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The cheery, breezy pop of The Tremeloes won the band more than 20 Top 40 hits between 1963 (when they were still known as Brian Poole and the Tremeloes) and 1971. All of those hits were in the UK, though; while the group found success throughout Europe (and in Australasia as well), they would only manage four Top 40 singles in the U.S.<\/p>\n
The modesty of that Stateside success wasn\u2019t a reflection of a lack of quality, The Tremeloes\u2019 pop was as winning and catchy as that of Herman\u2019s Hermits, for example, and their songs were a bit more consequential, lacking the teenybopper quality of Noone and his band mates. Still, when one thinks of the British Invasion, the Tremeloes\u2019 name rarely figures into the conversation. Their biggest U.S. hit was \u201cSilence is Golden,\u201d but somewhat oddly, that Number-one is less remembered than the less successful \u201cHere Comes My Baby,\u201d something of a pop standard of the era.<\/p>\n
To remain relevant as the \u201860s wore on, countless groups had to reinvent themselves. The Moody Blues are perhaps the most celebrated example of this, having switched completely from being an r&b beat group to\u2026 well, y\u2019know. So it was that by 1967 Brian Poole and the Tremeloes* had become simply the Tremeloes. Unfortunately, as tastes turned toward album-length works, they would find comparatively less commercial success on that score. The hit singles would continue, but 1967\u2019s Here Come the Tremeloes<\/i> (their debut LP with the new name) would be the group\u2019s final charting album. Released in the U.S. with a new title \u2013 Here Comes My Baby<\/i> \u2013 it climbed to #119.<\/p>\n
Fast forward three years and five more long players and one arrives at 1970\u2019s Master<\/i>. With the possible exception of hardcore Tremeloes aficionados (do such exist?), it\u2019s fair to assume that few would have heard \u2013 much less remember — that LP. It did include the group’s final UK hit, \u201cMe and My Life,\u201d a #4 UK single that also sent the group out (chartwise) with a band, finding success in five other countries (but not in the States).<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and My Life\u201d featured a harder, funkier vibe that previous Tremeloes tracks, with a stomping beat the today sounds like the missing link between Summer of Love British popsike, early Bee Gees and \u2013 believe it or not \u2013 early \u201870s glam rock a la<\/i> Slade. On contemporary listening, it\u2019s not difficult to hear why \u201cMe and My Life\u201d was a hit of some magnitude.<\/p>\n
As it happens, that track isn\u2019t even the best one on the little-heard Master<\/em>. The album \u2013 newly reissued with a passel of bonus tracks that double its length \u2013 is in fact quite<\/i> good, and far more rocking than one might have expected. \u201cWait for Me\u201d rocks really hard, with a gritty lead vocal, a thumping beat, some wonderfully nasty guitar tones throughout, and a searing lead guitar break. Why Nuggets<\/i> or one of its variants didn\u2019t include this track is a mystery.<\/p>\n \u201cLong Road\u201d has chirpy horns and a bouncy feel that places it closer to 1967, but considered in that context, it too is a real winner. Rarely has a group sounded as much like that era of Bee Gees yet come up with a tune that\u2019s arguably better than what the brothers Gibb were turning out. The Leslie-fied guitar work is tasty, too.<\/p>\n Backward guitar, crystalline acoustic and lovely vocal harmonies \u2013 and more Bee Gees-sounding textures — figure into \u201cNow\u2019s the Time.\u201d As best as I can guess, Master<\/i>\u2019s failure to find an audience must have had to do with its slightly out-of-time feel; perhaps it\u2019s not what fans expected from the Tremeloes. Either way, Master<\/i> is arguably one of the era\u2019s Great Lost Albums. Subtle bits of Mellotron (borrowed from Decca labelmates the Moodies?) figure into the arrangement as well.<\/p>\n \u201cTry Me\u201d is built upon a rock-solid guitar riff; it rocks hard, presaging the sound of Free, with bits of a Badfinger character. The double-tracked lead guitar hints at the direction that countless great \u201870s bands (Thin Lizzy, to name one) would pursue in the months and years to come.<\/p>\n \u201cBut Then I\u2026\u201d displays a pastoral character not miles away from CSN&Y crossed with The Who\u2019s \u201cLove Ain\u2019t for Keeping,\u201d leavened in the choruses with a bit of Hollies for cheery good measure. It\u2019s lovely tune with a superb arrangement. \u201cBefore I Sleep\u201d continues the mid-album acoustic feel. Sweetly melancholy, it doubles down yet again on that Bee Gees sound, but it\u2019s done so well that cries of bandwagon-jumping ought to be dismissed. The brief guitar solo is nice as well.<\/p>\n \u201cBoola Boola\u201d is wholly unexpected; one suspects the Tremeloes were listening to a bit of Jimi Hendrix, some Moody Blues and a bit of Booker T & the MGs(!) at the time. The tune goes through a number of styles, a kind of prog opus writ small. Wordless vocals and a McCartney-esque bass line figure into the song as well. But it\u2019s that distorted guitar that really sticks in the memory. A winner.<\/p>\n \u201cI Swear\u201d is more Bee Gees derivation, but some lightly-applied keening guitar licks take the song some other places. The fifties pastiche \u201cBaby\u201d would have been more expected as a Jeremy Spencer spotlight cut on a Fleetwood Mac album. It\u2019s expertly done, but a weird outlier here.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the Way\u201d is a plaintive acoustic ballad: done well, it starts out as a kind of Tremeloes meet \u201cYesterday,\u201d before shifting gears into Brothers Gibb meet the Mellotron. Bits of country flavor makes themselves known as well. The stereo panning of the handclaps is a nice touch.<\/p>\n \u201cWillow Tree\u201d weds those sweet vocal harmonies to a Revolver<\/i>-style jangle. And as an exemplar of the Tremeloes\u2019 ambition, the song changes completely into a riffy, psychedelic number that could have sit nicely on the Yellow Submarine<\/i> soundtrack. Another Nugget, really.<\/p>\n The album closes(!) with the single. Back-loading an album with its (ostensibly) most commercial track is an odd gambit, but hey, the whole album is superb.<\/p>\n The songwriting team of Alan Blakley (rhythm guitar, keys) and Len \u201cChip\u201d Hawkes (bass) would be responsible for every single one of Master<\/em>\u2019s tunes. They co-produced that album with Mike Smith. The bonus tracks are a more assorted lot: various mono mixes, non-LP (and non-charting) singles and such. They\u2019re worthwhile but don\u2019t measure up to the brilliance of the album-proper.<\/p>\n The mono mix bonus tracks are all interesting, and it makes sense to include them here. But the two bonus tracks of greatest import are at the end. \u201cWhat Can I Do\u201d is a c&w-flavored outtake that is the equal of many released Masters<\/i> tracks. Arguably, the LP would have been strong had it been added in place of \u201cBaby.\u201d Its deeply weird instrumental break may have put some listeners off, though.<\/p>\n The whole set ends with \u201cAnything.\u201d Unreleased at the time, it too is a strong tune with steely acoustic guitar, great harmonies and an initial campfire feel that unfolds into a rocking freakout.<\/p>\n Peter Checksfield\u2019s liner notes are solid, just what one would expect from the author of The Trememloes: Even the Bad Times are Good! <\/i>If you\u2019re open to overlooked music from years gone by, Master<\/em> is an essential purchase.<\/p>\n * I\u2019d be historically remiss if I didn\u2019t mention an amusing bit of trivia that many will know but some may have forgotten: When Decca Records famously turned down The Beatles after their 1962 audition (counter-presciently opining that \u201cgroups with guitars are on the way out\u201d), the label instead signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes to their roster. Alas, alas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The cheery, breezy pop of The Tremeloes won the band more than 20 Top 40 hits between 1963 (when they were still known as Brian Poole and the Tremeloes) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,55,56,57,62,64,65],"tags":[5457],"class_list":["post-27834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","category-powerpop","category-prog","category-psych","category-rawk","category-reissue","category-review","tag-tremeloes","cat-51-id","cat-55-id","cat-56-id","cat-57-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27834"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27845,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27834\/revisions\/27845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}