This is a US promo copy of a 1964 British 45 by Tommy Quickly, real name Thomas Quigley, a Liverpool pop singer managed by Brian Epstein.
“You Might As Well Forget Him” is a very pretty ballad writtten by Tommy Roe for the soul group the Tams, whose original version did well in the UK. The b-side is a lesser pop number called “It’s As Simple As That”.
One reason I’m posting this is because this song was covered by one of my favorite Australian groups, M.P.D. Ltd. as the b-side to their last 45. They learned it from Quickly when they toured Australia together opening for the Dave Clark Five.
Quickly was apparently a naive youngster who preferred singing rock ‘n roll to pop. His early 45s missed the charts even when he was singing a Lennon-McCartney castoff, and his career was over by the end of 1965.
A remembrance by one of his managers is archived here.
Clint Talbot – vocals / rhythm guitar Tom Winter – lead guitar Dave Field – Hammond organ Barry Beaumont-Jones – bass John Redpath – drums
Five British servicemen stationed near the Dutch border at RAF Wildenwrath in West Germany formed the Motives in 1965. In 1967 they released an EP The World is a Trapezium on the Dutch Telstar label.
“God Save Our Gracious Cream” is freakbeat with a backing reminiscent of “Purple Haze”. “I Can Hear Colours” is slow, moody psych. I was recently sent files of the other two tracks on the original ep, “Ice Woman” and “Baby of the May”. “Ice Woman”, with its “Little Wing” intro might be the best of the four.
David Field, keyboardist for the group, recently contacted me and kindly provided the photos and history presented here:
My personal background is that I learned the piano as a child, learned a little guitar also during school years. I had no band experience at all before I joined the RAF. When I was posted to Wildenrath, Clint Talbot (vocals) had formed the original band with a different drummer and lead guitarist, (neither particularly good) and Barry Beaumont-Jones on bass. They were all serving RAF members.
Clint and I worked in the same hangar and I used to sit in during practice sessions which were held in the hangar crew-room at night. As we all worked shifts, there were occasions when one member or another could not get time off for a particular gig and I offered to stand in on either lead or bass. I did this on several occasions to help out. I then revealed that I could read music and could play the piano. They suggested that I join the group permanently as a keyboard player. Eventually a second-hand instrument was acquired and that’s how I started with The Motives.
John Redpath was a schoolboy whose father was in the RAF at Wildenrath. If I remember correctly, he was a friend of Barry Beaumont-Jones who suggested he come to a practice session. He did, got on the drumkit of the original drummer, and blew us all away with his drumming skills. A short while later, the original drummer was voted out by the band members and John Redpath invited to join the band.
A similar thing happend with Tom Winter. He was also a civilian, the son of a Security Officer at RAF Wildenrath who had heard about the group and turned up at a practive session one night. He asked if he could play a number with us, borrowed the guitar of the original lead guitarist and proceded to dazzle us with his skills. The original lead guitarist quickly realised that Tom was in a different league and left voluntarily. Tom then joined us!
The band had been doing very well and becoming more popular throughout Germany with both the Service venues and civilian clubs. Our manager was also a member of the RAF and stationed with those of the band who were service personnel at RAF Wildenrath near Wassenburg, quite close to the Dutch border. He was Sgt Graham McMurdo, a Scotsman who had a flair for organisation and was a communications expert in the RAF. The bass player, Barrie Beaumont-Jones worked in the same section as Graham who was, in fact, Barrie’s boss.
Graham had decided that we should record a demo record to help to promote the band. This was to be done at the ‘Telstar’ Recording Studio in Weert, Holland. The band paid for around 120 copies. Some were kept to distribute around promotional organisations and used as prizes during our gigs throughout Germany. The remainder were split between the band members to do with as they pleased. My family still have 4 copies.
Incidentally, the sleeve of the EP record was designed and drawn by Tom Winter who, apart from being an incredible guitar player, was also a very talented artist. The drawing of the chap on the front of the record sleeve wearing spectacles, is actually a caricature of Graham Mc Murdo!
The tracks we were to record at ‘Telstar’ were all written by Tom Winter. We had of course practised them all beforehand, however, when we got to the studio, we virtually rearranged all of the tracks from what had been practised as we had the full facilities of the recording studio at our disposal.
The other thing I remember personally was that in the band, I used a Phillips Phillicorda keyboard which had been bought from a dutch group we used to gig with occasionally. Their keyboard player was upgrading to another keyboard and so had the Phillips available for sale. The band paid for it and I paid the band back out of my gig money! When we got to the recording studio, however, there in the corner, was a Hammond L100. I asked the sound engineer if I could use it for the recoding rather than my own instrument. He said yes and so the Hammond was used.
The tracks were all used at gigs once the EP had been produced.
As far as the reissue of two tracks of the EP are concerned, I new nothing of this until recently. Purely by chance, I had googled ‘The Motives’ which came up with an extract from Sweet Floral Albion Issue 13 under the www.marmalade-skies.co.uk banner. In this extract, Tom Winter and Barry Beaumont-Jones had been interviewed by someone from the webzine. The interviewer asked Barry B-Jones if he was aware that two of the tracks had been released by Killroy (KR1551 June 1970) and had featured on the ’Waterpipes & Dykes’ compilation where it had been suggested that it was the work of ‘Opus’. Interestingly, the ‘Kilroy’ label was owned by Johnny Hoes, the owner of the ‘Telstar’ label in Weert which explains pehaps what had been going on! It would be interesting to discover where the ex-members of ‘The Motives’, Telstar and the Killroy label stand legally on this reissue?
Two members of the group formed a band caled Mr Fantasy: Tom Winters and Barry Beaumont-Jones. This lasted about a year after which Tom Winter left and joined Opus 23. John Redpath joined a group called Emergency.
When I returned to the UK, I formed my own discotheque but did not continue with the keyboard until much later, and that privately at home, not in a group. I have at home a Hammond organ and a Yamaha PSR S900 keyboard.
If anyone knows of the whereabouts or email addresses of any of the former memmbers of the Motives I would like to here from them as I havn’t seen any of them since 1968.
David Field
Thanks to Maarten Oosterveld for the scan and transfer of the Killroy single and to Scott for sending in the other two tracks from the EP. A special thank you to David Field for the photos and history of the group.
“I Believed You” is one of the demo tracks recorded by the Ravens, an early version of the Kinks led by Dave Davies, in 1963.
“Time Will Tell” is an excellent Kinks track that for some reason wasn’t released at the time.
Next come three Ray Davies songwriting demos, never recorded by the full band, all from 1965. “All Night Stand” was given to the Thoughts, a UK band also produced by Shel Talmy, but I prefer Ray’s demo.
“Creeping Jean” is a fairly obscure song by Davie Davies and the Kinks. After hitting big with his solo 45, “Death of a Clown”, it looked like Dave might start a full solo career. An album was planned and more 45’s released under his name. None of those did very well, so the lp was canceled. This song was only available on the b-side to “Hold My Hand” from early 1969, until Pye issued “Dave Davies – The Album that Never Was” in 1988.
This site is a work in progress on 1960s garage rock bands. All entries can be updated, corrected and expanded. If you have information on a band featured here, please let me know and I will update the site and credit you accordingly.
I am dedicated to making this site a center for research about '60s music scenes. Please consider donating archival materials such as photos, records, news clippings, scrapbooks or other material from the '60s. Please contact me at rchrisbishop@gmail.com if you can loan or donate original materials