Dec 14

Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969

NUGGETS II: ORIGINAL ARTYFACTS FROM THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND BEYOND, 1964-1969
 
 
Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969  is a 2001 four-disc box set from Rhino Records.  While the original Nuggets compilation concentrated on the American pop and rock scene, the second Nuggets shifted its focus to the rest of the world, collecting cuts from the United Kingdom (such as the Pretty Things and the Small Faces), Canada (the Guess Who and the Haunted), Japan (the Mops), Australia (the Easybeats, the Masters Apprentices, Ronnie Burns), New Zealand (the La De Das and Chants R&B), Sweden (The Tages), Iceland (Thor’s Hammer), the Netherlands (Q65, Cuby & the Blizzards and Golden Earrings), Peru (We All Together), Brazil (Os Mutantes), Uruguay (Los Shakers), Czechoslovakia (The Matadors), and Austria (the Slaves).  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
But Nuggets turned out to be just the beginning.  Many other Nuggets compilation albums would follow that concentrated on the better-known American bands of the garage rock era. 
 
Though punk rock had already begun to take off, many critics argue that Pebbles, even more than Nuggets helped launch the raw sounds that kept the movement going into the 1980’s and beyond.  Besides launching a 4-disk Nuggets Box Set covering the original double-LP and other songs of that period, a second Nuggets box set covering lesser known British and continental European music was also released, called Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969; many of these songs originally appeared on the Pebbles albums.  There was also a third box set – Children of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the Second Psychedelic Era – 1976-1995 – highlighting the bands (mostly from the 1980’s) that were inspired by the Nuggets and Pebbles music to develop their own sounds.  Perhaps, in response to the Garage Rock Revival, there might be a Grandchildren of Nuggets box set in the future. 
 
(January 2013)
 
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I have a copy of Tomorrow’s classic self-titled album, Tomorrow, and it is not too hard to find; there are both black-and-white and color versions of the front cover.  “My White Bicycle” also appears on the second Nuggets box set, Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964-1969.  Remarkably, all four discs from Nuggets II came through Katrina more or less unscathed, and I have them all cleaned up and playable.  As I recall, I found most of them still in their original box. 

 

(July 2013)

 

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Whatever else might be said of the Pink Fairies, the name and the “pinkness” clearly come from Twink; besides suggesting the name, he had been a member of a hard-rocking R&B band called the Fairies that formed in 1964.  I first encountered this band on the Pebbles, Volume 6 LP – evidently the only LP in the entire Pebbles series to feature British music – that was subtitled “The Roots of Mod”.  Three of the tracks on the LP and also the later CD, English Freakbeat, Volume 6 were by the Fairies; this was the first time in the series that a band got that many songs on an album.  One of these songs, “Get Yourself Home” was later included in the second box set in the Nuggets series, Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969. 

 
(March 2014/1)
 
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Like the band’s first record, the Primitives’ second single for Pye Records, “You Said” b/w “How Do You Feel” did not chart at all in the U.K.  About the flip side, Bruce Eder notes:  “[A] bluesy cut with a nice, choppy rhythm part, similar to what the Yardbirds did with ‘Here ’Tis’ or ‘Good Morning Little School Girl’ on-stage, only with better singing.”

 

Years later, word got out that, on both of the songs on this 45, the band’s lead guitarist Geoff Eaton was replaced with future Led Zeppelin star Jimmy Page, who was a prolific session guitarist in the early part of his career.  As reported on popsike.com, the single has sold on eBay several times recently – for the equivalent of nearly $600 in one case – but oddly, this fact is not mentioned on any of the several items that I looked up on the website about this single. 

 

“You Said” is included in the four-CD box set, Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969. 

 

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With their experience in Norway fresh on their minds, Mal and the Primitives decided to become one of several expatriate British rock bands that began to appear elsewhere in Europe by the mid-1960’s.  The Downliners Sect and Alexis Korner followed a similar route.  Perhaps the best known is the Sorrows; unable to follow up their 1965 hit “Take a Heart” in their home country (also included on Nuggets II), the group relocated to Italy in 1966 and recorded a highly esteemed Italian album in 1968, Old Songs New Songs.  I have the first official reissue of Old Songs New Songs in 2009 on Wooden Hill Records; a second CD includes an early demo of the album plus a concert performance from 1980.  A full cover by the Sorrows of the early Bee Gees hit “New York Mining Disaster 1941” is included on this early demo; only a single line from “New York Mining Disaster 1941” made it onto their album. 

 

(May 2015)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021