THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
2,081) Clapham Junction — “Emily on Sunday”
Who’s in Sydney? Well, Clapham Junction is! This “Aussie mod psych classic with strong Who [see #119, 548, 833, 976, 1,912, 2,055] overtones” (happening45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7STPaNxVk2E) is “charming and somewhat anachronistic — for 1969 — mod thrash”. (Alec Palao, liner notes to the CD comp Peculiar Hole in the Sky: Pop-Psych from Down Under) I won’t get fooled again!
Kimbo tells us of the Junction:
Pop-psych group Clapham Junction formed in 1968 and for a while ran its own nightclub called the Union Jack in Sydney. Several members originally hailed from the U.K., and they took their name from Britain’s busiest railway station. Original personnel consisted of Dennis Loughlin (vocals), Derek Lewis (guitar), Peter Noble (bass) and David Mills (drums). The band gigged regularly in the city and in regional places like Newcastle and Tamworth. In early 1969, Loughlin left to form Sherbet and was replaced by two vocalists Jim Willebrant and William Mahoney. It was this lineup that released one single, the outstanding The Who influenced ”Emily On Sunday” on the Du Monde label.
https://historyofaussiemusic.blogspot.com/2013/09/clapham-junction.html
Michael Dwyer adds:
[T]the Sydney blues-rock band prided itself on blowing all comers off stage – even if it meant a little power plug mischief when faced with headliners as formidable as the Masters Apprentices [see #297, 1,688] . . . . “Emily On Sunday” has possibly had more plays by random YouTube trawlers in recent times than it enjoyed on Australian radio in 1969. Nonetheless, the Junction’s former bass player, Peter Noble, still likes to brag that they were earning more money than their fathers in their prime. . . . Today, Noble is the director of Bluesfest, the world-renowned international music festival that draws around 100,000 people to the Byron Bay region every Easter.
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/and-the-bands-play-on-20110420-1douw.html
“Several members originally hailed from the U.K.”? Alec Palao notes that:
The rumour goes that the unruly Clapham Junction were refugees from the “old dart”, to the extent that they even promoted a Sydney club entitled The Union Jack. . . . “I’m not sure that [they] were all Brits,” reckons producer Martin Erdman, “but yes, it was a pretty wild session, as I think shows on the disc. They were a crazy band, great guys and a lot of fun to work with. I don’t know why we never did an album.”
liner notes to Peculiar Hole in the Sky
But “[b]assist Peter Noble . . . point[s] out that he was ‘the only Aussie in an all-Brit band'”. (Pop Archives, https://poparchives.com.au/clapham-junction/good-time-music/)
What happened after the Junction? Pop Archives tells us that:
After Clapham Junction, Dennis Laughlin and Sam See [Ruthven] became foundation members of Sherbet in 1969. Laughlin was Sherbet’s original lead singer, heard on their first single “Crimson Ships”, but left after a few months. Later he was in Toby Jugg. (Clapham Junction’s John Foley, Jim Willebrandt and Bill Mahoney also passed through Toby Jugg, as did Garth Porter, later in Sherbet.) Sam See left Sherbet in 1970, before its rise to stardom. He was in The Flying Circus [see #944] and Greg Quill’s band Southern Cross in the 70s and, as Milesago puts it, became a mainstay of the Australian music scene with a bulging CV [http://www.milesago.com/Artists/circus.htm]
https://poparchives.com.au/clapham-junction/good-time-music/
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