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Colin
Joined: 26 Sep 2013
Posts: 916
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 Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:43 pm Post subject: Thunderclap Newman |
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Listening to Michael Ball sitting in for Ken Bruce this morning, he asked a Popmaster contestant the name of the band who recorded the original "Something In The Air". The contestant didn't know. The answer is "Thunderclap Newman", announced Mr. Ball.
"Never heard of them" was the man's reply.
Suddenly I feel old. Very old. |
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oldraver
Joined: 18 Dec 2006
Posts: 1175
Location: London
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| Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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Michael Ball hadn't heard of them, either, though he quickly added that he knew the song.
Who could forget the fat bloke with a beard, wearing a policeman's helmet, playing the piano on TOTP? Or Speedy Keen, the singer, and young Jimmy McCullogh? Or that Pete Townshend wrote it?
Just about everyone, it seems. 
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Colin
Joined: 26 Sep 2013
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| Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 5:26 pm Post subject: |
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Indeed. Ken Bruce would certainly have heard of them because he's a lot older than me! 
I still have the original 45rpm single, and I always did think that Pete Townshend's involvement in its recording was far greater than is claimed. The lead vocal does sound remarkably like his! |
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ruddlescat
Joined: 16 Sep 2010
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Location: Near Chester
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| Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 5:27 pm Post subject: |
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One of the stand out tracks from the best year ever in music in my view 
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Colin
Joined: 26 Sep 2013
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| Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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| ruddlescat wrote: | | One of the stand out tracks from the best year ever in music in my view |
Yes, I think I bought more singles that year than any other, to be honest. I'd have to dig them all out to check, of course, although I had started to buy albums by that time and I was definitely an album-buying person by 1970. I also think that TOTP went downhill after about 1969 as well, and come 1971/72 it was really naff. It was much more cool to watch "Disco 2" (awful title but quite a good show) and its worthy successor "The Old Grey Whistle Test". |
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Schizoidman
Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 1140
Location: Rural West Sussex
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| Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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It's a fabulous song, I agree. But I can understand someone not having heard of Thunderclap Newman. They were a one hit wonder and it was a hit 44 years ago (no 1 in July 1969).
I always thought the vocals were suspiciously like Townshend's. Another obscure fact: Speedy Keene wrote the opening track Armenia City In The Sky on The Who's 1967 album The Who Sell Out. |
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gazmando
Joined: 15 Apr 2007
Posts: 560
Location: Huntingdon
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| Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:08 pm Post subject: |
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I really love the song, but didn't know Pete Townshend wrote it either (sorry) 
Regarding Michael Ball, I was praying yet again that he would bring his producer with him this time but my hopes were dashed yet again.
Does Gary Bones EVER go on holiday!!!! |
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RockitRon
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 7646
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| Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Schizoidman wrote: | It's a fabulous song, I agree. But I can understand someone not having heard of Thunderclap Newman. They were a one hit wonder and it was a hit 44 years ago (no 1 in July 1969).
I always thought the vocals were suspiciously like Townshend's. Another obscure fact: Speedy Keene wrote the opening track Armenia City In The Sky on The Who's 1967 album The Who Sell Out. |
The follow-up, Accidents, which scraped into the Top 50 at 46, was even better.
The B-side was the absurd Wilhelmina, a catchy, all-together-now song that, in the wrong hands and given airplay, could have been a No 1 in its own right
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Colin
Joined: 26 Sep 2013
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| Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 8:38 am Post subject: |
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| Schizoidman wrote: | | Speedy Keene wrote the opening track Armenia City In The Sky on The Who's 1967 album The Who Sell Out. |
After "Who's Next?" and "The Who Live at Leeds" that's my favourite Who album. Perhaps it has something to do with the tracks being interspersed Big L jingles and commercials, which was inspirational. |
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oldraver
Joined: 18 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 12:59 pm Post subject: |
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Speedy was the vocalist on SITA, without a doubt. Similar to Pete's, I grant you, but it's him.
Townshend produced it..didn't write it. In my defence, I was only 14 at the time, so memories are clouded. That's me scuppered for Popmaster.
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SantaFefan
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
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Location: top of the cliffs in Norfolk
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| Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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| oldraver wrote: |
Who could forget the fat bloke with a beard, wearing a policeman's helmet, playing the piano on TOTP? Or Speedy Keen, the singer, and young Jimmy McCullogh? Or that Pete Townshend wrote it?
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I didn't forget the fat bloke singing, with big black framed glasses too wasn't it? but I don't remember the Policeman's hat.. I thought it was like a Pork Pie hat... I might be wrong.
I'm always amazed and slightly intimidated that most posters on this forum, nearly all younger than myself, seem to remember all the facts and figures of those days regarding who was who, which band they played in and their names!
I used to think of myself as a bit of an "office expert" on 50s - 70s music, mostly identifying tracks after listening to two or three notes sort of thing but I know and knew virtually nothing of who was who... 
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Last edited by SantaFefan on Tue Oct 22, 2013 5:59 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Colin
Joined: 26 Sep 2013
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| Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 5:50 pm Post subject: |
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| SantaFefan wrote: | I'm always amazed and slightly intimidated that most posters on this forum, nearly all younger than myself, seem to remember all the facts and figures of those days regarding who was who, which band they played in and their names!
I used to think of myself as a bit of an "office expert" on 50s - 70s music, mostly identifying tracks after listening to two or three notes sought of thing but I know and knew virtually nothing of who was who... |
I'm only good with those bands I went to see in the early 70s, but many of them rarely (if ever) appeared on TOTP anyway, especially in the 70s when it was dominated by teenypap! |
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SantaFefan
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
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Location: top of the cliffs in Norfolk
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| Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 6:07 pm Post subject: |
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Absolutely, I couldn't stomach Top of the Pops or Radio 1 when the likes of Bay City Rollers, Rubettes and even worse, Kenny ruled the airwaves!
Luckily, Zappa, Zeppelin, Tull, Ground Hogs, Heep, Blodwyn Pig and co saved the day!
Underground music was the term... 
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Colin
Joined: 26 Sep 2013
Posts: 916
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| Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 6:33 pm Post subject: |
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| SantaFefan wrote: | Absolutely, I couldn't stomach Top of the Pops or Radio 1 when the likes of Bay City Rollers, Rubettes and even worse, Kenny ruled the airwaves!
Luckily, Zappa, Zeppelin, Tull, Ground Hogs, Heep, Blodwyn Pig and co saved the day!
Underground music was the term... |
I was at the Marshall Amps factory recently (I have done work for them and the late Jim Marshall over the years) and Mick Abrahams of Blodwyn Pig was there. I told him I remember seeing the band at the Van Dyke Club in Devonport, Plymouth. They were - and are today - a great blues band and Abrahams has always been a superb yet under-rated electric blues guitarist.
He was an insurance salesman in Milton Keynes during his doldrums period in the 1980s, by the way! |
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Lord Evan Elpuss
Joined: 10 Dec 2006
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Location: Cloud Cuckoo Land
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oldraver
Joined: 18 Dec 2006
Posts: 1175
Location: London
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| Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 1:06 pm Post subject: |
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| SantaFefan wrote: | | oldraver wrote: |
Who could forget the fat bloke with a beard, wearing a policeman's helmet, playing the piano on TOTP? Or Speedy Keen, the singer, and young Jimmy McCullogh? Or that Pete Townshend wrote it?
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I didn't forget the fat bloke singing, with big black framed glasses too wasn't it? but I don't remember the Policeman's hat.. I thought it was like a Pork Pie hat... I might be wrong.
I'm always amazed and slightly intimidated that most posters on this forum, nearly all younger than myself, seem to remember all the facts and figures of those days regarding who was who, which band they played in and their names!
I used to think of myself as a bit of an "office expert" on 50s - 70s music, mostly identifying tracks after listening to two or three notes sort of thing but I know and knew virtually nothing of who was who... |
Just for you, Rick....
I just retain rubbish in my brain...don't be intimidated.
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Schizoidman
Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 1140
Location: Rural West Sussex
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| Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 7:28 pm Post subject: |
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| I think that's Jimmy McCulloch in the middle, aged about 16, who later joined Wings. |
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Tom Dors
Joined: 11 Aug 2008
Posts: 64
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| Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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| They may have been a one -hit wonder, but they made an an album called Hollywood Dream which I still enjoy hearing. |
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