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THE 45's

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Highlighted below are the four records [45's] which began The Hi-Fi Combo story in the summer of 1966. We had been struggling to get the project off the ground but when the Promoters of the Chart Topping stars' tours heard our songs and of our succesful German tour we were immediately booked to play on the top chart groups' tours of Scotland. It was a big break as it was indubitably significant in providing the exposure necessary to take us to the next level . . . or so we hoped.

 

Consequently, during the space of only four months, July to October 1966, we performed as support act to The Kinks, The Troggs, The Ivy League, The Cryin' Shames, Crispian St Peters, Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds, Neil Christian, The Peddlars, Geno Washington & the Ram-Jam Band and many more on their gigs around the West of Scotland. In fact, most of them held the current No 1 hit record at the time of their tour so we were indeed privileged to be at the side of the stage first hand listening to so many wonderful hits  of the sixties like Sunny Afternoon, The Pied Piper, Out of Time, Wild Thing, Please Stay and many more.

Artist: the Hi Fi's [1966]

 

Title: Its Gonna Be Morning

 

Comments:

1966: The 'A' side of our first recording on ALP/Polydor records. The song, by Hoagy Lands, was selected by the whole band from a pile of demos provided by our talented USA producer, Claire Francis [also a great singer - see below] on our arrival in London straight from our Germany tour. It was recorded over two days in the Summer of 1966.

Artist: The Hi Fi's [1966]

 

Title: I Wanna Hear You Say Yeh

1966: the 'B' side of out first recording. Claire asked us to write a song of our own which we did . . . that day. It was a fast paced rip-off of one of our favourite stage songs by the great Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions called "Say Its Alright".

 

The song was credited to Kenny and Tommy because they had the two shortest names for the record label Gray/Munro.

 

THE HI FI COMBO - 45 RECORD FROM 1966 - A SIDE
THE HI FI COMBO - 45 RECORD FROM 1966 - B SIDE
ORIGINAL DEMO FOR ITS GONNA BE MORNING 1966

Artist: Hoagy Lands [1962]

 

Title: Its Gonna Be Morning

When we heard this great demo song for the first time we didn't really consider any others to record for our first record. We loved it as it tied in with the style we wanted. Fantastic voice from Hoagy and Tommy's great falsetto take on the song carried us all along even although our live studio takes were nerve-wracking.

ORIGINAL DEMO B SIDE SONG - MY TEARS ARE DRY

Artist: Hoagy Lands [1961]

 

Title: My Tears Are Dry

This was the 'B' side of Lands' Its Gonna Be Morning and it is also a brilliant Northern Soul number. We never covered it though.

This is Claire Francis who produced our songs and also kindly put up with us - and also put us up in her London flat over the weekend - whilst we rehearsed and  finally cut the record in the Spring of 1966. She was an excellent producer and also a wonderful singer/songwriter in her own right and was probably a little unlucky to have beeen around at the same time as Jackie de Shannon, Carole King, Phil Spector etc but her own "wall of sound" was pretty impressive as you can hear from one of her songs "But I Don't Care". Anyway, thank you Claire wherever you are now for looking after us so well.

But I Don't Care

Claire Francis

I've Got My Own Thing Going

Claire Francis

CLAIRE FRANCIS - WHO PRODUCED THE HI FI COMBO'S ITS GONNA BE MORNING IN 1966

Whilst in the studio in 1966 recording The Hi-Fi Combo Claire also took the opportunity to make some records of her own. She brought in some guys with a little more talent than our own to help her - Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Bill Wyman.  Here is the result of their work. Claire comments on the song:

 

"I've Got My Own Thing Going"

POLYDOR 1966 UK MONO BM 56079

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"When I was working for Polydor in London, I would fly in to New York with a stack of records and bring them to various record companies to sub-license them. I took "I've Got My Own Thing Going" to United Artists because Murray Deutche, who was head of Publishing was also a mentor to me. The writer of the song, Eddie Reeves was signed to U.A. during the sixties. When Eddie played me "I've Got My Own Thing Going" he sang it with a twang and kind of country. I really liked the tune and when I was producing my own records at Polydor, I decided to record it. Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Bill Wyman played on: "I've Got My Own Thing Going"; "Here I Go Again" Artist was me. What I remember is that they had specific guitar parts written out by the arranger, except where they improvised, which is at the beginning of "I've Got My Own Thing Going" and on "Here I Go Again"..where Eric played my own 12 String".

The Hi Fi Combo and The Vikings would be put out together by the record company to support the current No.1 Band touring Scotland in a particular week . . . and help to promote our band and the new records at the same time.

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Here is a mock-up poster I made as a reminder of The Kinks show we were in down in Ayr in the summer of '66 with The Vikings, the Meridians, The Redhawks and the beautiful Ayr Majorettes . . . oh and The Kinks.

In the Summer of 1966 two Scottish bands were selected by Andy Lothian Productions [ALP] and sent to London to record at Polydor Studios in Denmark Street. The two bands selected were The Hi Fi Combo from the west [Glasgow] and The Vikings from the east [Perth]. As you can see by the record number on each disc we just beat The Vikings to the studio. I did came across a rather interesting article in the same book in which I provided an input of the Hi Fi's by Alan Gorrie of The Vikings who were signed to ALP Records at the same time as The Hi Fi Combo in 1966: Their time in London mirrored that of the Hi Fis: 

 

ALAN: "I recall everything about that episode as clearly as if it were yesterday......you never forget your first master session, I guess and that's what it was. It was for a Dundee-based label called "ALP", an acronym for Andy Lothian Productions (a Dundee & East-coast Scottishpromoter/agent/and the Vikings' 'manager' to boot - talk about conflict of interest!) Anyway, he got himself a P&D deal with Polydor Records in London, via Chris Parmenter, who I guess fixed up Claire Francis to produce the single.

 

We went down to London a couple of weeks later to do our tunes in the original Olympic Studios in a mews just behind BakerStreet. This was when Olympic had egg-cartons held in place with chicken-wire for 'sound baffling' and the control room was upstairs. The night before the session, we had takeway Chinese at Claire's Bayswater/Notting Hill flat The two songs were cut & dried in about four-five hours, and that's the last we saw or heard of Claire, as we set off for Scotland that night, as we all had to be back at college/work etc. next morning.

 

Later, after the record was out and doing nothing, three of us set off in my old banger for London & visited Chris Parmenter at Polydor (Sep. 1966) and they shook the tree a bit and we started to get some airplay on Radio Luxemburg - THE important indy station of the day, broadcasting to the UK from Europe, and the main 'chart-maker' of the time (just before 'pirate'radio started in earnest.) 

 

The Vikings at the time of the following recording were Donnie Coutts, Mike Fraser, Alan Gorrie bass, Dougie Wightman drums and Drew Larg vocals. ALP Records were an offshoot of ventures promoted by pirate station Radio Scotland and Andy Lothian.  

 

Here's another extract from the history of Scottish Rock and Pop by Brian Hogg: 

"We joined the label in 1966," recalls Donnie Coutts, "and were given songs to learn for a producer, a lady from Brooklyn who took her little dog everywhere. We passed the audition, but the record was a shambles. We didn't know what we wanted to do. There was a harpsichord sitting in the corner and we suddenly thought, 'That's a good idea.' It became the dominant thing on the single. The B-side was recorded in precisely six minutes because the studio was booked for someone else. I knew it was guaranteed a play on Radio Luxembourg between 12 and 12.15 because that was the Polydor slot. I used to sit up every night and think I was a star. It actually sold about 1,200 copies."

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In the Springtime of 2021, I had a lovely on-line conversation via my YouTube page "Shiloh Plain" with Chris Cass, who with his wife, were personal friends of Claire and her husband in New York. With Chris's permission I post our chat verbatim. 

 

 Chris: "Claire was Force of Nature, An Inspiration to Many...RIP and continue to send Strength to those who Love You..."

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Eddie: "Thank you Chris: When I first met producer Claire at Polydor Recording Studios in London the day before my band was due to record there, I had expected to meet a woman of George Martin’s generation as was de rigueur for a producer back then in the UK. The band was instead surprised to be met by this energetic, knowledgeable and confident young American woman. When we told her that we had come to the studio straight from our month gigging in Germany, and had nowhere to stay, she told us to come along to her flat that night and sleep-over. We did, and we all found her to be, as you say, an inspiration. Kind regards Eddie".

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Chris: "Eddie, Thank You for sharing Your "Claire" memories. My Wife, Daughter and I met Claire Francis " Brightwater" and her husband Chief Norman in Woodstock NY at their Native Art Gallery "Turquoise Lady". She and Norm Enchanted us with their Presence and Memories. Shortly after, We all "Adopted" each other and stayed Friends until their passing. We Miss Them Dearly and and Thank the Creator for bringing Us Together. And by the way, Claire and Norman's Daughters Dawn and Keeva followed in their Mom's footsteps in the Music Business in NYC at The Press House".

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Eddie: "Chris, My apologies . . your recent lovely comment of last week appeared to pass me by and I just became aware of it. Thank you for the news. What lovely further info for me to hear re Claire [and her family] who was a major part of my youth . . . and my memory. So much so that my admiration for Claire was recorded on paper many years ago and later posted on my website. The link to my page dedicated to Claire is below.

https://thehificombo.wixsite.com/the-hi-fi-combo/soul

 

 

I included a further insight of Claire via words and memories by Alan [another keyboard player from an opposite coast of Scotland band to mine, who also recorded under Claire, which you might enjoy]. Kindest regards. Eddie ps. I hope it might be ok for me to place your kind comments re Claire on my website".

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Chris: "@Shiloh Plain  Eddie, feel to post my comments of Our Beloved Claire and Thank You and Others in Keeping Her Spirit Alive".

 

Eddie: "Thank you Chris, I have now added your lovely comments re Claire on my website".

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