West Midland: An underrated music region makes itself heard

According to the German version of Wikipedia, the Midlands are

„the central part of England around Birmingham. It is roughly equivalent to the lowlands of central England, the traditional centre of coal mining (see the term Black Country) and, to this day, industry. … Its urban centre is the conurbation of Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry with several million inhabitants“.

However, from the perspective of West Midland musicians and music lovers, the region seems to be also home to the most underrated music scene in the UK, if not Europe or the world. That’s why the mission of the „Once Upon A Time in The West Midlands“ box set with its three CDs is to raise awareness of this region and the western part of it.

A cross-section through an eventful time

To this end, the diligent song collectors at Cherry Records have compiled a total of 69 songs (and acquired the rights to them, which may have been even more time-consuming than the mere selection) in order to provide as comprehensive an overview as possible of the „Bostin‘ Sounds of Brumrock“ from 1966 to 1974. This was not entirely successful. Since, as David Wells reports in the booklet to the box, the rights were not available, Black Sabbath and the pre-Led Zeppelin Robert Plant, two top international stars, are missing.

And also the absence of performers who are less well-known abroad, such as Raymond Froggatt and Sight and Sound are rightly bemoaned in the booklet.

To get to know the full range of styles in the West Midlands at the time, it is therefore advisable to listen to these artists by googling their songs on YouTube, for example.

Jon Savage describes the first year of the compilation, 1966, in a book as „The Year The Decade Exploded‚.“ It is therefore not surprising that it is almost impossible to succinctly describe this collection of 69 pieces of music, which range from innocent beat to psychedelic touches  and heavy rock.

So just this much: On the one hand, there are groups and performers who are well known internationally but would not have been categorised as West Midlands elsewhere such as The Moody Blues, Traffic, Denny Lane, Spencer Group, Chicken Shack, Slade, Jim Capaldi The Electric Light Orchestra and Judas Priest. Then there are local giants such as The Move and Wizzard. Names that resound like thunder in the UK but are probably only known to a few on the continent. And there are many names that most people on the other side of the canal have never heard of.

The impressive tracklist

See for yourself! Here is the tracklist:

• Craig: I Must Be Mad
• The N‘ Betweens: Security (Extended Version)
• Doc Thomas Group: Rescue Me
• The Moody Blues: Life’s Not Life
• The Bobcats: Let Me Get By
• Deep Feeling: Chicken George
• The Extreem: On The Beach
• Double Feature: Baby Get Your Head Screwed On
• The Move: I Can Hear The Grass Grow
• Denny Laine: Say You Don’t Mind
• Capitol Systems: On Time
• The Idle Race: Imposters Of Life’s Magazine
• Traffic: No Face, No Name, No Number
• The Spencer Davis Group: Moonshine
• The Rockin‘ Berries: Yellow Rainbow
• Young Blood: Don’t Leave Me In The Dark
• The U-No-Who: An Apple A Day
• Ideal Milk: N.S.U.
• Ace Kefford: Trouble In The Air
• Chicken Shack: When The Train Comes Back
• Simon’s Secrets: I Know What Her Name Is (Demo Version)
• Just William: Cherry Wood Green
• Giorgio & Marco’s Men: Baby I Need You
• Velvett Fogg: Yellow Cave Woman
• Locomotive: Mr Armageddon (Single Version)
• The Uglys: I’ve Seen The Light
• The Ace Kefford Stand: Daughter Of The Sun
• Montanas: Roundabout
• The World Of Oz: Like A Tear
• The Exception: Don’t Torture Your Mind
• Jardine: Masochists Of Strangulation
• Tea & Symphony: Boredom
• Gordon Jackson: The Journey
• Bakerloo: Big Bear Ffolly
• Cinnamon Quill: Candy
• Climax Blues Band: Like Uncle Charlie
• Revolver: Imaginations
• The Californians: You’ve Got Your Troubles
• Medicine Head: His Guiding Hand (Single Version)
• Paradox: Goodbye Mary
• Galliard: A Modern Day Fairy Tale
• Cathedral: It’s A Hard Way
• Trapeze: Suicide
• Kansas Hook: Dance In The Smoke
• Hard Meat: Ballad Of Marmalade Emma And Teddy Grimes
• Bachdenkel: Donna
• The Ghost: When You’re Dead
• Big Bertha: Time Of The Season
• Fable: She Said Yes
• Mike Sheridan & Rick Price : : Lamp Lighter Man
• Slade: One Way Hotel
• Fred’s Box: We’re Gonna Change All This
• Luv Machine: Reminiscing
• Salamander: People
• Steve Gibbons: Brown Girl
• Dave Morgan: Ill Wind
• Ptolomy Psycon: Shadow Bright
• Mail: Omnibus
• Possessed: Disheartened And Disillusioned
• Jimmy Powell: Talking Progressive Blues
• Jim Capaldi: Eve
• Roy Wood: Dear Elaine
• Wizzard: Ball Park Incident
• Electric Light Orchestra: Roll Over Beethoven (Album Version)
• Fairfield Ski: Circus
• Ironbridge: Just A Day
• Bedlam: The Beast (2021 Remix)
• Judas Priest: Rocka Rolla
• Blackfoot Sue: Bye Bye Birmingham

Insight in bands`social life

To guide you through the maze of these many names, there is an almost 50-page booklet with a general introduction to the music scene in and around Birmingham at the time, affectionately known as „Brum“ by its inhabitants an detailed information on each of the bands.

There it is emphasised that the „Brum“ scene (unlike the beat boom in Liverpool and swinging 60s London) did not run out of steam at the end of the decade, but continued to develop through the turn of the new decade (and even became the delivery room for heavy metal).

We also learn that Birmingham’s relative proximity to London allowed the Brum musicians to be present in the capital with gigs and to cultivate contacts with record companies without having to move away from their own home town. As a result, the musicians often bumped into each other back home in Birmingham and a special camaraderie developed between them. This was particularly evident in the fact that they often played football together on Sunday mornings and then went to the pub together afterwards.

References to Steve Gibbons

The collection has several references to Steve Gibbons:

On the one hand, it sheds light on the musical environment from which he came and of which he is now one of the founding fathers. Secondly, the subtitle of the first CD „The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’s“ („The Ugly’s“ in this spelling!) refers to one of his early groups.

However, the song by this band on this compilation „I’ve Seen the Light“ does not feature Steve Gibbons, but Dave Scott (now Scott Morgan), who also wrote the song. Immediately after its recording, this song remained unreleased because the band’s then newly hired manager Tony Secunda forbade the record company MGM to release it for contractual reasons. This song therefore also symbolises the not exactly happy work of this dazzling manager.

The Balls: Much ado about almost nothing – A supergroup doesn’t take off (1969 – 1971)

The first disc of the box set also contains the song „Imposters of Life’s Magazine“ by the Idle Race from 1967, a group that Steve Gibbons would join a few years later.

Steve Gibbons himself is represented on the last disc with the song „Brown Girl“. This comes from his lavishly produced first solo LP „Short Stories“, which did not receive much attention despite an impressive line-up of prominent musicians. On this song, Gibbon is supported by Albert Lee on guitar, Gary Wright from Spooky Tooth on keyboard, Greg Ridley from Humble Pie on bass and Alan White, the drummer in John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band and later with YES. Backing vocals were provided by Doris Troy and Madeline Bell, both of whom had impressive musical careers of their own.

Recordings of companions

The list of songs also includes recordings by musicians with whom Steve Gibbons has played in bands on other occasions. Danny Lane, Gibbon’s predecessor in Idle Race and co-member of the rather “unrounded” Balls, for example, is represented solo with „Say You Don’t Mind“ and with „Life’s Not Life“, his last recording with The Moody Blues,

And Dave Scott (then still without Morgan) can also be heard solo (with the intense, sparsely instrumentalised „Ill Wind“) and with a band, namely Paradox (with the lighter „Good Bye Mary“).

Booklet with minimalist font

The booklet is a tremendous piece of hard work with one drawback, which is due to the CD format. The impressive collection of songs is probably of particular interest to a generation that no longer finds it so easy to read microscopic fonts.

Further sources for Brum Beat

We therefore recommend Laurie Hornsby’s two books „Brum rocked“ and „Brum rocked“ as read while listening to the box set. These are not only easier to read in print, but also contain a lot more information about the music scene in Birmingham, the heart of the West Midlands (although the chronological arc is different from that on the CD box, as Hornsby begins his retrospective with the fifties, but ends it at the end of the sixties).

We also recommend the website Brumbeat.net

And if you like reading original music magazines from the 1960s, you can find issues of „Midland beat“ on the homepage of the Birmingham Music Archives (currently only accessible to a limited extent due to a relaunch)