the Tapestry of Delights: The Pretty Things are best remembered as an R&B band which is what they set out as. Based in the Erith and Dartford area of Kent, The Pretties were considered even dirtier, scruffier and more outrageous than The Stones - so much so that they never achieved the public acceptance that would have made them as big as they should have been despite the success of their first three singles.
As the first phase of The Pretties chequered career drew to a close, the wildest of the bunch - Viv Prince - was sacked by the band following an Australasian tour in 1965 after being thrown off a plane for being drunk and disorderly and setting fire to a stage during the tour!
Their first two albums were basically R&B but Emotions was an unconvincing attempt to come to terms with the heady days of 1967. The album contained all original compositions, mainly credited to Taylor and May. Children is arguably the strongest track on the album, others like Tripping and Growing In My Mind were lyrically an attempt to come to terms with the changing times, although musically they lacked the imagination and creativity that characterised the better bands of this era. The band later claimed that they knew they had to complete the album to leave the label but had no control over the end product, which the producers laced with strings and brass. Stax and Pendleton quit the band soon after the album's release. Stax emigrated to Australia and Pendleton simply vanished. Taylor and May made drastic changes bringing in Wally Allen and John Povey from Bern Elliott and The Fenmen and drummer Twink (alias John Alder) from The Fairies. This new line-up recorded S.F. Sorrow which was based on a short story by Phil May and is generally acknowledged to be the first rock opera giving Pete Townshend the inspiration to write Tommy. S. F. Sorrow was certainly one of the best things The Pretties did - an innovative and imaginative account of the life of an imaginary character - 'S. F. Sorrow'. Musically it represented a significant advance for The Pretties. It also may have influenced other artists of that era - for example, one of its tracks Private Sorrow sounded similar to subsequent Jethro Tull compositions on Aqualung. Despite its influence, it was largely unheralded at the time and did not sell well.
Around the time of S.F. Sorrow, the band recorded an album in France. The Philippe De Barge album, as it has become known, came into being when French millionaire Philippe De Barge wanted to finance something to do with swinging sixties London and he persuaded the Pretties to come over to his Chateau to record an LP.
Founder member Dick Taylor left near the completion of S.F. Sorrow and joined Clearwater Productions as house producer. Following the failure of Parachute, a hard rock album, which was also highly acclaimed by the critics but sold badly, the band folded. However, they were later reformed in the mid-seventies by Skip Alan and manager Bill Shepherd and recorded three further albums Freeway Madness for Warner Bros. in 1973 and Silk Torpedo and Savage Eye for Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label in 1974 and 1975. After six months they changed their name to Metropolis, but their fortunes remained on a downward spiral and at the end of 1977 they disbanded.
Along with The Yardbirds, the band were enormously influential on many US mid-sixties garage bands. They reformed in 1984 with a new line-up of May (vcls), Taylor (gtr) Joe Shaw (gtr), Dave Wintour (bs), John Clarke (drms) and Kevin Flanagan (sax).
They later reformed in 1980, 1984 and 1992, but their most successful reunion started in 1998 with a live version of SF Sorrow recorded at Abbey Rd Studios. This featured guests David Gilmour and Arthur Brown and had a limited CD issue as Resurrection (Worldwidetribe 160042) 1998.
In 1999, The Pretty Things took to the road, including a US tour and the recording of a new studio album.
01. You Don't Believe Me
02. Buzz the Jerk
03. Get the Picture?
04. Can't Stand the Pain
05. Rainin' in My Heart
06. We'll Play House
07. You'll Never Do it Baby
08. I Had a Dream
09. I Want Your Love
10. London Town
11. Cry to Me
12. Gonna Find Me a Substitute
bonus: 13. Get a Buzz
14. Sittin' All Alone
15. Midnight to Six Man
16. Come See Me
17. L.S.D.
18. Me Needing You
PHIL MAY vcls, hrmnca
BRIAN PENDLETON gtr
JOHN STAX bs, hrmnca
DICK TAYLOR gtr
SKIP ALLAN drms
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