TheCellarTapes

Turquoise - The Further Adventures of Flossie Fillett
(2006)



Tracks





When I set out to discover the wonders of the 1960's, looking beyond household names like The Beatles, The Who and The Kinks, delving beyond the bands that my Gran has never heard of like The Velvet Underground and The Standells, I learnt, sometimes with complete dismay, that there was a whole host of acts from the Sixties which for whatever reason were not as big as they should have been.

In my later reviews I will cover the works of such criminally neglected bands, bands like The Sonics and The Monks, such bands are even more obscure to the general public then The Velvet Underground, and yet you could argue had similar impacts on popular music. But in this review I would like to share with you all another band who I believe should be re-examined by the NMEs of this world and that band is Turquoise.

In 2006, Rev-Ola Records released an album of demos, unreleased recordings and two released singles from a London band called Turquoise. The Further Adventures of Flossie Fillett for the first time captures the work of this shockingly overlooked band when they were under the Decca umbrella and previous to that when they were unsigned and known as The Brood.

Formed in 1966 in the Muswell Hill area of London, The Brood/Turquoise had close associations with both The Kinks and The Who, in fact so close were the links to these bands that both Dave Davies and The Who's Keith Moon and John Entwistle had all been on producing duty at some point for The Brood in their early career. Sometimes good connections are all you needed to make it, but The Brood had much more then just influential mates.



It was all looking good in 1968 when The Brood signed a publishing deal with Decca through Apple Corp, changed their name to Turquoise, had backing from The Rolling Stones management team, and began work on their first single. 53 Summer Street / The Tales of Flossie Fillet was a release which bizarrely never kicked in with the public, despite both songs on the release being rather strong. I'm particularly fond of the flip side Flossie Fillet; a song which I find staggering never launched the band into a long successful career.

The follow up was even better; however Woodstock / Saynia had a similar low impact with the record buying public, which troubles me no end. How can a song as wonderful as Woodstock not register even a one hit wonder in 1968? Of all the songs covered in this fabulous compilation, Woodstock is by far my favourite and is possibly one of my favourite songs from the 1960s, is that a bit over the top? Well I think ultimately after one listen, a few of you might agree with my raving ways, I'm not even going to attempt to review this song's structure, Bob Dylan impersonated chorus or lyrical content, I would simply state my feeling when I first heard it, "this is outstanding"

Woodstock shouldn't detract from the fact that throughout this compilation there are yet even more cracking songs and criminal acts of neglect, Sister Saxophone and Sunday Best for example, didn't even get to the printers back in 1968, how that happened I have no idea. I guess what this compilation shows, other then good on you Rev-Ola Records, is that sometimes ultimately being in the right place at the right time, can be the difference between the bands we know and love and the bands you just have to go out and discover to know and love.

In 1969, Turquoise called it a day, vanishing into thin air, all we have are two cracking forgotten singles and a collection of marvellous tapes, all here on this fantastic compilation. If you like anything remotely Kinkish/Small Facerish or Brit Poppy, you should discover this band and help start to re-evaluate their career, you'd be foolish not to.