The Sorrows
Encyclopedia
The Sorrows are considered perhaps to be the archetypal freakbeat
band
. They were formed in 1963 in Coventry
, Warwickshire
, England
by Pip Whitcher.
, Take a Heart, in 1965 on the Piccadilly Records label
which was a subsidiary of Pye Records
. The Sorrows were at the time the hardest, most aggressive and contemporary R&B
band of that time, although later this brand of music
was eventually termed "Freakbeat". One of the most overlooked bands of the British Invasion
, the Sorrows offered a tough brand of R&B-infused rock
that recalled The Pretty Things
(though not as R&B-oriented) and The Kinks
(though not as pop
-oriented).
Their hallmarks are boomy, raucous vocals, lightning fast guitar
solos and frantic thudding drum
s. The musicianship was excellent, yet the band failed to achieve much success, probably because their brand of Garage rock
/Freakbeat
was simply too far ahead of its time. After receiving some minor chart
positions on the UK Singles Chart
, Phil Packham and Don Fardon
left the band. Fardon then went on to have a UK
chart hit
with "Indian Reservation
". Wez Price took Phil Packam's place on bass guitar
, whilst Roger Lomas became lead guitar
ist and Pip Whitcher focused on vocals. The band relocated to Italy
and received minor success. Following the band's break-up Whitcher and Lomas went on to record at Air Studios under Mike Sullivan.
Lomas in the early 1980s became a record producer
for his own company, ROLO productions, and produced 1980s ska
bands such as Bad Manners
. In 2003 Lomas produced the Grammy Award
winning album, Jamaican E.T. for Lee "Scratch" Perry.
Freakbeat
Freakbeat is the name used for rare, collectable, and obscure British Invasion records, particularly from 1966 and 1967. Elements of the freakbeat sound include strong direct drum beats, loud and frenzied guitar riffs, and extreme effects such as: fuzztone, flanging, distortion and compression or...
band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
. They were formed in 1963 in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
by Pip Whitcher.
Career
The Sorrows released their first albumAlbum
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, Take a Heart, in 1965 on the Piccadilly Records label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
which was a subsidiary of Pye Records
Pye Records
Pye Records was a British record label. In its first incarnation, perhaps Pye's best known artists were Lonnie Donegan , Petula Clark , The Searchers , The Kinks , Sandie Shaw and Brotherhood of Man...
. The Sorrows were at the time the hardest, most aggressive and contemporary R&B
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 that time, although later this brand of music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
was eventually termed "Freakbeat". One of the most overlooked bands of the British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
, the Sorrows offered a tough brand of R&B-infused rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
that recalled 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...
(though not as R&B-oriented) and The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
(though not as pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
-oriented).
Their hallmarks are boomy, raucous vocals, lightning fast guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
solos and frantic thudding drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s. The musicianship was excellent, yet the band failed to achieve much success, probably because their brand of Garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
/Freakbeat
Freakbeat
Freakbeat is the name used for rare, collectable, and obscure British Invasion records, particularly from 1966 and 1967. Elements of the freakbeat sound include strong direct drum beats, loud and frenzied guitar riffs, and extreme effects such as: fuzztone, flanging, distortion and compression or...
was simply too far ahead of its time. After receiving some minor chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
positions on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, Phil Packham and Don Fardon
Don Fardon
Don Fardon is an English pop singer.-Career:His biggest success was to be his cover version of John D. Loudermilk's "Indian Reservation" . The global sales were estimated at over one million copies...
left the band. Fardon then went on to have a UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
chart hit
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
with "Indian Reservation
Indian Reservation (song)
"Indian Reservation " is a song written by John D. Loudermilk. It was first recorded in 1959 by Marvin Rainwater and released as "The Pale Faced Indian". Rainwater's MGM release stayed unnoticed. The first hit version was a 1968 cover by Don Fardon, a former member of The Sorrows, that reached #20...
". Wez Price took Phil Packam's place on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, whilst Roger Lomas became lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
ist and Pip Whitcher focused on vocals. The band relocated to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and received minor success. Following the band's break-up Whitcher and Lomas went on to record at Air Studios under Mike Sullivan.
Lomas in the early 1980s became a record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
for his own company, ROLO productions, and produced 1980s ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
bands such as Bad Manners
Bad Manners
Bad Manners are an English 2 Tone ska band. They quickly became the novelty favourites of the UK pop scene through their bald outsized frontman's on-stage antics, earning early exposure through their Top of The Pops exploits and an appearance in the live film documentary, Dance Craze.They were at...
. In 2003 Lomas produced the Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
winning album, Jamaican E.T. for Lee "Scratch" Perry.
Initial line-up
- Philip (Pip) Whitcher - (born 1943, CoventryCoventryCoventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
) - lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
and vocals. - Don FardonDon FardonDon Fardon is an English pop singer.-Career:His biggest success was to be his cover version of John D. Loudermilk's "Indian Reservation" . The global sales were estimated at over one million copies...
- (born Donald Maughn, 19 August 1940, Coventry) - vocals - Philip (Phil) Packham - (born 13 June 1945, Bidford-on-AvonBidford-on-AvonBidford-on-Avon is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Warwickshire. In the 2001 census it had a population of 4,830.-Location:...
, near StratfordStratford-upon-AvonStratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...
, Warwickshire) - bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Wez Price - (born Wesley Price, 19 July 1945, Coventry) - rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
- Bruce Finley - (born 20 September 1944, HuntlyHuntly-Places:* Huntly, Aberdeenshire, a small town in Scotland, UK* Huntly, New Zealand, a small town south of Auckland** Huntly power station, a major coal-fired electricity plant in the same town, often referred to simply as 'Huntly'* Huntly, Victoria, Australia...
, AberdeenshireAberdeenshireAberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...
, ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
) - drumDrumThe drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s
After 1966
- Philip (Pip) Whitcher - rhythm guitar and vocals
- Wez Price - bass
- Roger (Rog) Lomas - lead Guitar (born Roger David Lomas, 8 October 1948, at Keresley Hospital, Coventry).
- Bruce Finley - drums
- NEW LINE UP. THE SORROWS 2011*
New line up 2011
Don Fardon ( vocals)Phil Packham ( bass guitar)
Nigel Lomas (drums & vocals)Marcus Webb (guitar)
Al Muttitt (guitar, harmonica & vocals)Singles
- "I Don't Wanna Be Free" / "Come With Me" (Piccadilly 7N 35219) 1965
- "Baby" / "Teenage Letter" (Piccadilly 7N 35230) 1965
- "Take A Heart" / "We Should Get Along Fine" (Piccadilly 7N 35260) 1965 - UK Singles ChartUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
- No. 21 - "You've Got What I Want" / "No No No No" (Piccadilly 7N 35277) 1966
- "Let The Live Live" / "Don't Sing No Sad Songs For Me" (Piccadilly 7N 35309) 1966
- "Let Me In" / "How Love Used To Be" (Piccadilly 7N 35336) 1966
- "Pink, Purple, Yellow and Red" / "My Gal" (Piccadilly 7N 35385) 1967
Albums
- Take A Heart - (Pye NPL 38023), (1965) ("Baby" / "No No No No" / "Take A Heart" / "She's Got The Action" / "How Love Used To Be" / "Teenage Letter" / "I Don't Wanna Be Free" / "Don't Sing No Sad Songs For Me" / "Cara-lin" / "We Should Get Along Fine" / "Come With Me" / "Let Me In")
- Old Songs, New Songs - (Miura MIU 10011) (1967); officially reissued on CD by Wooden Hill (#WHCD026) – 2009
- Pink, Purple, Yellow and Red - (LPGramophone recordA gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
, Bam-Caruso KIRI 089) (1987) - The Sorrows - (CDCompact DiscThe Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, Sequel Records NEXCD 165) (1991)
External links
- The Sorrows Myspace page
- [ The Sorrows biography at the Allmusic websiteWebsiteA website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
]