ZOOT
Money, who led Bournemouth's contribution to the first wave
of Britpop in the early 1960s, has found his Big Roll Band singles
catalogue back in record racks nearly 40 years after they were
first released.
German re-issue specialists, Repertoire, have released Zoot
Money's Big Roll Band As and Bs Scrap Book, a 24-track summary
of the Rollers' 45 rpm output. The label has also repackaged
Zoot's classic 1966 album, Zoot!, recorded live at the legendary
Klooks Kleek club.
"They're going to put my first album out as well, but this is
finally in answer to all those people who have been asking me
for years when all my old stuff is coming out on CD. Here it
is!" says the ever-lively Zoot.
"I had to listen through to it all again and it's OK. It's all
exactly as it was when it came out, no digital mastering, nothing
added, no extra this or that, just the way we did it...in mono
and everything.
"The thing is, people my age - and those a lot younger - don't
care about new formats or sound, they just want to hear the
music.
"I couldn't believe what The Beatles did with Let It Be. It
was a scraped-together album in the first place, so how they
got people to fall for it all over again I'll never know. Brilliant!
The best thing about that album was they had Billy Preston on
it in his prime - and I've said as much to Paul McCartney as
well."
Zoot, real name George Bruno Money, was born in Bournemouth
in 1942 and took his stage name from famed jazz sax-man Zoot
Sims. He formed the Big Roll Band in 1961 and quickly became
a big draw on the local live music scene.
In 1963 Zoot was invited by British blues legend Alexis Korner
to join his Blues Incorporated outfit for a month. He accepted
and, having served his time [other Blues Inc alumni include
Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and future Cream bassist Jack Bruce]
sent for the rest ofthe Rollers to join him in the Smoke. It
wasn't long before the band was thrilling London's R&B obsessed
young mods and soon landed a record deal with Columbia.
With nothing added and nothing taken away, the singles set charts
the progress of the Big Roll band from their debut 1964 single,
Uncle Willie, to a solo Zoot release from 1970, No One But You.
It makes for a fascinating trawl through club culture 60's style.
Marvin Gaye's Stubborn Kinda Fellow, Rufis Thomas' Jump Back,
Sam Cooke's Bring It On Home To Me and Burt Bacharach's Please
Stay (after The Drifters' version) all cropped up on Rollers'
singles.
Zoot's sole hit from that time, Big Time Operator, stands the
test of time pretty well, but it's the B-sides that fare best
of all.
Zoot's Suite, The Mound Moves and Zoot's Sermon (all written
by Zoot and guitarist Andy Somers - who'd renamed himself Summers
by the time he joined the Police a decade or so later) would
both sound right at home sampled by today's new breed of rootsy
funk DJs.
"The set was full of tunes like that we just made up on
the spot more or less. We wrote our own B-sides to get some
money back as the A-side was usually a cover or written for
us.
"I Really Learned How To Cry (B-side of Nick Knack) was unfinished
20 minutes before we recorded it, me and Somers had come up
with this thing and it was Brian Auger who gave me a way of
getting back from the middle eight... that's why it sounds a
bit jumbled because I hadn't had time to work it out properly!"
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STORY BY NICK CHURCHILL
The accompanying booklet is loaded with great photos
of Zoot and the boys and an informative essay by former
Melody Maker scribe Chris Welch.
Look closely and you can spot an old house ad for the
fondly rememberd local nightspot, The Bure Club.
The live album - recorded the night before I was born
(!) - is an unadorned revisiting of the original. Just
25 minutes of tape survive from that |
sweaty
night in West
Hampstead and they're
all here, including the
Rollers' legendary
James Brown Medley
(I'll Go Crazy, Papa's
Got a Brand New Bag,
Out Of Sight and I Feel
Good), Zoot's barnstorming
take on Robert Parker's Barefootin'
and his reworking of Nina Simone's
sauciest moment, Chauffeur.
"You can hear the band as it really
was - raw. I think I sounded too
black to have picked up pop hits at
the time. I went all out in those
days and it was too much for the
pop audience. "Mind you, my
sales back then would give me
decent-sized hits these days."
Recorded by future Elton John/
David Bowie producer Gus Dudgeon,
the album must rank among the
finest live albums of the 60's
capturing the band on fine form.
Colin Allen's fluid drum style, Andy
Somers' razor sharp guitar, Zoot
sharing vocal duties with bassist
Paul Williams and a swinging horn
section that was easily rival to the
band's main rivals, Georgie Fame's
Blue Flames.
Sadly, being a top notch live draw
was not enough to ensure longevity
without a hit single, so while the likes
of Fame and Alan Price continued to
flourish, within a year the Big Roll Band
had split up.
They were followed by
Dantalian's Chariot,
Zoot's endearingly
ambitious (and
expensive)
psychedelic
folly that
briefly
rivalled the
Pink Floyd's
early trips.
But that, as they say,
is another story...
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© Bournemouth Daily Echo 2004
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