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9th December 2016

The Move — Night Of Fear 50th Anniversary

Birmingham’s super group  THE MOVE released their debut 45 disc ‘NIGHT OF FEAR’ b/w ‘DISTURBANCE’ on the 9th December 1966, just a year after they formed.  ‘Night of Fear’ peaked at #2 in the UK singles chart a few weeks later.  It was also released in at least nine other territories, the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Australia & New Zealand.  Interesting fact: Roy had first played his new song ‘Night of Fear’ at a Move gig in Croydon the day before it was recorded at Advision Studios in London a couple of months earlier.

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29th June 2015

It’s Our Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! 45 YEARS TODAY!! YAY!!!
Well, although we don’t got no birth certificate to prove the specifics of Fly’s entrance into the wonderful world of music, but 45 years ago to this very day, Monday the 29th June 1970, the FLY RECORD label was established. It was set up by DAVID PLATZ and managed by MALCOLM JONES, who had quit his post as EMI Record’s A&R just three days earlier.

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28th May 2015

Kestrel – Take It Away

If only ‪KESTREL‬ were ‘so ‪#‎moneysupermarket‬’ and didn’t even know it. If ever a band and their sole album was buried beneath the centre of the musical earth, it’s this one. Great musicianship, catchy songs, Progressive Pop rather than Rock, but in hindsight wrong time and place even with producer ‪John Worth‬ screaming their name from rooftops to all and sundry.

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20th May 2015

David Platz

21 years ago this day, 20th May, David Platz passed away. The phrase ‘a musician’s musician’ is oft quoted, but Platz was a publishers’ publisher. In the ‘engine room’ world of music publishing Platz pioneered the concept and realisation of administration deals, whether with the ‪Rolling Stones (Mirage Music / Naker Phelge Music) or the ‪Who (Fabulous Music); and in the early ‪sixties, on the recordings side, he pioneered the formation of independent production companies, collaborating with producers (‪‎Denny Cordell‬, ‪‎Gus Dudgeon‬, ‪Tony Visconti‬ etc) in signing artists and leasing their recordings to major record labels. And he always had an ear for those whose own ears he trusted, like music clairvoyant Tony Hall. Platz himself had a keen ear for a tune, whether a tune was heading for hitsville, or not. ‘‪A Whiter Shade of Pale‬’ being a hitsville case in point. On hearing the (now ‘lost’) song demo he wrote a memo to Gary Brooker reassuring him that it would be ‘a certain hit!’. Platz was a catalyst, his publishing cauldron fusing many an author and composer; be it poet Keith Reid with Gary Brooker; or Herbert Kretzmer with Charles Aznavour (to create ‘She’). It was Platz whose hand headed for his pocket in order to fund the recording of ‪‎Black Sabbath‬’s debut album when no label ‘got’ them. Neither did his entrusted producer Gus Dudgeon, leaving it to the then engineer ‪Rodger Bain‬ to forge ahead. And the rest as they say, is probably on Wiki. By 1970 the opportunity to start an independent record label was grasped, Fly Records was formed, and ‪TRex‬ was launched riding a white swan. But beneath the skin of ‘the hits’ which fires the excite cells of party goers and smooth heart radio station listeners, lies the world of the contenders, or flops if you must. Or more aptly as has increasingly become all the rage in these post ‪Shindig Magazine‬ times, the long lost overlooked cult classic. Scratch the surface of the multi-award winning glam of David’s legacy, and behold the buried treasure of artists / bands like ‪‎Spring‬, ‪Kestrel‬, ‪Tucker Zimmerman‬ and others that make you exclaim “Who?”. All are now sought after collector ‘classics’.

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