The Mark Four/The Creation — “I’m Leaving”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — February 23, 2025

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

1,502) The Mark Four/The Creation — “I’m Leaving”

Before the Creation (see #129, 165), there was the Mark Four, who gave us this “sublime, understated” ‘65 mod B-side with a “dark, unsettling mood” (John Reed, liner notes to the CD comp Decca Originals: The Freakbeat Scene), “heavy, Brit-punk/blues with . . . deft use of feedback, a cool bass riff, powerful drums and menacing vocals” (tymeshifter, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/the-mark-four/hurt-me-if-you-will-im-leaving.p/), featuring “one of the first extended guitar feedback passages in a rock song”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-mark-four-mn0000611926#biography)

Richie Unterberger tells us that “the Creation laid the foundation for their Who-like distorted power chording as the Mark Four. The group released four singles in 1964 and 1965”. (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-mark-four-mn0000611926#biography)

Band member John Dalton writes that:

The Mark Four were one of the top local bands around north London and Hertfordshire in the early 60’s. The band was formed from Jimmy Virgo and The Bluejacks around late 1963. [In] 1962, The Bluejacks went through a number of personnel changes:- Jack Jones took over from Pete Wilson on drums, Michael (spud) Thompson for Fred Wilkinson on rhythm guitar and then Jimmy Virgo decided to leave the band mid 1962. We used a singer from Welwyn Garden City for a few gigs, before auditioning Kenny Picket late 1962. It was at this time we decided to change our name to Kenny Lee & The Mark Four. It was January 1963 we auditioned Eddie Philips . . . to take over from Norman Mitham on lead guitar and the line up was complete.  The Mark Four  became a very hard working band, playing five or six nights every week . . . . It was March 1964 we did our first tour of Germany opening a brand new night club called The Big Ben Club in Wilhelmshaven north Germany. This proved to be invaluable experience, playing eight, thirty minute sets, seven days a week. We recorded our first record (“Rock Around The Clock”) in March 64 and released it in May. The follow up record was another cover called “Try It Baby” in August 1964, and it wasn’t until  August 1965 we got the first Picket-Philips song  “Hurt Me If You Will” [with “I’m Leaving” in the B-side]. Spud and I decided to leave the band, with our last gig . . . on 31 October 1965. 

http://john-dalton.kastoffkinks.co.uk/mk4.htm

Mark Deming talks of the Mark Four and the Creation:

One of the most powerful and forward-thinking British bands of the 1960s, the Creation fused mod style to a freakbeat sound in a manner that anticipated psychedelia and boasted a sonic impact that was matched in their day only by the Who. Rooted in the adventurous guitar work of Eddie Phillips, whose bracing use of feedback and work with a violin bow gave him a unique sound, and the impassioned vocals of Kenny Pickett, the Creation also incorporated the influence of pop art in their music, and they attracted a loyal cult following. However, the group’s popularity in Europe far outstripped their following in England or the United States . . . . [The Mark Four] got signed to Mercury Records’ British division in 1964, but the resulting two singles failed to sell. Though audiences in the U.K. were slow to warm to their music, German audiences were greeting their performances at the Big Ben Club . . . with rousing enthusiasm. . . . [T]he band chanced to cross paths with a local band called the Roadrunners who were wowing fans with their use of guitar feedback in their songs. Eddie Phillips made note of the effect and started working out how he might assimilate it . . . . The Mark Four got a second crack at recording success with Decca Records, which resulted in the single “Hurt Me (If You Will)” b/w “I’m Leaving.” Sales were disappointing, but [“I’m Leaving”] did establish the beginning of a new sound[.] Phillips incorporated his own approach to guitar feedback. . . . [T]he band’s rhythm guitarist, Mick Thompson, and their bassist, John Dalton quit (soon to join the Kinks . . . ). The Mark Four finished their history with a temporary lineup and one last single in early 1966. During the weeks that followed, Pickett and Phillips, along with drummer Jack Jones . . . began rethinking their precise image and direction . . . . By the spring . . . The group had evolved into the Creation, with ex-Merseybeats bassist Bob Garner filling out the lineup, and they had also signed with an ambitious young Australian-born manager . . . named Robert Stigwood. The Creation burst on the British pop/rock scene that June with “Making Time,” a single that seemed to have everything going for it . . . . In portent of their future, “Making Time” soared to number five in Germany but peaked at an anemic number 49 in England, even as the Creation were getting enthusiastic press for their stage performances, which included artists creating and destroying “action paintings” on stage. . . . The group finally saw some slightly significant chart action at home in the fall of 1966 with “Painter Man,” a cheerfully trippy pop anthem with a feedback-oozing guitar break that made the Top 40; predictably, the same record hit number one in Germany. The B-side, “Biff Bang Pow[]” . . . jumped into a pop/rock idiom with a psychedelic edge that should have earned it airplay on its own. By the start of 1967, however, the Creation had hit a crisis point, as Kenny Pickett quit over creative differences and frustration over constant touring in Europe, where their biggest audience was rooted. He was eventually replaced by Kim Gardner, late of the group the Birds . . . . One more single, “Life Is Just Beginning” b/w “Through My Eyes,” [see #129] showed up in the fall of 1967 . . . . Eddie Phillips apparently felt that the single was as good a showcase as he would ever get, and in October of 1967 he quit the Creation. His departure was followed by Kim Gardner’s decision to exit the group . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-creation-mn0000110341#biography

I have added a Facebook page for Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock! If you like what you read and hear and feel so inclined, please visit and “like” my Facebook page by clicking here.

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).

The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,000 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.

When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.