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Thunderclap Newman

 
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Colin



Joined: 26 Sep 2013
Posts: 916

PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:43 pm    Post subject: Thunderclap Newman Reply with quote

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
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 4:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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. Laughing
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Colin



Joined: 26 Sep 2013
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 5:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Indeed. Ken Bruce would certainly have heard of them because he's a lot older than me! Smile

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



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PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 5:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of the stand out tracks from the best year ever in music in my view Very Happy
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Colin



Joined: 26 Sep 2013
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 5:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ruddlescat wrote:
One of the stand out tracks from the best year ever in music in my view Very Happy


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
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 6:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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

PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I really love the song, but didn't know Pete Townshend wrote it either (sorry) Embarassed
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

PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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 Laughing
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Colin



Joined: 26 Sep 2013
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 8:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 12:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 5:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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?



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! Laughing

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... Confused
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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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PostPosted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 5:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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! Laughing

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... Confused


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



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 6:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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... Razz
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Colin



Joined: 26 Sep 2013
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 6:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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... Razz


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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PostPosted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 7:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mick Abrahams on Top Of The Pops in June 1971: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg48ZIr1LIg
And Blodwyn Pig (after the chart countdown) in 1970: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6afgb0hHQO0
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oldraver



Joined: 18 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 1:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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?



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! Laughing

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... Confused


Just for you, Rick....



I just retain rubbish in my brain...don't be intimidated. Razz
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Schizoidman



Joined: 20 Sep 2010
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Location: Rural West Sussex

PostPosted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 7:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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

PostPosted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 11:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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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