The Downliners Sect were a British rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 band of the beat boom era, formed in 1963 when the existing Downliners band split up.

Stylistically, they were similar to The Yardbirds

The Yardbirds

- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...

, The Pretty Things

The Pretty Things

The Pretty Things are an English rock and roll band from London, who originally formed in 1963. They took their name from Bo Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing" and, in their early days, were dubbed by the British press the "uglier cousins of the Rolling Stones". Their most commercially successful...

 and the Rolling Stones, playing basic R&B on their first album The Sect. Critic Richie Unterberger

Richie Unterberger

Richie Unterberger is a US author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing.-Life and writing:Having worked as a DJ at WXPN in Philadelphia, he started reviewing records for Op magazine in 1983...

 wrote: "The Sect didn't as much interpret the sound of Chess Records

Chess Records

Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....

 as attack it, with a finesse that made the Pretty Things seem positively suave in comparison."

They subsequently modified their musical style, and after an EP of 'sick' songs (e.g. "I Want My Baby Back") they experimented with both country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 ("The Country Sect") and rock ("Rock Sect's In"). They later collaborated with Billy Childish's

Billy Childish

Billy Childish is an English artist, painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist...

 Thee Headcoats

Thee Headcoats

Thee Headcoats 1989 - 2000, was a band comprising Billy Childish, Bruce Brand, and Johnny Johnson. Childish was featured on guitar and vocals, Brand on drums and backing vocals, and Johnson on bass. The band was the most prolific of Childish's many musical projects, releasing fourteen full...

, and released two albums under the name Thee Headcoats Sect.

Band members

• Don Craine (born Michael John O'Donnell, 29.3.1945, at Chiswick Maternity Hospital, Hounslow, Middlesex) - guitar, vocals, tambourine, maracas, autoharp
• Keith Grant (born Arthur Keith Evans, 26.3.1946, in Farnworth, Lancashire) - bass, vocals
• Johnny Sutton (born John Sutton, in 1945) - drums
• Terry Gibson (born Terence Frederick Clemsom, 7.2.1947, at the Mayday Hospital, Croydon, Surrey) - guitar (replaced the short-lived original guitarist Melvin)
• Ray Sone - harmonica (joined in 1964, beating Rod Stewart and Steve Marriott)
• Pip Harvey - harmonica (replaced Sone in 1965, left in 1966 because he was wanted by the police!)
• Zach Wilson - guitar (replaced by Craine)

Singles

• Jun '64 - Baby What's Wrong / Be A Sect Maniac (Columbia DB 7300)
• Sep '64 - Little Egypt / Sect Appeal (Columbia DB 7347)
• Nov '64 - Find Out What's Happening / Insecticide (Columbia DB 7415)
• ??? '65 - Wreck Of The Old '97 / Leader Of The Sect (Columbia DB 7509)
• Jun '65 - I Got Mine / Waiting In Heaven Somewhere (Columbia DB 7597)
• Oct '65 - Bad Storm Coming / Lonely And Blue (Columbia DB 7712)
• Jan '66 - All Night Worker / He Was A Square (Columbia DB 7817)
• Jun '66 - Glendora / I'll Find Out (Columbia DB 7939)
• Sep '66 - The Cost Of Living / Everything I've Got To Give (Columbia DB 8008)

7" E.P.s

• "Nite In Gt. Newport Street": Beautiful Delilah/Shame Shame Shame/Green Onions/Nursery Rhymes (Contrast RBCSP 001, 1964)
• "Brite Lites": Bright Lights Big City/I need you baby(mona)/Do the Dog/Roll Over Beethoven (Contrast RBCSP 002, 1964) :Unreleased, finished sleeves exist. Tapes lost in 1964, released in March 2011.
• "The Sect Sing Sick Songs" - I Want My Baby Back/Leader of the Sect/Midnight Hour
  In the Midnight Hour
  "In the Midnight Hour" is a song originally performed by Wilson Pickett in 1965 and released on the 1966 album The Exciting Wilson Pickett. It was composed by Pickett and Steve Cropper at the historic Lorraine Motel in Memphis where Martin Luther King, Jr. would later be murdered in April 1968...
  
  /Now She's Dead (Columbia SEG 8438, 1965)

The Sect (1964)

1. Hurt By Love
2. One Ugly Child
3. Lonely And Blue
4. Our Little Rendezvous
5. Guitar Boogie
6. Too Much Monkey Business
7. Sect Appeal
8. Baby What's On Your Mind?
9. Cops And Robbers
10. Easy Rider
11. Bloodhound
12. Bright Lights
13. I Wanna Put A Tiger In Your Tank
14. Be A Sect Maniac

Columbia 33SX 1658

The Country Sect (1965)

1. If I Could Just Go Back
2. Rocks In My Bed
3. Ballad Of The Hounds
4. Little Play Soldiers
5. Hard Travellin'
6. Wait For The Light To Shine
7. I Got Mine
8. Waiting In Heaven
9. Above And Beyond
10. Bad Storm Coming
11. Midnight Special
12. Wolverton Mountain

Columbia 33SX 1745

The Rock Sect's In (1966)

1. Hang on Sloopy
   Hang on Sloopy
   "Hang on Sloopy" is a song by the pop group The McCoys which was #1 in America in October 1965 and is the official rock song of the state of Ohio and The Ohio State University...
   
   
2. Fortune Teller
   Fortune Teller (song)
   "Fortune Teller" is a song written by Allen Toussaint under the pseudonym Naomi Neville and first recorded by Benny Spellman...
   
   
3. Hey Hey Hey Hey
4. Everything I've Got To Give
5. Outside
6. I'm Hooked On You
7. Don't Lie To Me
8. May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose
9. He Was A Square
10. I'm Looking For A Woman
11. Rock Sect's In Again
12. Brand New Cadillac
    Brand New Cadillac
    "Brand New Cadillac" is a 1959 12-bar blues song by Vince Taylor, and was originally released as a B-side. Featured musicians on the released recording were: Joe Moretti , Lou Brian , Brian Locking and Brian Bennett ....
    
    

Columbia 33SX 6028

The Definitive Downliners Sect: Singles - A's & B's (1994)

1. Cadillac
2. Roll Over Beethoven
3. Beautiful Delilah
4. Shame, Shame, Shame
5. Green Onions
6. Nursery Rhymes
7. Baby What's Wrong
8. Be A Sect Maniac
9. Little Egypt
10. Sect Appeal
11. Find Out What's Happening
12. Insecticide
13. Wreck Of The Old '97
14. Leader Of The Sect
15. I Want My Baby Back
16. Midnight Hour
17. Now She's Dead
18. I Got Mine
19. Waiting In Heaven Somewhere
20. Bad Storm Coming
21. Lonely And Blue
22. All Night Worker
23. He Was A Square
24. Glendora
25. I'll Find Out
26. Cost Of Living
27. Everything I've Got To Give
28. I Can't Get Away From You
29. Roses

See For Miles SEECD398

External links

• http://www.angelfire.com/rock3/yardbird_sect/downliners_sect.html - includes discography
• http://web.archive.org/web/20091029033233/http://geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Villa/9500/downliners.htm
• http://www.makingtime.co.uk/downliners.html
• http://www.handofglory.co.uk/downliners-sect-brite-lights-ep-coming-soon/ - blog post on the lost EP with details of the rediscovery.