Jeremy Pascall introduces you to Chart newcomers Simon Dupree and the Big Sound

Articles published in RAVE magazine, January and March 1968

Unveiling Simon Dupree | “Put this down,” ordered Derek Shulman. “Simon Dupree is a yob!” The assembled company agreed with the statement. A crooked, toothy grin spread across Simon’s face. “It’s all true,” he admitted.

The fact is Shulman and Dupree are one and the same person! Success has changed Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. When I first met them they drank pints of beer and went around in a battered van, earning a few pounds a night. Now they drink trendy vodkas and are seen in an impressive Jaguar.

They’ve gone from vans to Jags in the space of a year, have made three great but unrecognised miss records and one beautiful hit, two documentary telly programmes, thousands of fans and a penny or two.

But despite the glam trappings that new found wealth brings, Simon and his merry lads are really straightforward, outrageous, incredibly uncool (although not uncouth) people who enjoy a drink, a pretty girl and a right old rave up.

Very commercial

Simon is nineteen. Stocky, cocky, with an Andy Capp charm, he runs completely against the trend of pretty, effeminate, little-boy-lost singers. If anything he’s a little-boy-lusty! Simon is tough without being brutal, with a gentle, considerate, extremely hospitable side to his nature.

He loves to be on stage. He jumps, sways and storms his way through his act, deftly manoeuvring away from the hysterical clutches of fans. Very commercial, Simon will include nothing in his act that doesn’t go down well. He and the group are accomplished musicians and performers, but because their audiences demand soul, soul and still more soul music, they provide it.

Unveiling Simon Dupree

“Kites” was a gamble. Simon’s elder brother Phil, aged twenty-five, says of the record. “It was easy to make, a simple melody with a simple arrangement. We were determined not to make it too involved and it paid off. Whereas the kids rave and yell for the soul stuff, they stand absolutely silent and applaud ‘Kites’ with real appreciation.”

Phil used to be an art teacher, and has a wife and family. He’s a warm, zany, but aware person, and a leaping lunatic! The Shulman family is completed by Ray, at eighteen, the youngest, quietest member, fresh out of school, an accomplished musician and a quietly insane person.

On stage he waddles about, swinging his guitar, and thinks nothing of playing in a horizontal position inducing sleep. Beware of a reluctant, devastating smile that smoulders and explodes like a fuse to dynamite!

The three non-related group members are linked by common bonds of music and humour. Eric Hine, nineteen, tall, willowy, is a silent comedian. He’s a master of the anguished look, has a ridiculous gait, and pretends not to be a good organist.

I See The Light

He does it well! His are the crashing, soaring riffs that made “I See The Light” such a stand-out record so cruelly ignored. He has just invested in a monster Hammond organ and that most versatile of modern electronic sound systems, a Mellotron (as used by the Beatles on “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields”).

This added depth and breadth of sound will ensure that the group will continue to play every part of their records, and will mean unemployment for the experienced session men who usually add strings, woodwind and other “difficult” parts to top records.

Smallest Big Sounder of them all is Pete O’Flaherty, (twenty-two), reputed not to have spoken for the last ten months, but I can now reveal that it’s a lie! Pete is rather uncommunicative, but will answer with a yes or no if pushed! A private, enclosed person, he shuns the limelight and drives cars as if the Guildford By-pass was the circuit of the Indianapolis 500! He plays bass.

Unveiling Simon Dupree

Which brings us rather neatly to drummer Tony Ransley. He’s tall, dark, broodingly attractive, with a
Phil Shulman flashy, confident smile. Tony attracts a good deal of attention—and young ladies! An ex-hairdresser, he tends to be the group’s coiffeur. He is an integral part of a very “together” outfit.

Each member complements the other, each part makes up the whole. Simon Dupree and the Big Sound are more than a group, they are entertainers. They love to hear an audience laugh and dub their act “an evening of Portsmouth rubbish”.

Down-to-earth, unaffected, innocent yet worldly, learning but experienced, they are a refreshing, delightful addition to the pop scene. Unashamedly commercial, they play as many instruments as half a symphony orchestra and have a deep regard for all forms of music.

This year will see Simon Dupree storming to greater heights, but the group will do that with that slightly bewildered look of people in strange surroundings. For they are not starry-eyed or star-like, just ordinary blokes doing their jobs. Very well.

Simon Dupree = Flying High

He’s happy, flying high in fact, because if “Kites ‘ hadn’t gone flying up high in the Charts, Simon Dupree and the Big Sound would not exist now. Here he talks to you, just about himself.

It’s an old pop cliché that overnight success takes years to achieve. Like most clichés, it’s true. And so it was with Simon Dupree. If “Kites” hadn’t made the Charts he and the Big Sound would have split up. After all, they reasoned, you can only go on so long making well-acclaimed records that bomb out! Kites” made it, and a smile returned to Simon Dupree’s face. Well, it was more of a satisfied grin, really.

Simon Dupree is Jewish. I say this only because it’s an important key to his character. He has many Jewish traits; he comes from a very close-knit, artistic family, his house swarms with relatives, he’s shrewd with his money—not mean, but doesn’t waste it.

He likes to laugh and he loves to talk. About anything. It’s just another of the things he does rather well. “I’m afraid of not being successful in anything I do,” he said. “When I start things I like to finish them with a good result. I’ve always been like that, even at school.

“When I was a kid (I suppose we all go through phases) I used to lay awake at night thinking that some day I was going to die, and I was scared. Now I’ve resigned myself to it. I just hope that I’m not cut off in my prime! That really worries me. I’m not afraid of it now, but it worries me.

As long as I’ve had a good life and done things that I wanted to do it’ll be all right. I don’t ever worry about being maimed or losing a limb. I could accept that because at heart I’m a fatalist. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen and nothing will change it.

Unveiling Simon Dupree

If an accident stopped my present career I would find something else to do. Anything, as long as I enjoyed it. I couldn’t do something I didn’t enjoy.

“After I left school I tried working in a factory, and other crummy jobs, like selling newspapers. I saw people arriving at eight in the morning and going home at half past four—it killed me, I hated it. I could have done so many things—been a solicitor, gone to university or studied architecture, but I just didn’t want to. I knew it wasn’t for me.

“Whenever I travel on the London to Portsmouth train I see the nine to five men. They go home, watch television, and that’s their lives. It’s nothing. It’s a good scene for some people, if they’re content, but I’m not content. I never will be.

“Pop groups are lucky in that they see a lot of life, but it can be a very empty life. A lot of groups take advantage of girl fans, but I think we’re an exception. Granted, the opportunity’s there, but we don’t take it. Sex isn’t fantastically important to me.

There’s a great difference between love and sex, between a basic, bodily need and the fulfilment of love. I’ve nearly been in love. Not properly, but very close to it. I wasn’t old enough, though. I didn’t want to get involved, tied down.

I’ve a head for business

“Marriage is important. I believe in absolute faithfulness in marriage. If you agree to a contract saying you will be, then you must be. I wouldn’t find it at all difficult if I set my mind to it.

“I can’t see myself marrying for some time yet. I’d like to have kids, I like them. “I’m in pop for as long as the group makes money. After that I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ve got a head for business. I know what’s happening to my money, and I don’t splash out on things I don’t really need.

“In pop I don’t think there’s anything we can’t do. I can even see us doing a Royal Command Performance. Why not? I’m sure I wouldn’t be worried about it.

“Physically I’m not a violent person, although I can be if I’m pushed. I lose my temper quite often because I like to get my own way. I’ll argue, lose my temper and walk away thinking I’m right and the other person’s wrong. After five minutes it’s all over and if I think I’m wrong I say so. I don’t mind admitting it. The last time I actually hit anybody was at school.

“I weigh up people’s characters more now than I used to. I can usually sum up a person after only one meeting, unless they’re professional phonies and they fool me. I’ve only been wrong about a person once, and I don’t want to talk about it now.

I’m half Scottish

“Being Jewish isn’t important to me. If somebody tells me a Jewish joke and it’s funny I laugh. I never get upset. I had no trouble at school about it. I’m half Scottish, which makes a pretty nasty mixture! I asserted myself at school; I was a pretty tough guy.

“Jewish people love people. At the moment I’m reading books on different religions, trying to find what religion I am. Underneath it all I’m Jewish, that’s my race, but I’m still looking for my religion. I don’t know if I believe in God or not. I don’t think that I’ll ever sort it out. All I know is that I definitely don’t believe in Jesus Christ. I think he was a crack-pot, but was sincere in his own beliefs.

“My father was a true Jew. In fact he could have been a Rabbi, but he cut himself off from religion for music. I admired my father. When he died it was the worst experience we ever encountered as a family. I felt terrible.

Family bereavement

It happened three years ago, and one gets over things like that pretty quickly, but I still think about him and feel sad. He was a very influential man; he influenced us rather than dominated us. He was always happy in everything he did.

It was a shame he couldn’t see us make a success of music, after he had tried for so many years. He was a brilliant musician but was never recognised. We wanted to make it where he failed.”

While he talked of such personal subjects Simon remained very calm. He knew what he wanted to say and precisely how to express his emotions. He has a mind of his own, and if some of his statements and opinions are rather sweeping it’s because he’s still young (he’s twenty) and his attitudes have yet to be tempered by experience. But how refreshing it is to hear honest opinions spoken frankly.

More Simon Dupree and the Big Sound on the Monocled Alchemist.