THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,654) Rev Black and the Rockin’ Vicars* — “Walking and Talking”
This is the Australian group’s last A-side, written by the Easybeats’ [see #201, 1,310, 1,359, 1,450] Harry Vanda and George Young. Terry Stacey writes of the hyper-melodic and ingratiating song that:
“[It] was well recorded and a typical pop-psych song of the time. . . . guitar dominated . . . with a catchy intro riff played on a surfie sounding guitar and stop-start verses and choruses. Apparently it was a copy of the original Easybeats demo which has never been released.
Apparently, the Vicars’ recording is “a virtual facsimile of the Easybeats’ original demo”. (Alec Palao, liner notes to the CD comp Peculiar Hole in the Sky: Pop-Psych from Down Under)
Here are some excerpts from Terry Stacey’s definitive history of the band (which I recommend you read in full):
In the early 1960’s, Blackpool was the home of a thriving beat group scene. . . . One of the many groups . . . was Bruce and The Spiders . . . . [including] Dave Rossall (vocals, lead guitar) . . . . Wollongong, on the shores of sunny New South Wales, Australia . . . had attracted many migrants in the great post WW2 wave, who had moved there to work at the big BHP Steelworks. . . . In 1963 a band was formed in Wollongong called Donnie and The Drifters. . . . [which] then mutated into The Finks who began playing R ‘n B & Blues . . . . In 1966 Dave Rossall migrated . . . with his parents and settled in Wollongong. . . . [He] join[ed] The Finks . . . switch[ing] over to vocals only. It was he who taught them the stagecraft he’d learned in the UK and renamed them. . . . [T]heir record company and some promoters . . . apparently felt rather uneasy in using the full name because, apart from their first release . . . where the band name is shown in full as “Rev Black & The Rockin’ Vickers” (even then they didn’t show it as Vicars), all their later releases had “R. Black and The Rockin’ V’s” on the label. . . . Adopting a name with a religious nature was a very controversial move in Australia then, which was very conservative. . . . Dressing as ministers of religion was fairly radical by the standards of the times. To add to the mystique, they initially put out the story that the whole band had come over from the UK. This gave them a further attraction as Australia was still fully in the grip of its dreaded “cultural cringe” which always looked on overseas music & culture as being superior . . . . However [bassist] Laurie Hellyer says . . . [that he was] the only Australian born member. . . . With the joining of Dave and the consequent name change & the clerical garb, they became more stage conscious and started playing new material such as early Small Faces, The Who and Motown. . . . Mike Mitchell . . . describes the opening of their appearances thus….. [“]the hall is shrouded in darkness……… slowly, very slowly, the stage lights up in a mist, accompanied by soulful church music, a choir in the distance…silhouettes of five people emerge from the receding fog, the choir and the organ steadily fade away as the black figures on stage come into the light…” In early 1967 they recorded their first single . . . . This was a period of plenty . . . with 4 nights a week at the Windang Hotel, plus running and doing spots at their own dances while using other bands. They also did country tours and worked out of Sydney for a while. They regularly headlined at Wollongong’s biggest music venue of the time, Wonderland, and on one occasion they were so popular that Australia’s top pop star Johnny Farnham appeared as support act for them there . . . . [I]n January 1968 . . . the band . . . record[ed] its 2nd single, Vanda & Young’s . . . “Down to the Last 500” and “Sugar Train” (a song written by four members of the band). . . . “Down To The Last 500” entered the Brisbane charts on 6 April 1968 at No 35 and there for 4 weeks, reaching a highest position of No 30. According to Laurie Hellyer it also reached No 13 on the Darwin charts. . . . The band continued on for the next year touring on the Ivan Dayman circuit to Melbourne, Adelaide & Queensland. They cut two more singles during that time. . . . Neither . . . achieved any chart success. . . . [The band] broke up in early 1969. . . . [M]ost members returned to Wollongong and formed Tin Pan Alley.
https://web.archive.org/web/20061029134642/http://www.freewebs.com/rockinvicars/beginningsrevblackthe.htm, https://web.archive.org/web/20061030122358/http://www.freewebs.com/rockinvicars/historyrockinvicars.htm
* “The confusion with the British group, Rev. Black & The Rockin’ Vickers [Lemmy Kilmister’s first band] is hopefully now resolved. British immigrant, Dave Rossall . . . never played in the British group but ‘borrowed’ the name.” (Peter Kelaher, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENKELEk0KgM)
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