“Bye Bye Baby” / “Watch Your Step” (Pye 7N. 15685) September 1964
Tony Jackson with the Vibrations | Bye Bye Baby | (Pye) 1964 | This is Tony Jackson and the Vibration (rolling the name round his tongue). Sorry Tony – I don’t like it. I don’t like the production – lacks imagination. he sings it all right but it sounds like lots of records. Not a very good choice for a first release. Tony’s had a lot of publicity and I think this will be a hit – but not a very big one. (Melody Maker, 03/10/64)
Tony Takes Over From The Searchers!
EX-SEARCHER Tony Jackson and his new group – to be called Tony Jackson and The Vibrations—last week cut their first single and by a fantastic coincidence they had The Searchers to thank for it!
Pye’s studio at Marble Arch had been booked by The Searchers, but when Mike Pender went down with a tooth abscess the boys had to cancel recording plans for future single, EP and LP releases and so Pye asked Tony if he was ready to cut his disc.
Together with organist Martin Raymond (18), guitarist Ian Buisel (20), and 17-year-old Paul Francis on drums, Tony—who had not long chosen the boys after days of arduous auditions — slipped along and recorded four backing tracks, one of which is their debut disc.
Pleased
It’s a shouty Mary Wells number called “Bye, Bye, Baby,” with another American number, “Watch Your Step,” on the flip. It’s released next week.
“Despite the short notice and the fact that we hadn’t had all that long to rehearse together, I’m very pleased with the numbers,” he told me. “We plan to add the vocals next – maybe with a girl group.”
Tony is still trying to get over the fact that he has a brand new nose. “It’s wonderful. A tremendous success,” he told me over lunch recently. “I still can’t believe it. I keep looking in mirrors and seeing a different person. You’ve no idea how much that nose bothered me. I had such a complex about it.”
The Jackson nose certainly looked different. The plastic surgeon (one of the best in the country, by the way) had done a fine job. (Disc, 05/09/64)
Tony’s New Approach Pays Off
CONFESSED Tony Jackson, when told of his chart success with “Bye Bye Baby”: “Phew! That’s a load off my mind. I was hoping and praying it would get into the NME Top 30. I didn’t set my sights too high—just to get in the chart would be enough.”
So it’s welcome to the charts for Tony under his own name and with his own group, the Vibrations. Although, of course, with the Searchers Tony was no stranger to the charts.
The weeks between leaving the Searchers and getting his new record out, have been anxious ones. “That’s natural,” he told me. “It was a big step I took leaving the Searchers—but it was a step I had to take for many reasons.
“One of them was my own particular liking for the more robust type of beat music, rhythm ‘n’ bluesy sounds. That’s why I chose ‘Bye Bye Baby’ for our first record: it was written by Mary Wells and I like her kind of singing.”
But if the past few weeks have been anxious ones for Tony, he had a lot of things to cheer him up. He says: “I was surprised and delighted at the amount of fan mail I received. It gave me a tremendous uplift at a time I needed it.” So that’s Tony Jackson—a new nose, a new group, a new approach . . . and a new hit! (NME, 02/10/64)
Tony Feels Frustrated With Ballads
TONY JACKSON, ex-searcher, eyed himself in the mirror – did a quick double-take . . . and took a real long look at the reflection. Then he grinned and said: “Hey, don’t think I’m vain or big-headed. It’s just that I can’t get used to what I see nowadays when I get in front of the mirror.
“All new. This nose – specially re-shaped. Man, I really hated my old one. Thought everyone was staring at it. It sort of FELT huge. Now this new one cost a lot of money, but it’s a much better little job, isn’t it! And the hairstyle. I feel much better now it has been changed around . . .
“It’s a NEW me! I feel different. Now I’ve got my own group, the Vibrations, I’ve got responsibilities. Apart from looking different, feeling different, I’m also the guv’nor, the employer. I pay the boys each week, whether we’re doing well or not—and I’ve promised them I’ll see that any success we get is reflected in their pay-packets.
ENJOYING
“But even if there are a lot of worries, I’m enjoying myself. Forget all those Searcher disputes . . . apart from them, I felt I was getting away from the sort of music I wanted to play. We were getting sweeter. I wanted to get wilder. On my own first record, ‘Bye Bye Baby,’ for instance. I was astonished at the power of it all when I beard the play-backs. I know I was singing with full lung-power, but it still knocked me out.
“Finding the right members for the new group was a revelation, too. We ran the auditions through several days, heard hundreds of musicians. But I knew exactly what I wanted. Good playing ability, sure — but they also had to have the right sort of personality to fit the type of group I wanted.
“I think the boys are excellent. There’s Paul Francis on drums and he’s only 17. Lead guitarist is Ian Buisel (20). I was determined to get an organist and I reckon Martin Raymond is the best I’ve heard — and he’s only 18.
“You get the right musicians . . . then the only trouble was getting the right song. Hope we’ve made the right choice over the Mary Wells’s item ‘Bye Bye Baby.’
“Sure the responsibility weighs heavily. I’ve spent a lot of my hard-earned loot already — don’t know even if there’s anything left in the bank. We’ve had new suits made, new equipment. Then there’s all the business of photographs and publicity, not to mention my NOSE!”
Tony talks fast, staccato-style. A mate of his told me: “Tony’s had a tremendous amount of fan mail wishing him luck out on his own. A lot refer back to the days of the Searchers, but I don’t think Tony wants to get involved in all that sort of thing now. He has a brand new career ahead of him and he’s done everything he can to get away from the past.”
Tony grinned at himself again in the mirror. Said: “I didn’t particularly want to use my own name in front of the group. An all-in group name would have done, but I was persuaded that it was best to get what publicity I could out of my own name.
“Now I think some sort of reaction is setting in. I’m not looking for a number one hit with this record, but I’d love to see it in the Top Twenty. That would give me a greater personal kick than anything else I’ve ever done.”
IMPORTANT
Tony J. and Tony (Hatch), his recording manager, are determined to keep the group away from the normal beat sounds. That’s why they used the Breakaways on the disc session. And they’ve lined up important television dates to boost the sales.
Said Tony: “I think there is room for a much wilder sort of sound on disc. I’d be frustrated if I had to stick on those softer kinds of ballads. It’s a matter of inner feeling. I guess.”
Tony’s hand strayed up to that re-shaped nose once again. He caressed the £200 re-building job and said: ‘It’s FEELING so different that makes me happy. I’ve had my share of excitement in the pop business, but nothing comes up to the challenge of this business of going solo.”
A hasty gulp at his pint of bitter, another bewildered look at his reflection in the mirror and Tony Jackson broad-shouldered his way off for yet another photographic session. I, for one, wish him the best of luck in his n e w career. Care to join me? (Record Mirror, 26/09/64)
I’m finished with groups: says Tony Jackson
TONY JACKSON thought he’d taken the greatest possible care in choosing his own group after he left The Searchers. (He was wrong: there was something he forgot but well get to that in a moment.)
“I think they’re a better group musically.” he said. “I held a lot of auditions and many of the guys who turned up were excellent players who’d been with established groups. Of course, I couldn’t hire everybody and I narrowed down the choice by looking for faces that fitted together, men I could get on with as individuals and whose temperaments were suited to touring together. “Two of them, organist Martin Raymond and guitarist Ian Buisel, were used to each other’s styles because they’d worked in other groups.”
The Vibrations are determined to be as musically versatile as possible because of Tony’s belief that it would ‘be harmful to be known as just another beat group. “That’s why we’re using my name prominently instead of calling all of us The Vibrations.
ENTHUSIASM
If people say the beat boom is going—and it’s certainly true that attendances for all groups are often low in England, though not Scotland where we had a fantastically enthusiastic reception — we don’t want to go with it. We don’t want to be connected with trends, we want to be considered on our own merits as artistes. And it’s my belief that any style can make the charts if the record is good. Look at Pet Clark, The Bachelors, Val Doonican and Joe Loss.”
Tony’s first disc with The Vibrations, Bye Bye Baby made it as far, as the lower end of the charts —better than he expected. He’s hoping this disc will change the run of bad luck they’ve had on tour.
“Everything has gone wrong. I bought a second-hand van for £350. It kept falling to pieces making us late for engagements. So now I’ve had to lay out £750 for a new one.
“In Manchester our drummer Paul Francis and Martin Raymond had their suits stolen. We got to our next job in Sheffield before we realised the clothes were missing. They cost £45 each and took three fittings so it was some days before we were able to appear in our uniforms on stage.
“We’ve had a lot of trouble with our amplifiers. In fact, while we were onstage at Coventry the P.A. system caught fire! One way or another I reckon we’ve had enough catastrophe to last five years.
And it was the van that made Tony realise his mistake: “I should have made sure that one of The Vibrations was a trained mechanic!” (Record Mirror, October 1964)
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