"Our Music Is Red With Purple Flashes" by THE CREATION - A&B-sides of Eight British 45 Singles, Further European LP, 45 and EP Tracks and Previously Unreleased Outtakes Issued on Subsequent LP Compilations in 1973 and 1982 – All Songs recorded 1966 to 1968 featuring Vocalist Kenny Pickett, Guitarists Eddie Phillips and Kim Gardner, Bassist Robert Garner and Drummers Doug Sandom and Mick Avory (October 2015 UK Edsel CLASSICS CD Compilation – 24 Tracks of Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Biff! Bang! Pow!"

Biff! Bang! Pow!

Like most obsessives, I slavered over the artwork of singles and LPs as much as I bent my lugholes to the grooves. And like every other bleary-eyed 20-year old I knew in late 1978 (swept up by British Punk and New Wave), we were gawking at The Jam's "All Mod Cons" album on Polydor Records in all its Modtastic glory looking for secret-signs of wisdom from our new Gods – pointers on our path towards Rock Redemption and away from the sinful ways of crooners like Andy Williams and Val Doonican (I still feel that elicit pull, but I'm getting help).

And sure as the Lord God and Rightful Ruler made little green Rickenbacker's - there it was. On the inner sleeve up in the top left corner beneath a promo photo of the band with a fold-in clock sat on top of it was a just-about-visible 45 label by some hooligan mob Paul Weller clearly worshipped at the feet of. They were called THE CREATION and the song exposed was "Biff, Bang, Pow" - the truly stunning Mod-rocking B-side of "Painter Man" - another total gem over on the A of Planet Records PLF.119 from October 1966. It was enough to make a chap swoon and seek out vinyl slices of what clearly made the Modfather's knees turn to jelly.

THE CREATION never managed a British album (a crime frankly) - so their rep in Blighty revolved around a series of incendiary vinyl singles and further colourful Euro EPs that collectors have been lusting after ever since. Both Germany and Denmark produced one LP in 1967 called "We Are Paintermen" on Hit-Ton Schallplatten and Sonet Records respectively (see Notes below the track lists) and Germany also popped out a "Best Of" on Hit-Ton Pop in 1968 when the gig was up. The band’s first two UK singles on Planet Records sold copies because "Making Time" and "Painter Man" made brief 1 week and two-week appearances on the UK charts in July and November 1966 (No. 49 and No. 36 respectively).

The five-piece also showcased guitarist/songwriting talent in the shape of Eddie Phillips (ex The Mark Four) famously using the violin bow on his electric guitar before Zeppelin's Jimmy Page made it his (almost) trademark. The other two songwriters in the group were Vocalist Kenny Pickett (also ex the Mark Four) and Bassist Robert Garner who'd done time with The Merseybeats. Doug Sandom had bashed his kit for the earliest line-up of The Who before joining The Creation, whilst Mick Avory (long-time drummer with The Kinks) and Ron Wood of The Artwoods, Faces and The Rolling Stones also joined the ranks briefly too.

Produced by SHEL TALMY of WHO-fame - The Creation were the musical link between The Who and The Kinks and have been darlings of The Mod, Freakbeat and Psych circuits for over five decades now. A huge fan, Alan McGhee famously named his Creation Records after the band, promptly making Oasis superstars. Paul Weller has been championing them forever and their eight British 45s (four on Planet and four on Polydor between 1966 and 1968) command real money and respect in equal measure - especially in anything better than Good to VG playing condition (even The Planet label bags sell for fifteen to twenty quid). Hell, even Boney M covered "Painter Man" in 1979 and made it a top-ten hit – surely the ultimate accolade.

Which brings us to this wee Edsel CD beasty from 2015 with its vinyl replica black-coloured disc (itself a reissue of a 1998 Demon/Edsel compilation on Diablo Records) that gives twenty-four slices of head-jerking brilliance. Let’s get red, purple and flashy...

UK released 2 October 2015 - "Our Music Is Red With Purple Flashes" by THE CEATION on Edsel Classics NINETY33 (Barcode 5014797893337) is a 24-Track CD Compilation of 'The Classic Recordings' issued between 1966 to 1968 in the UK and Europe and plays out as follows (70:09 minutes):

1. Making Time

2. Try And Stop Me

3. Painter Man

4. Biff, Bang, Pow

5. If I Stay Too Long

6. Nightmares

7. I Am A Walker

8. Can I Join Your Band

9. Cool Jerk

10. Like A Rolling Stone

11. Hey Joe

12. Life is Just Beginning

13. Through My Eyes

14. How Does It Feel To Feel (US Version)

15. Ostrich Man

16. Sweet Helen

17. How Does It Feel To Feel (UK Version)

18. Tom Tom

19. Midway Down

20. The Girls Are Naked

21. Bony Maronie

22. Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

23. For All That I Am

24. Uncle Bert

NOTES:

Tracks 1 and 2 are the A&B-sides of a June 1966 UK 45 on Planet PLF 116

Tracks 3 and 4 are the A&B-sides of an October 1966 UK 45 on Planet PLF 119

Tracks 5 and 6 are the A&B-sides of a July 1967 UK 45 on Polydor 56177

Track 7 is a 1967 Shel Talmy Produced outtake first issued July 1973 on "'66-'67", a Creation LP compilation on Charisma Perspective Records CS 6

Tracks 8, 9, 10 and 11 first issued on the 1967 LP "We Are Paintermen" released on Hit-Ton Schallplatten HTSLP 340037 in Germany and Sonet Records SLPS 1251 in Denmark (both in Stereo). "Can I Join Your Band" (Track 8) also showed up as one of four-tracks on the 1967 "Tom Tom" EP out of France on Vogue International INT. 18144. "Cool Jerk" (Track 9) also showed up as a German 45 A-side for January 1968 on Hit-Ton HT 315002 (B-side was "Life Is Just Beginning")

Tracks 12 and 13 are the A&B-sides of an October 1967 UK 45 on Polydor 56207

Track 14 is the B-side of "Life Is Just Beginning", a November 1967 US 45 on Decca 32227

Tracks 15 and 16 first issued as 1967 Shel Talmy Production outtakes on the September 1982 UK LP compilation "How Does It Feel To Feel" on Edsel ED 106

Tracks 17 and 18 are the A&B-sides of a January 1968 UK 45 on Polydor 56230

Tracks 19 and 20 are the A&B-sides of a April 1968 UK 45 on Polydor 56246

Tracks 21 and 22 are the A&B-sides of an August 1968 German 45 on Hit-Ton HT 300210

Tracks 23 and 24 are the A&B-sides of a December 1968 German 45 on Hit-Ton 300235

If you want to sequence the 12-Track "We Are Paintermen" German/Danish LP from this CD, use the following sequence:

Side A: 1. Cool Jerk 2. Making Time 3. Through My Eyes 4. Like A Rolling Stone 5. Can I Join Your Band 6. Tom Tom

Side B: 1. If I Stay Too Long 2. Try And Stop Me 3. Biff, Bang, Pow 4. Nightmares 5. Hey Joe 6. Painter Man

The gatefold card sleeve offers little by way of info (track names, times and overall copyright dates) and as there's no booklet of any kind, so you're probably going to learn more from my notes above than you are from this release. The supposed 'Edsel Classics' gimmick turns out to be a black CD with record grooves on the label surface to mimic an old record (plain black on the playing side) - but it feels superfluous to requirements. This is a band and release that cries out for written appreciation and it’s a damn shame none is there. Apart from the 2015 Demon Music Group notation, there isn't even a mastering credit. But the Audio rocks - those incredibly punchy Mono single mixes on exclusive licence from Shel Talmy Productions.

I ran a playlist on my Mac to simulate the German album and man what a great listen. It seems inconceivable now that such a hugely hip combo of songs weren't given a British LP release – a major missed opportunity. But I suppose as single after single didn't make any dent on the charts – someone must have thought – why bother? Songs like "If I Stay Too Long" have melody but they also sound 'huge' in their power and even ahead of their time in terms of sound - that haunted vocal and almost clunky guitar. That outtake "I Am A Walker" again feels brilliant - first issued on a budget-label Charisma Records compilation in 1973 and then forgotten about. You can Weller's Jam in the kick-ass guitar opening of "Can I Join Your Band" - always stoned and eight miles high mentioned in the lyrics while he sung "Can I Join Your band" chorus feels like The Who's "Tommy" two years before the event.

Fans had to wait until 1982 to hear the very poppy "Ostrich Man" (words going round and round) and "Sweet Helen" outtakes (a girl came out of the blue). The "Midway Down" UK single could easily have been The Hollies while the naked dancing girls of Amsterdam get immortalised on he flipside. Cool Sixties bleeds into Guitar-Rock on the Euro-Only 45 "Bonney Maroney" - a Larry Williams Rhythm 'n' Blues 50ts hit getting thoroughly rearranged and fuzzed up with some fantastic guitar and piano. They get all Playboy sexy on the fabulous melody of "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" - another Williams cover. And it ends on the thrashing Who-sounding "Uncle Bert" - a relative with his trousers hanging down as a dog named Rover bites his leg.

By way of info and if you're a vinyl-lover - Record Store Day 19 April 2014 saw "Our Music Is Red With Purple Flashes" issued by Demon/Edsel as "The Singles Collection" - a 11 x 45 seven-inch vinyl singles Box Set on Demon/Edsel CREATIONBSRXD using the same artwork (Barcode 5014797890695) but with One Bonus Track “Sylvie” only available as a download. That was in turn made into a 24-Track 2LP set for 10 July 2015 issued on Demon Music DEMREC48 (Barcode 5014797891203). Next came our CD in October 2015. That has once again been reissued onto a VINYL 2LP set 17 June 2017 on Demon DEMREC223 (Barcode 5014797896024) as part of the HMV promotion for Vinyl Week (a limited edition of 1000 copies, one LP in Red and the other coloured Purple).

The 2015 British CD for The Creation's "Our Music Is Red With Purple Flashes" is now deleted and can cost up to twenty-quid in 2020. But what a biff bang pow...