THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,920) Vamp — “Floatin’”
This “rarely comped classic of UK psych[] featur[es] shimmering distorted guitar and detached drumming. . . . almost like a more lethargic version of Tintern Abbey’s equally lauded ‘Vacuum Cleaner'” [see #35]. (Mag1c_hand, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/vamp/floatin-thinkin-too-much/) A “[c]lassic cult favorite from [a] supergroup comprised of [former Pretty Things (see #82, 94, 153, 251, 572, 731, 892, 1,001, 1,327) wildman] Viv Prince, Andy Clark, Mick Hutchinson, and Pete Sears” (Leapday, https://www.45cat.com/record/584213), it is a “reflective ballad” with a “laidback, hypnotic atmosphere” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited) that “really sounds like everyone involved in the recording was seriously stoned.” (Joël van Roode, https://www.pooterland.com/bands_compilations.html)
Pete Sears Vamps:
“VAMP” . . . stood for Viv, Andy, Mick, and Pete. Viv Prince from the “Pretty Things” on drums, Andy Clark on keyboards and vocal, Mick Hutchinson on guitar, and me on bass. We released a single in 1968 called “Floatin” . . . . I remember us sitting in this big-wig’s office at Screen Gems…and him bragging about how they’d made the “Monkeys” band out of nothing. We didn’t really hit it off with their approach to promoting music and our one single didn’t do so well. We had recorded another tune which included Sam Gopal on Tablas playing along with Viv on drums…more like the jam approach of the original “Sam Gopal Dream”…unfortunately it never saw the light of day and nobody knows where the acetate is. We broke up soon after that…Mick and Andy started “Clark Hutchinson” and made some cool albums. I started my own band called “Giant” with Viv Prince on drums…I played lead guitar.
https://petesears.com/music/1968-vamp-floatin-atlantic-records-london/
Here is Alex Williams on Viv Prince:
Viv Prince[ was] a drummer for the snarling 1960s British rock band the Pretty Things, whose taste for chaos, onstage and off, provided inspiration for fellow stick-wielding loons like Keith Moon of the Who [see #548, 833, 976] . . . . During his 18-month run . . . . [h]e got as much attention for his unhinged persona as for his scalding performances. It was no mean feat to be the maniac among maniacs in the Pretty Things, a ferocious outfit that partied incessantly and was generally considered a ruder, cruder version of the Rolling Stones [see #382, 298, 537, 579, 1,098, 1,403]. . . . The Pretty Things formed . . . in 1963, and Mr. Prince joined the next year. He had previously worked as a session drummer and played with various bands, including the Jazz Cardinals and Carter-Lewis & the Southerners . . . . Prince was recruited to bring an air of professionalism to the unruly Pretties. That is not the way it unfolded. “We were sort of novice lunatics, but they suddenly hand us, like, the high priest of lunacy,” Phil May, the group’s lead singer, said in an interview for Richie Unterberger’s book Urban Spacemen and Wayfaring Strangers: Overlooked Innovators and Eccentric Visionaries of ’60s Rock . . . . May recalled a young Mr. Moon . . . taking in Pretty Things gigs and looking mesmerized by Mr. Prince’s explosive fills. “Before that, playing drums was quite sedentary,” Mr. May said. “Boring. And through Viv, you’d suddenly realized that you could be a drummer, but also an extrovert. You could be a star.” . . . Eventually, Mr. Prince’s untethered personality became too much, even for the Pretty Things. He “was one of the great debauched people of our time, even worse than Keith Moon,” Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones once said. . . . “We had to sack him because he was so bad in the end,” Mr. May told Mr. Unterberger. “We couldn’t finish a concert.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/arts/music/viv-prince-dead.html
Oh, and Michael Hann notes that “after his sacking [Viv] apparently joined the Hells Angels, and was duly thrown out for bad behaviour”!!!(https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/sep/12/the-pretty-things-drummer-viv-prince)
Here is Sears on Sears:
Pete Sears . . . has played keyboards or bass guitar with a large variety of artists . . . . His credits include the classic early Rod Stewart albums, Gasoline Alley, Every Picture Tells a Story, Never a Dull Moment, and Smiler . . . . Pete was bassist and keyboardist with Jefferson Starship from 1974 to 1978 . . . and from 1979 to 1987, he was with Starship, playing on over ten albums with the two bands. He contributed several songs to each album . . . . [and] collaborated on many songs with Grace Slick as lyricist . . . . In 1978, after Grace left the band for one album, Freedom at Point Zero, he began working with wife and lyricist, Jeannette Sears, and over the years they wrote many of Jefferson Starship’s songs . . . . [s]everal . . . ma[king] into music videos and . . . put into heavy rotation on MTV. . . . From 1992 to 2001, Pete played keyboards . . . in the Jefferson Airplane off-shoot, Hot Tuna. He also played in the Jorma Kaukonen Trio . . . . John Lee [Hooker] was . . . a guest on Pete’s album, The Long Haul. Pete’s other release, Watchfire, in 1988, included Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, David Grisman, and Mimi Farina [see #1,760]. . . . Over the years, Pete has worked on many benefits with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead including an early version of Ratdog, and in 2001 he formed his own band Dawn Patrol. He is currently a full-time member of Moonalice . . . . In 1964 and 1965, Pete toured Britain with the Sons of Fred, recording five singles . . . . [A]fter a brief stint on keyboards playing Motown songs with Fleur De Lys [see #32, 122] he formed the underground psychedelic band Sam Gopal Dream along with renowned guitarist, Mick Hutchinson and Tabla player Sam Gopal. . . . Pete . . . recorded keyboards with bluesman Freddy King’s European backing band, Steamhammer. In 1969, Pete worked as a session musician in London . . . . He . . . form[ed] Silver Meter with Leigh Stevens and Micky Waller, and later the original Stoneground . . . . Pete recorded piano and bass on Rod Stewart’s Gasoline Alley in 1970. In 1971, he played bass on the first Papa John Creach solo album . . . . [H]e joined The Long John Baldry Blues Band for their first tour of the United States. He was later a founding member of the San Francisco based band, Copperhead . . . . Pete played piano with bluesman Nick Gravenitas on the notorious Mill Valley Bunch album during this period . . . . He also formed a band, Sears, Schon, Errico with Greg Errico, and Neil Schon. . . .
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