The Purple Gang’s ‘Granny Takes A Trip’ is one of the cult singles of 1967, a track that mixed jugband with 60s counterculture. Now Chris Joe Beard and The Purple Gang have recorded what was supposed to be the follow-up – Syd Barrett’s ‘Boon Tune’. Chris Joe speaks to Jason Barnard about his ride through hippy London and life in music.
Can you tell me about ‘Boon Tune’ and the material Syd offered to you in 1967?
‘Syd’ Barrett knew we were in Sound Techniques doing “Granny Takes A Trip” (and other songs) with Joe Boyd producing and being our front man in general (until we got bigger/ big!). Floyd had hired Joe to produce their first single “Arnold Layne,” as they were all in this new “Underground” scene together. We were the new kids in town……hicks from the sticks…..but we had art school attitude and people were saying we could be the UK version of The Lovin` Spoonful. (This is now New Year 1967) Joe had come from that USA, bluesy/ jug band/ folkie background anyway. Nat Joseph the CEO of Transatlantic Records (our new record label) had asked Joe to come and hear us play in the office at Transatlantic Records and he dug what we were doing and saw a future for us – even in the new hippy scene. I sat on the floor of the control room in Sound Techniques and heard “Arnold Layne” blasting out of the speakers. I was screaming that I knew this guy called “Arnold Blayne” back up in my village and thought the whole thing was spooky. I also fell in love with Pink Floyd there and then.
What occurred later was that Syd had asked to hear US through the control room speakers! He liked the jug band sound, the song and lyrics and said (according to Joe) “Well they can have Number 2 to our Number 1!” He then gave Joe this small demo tape of his 3 or 4 songs and asked if we could give “Boon Tune” consideration as a possible follow up to “Granny takes a Trip”. Joe handed it to me and I put it in my guitar case. It had just Syd playing electric guitar with loads of echo and I cannot remember the other songs –only “Boon Tune” (maybe one was Golden Hair?) Later, I sat amongst Mike Heron and Robin Williamson`s fragile instruments back at Joe`s apartments in Westbourne Terrace (that we all shared in Bayswater) and struggled to learn it (it had a LOT of chords).Nat Joseph got to hear about this and went ballistic, not wanting his “new signings getting involved with other writer/publishers”. So it got shelved, or rather put back in my case. This is where it all goes madly wrong. No-one seems to know, even me, what the hell happened to it. Did I leave it in Westbourn Terrace? It would have been found I`m sure. I later found lots of old tapes in a box in my art studio and went through the lot. Many had been oxidised and frost affected but I never found the treasured one!! Doh! I dread to think it might have got wiped mistakenly but it can`t be ruled out. Back then Syd was the leader of a great band and not the immortal psychedelic legend he is now— but had I known this might happen I would have salted it away safely! Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Joe Boyd has no knowledge what happened either.
Later I heard it on “At Last The Madcap Laughs” and it was almost the same. But they had lamely re-titled it “Here I Go”, which I thought rather odd. After decades of not caring or being involved in lots of other situations I decided it should be belatedly done as requested by the man himself. We have done 3 versions (One was played on Radio Merseyside last year by quality DJ Spencer Leigh) and we did and acoustic version in Cabin Studios, Coventry we call “The Butterfly Sessions” with Paul Sampson (Catatonia etc.) producing. We had a Red Admiral butterfly sat on all our instruments during this session. It was February and freezing cold outside and to see this was amazing. Sooner or later someone declared “It`s the spirit of Syd”!
Which version is on A Band For All Seasons?
We have a new version on the Fruits De Mer soon to be released “ A Band For All Seasons” with Rob Gould me and Gerry Robinson from the original PG. It`s more psychedelic this version with a very long “Bike” influenced ending…….very trippy.
What attracted you to the jugband sound?
I was attracted to the jug band sound as I hung around with John Mayall`s Bluesbreakers back in the early Sixties as I was dating Alice Flint briefly (sister to drummer Hughie) and I literally had my first guitar lesson off John. I used to deliver meat to their house. Later on in 1965 I went to St Ives and fell in with Tony (Duster) Bennett and his Jericho Jug Band down from Richmond for the season. I used to sit with Tony and listen to him doing his Sonny Boy and Sonny Terry stuff as it echoed off the harbour wall, accompanied by seagulls! Back in those days we were mostly repressed by our parents and had to fight to play “rock” or electric. I thought it might be a good cheap version to form a jug band.
Can you tell me about the formation of The Purple Gang?
So down in “Ives” in the company of beatniks and summer drop outs, I ran into Pete Walker (my later lead vocalist Lucifer) who was working as a grave digger (don`t ask) and we briefly said we might get a band together one day. Back at Stockport Art School, Walker signed on with his mate Gerry Robinson and we three decided to get something going. Pete and Gerry brought rare imports into college and this is where I heard the great Memphis Jug Band, Gus Cannon`s Jug Stompers and Birmingham Jug Band…plus one man band Jesse Fuller who I saw live locally (I think John Mayall`s Band were support that night). I was hooked. I bought a guitar and blew my grant money. It was a “Harmony Sovereign” and like the one I saw Mance Lipscomb toting on an LP cover. It was the one I played on “Granny Takes a Trip”.
What led you to coming down to London and being signed by Transatlantic – was it Joe Boyd?
We had played the Free Trade Hall in Manchester for CND and a big Folk Jazz and Blues festival and lots of clubs like the old MSG in Manchester – regional folk clubs, parties, college gigs. We were very tight by now. It was the era of Dylan and Baez and blues people ….folkie new wavers, like Bert Jansch, Davey Graham, John Renbourne and even trad singers like Martin Carthy we admired them all. We played Les Cousins one night just to get out of the rain (“gimme shelter”?) after playing the (new) Crawdaddy in Richmond. We had a pal from art college called Gordon Aldred who sort of managed us and his sister actually got our demo heard by Transatlantic Records. They thought my guitar playing was weak but my lyrics “bloody good” so I survived. We went down on the bus with our gear and busked/ rehearsed in St James` Park until the Coldstream Guards conductor got the police onto us (we had a bigger crowd than them). We met Nat Joseph and next day he called in Joe Boyd as he thought we could go “pop”/ big/ UK Lovin’ Spoonful.
We had this silly name…”The Young Contemporaries Jug Band” named after an art competition. After hearing The Pink Floyd, we decided The Purple Gang….so Joe Boyd had two bands to record with colour names (spirit of the times). Also Purple Gang suited our image as well. We soon changed the gangster image into hippie around May 1967.
When did you first meet Syd and how well did you know each other?
We only met Syd once! Honestly. It seems ridiculous now but some London bands had this “attitude” to Northern bands. I seem to remember Syd and Rick (Wright) seemed pleased to accept us in the dressing room of The Marquee, the others cold shouldered us (we thought). Later I was not at all surprised to hear of a rift. I had better not say more due to litigation m’lud. We sort of had third person contact via people like Hoppy Hopkins, Joe Boyd, John Wood and the International Times scene in general. I wrote to Syd via his sister Rosemary several times updating on Purple Gang news but never heard back, but the letters were never returned to sender either.
One American pop scribe accused us of being “ a poxy little jug band who jumped on the band wagon”. He was so nastily out of touch. Back then we were already ON this band wagon. Even John Hopkins played piano on our B side “Bootleg Whiskey”. Jimi Hendrix was in our agency and so were The Stones. We knew people……we were OK…….cool enough.
Did you have much contact with other artists on the music scene at the time?
So our contacts on the scene started at The Marquee with Long John Baldry and Alexis Korner ( I have just recorded a sort of rap called “Soho Blues” recounting all this) we then met Cat Stevens (tuned his guitar up at his first big audition as his hands were shaking !)…and later at UFO Jimi Hedrix who saw us play and was playing unplugged bass in the wings (belonging to Junior of Tomorrow). Marc Bolan, John Peel, David Bowie, Paul McCartney (at our first photo shoot) Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in our Agency (Eastwood Agency) lots – too many to mention really.
Was the boutique behind the inspiration behind the writing of ‘Granny Takes A Trip’?
The lyric of “Granny Takes a Trip” had it`s true beginnings back home (Stockport area). Later it was changed when I went to the “Granny Takes a Trip” boutique in World`s End, King`s Road Chelsea. My original title was ……….. “Sabby Goes To Hollywood”. “Sabby” being the pet name of “Sabrina”, which itself was the stage name of Norma Sykes, the cousin of our jug player Trevor “Ank “ Langley. Sabrina was a big time glamour girl from the `50` and early `60`s who wanted to make it big in Hollywood and she damn near did it! She had no brothers or sisters and Trevor is her first cousin. He is now embroiled in her affairs/ Will and Estate since she sadly died not long ago. His DNA was proven in LA a few years ago. I changed the title , but the story remains about going to Hollywood to fail the auditions. I have a new song about Sabby called “Sister Moon” I am recording with Rob Gould and Gerry Robinson. I have Trev`s permission to write songs about her, which I have done with Andy Stark from “Purple Gang 2000”. It`s an ongoing project…too sad for a “musical” but a great music documentary pending. She dated Elvis, Sinatra, Sammy Davies, Paul Anka, Joe Di Maggio and Sean Connery amongst many others. Lots of names loved/ fancied her, even Princes Philip and Charles. Castro had her as a guest in Havana and she used to shop with Lucille Ball. It was a sad lonely ending though in North Hollywood. Rags like The Sunday Mail treated her disgracefully in her latter days.
What do you remember of the recording sessions for the single?
When we went to Chelsea to do the single, we were literally living in the van. But the police were kind to us, even wishing us luck and feeling sorry for us, gently moving us on and placating the irate residents. (Joe Boyd hadn`t an apartment ready for us back then) We had got a small contract from a Manchester Ad agency to model “gangster” gear for “Stonewear “ (we called it “Stoned Wear “!) at Frank Sweeney`s Photographic Studios just off Cheyne Walk, in a posh mews outside a bistro called “Fanny By Gaslight” In the mornings we all went into the studios to pee, brush up and then appear in our Roarin` Twenties gear. This went on for a few nights and days. The models were great (when not fainting through lack of food) and one day, who should appear in a crocheted mini skirt…. but Raquel Welch. Talk about a stunner. She blew us a kiss, as we wolf whistled, she was there only for a minute, waved and she was gone. The art director was almost sacked later, as we had a gun in one shot which featured a little girl. We appeared as extras in Vogue, Honey and She……..so we can almost say we modelled for Vogue!!! At the recording in Sound Techniques we put down piano, guitar, jug and mandolin first ( 7 takes) then harmonica and washboard and finally vocals and kazoo. All in Mono. When Pete was doing his part, we went to the pub opposite (The Church Inn – old Church Street). There sat Rodney Bewes (one half of The Likely Lads) the TV star. Naturally we got chatting and he agreed to play some kazoo on the record. But it was never to be, as he had to go somewhere very urgently. It was shame not to have a Likely Lad on kazoo.
What live shows did you do in that period?
Live shows were a bit weird until Nat Joseph sent us over to meet the Eric and Jane Easton Agency in Soho. We played around a few weird venues like The Brown Derby Club back of Carnaby St. (full of real gangsters) and The Crawdaddy Club over the river, Les Cousins….. a few Monday nights we were at The Marquee Club with Long John Baldry hosting. But the Easton Agency got us top of the bill spots following the newly formed Jimi Hendrix Experience at York Uni and Bath Pavilion, places like that. One was for UC London Maria Grey Teacher Training School where Mike Vernon of Blue Horizon records stood stage front encouraging us in his white tuxedo. Nat Joseph turned up and warned us off talking to his rival! The biggest and best will forever be The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream at Alexandra Palace April 30 1967………we went on stage at 10pm.
14 Hour Technicolor Dream Poster, 1967 (c) Mike McInnerney
Was it the banning of ‘Granny’ that stopped it scaling the charts?
Everyone……record company, agency, various DJ`s (John Peel Jeff Dexter etc.) other bands, Syd, Marc Bolan, Tomorrow, Jimi and more (even John Lennon I recently heard) all thought that this odd ball acoustic single was going to be an international big one! Radio Caroline and Radio London loved it and John Peel played it on his last show and talked about the band. People in Essex Music had bets on it. It was covered in France and made into a dance (that rhymes!) and Sire Records Seymour Stein put it out as an album with a great cover. We were in all the music and regional papers as the build up began.We were due for a spot on “Juke Box Jury” (quaint but massive show at the time) and “Top of The Pops” (ditto). Then Nat Joseph showed me a letter he had received from the BBC saying that using the word “trip” in a title alongside a granny, was not going to be tolerated and bands like Purple Gang were out to “corrupt the nation`s youth”. That last phrase I remember vividly. Nat Joseph and the band all laughed and Nat said it was typical but the hippy movement would stand by us. He had even opened a branch label called Big T as the “pop” arm of Transatlantic with us at the fore. But the laugh was on us. The BBC had a long reach and as they arranged with Parliament/ The Establishment for the sinking of the Pirate Ships, they also scuppered our TV debut and all radio play. What was worse, our Easton Agency suddenly wasn`t there…..no more big gigs?
The USA release seemed to bomb. We never got much info with regards to promotion. Neither were we offered any tour dates….not even with Pentangle or our flat mates The Incredible String Band. I may be partly responsible here as times and events seem so far back now. I went ballistic and refused to drive the band van any more (as a playing member of the band). No roadies, no tours……….what?? I literally went on strike and as we were booked in to play Kent University with John Peel. The band gave me the ultimatum of turn up feeling ill with a heavy cold and pick them all up drive there, perform and then back dropping off everyone at dawn……or go, leave, sacked. We needed a driver. Someone offered to drive but I was raging about the whole let down scene. The Purple Gang carried on with another guitarist/ driver for a few months. Sandy Denny and Trevor Lucas moved in to the apartment and Joe Boyd went with Fairport Convention. I went down to London to apologise and asked Joe to ask the band to take me back but they were as cross as me. My timing was immaculate just like the Beeb`s. As we reached our summit we fell off. Later we were all dragged back to record the album and a second single. This mended fences and we reformed the year after but without Pete Walker who had run off to join a coven, it seems.
When was the material for The Purple Gang Strikes written? Looking back what do you think of the album?
The material for “Strikes” was already in our set, but as we reformed over winter 1967/8 we had gone a bit more “pop” psychedelic, due to all the influences surrounding us. We were called back by contract to complete an album and another single – but we had changed. The old Bowyer Beard songwriting team was not as strong, not as atypical Purple Gang as before. The new bass player had begun to write with Geoff Bowyer in my absence. We had a bass player now – no jug. Joe Boyd had done 4 tracks with us as pure acoustic, but John Wood was to produce and engineer now, with Jerry Boys assisting. I came up from St Ives again by train and found the band were just about talking to me. We had to rely on memory because as soon as John Wood heard the new stuff and new sound he stopped the session. He thought (quite rightly) that Nat Joseph would not like the new psychedelic poppy Purple Gang, so he phoned Nat and came back with “You had better revert back to your former selves or Transatlantic are pulling the session” He gave us an hour to brush up and that is why the album sounds a bit Spartan. “The Wizard” for instance was the only psych number left.
The new single was “Kiss Me Goodnight Sally Green” but the B side “Auntie Monica” really captures a carefree happy time. We threw in a few jug band standards and a few tongue in cheek daft songs like “The Sheik” and “Freightliner”. But overall the 11 track album is a credit to those guys under duress and pressed for time. It was completed in one short day. The cover was another quickie so bad it`s almost good. The sleeve information rattled me saying I only did the lyrics…..not so. I co- wrote everything and “The Wizard” I wrote two years before.
How long did the band carry on for until disbanding?
The band continued until about the time “Whiter Shade of Pale” came out and UFO started to lose its original punters. I got back into the band over the next winter and it was due to being forced to complete our contract. After my pride came my fall.
What did you do afterwards?
After the split I tried to form a band called “Sudden Earth” with the drummer we hired for Ally Pally and the album session. It was a non starter. But I began to write solo. Later Geoff and I buried the hatchet and wrote together again. This time I asked him to replace Pete Walker on vocal and he played piano and sang. He was (and still is) a talented showman. A forerunner of Peter Gabriel and the like. We became a good University circuit band and shared the bill with legends like Bowie, Slade, Love, Kinks, Move, Capt. Beefheart, Long John Baldry`s Steam Packet (Elton and Rod in the band). Sacked BBC Radio 1 DJ David Symonds became our front man. John Peel promised me/us help saying he thought that “I really think Granny is one of the all time greats”. But he never did. He was obsessed with Bolan. I remember Geoff and I sitting with him and Marc Bolan on bean bags at a Granada TV special, as guests for the afternoon. He was more interested in Bolan than us (understandably) but we had been invited there to discuss Purple Gang matters also. Marc thought that Granny should have gone world wide. In the 1969 to 1972 years we never managed to secure a recording contract in spite of our pedigree, material and good stage act. Mungo Jerry had come out with “In the Summertime” (I thought largely plundered from an old Birmingham Jug Band song) and our old sound was surplus to requirements, our thunder stolen as it were. Am I biased? Yes. Am I bitter? No- it`s a great single…….but it hurt our pride.
We therefore left the jug band sound behind. We had an electric mandolin going through a fuzz box, drums (Alex, now in the Distractions) me on electric 12 string and huge gear, Tony Moss on thundering bass and Geoff on miked up piano…repeat…piano. He wouldn`t/ couldn`t play electric piano back then (they were useless for honky tonk) so we all had to hump his mini piano everywhere.
Why did you reform the band? I heard you had chart success in Eastern Europe.
I then basically cracked up and left with the rock disease “nervous exhaustion”. Tried to go solo in the folk scene, had a bad time, drank too much, but teamed up with Cornish legend Trevor Crozier and went to tour Brittany and UK folk clubs. We made an album live for EMI One Up label and I was asked to go and help edit it in Abbey Road. At lunch break down the corridor, I watched Elton John and Kiki Dee doing their “Don`t go breaking my heart” video. I`ve just done a tribute album to Trevor (fatal motor bike accident in Malawi in 1995) with some old pals of his including Maddy Prior from Steeleye Span called “Farewell He” on the Epona Label. Things went quiet but I carried on writing and dreaming of a return to music (I was an art tutor by now). Pete Walker Gerry and me did some local pubs to keep the spirit of Purples going then all went quiet. My father died and it had a very bad effect on me, except that I realised that life is short and you have to follow your dream, somehow. I was told to try new people. I did and formed a band again.
It was called Purple Gang 2000. I wrote a whole album and we called it “Night of the Uncool” (was available on Auric Fusion Records). My drummer was Hungarian and he had sent our CD to Budapest. The song “Sunset Over The Mersey” was requested so much on the radio there it went No.1, knocking Britney Spears off the top spot. We then played a massive gig outside in the suburbs in front of thousands and they were singing along to it. The Wizard went down great with the Roma kids with my singer Pev dressed up making weird signs to them as they ran off laughing and coming back for more. When we got back home, I had to sit by the phone all day until my ear hurt. All the dailies were on to me and the regionals. I had to go network on commercial radio and on BBC Five Live Drivetime just before the 5 o`clock news. The headlines ran “Our old gits oust Britney”. I was so happy to show that Purple Gang were NOT just a one song pony. And we did it later with another song knocking George Michael off his top spot. But it was old news by then. I contacted Pete Jenner who used to manage Syd and Pink Floyd but he never got back. Also contacted our two top folk rock festivals and several agents. All in vain…..nothing doing. It was a good band and they are all bitter about the lack of interest. Watching us live on film we did OK.
What have you released since?
So the Purple Gang second album sits with Auric Fusion awaiting interest and I decided to write my story. Joe Boyd gave me the title at his own book launch “Taking The Purple- the extra ordinary story of the Purple Gang/ Granny Takes a Trip and all that by Chris Joe Beard”. I decided to write the book as I did think our story was worth preserving and I was asked to do so by many people. It has been well received by some music “names” that I respect. But it HAD to be a vanity project as we are not famous enough to attract a publishing house. So I went solo.
It’s on Amazon Kindle but the hard copy can be ordered via correspondance to chrisjoebeard@gmail.com. This ensures a signed edition and for real fans I have slipped in a “bonus” rarity, now and again.
What are your plans for the rest of 2020?
In 1997 – 2020 I was working as a duo with Gerry Robinson and we made a selfie album of Purple Gang rarities called “We meant no harm”, some of the 1970 stuff is on it. One instrumental caught the ear of the Russians. It was the Cossack style dance we used to cause havoc with in the college/Uni scene called “Mishka”. Olga Egerova joined us online to add her virtuoso electric mandolin. Eko Moscow have done 4 programs on Purple Gang and one special for Syd Barrett`s birthday and mine together. Now I have written “Mandolin Queen” for Olga. I went back with Joe Boyd about 5 years ago and signed up to his Carthage Music Publishing and then met Rob Gould of Buxton… via Fruits De Mer Records. Rob had done an impressive cover of Granny for the double vinyl album “The Three Seasons of Love” and so I got in touch. We now collaborate as “Taking The Purple” with Gerry Robinson on board and have got some good songs on the go. But our first effort was to do our new version of Boon Tune which comes out anytime on the album “A Band For All Seasons” on Fruits De Mer. But my two tribute goodbye songs to both Syd “Balloons on a String” and Rick Wright “The Piano Man`s Gone” are underway nicely. And the song we began our set with at Alexandra Palace`s 14 Hour Technicolour Dream (and one that was forbidden in Sound Techniques) is being done…livened up and an anti war Euro sounding stomper “Sing Me the Word Called Love”.
Here are the latest lyrics from my Syd tribute song, now almost ready for mixing:
Like balloons on a string on a windy day-hoping not to blow away
To be kissed by a rose bush full of nasty thorns-growing by The Gates of Dawn
When we played the Jug Band Blues and pirate ships were in the news
You sang about young Arnold Layne- I knew a boy of similar name
Like balloons on a string on a windy day-hoping not to blow away
To be kissed by a rose bush full of nasty thorns- growing by The Gates of Dawn
A song Boon Tune you sent that day- to follow Granny on her way
Both were lost by careless hands- as we said goodbye to both our bands
Like balloons on a string on a windy day- hoping not to blow away
To be kissed by a rose bush full of nasty thorns-growing by The Gates of Dawn
Now you`re gone and I`m old and grey- I sit here and remember a day
When roses grew and hid their thorns – Pink and Purple- like the Dawn.
I`m still a tit…….sorry…… at it
Chris Joe Beard/ Taking the Purple, March 2020.
A Band For All Seasons 4CD set is on sale now from Fruits de Mer Records.
‘Taking The Purple- the extra ordinary story of the Purple Gang/ Granny Takes a Trip and all’ can be ordered through chrisjoebeard@gmail.com
