Monocled Alchemist

Article published in RAVE magazine, November 1968

Proving they still have it and care passionately about their fans is the Love Affair —talking here to RAVE’s Kate Joseph.

All You Need Is Love Affair | THE corners were knocked off the Love Affair long ago, in fact, right at the time of their No. 1 hit, “Everlasting Love”.

On television they were almost forced into admitting that they hadn’t played on their recording, and then those same men claimed the group was unprofessional for admitting the self-same thing. Some boys not so honest would have kept quiet.

Not a very good start for a very young and, as then, inexperienced group. But nevertheless, undeterred by the adverse publicity, they carried on. It wasn’t until their record, “Rainbow Valley”, came out that they could prove to everyone that they were an extremely talented group in their own right.

At that stage they were dominated by their managers. They wore neat costumes on stage with frilly shirts and dark suits. Just the sort of group to appeal to the Mums and Dads around. In every way, they were the young innocents.

Today they have their own ideas about music, clothes, pop and life in general. I spoke to Steve Ellis and Morgan Fisher about their new image.

All You Need Is Love Affair

“We’re not really creating a new image at all, we never had one of our own, merely one which was thrust upon us. All we want to do is to be ourselves. We also want to be recognised as individuals, not Just as a group in general.

“Gone are our frilly shirts. Instead, we wear exactly what we want, which could be anything from a leather Jacket to a T-shirt. Our stage act is quite different now. At first we were a bit subdued, but now we go quite mad and leap frantically around the stage.

If you saw us on TV and then on stage at a ballroom I doubt if you’d even know we were the same group, as we have to be more conventional for TV.”

“Obviously, for a group to get on they have to be commercial,” said Steve. “But, on the other hand, if you always play as you’re told to you can never establish your own particular sound. We feel very strongly about this, and in future we’d like all our records to be a reflection of the real us.

Everlasting Love Affair

We’ve managed to do this on our new LP ‘Everlasting Love Affair’. We de-signed the record cover ourselves, as well as composing most of the songs. Our ideas within the group are different, but between us I’m sure we can create a good sound.

“As for our next single, we’d like to write it, produce it, do the lot in fact. People tend to think it was Keith Mansfield who made us, but we’d like to prove them wrong.”

All You Need Is Love Affair

Being such a young group their main following is people between the ages of twelve and seventeen, and their music is aimed at them.

“I suppose you could say that we are rather disillusioned about pop, but then most people are. One tends to think that the minute you get a record into the Charts, the money will start rolling in, but this hasn’t been the case, not yet anyway. I reckon that you have to have about three big hits before it really starts.

“Knockers are another bug-bear. They never do it to your face, just behind your back. Mind you, we’ve got some great friends in the business, people like the Amen Corner and the Status Quo.”

Morgan, as the new member of the group, hasn’t had any of the pressures the others had at the beginning.

School work came first

“Actually I was the group’s pianist for two years, but that was a year ago. We weren’t professional then and we just played in the evenings, which was fine because I was still at school. But when the time came for the group to start as professionals, I left as I had to carry on at school.

“My Mum insisted that I did my A Levels, and at the time I didn’t take too kindly to it. But even so I managed to pass my exams, which made it all the more worth while.

“The rest of the group have become rather bitter about all the adverse publicity they had at the beginning, but I believe that now, the group is being recognised in its true light. The fans were never rotten to us at the beginning, in fact it’s probably they who have got the group as far as they are now.

That’s rather strange really because you’d have thought that all the young people would have knocked the group too.

All You Need Is Love Affair

When I first joined the Love Affair I’d never played the organ, just the piano, and I thought it would be simple to pick it up. But I soon found that it just wasn’t so. The organ is a really complicated instrument to learn, and I’ll admit that my first attempts were pretty terrible. Whilst I was at school I kept on practising, continually slogging, and I think I’ve improved a lot.

“My style has changed too just recently. When I first started off I was greatly influenced by Jimmy Smith. but now I’m concentrating on more classical format. And because of that I’m more influenced by Keith Emerson at the moment.

“On the face of it, it looks pretty rotten for Lynton to have had to leave the group to make room for me. But in fact this had been agreed on before Lynton ever joined the group, so there were no hard feelings at all. Since he’s left, though, he’s had loads of offers from other groups, which is great.”

Morgan is a very qualified member of the Love Affair in every way, and nice with it.

The Love Affair have a fantastic following which is more than proof of their talent. Each show they give is packed out and Steve has often been very close to trouserless because of the clawing fans!

“Fans are always turning up at my door,” he said. “They usually come at about eight a.m. and get me out of bed. I sometimes ask them in for a chat, but they don’t talk much. just stare all the time! This can often be rather unnerving!

Idealistic

“I’ve been thinking about fans quite a lot recently because they’re very important to a group. I think its rotten for fans if you take a girl friend along with you to a gig and then go off with her in a car afterwards. Its like a blow in the face to your fans.”

Maybe the Love Affair are being idealistic in their desire to retain their natural identity. There are so many pressures in the pop world it’s hard for anyone to remain unspoiled. To remain natural would mean that sometimes when you didn’t feel like being sociable to fans or reporters, you would have to repress yourself.

One off—hand remark or act is enough to provoke a stern article stirring up once again bad publicity. But there’s no doubt that the group have matured considerably in the past few months, and now know the bad side of pop as well as the good. And I, for one, hope they will remain as unaffected as they are at the moment. Its really worth it in the end!