life
INTERVIEW
popularity and revived interest in vintage
bands such as his own?
On June 11th, the band will receive
an award from MOJO magazine which
acknowledges the debt of other musicians to
the Pretty Things.
“It’s called a Heroes Award, because we
were the inspiration for a lot of people who
went on to be quite famous,” says Dick.
“David Bowie used to come and see us: in
fact on his Pinups album he included a cover
of Rosalyn [Pretty Things’ first hit from
1964]. And John Lydon (Johny Rotten from
the Sex Pistols) came to see us play at the
100 Club on Oxford Street. He came with
his mum!”
Dick found music very early in life. He
was at school with Mick Jagger, and the
two of them shared an interest in the blues,
and in rhythm and blues. “Mick was really
good at getting the latest imports of records
from the States, and he’d come in with say,
the latest Bo Diddley record.” With another
friend they used to get together in Dick’s
house – “this was from quite a young age,
before the 11-Plus” – and Mick would sing
while others played guitar. Dick played
drums sometimes, though he says he can
hardly hold a stick these days.
Leaving school at 16 for Sidcup Art
School, he met Keith Richards. “He knew
Mick and I were rehearsing, but was too
shy to join in. But he’d known Mick from
a young age, and eventually started coming
along.” The band went to see Buddy Holly
– Mick and Dick both loved Not Fade Away,
later covered by the Stones – and also
started frequenting the Ealing Club where
record producer Alexis Corner started Blues
Incorporated. It was a turning point for the
band:
“The first couple of weeks we were saying:
‘This is fantastic’. Then after that we were
saying: ‘We could do that!’ – with all the
bravado of teenagers.”
Calling themselves Little Boy Blue and the
Blue Boys they made a few tapes for Alexis
Corner , and met Brian Jones who also had
a band. “Eventually the two bands combined
and became the Rolling Stones.”
Dick played bass, and they did a lot of
rehearsing and some gigs, but he wasn’t
keen on bass guitar, and besides, his
ambition was to get to the Royal College
of Art. Eventually he got into the Central
College of Art, left the Rolling Stones, and
got together with a student he’d known from
Sidcup Art School, Phil May. “We started
this band called Pretty Things.” It was 1963.
At this point I hold off asking the obvious
question about regrets. The Pretty Things
acquired a manager – Brian Morrison, who
was managing the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band.
“We made some records, got into the charts,
and we’re still doing it,” is how Dick sums
up the 60s and beyond.
Their first hit, Rosalyn, brings us back to
today, for while rehearsing their set for the
MOJO Honours show on June 11 at HMV
Oxford Street the band met the lead singer
from Kasabian, Sergio Pizzorno, who told
Dick and Phil that he’d been introduced
to Rosalyn by his father, who had it in his
record collection. Sergio had gone on to find
SF Sorrow in a second-hand record shop,
and the album “blew my mind”. “It was
the blueprint for the imagination of rock &
roll,” he said. “It made me think I’d got to
start again.”
Mention of SF Sorrow opens a crack into
the world of music that I expected to find,
of machinations and intrigue. This was
an album which followed Pretty Things’
string of 60s hits, and it marked a change
from rhythm and blues into the world of
psychadelia. It was an early ‘concept’
album, a rock opera which had a running
story linking all the tracks.
“It pre-dated Tommy [The Who’s album
in the 70s]. We were told that The Who
listened to it and decided that doing
something similar would be a really good
idea. But although we’d heard that Pete
Townsend said this, he has since written
to us saying he couldn’t remember ever
hearing it. And it’s so odd, because we’ve
read things in the past saying it was an
inspiration for The Who. Very odd. So we
won’t be getting him to give us our MOJO
Photo:
From left:
Jack Greenwood
(Drums)
Frank Holland
(Guitarist)
Phil May
(Vocals)
Dick Taylor
(Guitar)
George Perez
(Bass)
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