Angel Pavement — “When Will I See June Again”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 24, 2023

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

933) Angel Pavement — “When Will I See June Again”

To my ears, this was a surefire power pop hit. In the unforgiving and frequently unfair real world, it was a little noticed ’70 B-side by the UK’s Angel Pavement, whose “elegant mix of pop/rock . . . and late psychedelic whimsy, highlighted by exquisite harmonies . . . and refined yet powerful playing, is difficult to resist”. (Bruce Eder, https://www.allmusic.com/album/maybe-tomorrow-mw0001431873)

Bruce Eder tells us that:

Anyone unfamiliar with Angel Pavement shouldn’t feel too bad. . . . [I]ts peak of exposure consisted of a pair of failed singles at the very tail-end of the 1960s in England. But they were a seriously wonderful sunshine pop outfit from late 1960s, hailing from York, with a sound that was equal parts psychedelia and pop/rock in the best Hollies/Zombies/Beatles manner. The band . . . was assembled by guitarist/songwriter Alfie Shepherd out of the remnants of a soul-based outfit, Wesley Hardin’s Shotgun Package . . . . They quickly developed an effective pop-oriented psychedelic sound . . . with lush harmonies, glittering instrumental textures, horns and brass in the right places on the pop numbers. They managed to build a large following in their native York . . . . [and their] attempt to crack the London club scene coincided with their starting work on a debut album at Morgan Studios, but those efforts were interrupted by an offer to play a series of gigs for a few days in Mexico City in early 1969. Instead, they stayed for five months, and returned to London to pick up work on the album . . . . A pair of singles . . . issued through Fontana Records, failed to elicit any serious chart action in late 1969 and early 1970; a third single and their announcement of a forthcoming LP all ended up missing in action because of disputes between Shepherd and the studio’s publishing arm. Their producer apparently put the final nail in the coffin, and they broke up at the end of 1970.

[Their sound] was probably a little late, coming at the end of the decade, but divorced from those commercial concerns . . . [they] make a compelling variant on sunshine pop with British psychedelia. And the truly astonishing thing about the music represented here, apart from its quality and the fact that it was never heard until now, is that most of it is original material — how these guys missed at least a serious grab at success by getting this stuff released is anyone’s guess . . . well-nigh essential listening for anyone who loved those late-’60s British pop/rock sounds.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/angel-pavement-mn0002034391, https://www.allmusic.com/album/maybe-tomorrow-mw0001431873

David Wells adds that:

[P]revious chroniclers . . . suggested[ed] that Angel Pavement weren’t a band at all, merely as studio aggregation that masked the identity of the mercurial producer/arranger/writer/musician Danny Beckerman (see #904), an archetypically precocious studio whizzkid who was one of Morgan owner Monty Babson’s favoured lieutenants. Angel Pavement, however . . . . [were a] five-piece outfit hailing from York . . . christened by their leader, chief songwriter and lead guitarist Clive “Alfie” Shepherd . . . . [It] had a firm following in and around York . . . . They arrived in London in October 1968, almost immediately playing a couple of gigs at Sibylla’s, the trendy Regent Street nightclub part-owned by George Harrision. . . . After two relative flops . . . despite appearances on radio programmes like Radio One Club . . . Fontana elected to pass on further releases. With . . . Morgan, having bitten the dust by this point, Angel Pavement were placed with the clearly uninterested Bell label in time for an intended third single . . . but this failed to gain a release despite advance publicity . . . . Even more peculiarly, a further single . . . and a debut album . . . were trumpeted for an August 1970 release but also didn’t make it to the shops . . . . There were other problems as well, with main composer Alfie Shepherd falling out with . . . Morgan’s publishing arm over their treatment of his songs.

liner notes to the CD comp Angel Pavement: Maybe Tomorrow

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