The Top Shelf were from Wanganui, a port town on the southwestern coast of the North Island of New Zealand, about a three hour drive from Wellington where they based their career. The Cresendos also came from Wanganui.
“Time Beyond (Can’t We Still Be Friends)” takes inspiration from “White Room” with some fantastic wah wah playing.
“Time Beyond” was left to the b-side behind a pop song with the very unwieldy title “Baby the World Really Turns (Many a Slip Twixt Cup and Lip)”. Although relatively lightweight, the opening is arresting and performance solid.
Production was by Peter Dawkins. A radio station card that accompanies my copy shows it was received on July 24, 1969, and played a paltry four times over the next two months, despite being a “Golden Disc Entry” for the year.
The band reunited for the Third Official Wellington 1960s Rock Band Reunion on Sunday, October 12, 1996 in the Lower Hutt Horticultural Hall. I can’t find any reviews of the show, but an article promoting the reunion in the New Zealand weekly the Sunday Star-Times gave a description of the band:
Wanganui’s Top Shelf are best remembered for their 1969 residency at Ali Baba’s in Wellington’s Willis Street, where they played soul and harmony based pop for the popular club’s post-teen regulars. They emerged in the strong Wanganui 1960s scene in mid 1968, made up of members from the popular Nusonics (Murray Barnes and John Harrison), and The Sect and Downbeats (Martin Berryman [on drums], Kevin Furey, and Doug Bonner) to play local dances, and save enough money to break into the Australian scene.
When kingpin promoter Ken Cooper offered them the Ali Baba’s gig, they headed south instead, leaving behind bassist Doug Bonner, who was replaced by Dave Berryman.
On-stage, they played up to nine hours a night on weekends, cutting a dash with their two piece horn section, and later in 1969, cutting a single for HMV Records, the bubblegum pop “Baby, The World Really Turns” backed with the psychedelic “Time Beyond”, penned by Wanganui duo Dick Le Fort and Martin Hadlow. They disbanded in late 1969.
Sources include: Mysterex: New Zealand Music and Culture (via the Internet Archive)
‘Baby the world really turns’ is a cover of ‘Many’s the slip twixt the cup and the lip’ by The Present (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAyk1CedFJc).
Great site: brings back wonderful memories, and Wanganui certainly was a swinging city. We teenages of the 60’s, were spoilt for choice because of the number of bands playing.