The EXCEPTIONS Soldier Boy ORIG1965 UK GIRL-GROUP 7" NM

	A$		43
	$		28

 I just recently bought a small grouping of UK 60's beat/pop/garage/psych 7"s from a well-known Sydney collector in the throes of selling off his collection.

::CATALOGUE #:   F-12100   

::RELEASE DATE:   5 March 1965 

::ORIGINAL FIRST PRESSING?:   ...Yes, it is...

::CONDITION (cover/record):  ( - / M- ) ...VINYL IS SO SHINY AND CLEAN!...MANY WOULD CALL IT MINT...never released in pic sleeve...comes in its original company sleeve...

::LABEL CONDITION:   'A' side:   MINT   'B' side:   MINT           

...Basically the 4th and last Orchids 45 - after a name (and image) change came about in early '65...the original 'B' side is an absolute classic of the girl-group genre...has a great Phil Spector-style production, courtesy of Larry Page...read on, if you have the time, it's good stuff:

THE EXCEPTIONS 

Then in 1965, they were finally allowed a change of image and the group was relaunched as the Exceptions. The school gear finally banished and looking like the fully-fledged Mods they had always longed to be - Georgie even ditched her specs - they cut an Ivy League song, Carter-Lewis' wonderfully bluesy "What More Do You Want". But a newspaper reported that they were less than enamoured with this choice: "The Orchids - er, sorry, Exceptions - prefer two other numbers, one they wrote themselves and the other an old Miracles' number." Indeed, the real gem of this release lay on the flipside and it was the"one they wrote themselves" - "Soldier Boy". This was an accomplished, soulful girl-group ballad written by Georgina and so American-sounding that many collectors have for years assumed the track to be by a black Stateside girl group - certainly one of the best British records of its type and probably much more commercial than the official A-side. 

"When we were in London one time for something or other, we happened to mention to Larry that I had written a song," Georgina recalls. "He had us sing it for him. We stood in the Kassner office surrounded by executives and sang them the song a cappella. I can remember standing in front of this big wooden desk feeling very nervous and shy. Needless to say, I guess they liked it. I don't recall the timeline from then to when we recorded it and, no, I had no say in the arrangement or production and wouldn't have had a clue anyway." 

This great record, like the others before it, got little airplay and negligible publicity. Sadly, it proved to be the girls' final release. It was the only song Georgina wrote. Around this time, the group "fizzled out." With no hits, Decca appeared uninterested in renewing their contract. None of the girls pursued musical careers thereafter; they would go on to achieve success in other arts and in teaching. 

Reminiscences of the recording sessions and life on the road are understandably hazy, but Georgina has a few recollections: "Then, being teenagers, we were only really interested in having fun and thinking about ourselves! I do recall that Bert Berns had a right-hand man, Mike Leander, and somewhere in the recesses of my memory something tells me that Bert was not always well and Mike helped him out. A guitarist called Big Jim Sullivan played on at least one of our records. 

"We did a show in Oxford where we shared the bill with Gerry and the Pacemakers. I remember Gerry a little the worse for drink running around backstage in his underwear! Sounds Incorporated were our backing group for the performance. They were great, as they had no clue what our songs were - we had no sheet music - but they just picked it up at the short rehearsal. We met the Hollies on one RSG! appearance and after the show Graham Nash gave us a lift back to Coventry as he was on his way to Birmingham. He was very nice. 

"We went to Andrew Oldham's flat once and met the father of the Wilson brothers of the Beach Boys. He gave me a copy of a U.S.-only release album, but I lost it over the years. While we were there, Marianne Faithfull turned up at the door. My one memory of her was that she had a stain on the front of her blouse. Isn't that awful of me! 

"If we met any of the songwriters, we probably didn't take much notice. We were sent sheet music to learn, or demo discs maybe. Or sometimes if we were in London, we would go to a rehearsal room somewhere, or to the offices of Kassner Music in Denmark Street and someone would play a number for us on the piano and sing it so we could get an idea. I remember us performing my song at Kassner Music for the bigwigs and then I guess someone transcribed the music from our performance. 

"Unfortunately being typical teenagers we weren't really interested in anyone who wasn't 'famous' in our estimation. That meant pop stars and TV stars. We lost out on appreciating all of the talented and creative people we came into contact with, who worked in the background." 

Another recollection was of sitting in on a Kinks recording session and tapping ashtrays in time with the music. The recording engineer liked it so much he included it in the recording, but unfortunately no-one remembers which track this was! 

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Thanks for considering this item. Best of luck if you decide to bid...Cheers, Jules.

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