PHIL MAY
Phil May (born Philip Arthur Dennis Wadey; 9 November 1944 in Dartford, Kent) is an English vocalist. He gained fame in the 1960s as the lead singer of The Pretty Things, of which he was a founding member. May has maintained membership throughout the band’s line-up, which otherwise underwent many changes over the years, and he was one of the band’s main lyricists. He was the primary lyricist for the album, S.F. Sorrow. Controversy still exists as to which band member had the original idea for the piece. (More from Wikipedia)
Dick Taylor played bass guitar with the nascent Stones but quit after several months when he was accepted at the London Central School of Art; his replacement in the Rolling Stones was Bill Wyman. While there, Taylor met Phil May; and together they founded the Pretty Things in 1963. The band is still active and still vital, and Dick Taylor and Phil May have been there the whole time as far as I know.
(March 2014/1)
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In 1989, the Tell-Tale Hearts reformed with another line-up for a one-off single “Circus Mind” b/w “Flying” on Nevermore Records (in a limited release of 800 copies), with personnel Bill Calhoun (lead vocals, harp), Mike Stax (bass), Ron Swart (organ), Jon McKinney (rhythm guitar), Carl Rusk (lead guitar on “Circus Mind”), Paul Carsola (drums on “Circus Mind”), and Craig Packham (drums on “Flying”). A tribute by Phil May of the Pretty Things that I found online says of “Circus Mind”: “The Tell-Tale Hearts’ recording of ‘Circus Mind’ picks up on echoes of early electric Dylan (as in Bob), which I’ve always thought ran through our version. . . . They’ve turned what was just a vignette in the Pretties’ version into a whole song that drives the distance.”
(September 2017)
