Baker as one of a crew of drummers confined to "drum prison". You too can get these films. I haven't found them in PAL or SECAM format yet, but they can be got on NTSC format from THE VIDEO BEAT of 425 Lombard Street, San Francisco, CA 94133, USA. Most modern video players in the UK will play NTSC format as well as UK standard PAL. You can order the videos on line from www.thevideobeat.com. The company provides a really helpful service, and have films featuring many other British artists as well.
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DISCOGRAPHY Compiled by Jim Howell from Gorilla Beat (No. 8, 1980), Record Collector (No. 52, Dec. 1983), The Tapestry of Delights, and the collection of Jim Howell - updated October 2003.
Notes
©Jim Howell 2003 last revised 18th October 2003 |
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Terry Rawlings has published an excellent book called THEN, NOW, AND RARE BRITISH BEAT 1960-1969 The book is available from all good book sellers, it is ISBN 0-7119-9094-8, and Amazon.com can provide it by post within a few days. It is must have reading for all of you who lived through, or are interested in, "the sixties". Mr. Rawlings works alphabetically through all the major British bands of the sixties, and some minor - but fascinatingly connected bands. For each he provides a very brief biography of the band then and what they are doing now. The book also contains many contemporary photos, including the cover photo of the book itself - which features the Nashville Teens themselves. You can see the book cover in the MEMORABILIA section of this site. We reproduce here (we have asked permission, but haven't got it yet - so go out and buy the book to vindicate us !) Terry's section on THE TEENS: |
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Proving that the Merseysiders didn't have the field to themselves in early Sixties Hamburg was Surrey septet The Nashville Teens. Formed in Weybridge during 1962 by singers Art Sharp and Ray Phillips the first line-up comprised Michael Dunford (guitar), John Hawken (piano), Pete Shannon (bass), and Roger Groom (drums). Dunford and Groom left the following year, to be respectively replaced by John Allen and Barry Jenkins, for an extended period in Germany. While learning their trade there (with additional vocalist Terry Crow) the band played residencies at the famed Star Club and backed visiting US giant Jerry Lee Lewis. On their return to England in 1964 they repeated the experience with Chuck Berry and earned themselves a management contract with Don Arden and a recording deal with Decca. A debut single - a cover of John d Loudermilk's "Tobacco Road" - was produced by Mickie Most and shot them to number six in August 1964. It also gave the Nashville Teens a foothold in America where it made the US Top 20 in October (they were assumed to be American because of the name). Another Loudermilk song "Google Eye" (an ode to a fish) was chosen as a follow up and gave them a second top tenner in November but it was to be their last with Most. In 1965 a chance to broaden their American popularity was botched when a visa mix-up forced the band to abandon a US tour with The Zombies. A third single appropriately entitled "Find My way Back Home" was recorded while the band were stuck in New York but stalled at 34 in March. Decca were blamed for not supporting the group and neglecting them promotions-wise. Once home again they made an impressive appearance alongside The Animals in the beat movie Pop Gear and released a critically acclaimed (but poor selling) self-titled EP. "This Little Bird" (produce by Andrew Loog Oldham, which ironically lost out in chart favours to Marianne Faithfull), "I Know How It Feels To Be Loved" and "The Hard Way" (produced by Shel Talmy) were only minor hits. Groom rejoined the group in February '66 when Jenkins jumped at the opportunity to replace John Steel in The Animals. The Teens' chart profile began to ebb away from then on but luckily they could still fall back on their in-demand live reputation backing visiting American artists like Carl Perkins and Bo Diddley. In 1969 Hawken left to form Renaissance with ex-Yardbirds Keith Relf and Jim McCarty. The occasional single continued to slip out unnoticed, including the Roy Wood song "Ella James", produced by its composer, and line-ups came and went right through the Seventies and even the Eighties. Art Sharp left in 1972 and went to work for Don Arden while Ray Phillips still fronts a version of the band (despite the "teen" tag) today. ©Terry Rawlings 2002 |
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last validation 25/07/10
