I don’t normally get caught up in the hype about someone or other; but then again, when I am ordering something from Bomp! through one of their thrice-weekly or so emailings, there are normally no pictures.  So when THE KLUBS were mentioned as the number one choice by Record Collector magazine, I decided to see what the fuss was all about. 

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It was like that about the Klubs also.  Despite having a strong local following in Liverpool for several years, the home city of the Beatles f’crying out loud, the band had faded into complete obscurity.  When the people at Record Collector magazine – another bunch that presumably knows what they are doing – embarked upon a major investigation of British psychedelia, they scoured music papers that were being circulated in the late 1960’s.  One intrepid soul, John Reed stumbled upon an intriguing ad in the December 1968 edition of New Musical Express that had a photograph of a five-piece band called the Klubs that had just put out a single on Cam Records.  (Ironically, one of the bandmembers turned out to be a man named John Reid).  But the band and the record label were equally unknown; absolutely nothing else could be found about the band except this one advertisement. 

In March 1999, Record Collector published the results of their investigation, which included an alphabetical listing of the psychedelic rock bands that had been uncovered in their search.  The NME ad about the Klubs – which included a photo of the band in face paint like the Crazy World of Arthur Brown was using (their hit single “Fire” had come out earlier in 1968) – was deemed worthy of inclusion in the magazine edition. 

Here is all that could be included in the Record Collector issue in their listing next to the ad:  “No one we contacted had ever heard of the Klubs or the label they apparently recorded for.  Any information would be warmly appreciated.”  It is probably a good thing that the band was listed with the K’s; had they been buried in the A’s or C’s, they might still have escaped notice. 

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Part of the reason has to do with the Liverpool music scene in the 1960’s:  Other than you-know-who, most of the big British Invasion bands came from somewhere else.  The Beatles’ early competitors on the American charts were the Dave Clark Five; their first big hit song “Glad All Over” hit the Top Ten in February 1964, though the Five wouldn’t make #1 until “Over and Over” came out in November 1965.  The Dave Clark Five were from North London and were being promoted as the progenitors of the “Tottenham Sound”. 

The Rolling Stones were from London, as were the Kinks, the Who and the Yardbirds.  The Animals came from Newcastle, an industrial backwater like Liverpool, though on the opposite coast.  The Hollies were formed in Manchester, though the bandmembers came from East Lancashire.  The Moody Blues were from the Birmingham area; Birmingham, Alabama (one of the first major industrialized cities in the American South) is named for the British city. 

Though only one of the big acts came from there, other 1960’s bands were based in Liverpool.  Gerry and the Pacemakers is likely the best known; like the Fab Four, this band was managed by Brian Epstein, and their records were produced by George Martin.  Their American hits include “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying” and “Ferry Cross the Mersey”, a reference to the Mersey River that runs by the city – in case you are wondering why there has always been so much “Mersey” talk surrounding the Beatles. 

The Searchers is another Liverpool band that had numerous hits in the U.K., though they were less successful in the U.S.; their biggest hit songs here were remakes of “Love Potion No. 9” and “Needles and Pins”.  The Swinging Blue Jeans barely missed the U.S. Top 20 with their cover of “Hippy Hippy Shake”, which was also recorded by the Beatles.  Others include the Cryin’ Shames (not to be confused with the Cryan’ Shames, an American band from the same time period), the Merseybeats, the Hideaways, the Koobas (also known as the Kubas), and one of the first all-female rock bands, the Liverbirds. 

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To the surprise of the folks at Record Collector, numerous Klubs fans responded to the mention of the band; they were even contacted by one of the original bandmembers, Norris “Noz” Easterbrook.  Within months, Tenth Planet Records rushed a vinyl-only album called Midnight Love Cycle to market; the 1,000 discs in the pressing were nearly sold out when Record Collector justly named the record “Album of the Year” for 1999, ahead of releases that year of albums by much better known bands like Fleetwood Mac and Small Faces. 

In 2000, Radio Merseyside broadcast two separate interviews with the band, along with selected tracks from their album.  A daily newspaper, the Liverpool Echo published a full-page article on the rediscovery of the Klubs, under the headline:  “The Psychedelic Sound Makers”. 

The Cavern Club had been revived (again), and the Klubs put in an appearance in their old stomping grounds on May 27, 2000; even though singer Paddy Breen had a bad head cold, and guitarist Trevor Griffiths couldn’t be there because of a broken leg. 

In 2003 and/or 2004, Phantom Import Distribution and then Wooden Hill Records put out a CD also called Midnight Love Cycle that included the tracks from the Midnight Love Cycle LP plus five songs from the 2000 concert by the Klubs at the Cavern Club; two of these live songs – “Train to Nowhere” and “A Simple Song” – were not among the 12 songs on the original LP.  Rounding out the bonus tracks are four very nice post-Klubs songs:  “Unknown” by Strife from 1972 (featuring John Reid), two songs called “We Will Always be Together” and “One Last Time” by the Lettermen (not the American band called the Lettermen, needless to say) that included Trevor Griffiths (also from 1972), and a 1999 demo of “I Wonder” by John Reid that featured Norris Easterbrook on bass. 

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The Klubs formed at the Birkenhead Institute for Boys, located in a borough called Wirral, which is across the Mersey River from Liverpool.  Originally a band by the name of the Klubs was put together in just two days so that they could enter an R&B contest on the Isle of Man in September 1965 – and they actually won the contest. 

By the end of the year, the line-up had settled into a sextet:  Paddy Breen (vocals), Alan Walker (vocals, harmonica), Trevor Griffiths (lead guitar), John Reid (rhythm guitar), Norris Easterbrook (bass), and Kenny Marshall (drums).  In the early years, they were a hard-driving rhythm and blues band that performed a lot of covers of Rolling Stones and Pretty Things songs.  They made several trips to London for gigs, including appearances at Tiles and the well-known Marquee.  In one show in July 1966 at Tiles, they were actually the headlining band, with supportive acts the Fleur de Lys and the Eyes (not the same band as the UARB, the Eyes). 

But mostly they began establishing themselves as a leading band in the post-Beatles Merseyside scene.  They were fixtures at the legendary Cavern Club; the Hideaways boasted more dates there (over 250 appearances) than the Beatles themselves, but the Klubs are ranked #3 in that regard.  After they signed a management contract with Cavern Enterprises, the Klubs were beginning to perform more original material; as a harmonica player, Alan Walker became sort of a sixth wheel in the Klubs and moved on. 

Now a psychedelic band with a primitive light show, the Klubs began by taking a “flower power” approach in their performances, complete with “Love not War” sloganeering.  Sadly, drummer Kenny Marshall drowned in a boating accident shortly after leaving the band; he was replaced in the band by Peter Sinclair-Tidy, who had been in another local band called Crazy Chains. 

*       *       * 

The first single by the Klubs was a demo made in March 1967 for Chart Records called “Livin’ Today” that oddly featured the horn section from the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.  They appeared the following month on a television show called First Timers with a performance of another original song called “Only John Tring”; an acoustical treatment of the song that was recorded in Paddy Breen’s bedroom survives and appears on the compilation LP (Midnight Love Cycle) and CD (Midnight Love Cycle) shown earlier,  Scratchy and muddy though it might be, this recording proves beyond doubt that the Klubs were wild men from the beginning. 

In July 1967, the Klubs were given a recording test at EMI’s famed Abbey Road Studios, renamed for the Beatles’ penultimate album, Abbey Road in 1970.  Staff producer Alan Paramor oversaw a marathon recording session, where the Klubs worked on covers of Cream’s “NSU”, and “Desdemona” by John’s Children (back when Marc Bolan, later of T. Rex was a bandmember), plus a new recording of their own song “Livin’ Today”.  Paramor called the band “unrecordable” and sent them on their way. 

After auditioning the Klubs at a nightclub called the Pink Flamingo, Vic Smith signed them to a management deal with Don Arden’s company Aquarius.  As a result, in early 1968, the Klubs again sort of followed in the Beatles’ footsteps and arrived at Decca Records – actually, Decca had famously decided against signing the Fab Four – where four tracks were laid down according to company records.  Two were covers of the Beatles’ “Drive My Car” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire” – the latter song (apparently recorded at a later time) is the only cover song on the Midnight Love Cycle CD – plus their own songs “Midnight Love Cycle” and “Ever Needed Someone”.  “Midnight Love Cycle” also became the title of their retrospective albums. 

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Of all the meanings that “Midnight Love Cycle” might have, the song turns out to be about a bicycle.  As stated in the liner notes, “Midnight Love Cycle” bears more than a passing resemblance to the May 1967 psychedelic single “My White Bicycle” by Tomorrow.  However, the Klubs claim never to have heard this song. 

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Don Arden insisted that the Klubs change their name to Revolution – perhaps he got the idea from another single by Tomorrow called “Revolution” that came out the year before the song of that name, “Revolution” by the Beatles.  When the band refused to bow to this demand and arrogantly stood their ground, Arden heaped abuse on the young bandmembers.  Don Arden, who was once called “the Al Capone of pop” by critic Johnny Rogan, was not used to taking any lip from the bands that he signed; Arden tore up their recording contract in front of the Klubs and vowed that their Decca recordings would never see the light of day. 

*       *       * 

The Klubs returned to Liverpool and took part in the Kaleidoscope ’68 festival there alongside big names like Pink Floyd and the Move (a leading 1960’s British band that took the name the Electric Light Orchestra in 1972).  According to an article in the Liverpool Echo, however, the Klubs “stole the whole show . . . with painted faces and setting off fireworks that stunned the whole audience”.  The response was so overwhelming that the Klubs were brought back for a second appearance the next day. 

Local nightclub owner Jim McCullough was about to start a new label called Cam Records (with the name apparently taken from spelling his nickname backwards).  Under his direction, the Klubs cut several tracks in the summer of 1968.  One of these is my favorite song on the retrospective album, “Can’t Ebenezer See My Mind?”; there are two studio versions of the song (the second from 1969) plus a live version from 2000.  The full chorus line in the song is:  “Can’t Ebenezer see my mind / Instead of looking through me all the time? / Why can’t Ebenezer see my mind?”.  With lyrics like that, you don’t even have to hear the song to know that you are dealing with a true psychedelic band. 

Other songs that were recorded in that session are another psych killer “Indian Dreams” – three very different versions of this song are also included on the Midnight Love Cycle CD – and an R&B song called “Oh Baby”.  The “A” side of the first single, “I Found the Sun” is a bit tamer but has the same wyld guitar work, soaring harmony vocals and fine songwriting that mark all of the band’s work.  This song is backed on the 45 with “Ever Needed Someone”, a re-recording of one of their earlier Decca tracks, which has more of an old-school Merseybeat feel.  Despite the aforementioned ad in New Musical Express, the fledgling Cam Records label could only place the single at local record stores in Liverpool, where sales were minimal. 

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Although still Cavern Club favorites who were known as “the wild, wild Klubs”, the true Liverpool bands (and later the audiences) began to resent the popularity of the Klubs who actually hailed from the other side of the Mersey River in Birkenhead.  Not least among the reasons for this is that the Klubs began to let their hair grow halfway down their backs and started appearing on stage in dresses that they borrowed from their girlfriends and sisters.  The above photo is how singer Paddy Breen looked back then.  David Bowie had a hard enough time pulling off the androgynous pose, but at least he was based in London.  The Klubs were being even more overtly provocative the year before Bowie’s first big hit, “Space Oddity” was released – and in a much rougher town. 

Norris Easterbrook recalls that, after one gig, two New York kids enthusiastically approached him backstage while he was still in his make-up and girlfriend’s dress.  He didn’t give the encounter much thought until several years later, when he saw the proto-punk band that had been formed by these two fans, New York Dolls in their first British television appearance.  He immediately recognized the band’s guitarist from that meeting many years earlier:  future punk stalwart Johnny Thunders who was all decked out in full drag-queen regalia.   

*       *       * 

The Klubs' popularity had begun to decline by 1969, and the band eventually trimmed down to a power trio:  John Reid (vocals, guitar), Paddy Breen (vocals, bass) and Peter Sinclair-Tidy (drums).  They recorded two songs that year, a stripped-down version of “Can’t Ebenezer See My Mind?” plus “The Stripper”; neither was released, however.  Both are also included on the Midnight Love Cycle CD and are quite good, though they suffer from production issues.  Briefly called the Klubbs, they later performed as Warhog; Norris Easterbrook now calls the latter group “a heavy metal dirge band”. 

After the Klubs broke up, John Reid joined another local band called Strife in about 1972 that released two albums in the mid-1970’s.  Fittingly, Strife was on stage for the final show at the Cavern Club when it was closed in March 1973 (though another source says that Jan Akkerman, formerly of the Dutch band Focus was the final performer there in May 1973). 

More than two decades after the band broke up, in 1992, the bandmembers in the Klubs were approached by an organization called Merseycats for a charitable Christmas concert that year.  But the Klubs were still causing trouble even then; after their performance, Merseycats banned them from any future appearances on their behalf because they were “an excessively loud and aggressive act”. 

Now that they couldn’t even get gigs for charity work, there the matter sat until their rediscovery near the very end of the 20th Century. 

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(left to right:  Trevor Griffiths, Pete Tidy, John Reid, Paddy Breen, Norris Easterbrook) 

Anyway, word’s out now about the Klubs, even if no one has gotten around to putting anything in Wikipedia or Allmusic about them.  The band has a website – http://www.theklubs.com/ – and they also have a listing on the online British Music Archive:  http://www.britishmusicarchive.com/K/339-the-klubs . 

(July 2013)

FLASHBACK:  The Under Appreciated Rock Band for July 2013 – The Klubs 

The reissue of the album by the Klubs was named Album of the Year by Record Collector magazine.  Their penchant for dressing up in their girlfriends’ and sisters’ clothes during concerts inspired several members of the cross-dressing, proto-punk band New York Dolls, whose members included future punk legend Johnny Thunders and David Johansen, who later became known as Buster Poindexter.  Their story well illustrates how a relatively prominent rock band from a legendary musical center like Liverpool, England could nevertheless drop almost completely out of sight. 

YouTube has several songs by the Klubs.  This is the dreamy psychedelic “A” side of their only 45, “I Found the Sun”, and the band would be worth remembering for this song alone:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlS5vvs-KLE .  Another winner, “Can’t Ebenezer See My Mind?” has wyld lyrics in keeping with the title:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX5UxktFfQ8 .  This is the title song “Midnight Love Cycle” from their reissue album whose lyrics recall Tomorrow’s “My White Bicycle”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NCBTHxWVWU . 

(July 2015)