V.A. - Treacle Toffee World - Further Adventures Into The Pop Psych Sounds From The Apple Era 1967-1969 (2008)
RPM Retrodisc / Cherry Red Rrecords Ltd.
Fire was a trio that started in 1966 as Friday's Chyld, led by songwriter David Lambert (vocals/keyboards/guitar). The other members were Dick Dufall (bass/vocals), and Bob Voice (drums/vocals). The name change came in 1967 when they were signed by Decca Records. The lead-off track on the CD is a re-recording of their first single for Decca, 'Father's Name Is Dad'. The re-recording happened as a result of Paul McCartney hearing the song and deciding it could be improved. After comparing this to the original single version, it sounds as though the vocals were redone. Also, Lambert doubled his guitar parts (they were also brought up an octave). With its catchy guitar hook, this is easily the best track on the entire CD which justifies its placement as the first track here. The B-side of the first Fire single is also the title track of the CD, 'Treacle Toffee World', and is another guitar riff driven song. 'Will I Find Love?' was supposed to be Fire's 2nd single for Decca, but it was rejected despite the extra production that was put into it. The final track by Fire on this collection, 'Spare A Copper', is about begging for spare change to buy something to eat. For more information, check out the Fire myspace page.
Sands (1966-1967) are represented by the song 'Listen To The Sky' which was the B-side of their only single, the Bee Gees composed 'Mrs. Gillespie's Refrigerator'. In my opinion, this is the 2nd best track on the CD. The song features excellent drumming & guitar playing, and can be considered as an example of early heavy metal, with its ending gun & guitar battle; the guitar playing sounding like the airplane, much like on Pete Ham's song, 'I've Been There Once Before' on the "94 Baker Street" CD. This song was published by Apple probably due to an agreement made by Robert Stigwood who at one time almost became Beatles' manager Brian Epstein's business partner.
Grapefruit are back with more demos and an alternate version of one of their album tracks. 'Trying To Make It To Monday' is a strong pop song that had hit potential, but unfortunately got bumped for 'Dear Delilah'. Luckily, it survived on an EMI acetate. 'Fall Of The Castle' a demo intended for other artists to record. It never got picked up, justifiably so, as it's not a very good song. 'This Little Man' was a track that appeared on Grapefruit's "Around Grapefruit" album in 1969. Appearing here is a superior, alternate version, previously unreleased.
Rawlings & Huckstep are a songwriting team appearing on their first and only Apple Publishing CD. They submitted a demo tape in 1968 at the Apple Boutique, which was passed upstairs to Apple Publishing. 'Forgive And Forget', an enjoyable lightweight pop song, was the best of their songs, but it was never recorded by anyone. Their other two songs, 'Even The Sunshine's Cold' and 'Thinking Pictures' are pretty much forgettable.
Gallagher & Lyle return with one more song. 'Goodbye Mozart', an acoustic guitar-based demo, is not bad, but not one of their best songs either. This one survived on an Apple acetate.
The Iveys are back with 2 more Apple Publishing demos that were never properly recorded for Apple Records. ' Bittersweet Adieu' is a song featuring Ron Griffiths singing about life on the road playing in a band, and all the decisions that need to be made about life. The guitar solo features some tasteful, distorted lead playing from Pete Ham. *Ron's explanation of the song: "This was meant to be autobiographical. At that time, we were still in the market to be signed or at least have someone show an interest in our material, as Ray Davies did. We used to support a very good and successful Scottish band called Marmalade at their residency at the Marquee Club. Their lead guitar player, Junior Campbell, liked us and took us into a studio to record the song (as he had picked it out of a batch he thought had potential on a visit to 7 Park Avenue)." 'How Does It Feel' is a previously unheard song featuring Tommy Evans with Ron and Pete helping out on backing vocals. It is a typical love song with a bouncy feel throughout and a simple melodic guitar solo. The sound quality of this demo is not as good as the other tracks; it sounds like multiple overdubs were applied by bouncing the tape back and forth, thus degrading the fidelity with each tape copy. This track appeared on one of the many demo tapes that were submitted to Apple in early 1968.
Denis Couldry is back with both sides of his 2nd single for Decca Records. 'Penny For The Wind' is the A-side, sung with a heavy accent. It's a sing-along type of English pyschedelic fairytale. 'Tea And Toast, Mr. Watson?' is one of the more enjoyable tracks on the CD and features some stinging guitar playing by Chris Spedding and is often regarded as a classic pyschedelic track, and a great, underated flip side.
23rd Turnoff contributes their demo of 'Another Vincent Van Gogh' which was written by Liverpool's Jimmy Campbell. This song ended up with Apple Publishing as a result of Campbell playing some songs on acoustic guitar to Terry Doran, which resulted in him buying the contract for this song. This is one of the weaker songs in this collection.
Legay contributes 'Fantastic Story Of A Steam Driven Banana', which was the B-side to their flop single, 'No One'. This is not a bad song and grows on you after repeated listenings. It's a piano-based tune that is typical of the pyschedelic pop songs of the late '60s. It was written by Robin Pizer who made an agreement with Mike Berry to publish the song with Apple right before Berry left to work for Sparta Publishing. (Tom Brennan)
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