Monocled Alchemist

“Everlasting Love” / “Gone Are The Songs Of Yesterday” (CBS 3125) December 1967

How the ’60s music press reacted to “Everlasting Love”, including vintage articles and interviews published during January / February 1968, when the single was zooming up the Charts.

The Love Affair | Everlasting Love | (CBS) 1967 | Before I am branded a traitor by Robert Knight fans, may I say that I reviewed this record with a nasty prejudiced mind.

Therefore, you will understand that it is twice as amazing that I liked it at all and even more staggering that I actually enjoyed listening to it.

All of which leads me to say that this is a very good record of a beautiful song which means a lot to me.

They take it at a slightly different pace from the Knight original, with more determined drumming towards the end before it opens out and sweeps back. Nice. (Disc & Music Echo, December 1967)

This is a useful new group, their second record, with a very promising lead voice. Nice flip. (Record Mirror, December 1967)

Love Affair That’s Everlasting

DOWN in the murky depths of the hit parade something stirred. As it happens, it wasn’t a bird, but five very young lads from North London, by name the Love Affair. The Love Affair are knocked out by the success of their first record, a cover of an American version by Robert Knight which was raved about by everyone from Penny Valentine to Chris Denning.

It all began with Mr Max Bacon, a poll-winning drummer with Bert Ambrose in the golden years of dance bands. Max had a brother Sid, who was also a deft hand with the sticks. And Sid had a son, Maurice, who wanted to follow in father’s and uncle’s footsteps.

Maurice had “borrowed” his uncle’s battered old drum kit when he was 12, and passed many hours of hard practice in the family bed-room.

Advert in the music press

“I’d also messed around with a couple of friends at school, but nothing serious. I knew I wanted eventually to form a professional group, so I decided to put an advert in the musical press for the rest of them,” says Maurice Bacon.

Answering the ad, among many others, were: Lynton Guest (17-year-old organist), Steve Ellis (17-year-old vocalist), Mick Jackson (18-year-old bassist) and Rex Brayley (19-year-old lead guitarist).

Maurice himself is 15, and together they make the youngest chart group for many months. —We decided that as we were all so young, it wouldn’t matter too much if the group didn’t succeed,” said Maurice. “In fact, we felt that it was high time some younger people were given a chance at the charts. All the established groups were getting a bit stale and weren’t creating the excitement in the clubs that they used to.”

The group in its present form has been working solidly since last August. “Our co-manager John Cokell (Maurice’s Dad is the other manager) found the song, and we decided that if Robert Knight didn’t have a hit with it we would record it.”

The Love Affair boast a strong following in almost every club they have played, and at a time when clubs are folding all over the country, this is exceptionally unusual.

Vocal ability

“I feel sure our appeal in the clubs is because we’re so young,” said vocalist Steve Ellis, whose somewhat fragile appearance completely belies his enormous vocal ability.

“The club audiences are also young and they can identify themselves with us because we’re the same age as them. They’re getting tired of seeing groups aged about 25-30 still trying to look 17!”

Steve also revealed a hidden secret concerning “Everlasting Love.”

The Love Affair | Everlasting Love | (CBS) 1967

“When we recorded it I had a rotten sore throat and couldn’t reach the high notes. So rather than cancel the session it was decided that I should sing slower than normal and the tapes were then speeded up. That’s why my voice might have sounded different on ‘Top Of The Pops’.”

Steve, in fact, had never sung publicly in his life before joining the Love Affair.

“I had this coloured mate who reckoned I should have a go, and it was he who persuaded us to answer the advert.”

Steve has the same husky speaking voice as fellow-Londoner Chris Farlowe, and if that is any indication, the Love Affair will go a long way to achieving Everlasting Success.

The Love Affair | Everlasting Love | (CBS) 1967

IT’S exciting, it’s fun, it’s new — it’s the Love Affair! Yes, a new group has come upon us, with a smash hit “Everlasting Love,” and they threaten to become one of the rave groups of the year. Why? Because they are young, good-looking, talented and aren’t trying to change the world.

It’s a simple formula lots of groups had forgotten about, and recently revived by the Herd. But Love Affair groan a bit at comparisons with the Frampton Quartet.

“All I can say, in all frankness, is watch out Herd!” said dark-haired, nicely-mannered bass guitarist Mick Jackson. Mick, aged 18, and singer Steve Ellis, aged 17, were sipping coffee in the MM office, trying to unwind after a hectic day of picture sessions and interviews.

The Herd?

Mick is courteous, friendly, intelligent and from Bradford, which belies the myth of the blunt Northerner. Steve is happy, bright and a straight-speaking Mod from Finchley. “Ah, a Finchley Mod,” said I. “How did you hear about them?” said Stevie, highly intrigued. “Yeah, that’s right —the Finchley Mods!”

Why are Mick and Stevie so confident about their ascendency over the Herd?

“There is only one guy in that group,” said Mick, “and there are four of us, and one ugly drummer. He’s a character—have you seen him?” “Cor, he’s ugly!” grinned Steve. “A great big teddy bear. He’s the youngest, biggest and softest one in the group.”

“Whereas the Herd are quiet and sexy on stage, we try to be a wild group,” continued Mick. “Not by design, but we are a very young group, and when we go up on stage and things are moving, we just get excited.”

How did the Love Affair view older groups who try to inflict philosophy on their fans?

“Silly to do that,” thought Mick. “When they got on stage they fall flat on their face. Only a few groups like the Herd and Tremeloes have been catering for the younger boys and girls. We’ve got the advantage of being five or six years younger than most of the other groups.”

Commercial pop group

“Yeah, some of them are about 25 years old,” said Steve incredulously. “They tried to get too far out and young people just don’t understand all that. Only the Beatles can get away with it.” Said Mick: “Groups have been trying to emulate the Beatles in being clever. We’re not trying to stop progress, we’re trying to freshen things up. It’s all got stale.

“We are just a good commercial pop group, trying to cater for our audiences. We want to be commercial and keep our standards high.”

This group isn’t a bunch of friends who got together. We are from all over the country. We applied for a job advertised by one of our managers in the Melody Maker. He auditioned people for their age, musical ability and looks, so it’s a hand-picked group, who have become friends.

“At first we couldn’t get it together musically, but now we have realised we have got to play for each other. We got a commercial song which was well performed, well publicised and the group had what was needed to carry it through. I hope the formula continues to work.”

“When we started off,” said Steve firmly, “we wanted to get the club scene together first. We didn’t want to be caught with our pants down with a hit straight off, then have to go and rehearse because we couldn’t play together.”

Stage clothes

“We were all confident one day we would make it,” said Mick. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have stayed together. We used to encourage our audiences to go mad, but now we don’t have to bother. We had our hair pulled out by fans at Top Of The Pops, and I had my trousers ripped at a ballroom. They were a brand new red velvet pair that got ripped in the most embarrassing place they could be”

“We like to wear individual stage clothes, but the other night we all wore some new frilly lace shirts.”

“Yeah, which I was dead against,” grunted Steve. “What would the Finchley Mods think of frilly shirts?”

New group hold top for second week

THE Love Affair, unknown a month ago, are to headline a three-week British tour. The group, whose hit “Everlasting Love” is number one in the MM Pop 30 for the second week, will kick the tour off on April 10 at a London venue and will then tour major cities.

Agent Harold Davison is currently finalising the schedule for the group. No other artists for the tour have yet been named. The Love Affair — organist Lynton Guest, lead singer Steve Ellis, bass guitarist Mick Jackson, lead guitarist Rex Brayley and drummer Maurice Bacon ‘are all aged between 16 and 18 — and are one of the country’s youngest hit groups.

The Love Affair | Everlasting Love | (CBS) 1967

They were formed when their managers, John Cokell and Sid Bacon, advertised for personnel in the MM.

Their next single — so far untitled will be recorded between February 18-21 and will be released on April 5 in this country. And the group are to re-record the B side of their hit “Gone Are The Songs Of Yesterday” as their first American release.

Mobbed

As the sales of “Everlasting Love” soar above 300,000, the Love Affair have been mobbed everywhere they play. They were mobbed by fans at all their gigs last weekend — at Catford, London, Stockport and Ross-on Wye. Eight shirts and three pairs of trousers were torn to pieces.

Love Battle: ‘We think our version is best’ say the Love Affair

The Love Affair | Everlasting Love | (CBS) 1967

Idea: A young, attractive group of good musicians.
Answer: The Love Affair.

Maurice Bacon had been drumming for most of his fifteen years, and was reckoned to be quite good — so, about six months ago, his father decided that it was time for Maurice to start playing professionally with a group. But not just any old group.

So they put an advertisement in a certain musical paper — which shall remain nameless — and started auditioning. It was decided that the group should be young, good-looking, and at the same time good musicians.

Stephen Ellis, Michael Jackson, Lynton Guest, and Rex Brayley joined Maurice — and they became the Love Affair. And five months later they brought out their record “Everlasting Love” . . . and it was an immediate hit.

Robert Knight version

“As soon as we recorded the number” said Mick, “we knew it just had to be a hit. It’s such a great song — well the original, by Robert Knight was a hit over in America. And, I’m not boasting or anything, but I do think our version is better. We tried to improve on the other version, and to put our own stamp on it.”

“There’s no point” added Lynton “in just doing a carbon copy of the original. You can’t even say that our disc is a cover version of the American hit —Robert Knight’s record had been out for fourteen weeks or so when we decided to record it. And we tried to learn from his record, improve on his mistakes, and at the same time add something of our own.”

The Love Affair | Everlasting Love | (CBS) 1967

“It’s very important” put in Stephen “for a group to be identifiable on a record — and I think we achieved it on “Everlasting Love”. We also write songs ourselves — and this is another thing that is more important now than it ever was.”

“Although the various members of the group were chosen because they’re young” said Mick, “this was really a secondary thing. Musical ability obviously had to be the priority — the image had to come second. But the great thing is that we are young, and at the same time musically up to the standard of a lot of groups who are a lot older.

We’ll still be young

In five years time, we’ll still be young — but we should be of a much higher standard, musically, than most other groups. Maurice, for ex-ample, is only fifteen, but already he’s a much better than average drummer — in five years time he’ll still only be twenty. And this applies to all of us. We’ll still be young and we should be much better than the groups around us.”

“But we couldn’t have used anyone much older than ourselves in the group.” said Lynton “For example, there was one person who auditioned who was really a great musician, but he was about twenty-six, If he’d joined the group, everyone would have thought he was our father or something!”

This remark brought instant and loud groans from a gentleman called Biffo (who shall remain nameless) as he suddenly realised that on this reckoning, he was old enough to be their grandfather.

“The other great thing about this group” added Mick, “is that we weren’t just a bunch of friends who decided to get together and form a group. I come from Bradford, Lynton comes from Leicester, and the other three come from different parts of London.

Therefore we were all chosen for our particular abilities and not just be-cause we were all friends. We are now, of course, but the group was formed first, and then we got to know one an-other afterwards.

“But even though we did think, after we’d recorded it, that our first record would be a hit, we’re still knocked out by it actually being up in the charts. Although we thought it would get there, and we know it is now, it’s difficult to believe it.

Established group

“And — I hope this doesn’t sound corny — but we’d sincerely like to thank everyone who helped us get the disc up into the charts. There are a lot of people who had confidence in us, and helped us, and we really are very grateful.

“But although we’ve got our first hit, I think we’ll need to have at least four hits before we can feel that we’re established. A group’s second hit is normally very similar to the first, and sells very much on the strength of the first one.

I think if a group can do something a bit different the third time and still have a hit, it can be fairly confident. And then if the fourth record is a hit, then you can feel you’re an established group — and, of course, by then the public will have had time to get to know you.

And after that I don’t think it matters too much whether every record made is a hit or not. Like the Hollies for example — they’re an established group, even though they don’t have a smash hit with every record.

“But that’s all in the future — I hope — and we’ve only just got our first hit.” Still, it’s a good start . . . innit, Biffo. (Derek Boltwood: Record Mirror, 20/01/68)

Have the Love Affair become big time?

“DO PEOPLE think we’ve become big-time now?” asked Mick. “I hope not—I’d hate anyone to get that impression,”

Who’s getting big-time?

I don’t know—but it’s definitely not the Love Affair.

“We like messing about and sending people up. Especially ourselves—we’re always having mock fights and things. But people have taken it the wrong way—and now we keep hearing that we’ve developed this big-time attitude.

For example, a short while ago one of the pop papers built up this controversy thing between us and the Herd—and there was really nothing to it. We’ve always been friendly with them—we’re from the same area—and Pete Frampton‘s a good mate of mine. We were chatting the other day, and he was saying how nice it is to be able to talk to people of his own age in the business.

Dangerous, Harmful Stories

“But stories like that are very dangerous—they’re harmful to everyone concerned—especially if they’re not quite true.

“Now we’re a bit more careful about what we say. Sometimes when a thing’s written down it sounds nothing like it was intended to. I suppose it’s a matter of keeping your eyes open all the time—but it’s difficult to think about every word you utter when you’re tired. All the weeks of hard work are beginning to catch up with us now, and we’re almost dead on our feet.

“And this thing about us always bickering, and being a bit unfriendly—it’s never serious. It’s all just good fun—we enjoy sending one another up, and we enjoy taking the mick out of other people. But in a good-humoured way.

“Still, if people want to take it all seriously it’s no good arguing with them—it would only make things worse. It’s best to just ignore it really.

Looning around

“Anyway, it’s made us realise what’s involved in being a chart-topping group, and now we keep our eyes open wide all the time. You know, we’ve always liked to loon about—everybody does—but now if we start looning, everyone says that we’ve become a big-time group.”

“I suppose it’s easy to get the wrong impression sometimes though,” added Mo. “For example, the other day we were playing around in a cafe—I was having a mock fight with Steve, and I threw a glass of milk at him. But he ducked, and the milk went all over some poor innocent bystander —someone who just happened to be standing in the way.

It was very funny, and we all fell about laughing—I can quite imagine that this guy got the wrong impression. We were extremely apologetic of course—but you can’t help laughing when something like that happens, can you?”

No, you can’t help laughing.

In fact, when I had lunch with them, it was “Just like a chimps’ tea party”—to quote one of the chimps. Food was everywhere, and everywhere was food, and all the innocent bystanders evacuated the area a bit smartish. But it was all good fun, and . . .

I couldn’t help laughing. But there’s a serious side to the Love Affair that’s often hidden by their clowning, and by the mass of their screaming fans.

Chosen Careers

“Having a hit record does mean that we’re now committed to the business,” said Mick. “We’ve chosen our careers —and it’s up to us to do as best we can. Like most groups we want to make it as big as the Beatles—and I think we’re capable of it. We’ve got confidence in ourselves, and our music is improving all the time. But we really can’t start thinking that far ahead until we’ve got a few more hit records behind us.”

And what about Mo Bacon—he’s started his chosen career, with a number one record, at the early age of sixteen.

“I don’t think I’ll ever regret having left school early to go into pop,” said Mo. “In fact I was glad to leave school, and my parents didn’t object—when I told them what I wanted to do, and they saw that I’d made up my mind, they encouraged me and gave me all the help they could.”

Had never sung before

All the boys managed to overcome their parents’ objections without much difficulty—but I should imagine Steve Ellis‘s parents were more than a little surprised when he announced his intention to become a professional singer.

Steve had never sung in his life before he joined the Love Affair!

“I’d just left school,” said Steve “and started my first job. But after a couple of weeks I lost interest in it—it was very boring. And then I saw the advert for a singer, and a friend of mine said ‘why don’t you apply?’ So I did. I was lucky enough to be accepted!”

And suddenly they became the Love Affair.
Suddenly they have a number one record . . . which can’t be bad. (17/02/68)

David Griffiths talks to the Love Affair: the ethical question of sneaking in the session men and crediting the group

HERE we go again. The POP trade is once more taking a little time off from its relentless pursuit of fast money to talk about Morality, Ethics and weighty matters of that nature. The commercial press is joining in with that special relish it reserves for good old, juicy-type scandals.

The Love Affair triggered it off this time when it emerged that only the singer actually performed on the recording of “Everlasting Love”. This has led to a number of similar “revelations” concerning other artistes’ discs. So (you may well be wondering) what?

A record gets bought if it has the kind of sounds on it that appeal to the buyers. That’s about all there is to it—at least as far as the record goes, since you can’t see faces on a record! For in-person performances its a different thing and we’ll get to that in a moment.

First, though, a brief speculation about why there should be such preoccupation about so apparently trivial practice as the use of the best available musicians to take part anonymously in pop groups’ discs.

A cynic might say that the cause is the desire of the press to have something “controversial” to write about because it makes for more lively reading than the usual gushy personality pieces. While there’s undoubtedly some truth in such a view it is far from the whole story.

Recording methods

There probably is a genuine public interest in pop trade recording methods. Could it be that there is an uneasy feeling inside some pop fans that they’re being conned? If so, it’s not surprising—and they really have only themselves to blame.

For they must know—some of them anyway—that they are sheep. What’s good to them is what is in the charts, what is heavily publicised and plugged. If they’d only do a bit of listening WITH THEIR OWN EARS, buying what suits their taste regardless of how well it’s selling to others, they wouldn’t need to be so concerned about sharp practices, real or imaginary.

It’s chart mania itself that needs attacking. In the case of The Love Affair the boys themselves told me that they felt the chief credit for the success of “Everlasting Love” should go to Keith Mansfield, who wrote their arrangement. If they’d had more time to learn their parts, they said, they could have done the record justice. If anyone thinks they can’t play “Everlasting Love” — then just turn up at any live show and lend them an ear.

Gained from publicity

“We were worried at first that bad publicity could damage us,” said singer Steve Ellis, “but as things have turned out we seem to have gained from all the publicity. And the boys will certainly be playing on our next record.”

It goes without saying that the Musicians’ Union had to get into the act, muttering about rectifying an unsatisfactory situation. Sure, MU, go ahead. If you decide to enforce a ruling that all pop group members must play everything on their records then a lot of session men will be out of work. Then, those few sessioneers who don’t like the present system (and claim they don’t reap adequate rewards for their labours) would have to form groups of their own.

Which would teach them how chancey a business making pop hits is. Daresay they’d soon wish for the good old days of guaranteed session fees.

MU policy

And while we’re on the subject of MU policy I’d be very interested to know if their policy of banning TV miming to discs has resulted in more, or less, rewards for musicians. All I know for sure is that a whole lot of TV disc-mime shows, especially on provincial ITV, have disappeared because the companies decided they couldn’t afford to hire live musicians. Some triumph!

Oh, and another thing: it is accepted trade practice among British session musicians that if one player can’t get to an engagement (perhaps because a better-paying job has come up) he can send along another musician to “deputise” for him. A strange idea, when you consider that an employer doesn’t necessarily get the man he has hired, and is expected not to complain.

As for the current “controversy”, these are, in MY opinion, the only things that matter:

1. Do you consider the record to be enjoyable enough to be worth buying, regardless of who did or did not play on it?

2. If you go to hear the group (whose disc you have bought) at a concert will it be able to come up with a good enough show to earn the money you’ve paid to get in? If the group fails to please it clearly won’t be in the big time for long, so justice will soon be served one way or another.

But you can’t expect to hear in person the sound YOU get on record. Most pop discs these days use added instruments or juggle around with the recording tapes. The Beach Boys can’t reproduce their electronic effects on a stage but they do offer “an honest sound” and the result is always good entertainment.

The Beatles

The Beatles (who use numerous other musicians on their records) do not at present give concerts but as soon as they’ve worked out scores—as opposed to their recording-studio technique of lengthy trial and error — we can expect some sell-out performances.

3. Has there been any attempt at deception? When groups lie over a straight question of fact then they deserve all the condemnation they get. Oddly, though. there’s often a positive desire to believe the worst.

Remember all the rumours about Dave Clark not playing on “Glad All Over”. Now, Dave has never pretended to be a technically polished drummer but before he ever made a disc he’d played for a long time in dance halls.

About “Glad All Over” he merely commented that the drumming was so ordinary that if he really had hired someone else to do it, the drumming would have sounded a whole lot better!

Conclusive enough. However, here’s a curious point. It was on Jonathan King’s “Good Evening” TV show that The Love Affair made their “confession”. And Jonathan at the time admitted that when he recorded Hedgehoppers Anonymous and had a hit with “It’s Good News Week” he used some session men. Yet Jonathan once assured Peter Jones that Hedgehoppers Anonymous made all their own sounds on that disc. Hmmm. (RM, 03/03/68)

RAVE magazine interview Steve Ellis