Vanilla Fudge - You Just Keep Me Hanging On

[Rob Hall]

Zoot Money

the case for the defence (it's the company you keep):
http://youtu.be/O5Lr6oFfZ4g

What a remarkable performer Kevin Coyne was. Thanks for that Chris. How refreshing to see someone actually smile as they deliver their material.

As for Zoot, you're right: it's the company you keep.

[Adam Blake]

Andy - I don't remember Racey. I'll just have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i15ALD6fsUU

Oh...my...God...

Folks, I think we have a winner here. I would go so far as to say that they might be the worst band of all time. I had forgotten them. Now I remember them. Thank you, Andy. I am in your debt.

Hugh - Argent should have been alright, shouldn't they? They made a couple of decent singles - "Hold Your Head Up" and "Tragedy". "God Gave Rock'n'Roll To You" would have been good if Mott The Hoople had done it.

But, yeah, Colin Blunstone. What a voice.

[AndyM]

Happy to help, Adam ! And thank you for the video - I had quite forgotten how ugly the lead singer was.

[kas]

For my part, I was quite ready to bring forward Aphrodite's Child (reminded of them by Vangelis's birthday today). They were among the pet favourites, along with Focus, of my older and cooler cousin - until we both switched on to punk and reggae.

I checked, and found I actually still liked some of their songs. But that doesn't save their bass player and vocalist, who grew a beard (and then some), split from the group and sold out in a colossal way: Demis Roussos...

Otherwise? Nothing will ever make me see any redeeming values in Sweet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgrYf7VWASE

[Adam Blake]

Otherwise? Nothing will ever make me see any redeeming values in Sweet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgrYf7VWASE

Compared to Racey, The Sweet are genius. Besides, they were so obviously evil dressed up as whacky you had to have a sneaking regard for them. Steve Priest's camp nazi in that famous clip is genuinely disturbing. It's that look in his eye. You can just tell he's a wrong'un.

Interestingly, both The Sweet and Racey's songs were written for them by Chinn & Chapman.

[AndyM]

Racey were an attempt to create a 'new Mud' - JUST what the world was looking for in the heyday of disco and punk !

[Jamie Renton]

Andy - I don't remember Racey. I'll just have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i15ALD6fsUU

Oh...my...God...

Folks, I think we have a winner here. I would go so far as to say that they might be the worst band of all time. I had forgotten them. Now I remember them. Thank you, Andy. I am in your debt.

But didn't Racey just make crap throwaway pop that knew it was crap throwaway pop? Isn't slagging them off a bit like slagging off Black Lace? (who, on hearing they'd been voted worst band of all time by the Sun, phoned the paper up and asked when they could come and pick up the award).

Whereas many of the late 60s/early 70s bands already mentioned on this thread, believed they were creating Great Art and had tunes that went on forever. Racey and the rest of the Chinchap pop machine mostly just made awful, annoying 3 minute pop confections machine-tooled to part impressionable school kids with their pocket money and inspire mass singalongs at youth club discos.

Am I really defending f***in Racey?

[Rob Hall]

Yes, I think we're back to just listing naff bands. Adam's criteria were that the music should be "humourless, pretentious, portentous bollocks".

[Adam Blake]

I'm with you so far, Jamie, but the point is - as I discovered when I looked them up - that Racey were a real band. As indeed were The Sweet. They weren't cynically manufactured by a producer and an A&R man. If they had been, I would be all sympathy. Chinn & Chapman had lost the plot by then but in their heyday they churned out some great pop.

[Adam Blake]

In that case, Rob, I stand by my original selection of EL&P.

[AndyM]

Jim Davidson is a big ELP fan, which might be the clincher.

Although might I put in a word for Camel ?

[Adam Blake]

Aaaah, I LIKED Camel. They had chunes, they were a poor man's Caravan. Pete Bardens had form. Give 'em a pass.

[Rob Hall]

Supertramp? Personally, I found the singer's voice had the same effect on me as chalk squeeking on a blackboard, but there may be others here who had a soft spot for them.

[Rob Hall]

In that case, Rob, I stand by my original selection of EL&P.

Well, as I said previously, they're going to be hard to beat.

[Rob Hall]

Jim Davidson is a big ELP fan, which might be the clincher.

Oh dear. They're going to be *very* hard to beat.