”I Should Have Known Better” / ”Didn’ I?” (Parlophone R 5165) July 1964
The Naturals | I Should Have Known Better | (Parlophone) 1964 | were short-lived but managed to release a handful of singles on Parlophone. Their version of The Beatles ”I Should Have Known Better” has a commercial beat sound and was a Chart hit, reaching #24.
”There were a few chords that I didn’t know were on it” – George Harrison on jukebox jury.
THE Naturals have made quite a dent on the charts with their second release, “I Should Have Known Better.” They were locked up in the recording studios for many sessions during September busily working on that all important No. 3 single and first LP. Reports have filtered back to me that a Mitch Murray number is very likely to be the “A” side of their next one.
The boys have been spending most of their first royalties on new equipment. Rhythm guitarist, Dougie Ellis, has forked out 117gns. for a Fender Telecaster. Bass guitarist, Mike Wakelin, has gone for a new Gibson E.B.2. costing 165gns. Lead guitarist, blond Curt Cresswell, beats the others with a 205gns. Gibson Stereo. And drummer, Roy Hoather, tops the lot with a spanking new silver-grey Slingerland drum kit which set him back a cool £300!
As Mike told me, “There’s no point in having all that new gear unless you have decent amplifiers, so we’ve also bought two new Vox jobs with slight modifications.”
The lucky ones in the “money stakes” are definitely vocalists, Ricky Potter, and Bob O’Neale—who have only bought a new tin of throat pastilles each—although Bob does have to pass across a few shillings every so often to get a new harmonica.
Their first LP?
“It’s going to be a bit of everything,” said Mike, “Standards, Rhythm and Blues—we’re going for every type of song because we want it to appeal to everyone.”
“What about touring?” I asked him. “Do you like it?”
“It’s great,” he replied, “but different. Most of the places we worked before were smaller —clubs, and that sort of thing, but the bigger the audience, the better—as far as we’re concerned.”
“We get a great kick out of signing autographs. I just hope that the girls and boys realise what we mean when we write things like Yahoooooo’ ! and ‘Watch Your Trousers’ in their books!”
“One thing I would like to do is to thank all the people who have bought ‘I Should Have Known Better.’ There must be several of them who have got both ours and the ‘you know who’s’ seeing as the Beatles‘ LP has sold half a million.
“I just hope they all like us enough to buy the next one as well.” (Beat Instrumental)
The Trousers-Down Group
LOOK at The Naturals now. They’ve only been professionals for less than six months but so far they’ve been astounded how smoothly their career has gone. Over luncheon with bass guitarist Mike Wakelin and singer Bob O’Neale I learnt that they are still in the “honeymoon” stage—they are actually enjoying the life of a travelling group.
Said Bob: “We’ve found Northern audiences to be much more responsive, friendly and fun-loving than they are down South. We’re all from Harlow New Town and we feel quite jealous of Northern groups because they’ve known all along how inspiring it can be to play to people who go all out for a good time.
“We’re only just finding out. And it’s made touring much more exciting than we imagined. We never expected it would be all smooth sailing when we turned pro and I daresay we’ve got some hard times to come but so far we haven’t played to a poor audience. And we’ve been very fortunate in finding swinging digs.”
Horror
“Not always,” said Mike. “Sometimes we’ve been unable to fix up a place to stay so we’ve had to spend the night in our van. It’s quite comfortable, a 12-seater Minibus, and only has to take the six of us, plus our road manager who drives, and our equipment. Doug Ellis, our rhythm guitarist, keeps us well supplied with reading matter —strictly horror comics.”
The worst part of The Naturals’ professional life has been finding good material. In the old days they used to do a lot of numbers associated with other groups (such as The Beatles’ ‘I Should Have Known Better‘, which they made their second record release and which, rather to their surprise, got them into the charts) but now they try to find original material that will give The Naturals a distinctive sound.
“We’ve been trying to write our own songs but, unlike the great Lennon and McCartney, we don’t seem to have any natural gifts,” admitted Bob. “We’re still trying but so far we haven’t come up with a really good number. It’s the lyrics that are so hard and, at the moment, there is not much interest in straight instrumentals.
“We usually do only one instrumental a night—which is just as well for me and the other singer, Ricky Potter!—and that has to be novelty. We do Hava Nagila with the guitarists playing the instruments behind their heads and in the middle of it I pull Mike’s trousers down. It always gets a good laugh.”
Apart from their novelty-number clowning, though, The Naturals rely on good songs (such as a number of Jackie de Shannon‘s originals they are featuring) well sung, with no gimmicks. They wear smart clothes and have haircuts.
“Just six lads who packed in their jobs to have a go at the beat group business,” said Mike. “We don’t plan to change. We want to stay ourselves. To be natural.” (Record Mirror, 02/01/65)
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