Juanita Banana EP 1966

Barclay Records BLY 70987-1

Sometime around late summer of '66, Barclay needed a promotional EP. I think the French EP releases were all 4 track EP's at the time, they didn't release 45's like the UK. They used The Hills, a Devon based group, and The In-Betweens. It is basically a Barclay sampler.

On side 1, The Hills tracks seem to be the same as a UK release by The Peels on Stateside Records, SS 513, which came out 20th May 1966. Same tracks, same songwriters, same year.

Take A Heart and Little Nightingale are two tracks taken from the 1965 Feel So Fine EP by The In-Betweens. Little Nightingale is said to be written by Jimmy Page but the credit here lists the writer as Williams. Jimmy's Welsh friend, John Williams would write songs and had formed a partnership with Jimmy  in 1965. Page would try to get them recorded by the artists that he played session with. Page with Williams on vocals and Bobby Graham  on drums, cut a demo of the song.

"I was at Jimmy page's house in Epsom, England. I was a record producer and Jimmy was writing some arrangements for me. Eric Clapton handed Jimmy three acetates which he'd picked up as a favour. Jimmy wrote on my copy 'James Page Music AMB 2201' which was the phone number of Immediate records, owned by Tony Calder & Andrew Oldham. This was when Jimmy was still a session player and Calder had commissioned this work.
David Nicolson, March 2010

The EP was apparently to promote Bananas! On the rear:

"Ce disque est accompagne d'un porte-cles offert par le Comite inter professionnel de la Banane 123 rue de Lille, Paris. Reclamez-le a votre disquaire qui se fera un plasir de vous le remettre."

Thanks to Chris Selby for  providing this image of a genuine key-ring.

Rough translation: "This disc should contain a key-ring courtesy of the International Banana Committee, 123 Rue de Lille, Paris. Ask your record dealer who will be pleased to provide one." 
The hole in the corner of the cover originally had a keyring with a banana dangling from it, hence the rust mark. I don't think anybody has ever seen one, it's the stuff legends are made of. The EP was never made available in the UK. They released it, probably around spring of 1966, in France, Spain and most of Europe and even Argentina but not the UK.

Much appreciation to Markus Bennermo for supplying the original artwork for this release. I must also thank hantsguys on 45cat.com for The Peels labels. 

Promo label

Test pressing

The Juanita Banana EP turns up on Ebay regularly often in the £50 price range.

For more information about Juanita Banana, this makes interesting reading:  The Juanita Banana Phenomenon. Thanks to Chris Selby for the link.

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Bobby Graham and Barclay Records

UK 1960's

Bobby Graham (1940-2009) is without doubt the most recorded drummer in British '60s pop, although largely uncredited. By 1960 he was the 20 year old drummer for the Joe Meek 'In House Band'. In 1962 he was drumming for Joe Brown & The Bruvvers when Brian Epstein asked him if he would like to replace Pete Best in The Beatles but Graham didn't fancy joining a group nobody had heard of. It's worth pointing out that Joe Brown was, at this time, considered an incredible guitarist on the cutting edge of the Rock 'N Roll scene.

As a session musician he played on many releases by all the major British artists of the era, however, I think it's worth pointing out that he played on Baby Let Me Take You Home in 1964 and We Gotta Get Out Of This Place in 1965 by the Animals. He also played on Baby Please Don't Go in 1964, Here Comes The Night in 1965 and Call My Name in 1966 by Them.

In early I964 Graham began production for Fontana Recording Studios.

"Jack Baverstock, head of A&R, didn't want to work with The Pretty Things. He said 'I don't want to work with these animals, I can't listen to that crap, take them if you want to'. They were extremely difficult, especially when they'd all been drinking".

During I965 Graham continued playing sessions, but began to put more effort into production work. In February Eddie Barclay, the millionaire playboy owner of Eddy Mitchell's label, asked Graham to produce an album for the French market. Credited to Le London All Stars, British Percussion was released in September I965.

Barclay offered Graham a job. "I was taken on as the Head of Barclay Records UK. I didn't speak much French, I had an interpreter with me all the time. My job was to produce English artists for the French market".

Finding English language acts for the French market was a somewhat random process.

"We put ads in the trade papers - 'artists wanted for auditions'. I produced the In-Betweens for Barclay at Pye Number 2. I also produced an EP from the singer from Billy Gray and the Stormers, he was called Le Frizzy One. That was Carter, Lewis and Jimmy Page".

Ultimately, the French didn't take to the British acts:

"You could not get anything English off the ground in France. I got pretty fed up flying backwards and forwards twice a week and I decided to call it a day with Barclay".

Graham then landed a job with Dutch producer Freddie Haayan, who he'd met while producing Golden Earring. when they came to London to record. 

"Freddie rang me in I967 to ask if I'd work for him. I went to Hilversum, then EMI (Bovema in Holland) headhunted me, and I started producing Dutch artists for the international market." 

After four years, Graham left Holland. 

'They asked me leave in I97I because my drinking had become horrendous, I disguised it until it got the point where you can't disguise falling over and throwing up in your office. I ended up on the streets in Amsterdam, full of booze, never dreamt I had a problem.  Finally my parents got me home, and I never had another drink".

From I973-75 Graham produced a variety of acts for Christian labels.  He then opened The Trading Post, a collectors record shop in Edmonton.  He soon tired of the 9-5 and started his own band, The Jazz Experience. They played around Hertfordshire becoming very popular.  

"I was thinking, 'what the bloody hell am I going to do?', and there was a drum kit advertised in the local paper. I was just going to clean it up and sell it to make a profit. I set it up in the front room and I was suddenly hooked again."

Graham is undoubtedly amongst the most significant figures of British '60s pop, yet he looks back on his vast body of work with something approaching bemusement.  

"There are many things that I'm proud of, like The Kinks records, but there's not one thing that I can listen to and say, 'that's it'. I don't live in the '60s. I live for today, its history, it's gone. I find it strange that people want to talk to me about ,what I did in the '60s.  How can it be interesting?"

Bobby Graham died at the Isabel Hospice in Welwyn Garden City on Monday, September 14th 2009, following a four month battle with stomach cancer. The drummer is survived by his wife, Belinda, his son, Shawn, and his younger brother, Ian.

For more info on Bobby Graham click here.

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Feel So Fine EP 1965

Barclay EP 70907 Medium

• Feel So Fine
• Take A Heart
• Little Nightingale
• You Don't Believe Me

In late spring of 1965, Barclay, a French label, were looking for talent and held auditions in Birmingham. The respective members of The 'N' Betweens had decided, somewhat rashly, to give up their day jobs but the Astra Agency wasn't quite ready to handle them as a professional band yet. In order to buy some time, Maurice Jones (their manager) decided to ship them off to Germany for a month, a move that had worked wonders for The Beatles a couple of years prior. Unfortunately, they had no passports and it took time to arrange work permits.

In the meantime, the group attended an audition at Le Metro Club in Birmingham, held by Bobby Graham. They played But Not For Me at the audition, which was a Sammy Davis song but, by chance, had been a French #1 hit for Johnny Halliday. Graham was impressed enough to join forces with Jones and sign them up to Barclay Records and arrange a recording session at PYE studios where he produced the four tracks which feature on this EP.

The 4 track EP was a French release on the Barclay label, No70907 featuring (I believe?) matrix numbers HBLY70907A & HBLY70907B engraved in the run out groove (but I've yet to see one in the flesh).

Feel So Fine was written by Leonard Lee and made popular in the UK by American vocalist Johnny Preston in August 1960. Take A Heart was written by Mickey Dallon and performed by UK artists, The  Sorrows. They reached #21 in the Top 40 in September 1965.

Chris Charlesworth co-incidentally claims in his 'Feel The Noize' book, that the Little Nightingale track is written by Jimmy Page (who would later join Led Zeppelin) a belief that was upheld by Don Powell and therefore perpetuated on later releases. The EP and the subsequent re-release, the Juanita Banana EP, clearly credit Williams though. John Williams was a PYE studio engineer and Jimmy Page was Graham's studio session musician.

This anomaly was explained by Chris Selby's contacts at Led Zeppelin's official site. Little Nightingale was written by John Williams, who had formed a partnership with Jimmy Page in 1965. Williams would write songs and Page would try to get them recorded by the artists that he played session with. Page convinced Bobby Graham to use 2 of their songs for The 'N Betweens session.

You Don't Believe Me was written by Merrell, Graham, May & Jimmy Page. Page talked the group into recording both the tracks after their first session when they recorded four different songs that were not used (available on the Genesis Of Slade CD). When Bobby Graham was asked if Page (who believed he was booked for the studio session) had played on the Barclay sessions, he told Chris Selby that Page had looked in but Hill was good enough.

John Ogden wrote a report about the recording session in the Express & Star on June 24th 1965. The group finally left for Dortmund, Germany at the end of October 1965. They played the 29th October 1965 at the Woolpack in Wolverhampton, it was advertised as...

"The 'N Betweens last night before they leave for Germany"

...and they left next day. The next 'N' Betweens gig appears on 5th December 1965 at Wolverhampton Civic Hall with Zero 5. The 'N' Betweens Feel So Fine EP was released in France during December 1965. It was probably available across the European Continent but not in the UK?

Artwork courtesy of John Haxby. Does anybody have good quality, cover and labels please? A copy of The 'N Betweens EP sold for £360 on Ebay in November 2009. I've yet to see one 'in the flesh', so to speak?

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