As told on Mal Ryder’s website, www.mal.it, he first began playing with an Oxford band called the Meteors, but he jumped ship when asked to become the lead singer for a better local band, the Spirits (formerly known as the Beatniks). At that point, he began using his stage name, and the band became Mal Ryder and the Spirits.
This group made three singles from 1963 to 1965; a fourth single came out in Mal Ryder’s name individually. The first two 45’s, “Cry Baby” b/w “Take Over”, and the Bobby Goldsboro song “See the Funny Little Clown” b/w “Slow Down” were both produced by Peter Sullivan, who was also Tom Jones’ producer in that time period. The song that Greg Shaw thought was the strongest of these songs, “Forget It” (from November 1964) is included on two CD’s that I have, English Freakbeat, Volume 1 and English Freakbeat, Volume 4. As far as I am concerned, this bouncy R&B song with gruff, throaty vocals stacks up well with all of the Primitives material that I have heard.
(May 2015)
