"Surprise Partie" Paris, 12-31-68 French T.V. Special

"Surprise Partie" was a French T.V. special, recorded on New Years Eve 1968 in Paris. The full line up was as follows...Davy Jones, Marie Laforet, The Troggs, Jacques Dutronc, Joe Cocker, Françoise Hardy, Aphrodite's Child, Antoine, Johnny Hallyday, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, Hugues Auffray, The Small Faces, Herbert Leonard, P.P. Arnold, Booker T & The MGs, Eric Charden, Freddy, Nicoletta, The Irresistibles, The Equals, and Les Variations. Quite a surprise party indeed. Hopefully it's available out there on DVD somewhere...Below are some of the clips available on YouTube, but there may be more out there.

The Who – "I Can See For Miles"



Fleetwood Mac – "Homework"





Fleetwood Mac – "Dust My Broom"



Joe Cocker and The Grease Band – "I shall Be Released" & "With a Little Help From My Friends".



The Small Faces – "Song of a Baker"


The Equals – "Equality"



P.P. Arnold – "If You Think You're Groovy"



Hugues Auffray – "Et si moi je ne veux pas"

It seems that Fleetwood Mac, The Equals (featuring a very young Eddie Grant, complete with dyed blonde hair!), Joe Cocker & The Grease Band and Hugues Auffray were the only performers that played live (it's hard to tell as it's all a bit chaotic), the rest either lip synched (The Small Faces barely!) or like P.P. Arnold, sang over a backing tape.

I'm not sure why the Joe Cocker clips are in a different room, but as far as I can tell they were recorded on the same night, at the same event, but maybe not. Still I thought it worth including for the intimate and powerful rendition of "With a Little Help From My Friends".

Hugues Auffray does well to tame a very merry Keith Moon and Pete Towhshend who also pop up as last minute roadies for the slightly worse for wear Stevie Marriott.

The footage is a great document of the times...and what a backstage party there must've been afterward, and what a start to 1969!! Enjoy responsibly.

"Young Man" by Mose Allison

A film I put together to go with Mose Allison's great song "Young Man", cause I'm a young man, sort of. Is 41 still young?

More Who!!

Does anyone out there remember when Top of The Pops really meant something? 7.30pm on a Thursday night heralded the almost beginning of the weekend, only one more day of school then freedom for a whole 48hrs.

You'd had your fill of Grange Hill, you'd had your dinner and it was time to settle in for a half hour of God only knows what. Maybe Kate Bush in her Babushka gear, maybe The Smiths outraging dads the land over with bunches of flowers and hearing aids, The Jam singing "Town Called Malice" with Paul Weller in a kitchen apron, Iggy pop pulling the heads of doll's, pan's people dancing to "In the Summertime" in frighteningly short shorts as your dad sent you out of the room to ask your mum something, Dave Lee Travis, Jimmy bloody Saville...Ohh I could go on.

Well of course you could spend your life reliving it all on Youtube and in a recent interview it sounded like that's exactly what Johnny Marr is doing with himself these days, but for all you TOTP fans of old and even older, here's the Mighty Who doing "Won't Get Fooled Again".

Imagine this bunch of psychopathic looking hairies blasting out on a frigid Thursday December evening in 1971..Sure as hell beats the pants of what passes for pop music in "The Industry" (says it all really) these days. Kid's of today are getting fooled and they don't even know it. Oh God I sound like some 40 year old!! Enjoy...

The Who, "Won't Get Fooled Again"

The Who – The Seeker.

Despite the dodgy  sound quality..this is a great clip from 1971 of The Who at their hairiest best. The Seeker is a bit of a lost Who classic in my mind. I mention it in conversation and people tend to look at me blankly, I mean they do that anyway, but more blank than usual! Anyway. It's a great track, love those sarcastic lyrics... Strangely for The Who, they all look really fit and healthy here, even Keith. Great seeing the boys doing their thing. Enjoy.