Acme Gram..
The Flies : Complete Collection 1965-1968 (UK,iss.2006)**°'
-with recordings of The In-Sect, Alexander Bell-
In 1966 The Flies recorded a single, “(I’m not your) Stepping stone”, having taken the song from a demo disc by Paul Revere and the Raiders, expecting a hit to launch their careers. The single failed, even with a powerful fundament, loaded of attractive elements (bass, rhythm changes, catchy melody and melodic layers, aggressive electric guitar touches, harmonic vocal arrangement). The Monkees used it soon after as a b-side on their single which became a major hit instead. It was only much later that is was rediscovered by psychedelic collectors after being included in one of the earliest compilations of rare British psychedelia, ‘Chocolate Soup for Diabetics’, leading to a research of the Acme label for their repertoire.
The group actually started as The Rebs in 1964. In 1965 one of the guys fathers who worked at the BBC, approached his son’s group, who were then renamed as The In-Sect, to send in their demo for a commission to make a UK hit single cover album meant for the American market. This resulted in nine tracks with a slightly different line-up because of some circumstances. This recording was as a mono-LP in 1965, of which only three tracks on it were included at the end of the compilation. These recordings weren’t really very original but are acceptable. After some other name and line-up changes they finally became The Flies.
They recorded some demo for Decca of which two tracks, of which “Tired of Waiting for you" is recorded as an acoustic version with just guitar and harmony vocals, “Just won’t do” is tough youngster’s punk garage, a promising track, which however didn’t make it to a real recording, and their “Stepping Stone” demo version, which I would have accepted too. The garage quality of it makes it in an alternative way attractive, even when I think it’s slightly slower than it could be. Al these tracks are submitted amidst other stuff. “Stepping Stone” was recorded with “Talk to me", but as I mentioned before, failed to supply their expected hit.
The group was still given chances, first for live gigs, which included support acts for The Who, Moody Blues, Traffic, The Move and even an early Jimmy Hendrix, just after his “Hey Joe” single, who had seemed to like their first single very much. They soon were given the chance to record their next Decca singles. Inspired by The Move’s destruction of a car on stage, they had made their own act with exploding flour bags. It happened that when some mystery support band Pink Floyd had borrowed their equipment for the occasion this was never returned, leading to much trouble to borrow new equipment before their planned tour.
They continued to show their aggressive act with flour bags on the bigger Technicolour Dream psychedelic festival in April 1967, resulting in a complete audience covered by flour. Robin Hunt soon after that was asked to session with Jimmy Page under the name of Alexander Bell, resulting in a single.
The title track has, as expected, interesting second guitar, has a catchy pop melody and ’60 papapaa-harmony vocals, but less catchy lyrics, and didn’t made it as a success. The lyrics of the B-side, "A hymn..with love" are a better try, but still sound rather naïve flower power minded, mod styled. The Flies tried to promote the project to play under both names but that didn’t help much.
After the single of “The Magic Train” session, Brian Gil left to be replaced by Andrew Browns. The single was released at the same time as The Who’s “Magic Bus” and this confusion of titles didn’t help much. It is a shame because it sounds once more the band, like on “Stepping Stone” try to show their most attractive and powerful and most direct side. It was literally a “waiting for the “Magic Train”, that moment for them to happen, which again through circumstances and different timing of the public’s ears failed to provide the right fuel to this train engine. The b-side, “Gently as you feel” is however a really nice ballad. Several other demos are added from 1968, showing more organ lead to their songs, combined with a rather faint way of singing, especially on "Where". The end of 1968 after a busy gig schedule the band folded.
Ian Baldwin and John Da Costa formed Infinity with former Flies bandmates. Peter Dunton reformed Please (who in their turn changed into Bulldog Breed after his departure, who made one LP for Deram). Members of Bulldog Bread with Peter Dunton and the aforementioned new bass player Andrew Browns had formed T2, who also made an album, for Decca. These two mentioned LP’s were also released by the label.
The compilation is not done ichronologically, because it starts with the track that gave them later fame amongst collector to give the release an attractive starter, which for the review it needed some rearrangement to give an idea of the evolution of the band. For listening pleasure I think the order of tracks is a good alternative order, which for me was enjoyable.
