Many ages ago I got the CD from the Tremeloes that supposidly collected all their psychier moments on one CD. I decided get a bit more from them as I quite liked a lot of the Tremeloes stuff, including a large 54 track comp called Good Times: the ultimate collection.

I was surprised to find that there were quite a few songs that were quite psychy and certainly were not on the “What a state I'm In” collection. To some extent we all have a different set of parameters as to what we might consider psych and so there will always be dispute. Especially at the more baroque/orchestral end of pop. For example I would regard the Tremeloes “Travelling Circus” a classic piece of toytown psych but others may see it as candy floss pop.

But most of the songs that hit me as strongly psych mostly date from the 70's and perhaps fell outside the time period set by What a State I'm In. During their heavier phase they recorded a couple of psych stompers probably lost amidst their Heavier and Country influenced stuff. “Witchcraft” is a real driving rocker with strident guitar and spacey effects fading in and out, especially at the climax. “Windows are Nice” is even more out there. It has that almost glam sheen with a bit of Sax and electronic beats but has the psych weirdness fully in place. “I miss my baby” has a most unpromising title but contains a few subtle psych influences.

They also have some fine use of the Sitar on some of their 70s sessions (eg in the reprise to May morning, or their BBC version of Blessed) ) although I find a lot of the songs with Sitar are not psych at all – a classic example is their version of Proud Mary which you could never call psychedelic, but with that twanging sitar it gives the song quite a unusual psychedelic-esque make over.

That aside they did some great pop in any case. One rare track I particularly like is their italian song Jaqueline.

All in all a underappreciated band.

Interesting stuff Daniel......"Witchcraft"is a fab wee number and a cracking rocker,this is from 1973 when they went through a phase of calling themselves The Trems,im sure it was a b-side too....but as for the others you mention......ive got "Blessed" with the sitar and "Proud Mary",both on the BBC sessions double cd and rather nice.I am blank at the others you mention,cant seem to find them on any of my Tremeloes cds..........but i must say "What a state im in"cd is bloody brilliant to my ears,some top notch uk pop and psych to be had,and nice use of fuzz guitar and mellotron on a few tracks too.It wouldve been good to have had their more outlandish stuff from the 70s added onto it tho.Finally i must mention the "May Morning"soundtrack cd,this is a rather good soundtrack with chunks of mellotron all over the place,it lay unreleased for near 40 years but got a release well over 10 year ago or there abouts by Sanctuary(sadly mised).

Good reminder of that 'May Morning' sound track set Stuart, not listened to that for years, or indeed the 'What A State I'm In' CD, which was a hot CD to have when it came out. I must say I'm partial to the 'The Trems' as they shortened themselves to in the early 1970s and their crypto-Glam rocker 45s like 'Make Or Break' and 'You Can't Touch Sue'. They remind me of The Smoke in that sense ('My Friend Jack' not the 'Dream of Dreams' band). They also have a pop into pop-psych into glamrock history that follows the Tremeloes quite closely. Good post Daniel, thanks!

PM

May Morning is Fab and well worth picking up if you can find it...was on my wish list for ages, some kind 'zoner sent me an mp3 of it and I scored a cd copy on ebay for a fiver a week later.
There's a track on 'Round The Gum Tree' called Sunshine Games that I've not seen elsewhere, not really psych but it's a belter and would have fitted in nicely on 'What a State'

Hi Stuart

The Sitar tracks are indeed from the BBC sessions (which I omitted to mention) the others are found on the anthology which draws quite a bit from from their period as the Trems, and those tracks I mention are from the later singles/ LPs. However it does not touch the May Morning soundtrack which seems to stand alone from any of the anthologies i've ever come across.

I just read up about "Windows are nice" which was on their Don't let the Music Die LP and it actually was also released as a B side on Alan Blaikley's first single after leaving the Tremeloes. Certainly not a common track to find but It is on You Tube www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRnDZAFUCdY. Worth a listen.

Ah well, yes, Alan Blaikley is a world of esoteric musical posibilities. 'Windows' is a great and quirky record. It is the B side of 'Sorry (Lyn's Song)' which I have. But in terms of writing, check out the Blaikley / Hawks junk shop glam par excellence 45 that is Bill Cases's 'I'm Your Hero' on you tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKdtTRvFgyk

Only released in Germany I believe, took me quite a while to find a copy, but I love this stuff! Dig the preposterous posey picture sleeve, which I can only imagine was done tongue in cheek at the time. I'd love to know if Bill Case was a real person or just a psuedonym for Blaikley!

PM

Thanks Paul
Interesting stuff- I took your advice and added to the 919 viewings of the clip. Not something I'd track down but better than the stuff I'm listening to at the moment to be sure. And the picture is a laugh.

And more Alan Blaikley / Blakely 70s T-Rex / pop-Moog novelty nonsense here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTf1_YvT61k

PM

I've really been enjoying looking at older posts, this one jumped out as I love the tremeloes, they recorded some real marvellous music, I love the album master and the unreleased at the time may morning, that is a fabulous cd which blew me away when I first heard it all those years ago. Mellotron to the fore. I would've loved for there to have been a box set like the Dutch dave dee,dozy,beaky mick and tich box set released by BR music. My favourite track by dozy,beaky,mick and tich, no dave dee on this track mystery rider from the fresh ear album, an absolutely brilliant number, that is not on YouTube as yet. Anyway I'm waffling away here, just enjoying reading the old posts.