Bulls Head Bob - FEB 2019. ROBERT PLANTS NEW BAND. DONT GET FOOLED BY FAKES! THE UGLYS, "I've Seen the Light",

Hello Brummies and Musos, 

Hope you are all well and hunkering down in the current cold snap.

ROBERT PLANTS NEW BAND
SAVING GRACE
Planty and his new band Saving Grace did a surprise unannounced gig at the SpArc Theatre, Bishops Castle, last week.   It was a venue that he had used before to "air" a new line up.   Seems like this could be an extension of the music vibe he had with Alison Kraus, so nice one and I hope you get to catch
a performance soon.

The line up is, Robert Plant, all round good guy Tony Kelsey, Matt Worsley, Suzi Dian and Oli Jefferson.   Folksy and Bluesy in an intimate setting sounds brilliant to me.
FAKE 45. 
The UGLYS "I've Seen the Light".
These days with the masses of technology available its possible for anyone to record a song at home in your bedroom and put it on Youtube for example to get some airtime or even get it on Spotify.   Back in the days of the 60's it was impossible to do and it was every musicians dream to make a record.

To get to that point of being signed to a record label and actually see your

record for sale in a record shop was thrilling but didn't come easy unless your Dad knew someone in the record business and then maybe you could creep in through the back door.    It only came after years of playing and practising and then getting picked up by a record company or by joining a bigger band who had recorded already.  I was so excited to be making a record and being in a band publicised as "recording artistes", it was a real big deal then.   Going to London and entering the huge recording studio was scary as anything but I was actually recording a song for a Label, how great was that for a 17 year old?  

There was no thought at all of any money that the record might have generated, it didn't seem to be anywhere near as important as having a recording contract itself and that my friends was the downfall of many bands.  Royalties were a joke then anyway with the band earning something like a penny for every single sold and the record and publishing company kept the rest.    Loads of famous groups got nothing materially, in the financial sense, from recordings but you did get an increase in the amount of gigs you did and a real rise in appearance money and that's what bands lived off, by playing 7 nights a week.  All the money the Spencer Davis Group got for their record sales was ploughed back into Island Records by Chris Blackwell.    The Small Faces, Them  and The Yardbirds to name but 3 got nothing either, courtesy of of Don Arden and

Georgio Gomelsky. Then of course we get to The Moody Blues and Tony Secunda, despite having had the brilliant Go Now in the charts were perpetually broke, so much so that bassist Clint Warwick walked out of the band and went back to being a carpenter at the height of their fame and Denny Laine just quit to form The Denny Laine String Band.

   It was only 2 years ago, shortly before Ray Thomas' death that the band won their legal fight to get their royalties for the single which was a world wide success.  Many, many groups fell to pieces, penniless despite having had lots of chart success because of being naive about finances and as Don Arden famously said "If someone wants to have their money taken off them, I'm the man".  

During the mid 80's I lived in Wiltshire for a while and had arranged for my house to be painted, I was amazed to see that the painter was Tich, the bass player from Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mitch and Tich another 60's band deprived of their dosh.  Anyway those days have gone and many of those past artists have passed away.  However, the vinyl records have remained in the public eye and have become sought after recordings, one of those is Birmingham's own "The Uglys" whose records, with the exception of End of the Season have all been a favourite collectible with record collectors.   

(The Uglys 1968)

The most valuable of all their records was the unreleased MGM recording of "I've Seen the Light",  there were only 7 copies of the Promotional single pressed, one each for the band and two for the producer.  Within a month of the recording the band had finished for good.

Its value had reached and even surpassed 2000 pounds!   In 2004 The Ugs released a CD of their past recordings along with some BBC recordings and a few studio outtakes. The CD sold out and now has become another sought after article in its own right because the Sanctuary Record label collapsed shortly after its release.

I was very surprised then, a couple of weeks back to see this for sale on EBay:

Here we have what purports to be The Uglys ultra-rare single with a price of just 16 pounds!!   BUT......this is not an MGM single even though in the description of the record it says MGM re-issue and rates its condition as VG++.
The 7 copies of the single were only printed on a pink background with a large A covering the label.  THIS IS A FAKE and the recording is copied from the CD which in turn was copied from one of the bands original copies because the master tapes are no longer available.

The only person getting anything for this is the person who has faked it.  So even now the band still get nothing and the public get stiffed as well!!

If you wish to buy a collectible piece of vinyl do your homework, there are plenty of reputable books on the subject or websites like Cat45 which go into detail about valuable 45's.  Don't get hoodwinked, do lots of research and avoid
the traps of the unscrupulous robbing bastards.

DAVE PEACE RIP
Sad to announce that Dave Peace ex Crawdaddies passed away on 23 Jan aged 70.  A funeral will take place at Oak Chapel, Crownhill Crematorium, MK8 0AH at 1.15pm.  Family flowers only please and if you plan to attend can you contact Mary Peace.

FINALLY
I've just had a coal delivery so once Mrs Bob has finished storing it in the shed properly and raked out the ashes she'll soon be getting a nice fire going so you can bring on the cold, I can take it.!!

Yours in much Warmth

Bob

Copyright:  Bullsheadbob
contact:  Bobsbullocks@GMail.com