Now in their 29th year as rock 'n' roll crusaders for all that's way, way cool about early '60s Britannia pop, Merseybeat and Shadows-styled instrumentals, The Rapiers—"the best '60s band since the '60s"—are truly worth flying 5,000 miles to see, hear and dig.
Were I to recommend one stop for the Full English Experience I'd point the anglo-inclined toward Mark and Linda Wilsmore's Ace Cafe, a black-and-white nirvana for leather-clad rockers, great grub, Carlo Little tribute nights, Mod 'n' Mini Meets (next one: 3 July) and other petrol-fueled mayhem.
Who was English rocker Simon Scott? Bruce Eder, of the All Music Guide, tells us:
Simon Scott and The LeRoys (soemtimes spelled Le Roys) were a surprisingly retro signing to Parlophone Records for 1964. Their sound was decidedly '50s, but they had a certain amount of credibility as well, having appeared on the same bill as The Rolling Stones several times in 1963, and were a support act on the kickoff of The Stones' 1964 package tour of England, alongside Mike Berry and The Mojos. Their singles, Move It Baby b/w What Kind of Woman and My Baby's Got Soul b/w Midnight, never charted, and Scott and the band were history by 1965.
Never charting is no sin.
For the mighty majestic Move It Baby still left an impression on a young Colin Pryce-Jones, more disposed to its rockin' charms than the Merseybeat strangling the pop charts at the time.
Colin remembered it when he turned Rapier.
As he told Pipeline Magazine shortly after recording the track for 1991's Return of The Rapiers: "For 1964 the sound was way out of step, it would probably have been a hit a couple of years earlier. It's a record that both Brad [Dallaston] and I had in our collections. It started our purely as a stage number, something a bit different for the real fans. We had a good reaction to it so we decided to record it. It's one of those lovely early English sounds, a great record that was just thrown away at the time."
Hearing MIB live at the 25th Anniversary celebrations was a real gas. Alas, I didn't capture the performance on video. But our lads' recording is in rotation on our MySpace page.
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