Songs that you didn’t know you knew.
It happens very rarely, but when it does it honestly shocks you. The phrase… Why haven’t I heard of this band before???? Such it is with Groovy Uncle. I first got to hear about them on the Aldora Britain Label Compilations. (where you can get a lot of top tunes for pennies… Think Creation Soup or Indie Top Twenty Albums from back in the day).
Magic Happens.
It’s often said that ‘they don’t write them like they used to’. Well… they are wrong. Groovy Uncle does… the whole of the 1960s is here… or rather there… in their music. Everything from Dusty, Pet Clark, Beach Boys, Move, Lovin’ Spoonful, Kinks, Mersey, Manchester, Seekers, Mamas & Papas, Burt Bacharach, blue eyed soul and a nod to the Motor City. Trust me. It’s all here – and beautifully produced too. No synth sounds pretending to be Detroit. Nope. You want a soulful French Horn? That’s exactly what he’ll cart into the studio to do the job. There are dalliances with electric sitars, multi-layerd harmonies and all those lush little tricks that are so iconic to the 60’s sound. They are as near to finding a crate of unplayed 60’s pop originals as you’ll be likely to get.
I thought it was about time…
Apparently this bent came about whilst gigging in the mists of time, the common chant from the back of pubs was ‘Play something we know!’ so Glenn et al decided to do just that – but on their own terms. Those being, it would be a new song you ‘thought’ you knew. And with glorious musical sleight of hand that’s what they do.
With about a dozen CDs to their name (and vinyl too) I can’t point to one and say… ‘buy that one first’ because each is as varied and superb as the next. They simple sum up and deliver everything that was great about 60’s pop, but they are new songs. Straight Pop or in conjunction with the fantastically fab Suzi Chunk and Miss Modus. The songs come at you – and before they are a few bars in you’re being swept along with them and you’re convinced you know them… which you don’t… but you do… but you don’t. There are earworms a plenty seeded in the CDs, all of which will happily drive you nuts.
I’m nearly mad about you….
From the first track I heard of them, I fell in love with the band and am dedicating a segment each week on the Lucky Bag show on www.TargetRadio.co.uk and can’t wait to get them on the Tip Top Pop Show (the video equivalent of The Lucky Bag). Groovy Uncle are on the Trouserphonic label (a name you can’t forget easily – and why would you want to?). So… expand your tiny mind, and get a lughole full of there delicious groovy choonadelic goodness, which are worth your weight in gold and are all waiting for you at www.groovyuncle.co.uk
Review by Rik Bardsley –
Copyright © Mods Of Your Generation, 2020, All Rights Reserved. Image/Photo Credit Groovy Uncle / Glenn Prangnell.No part of this review may be reproduced without the permission of the authors.
