Description

The Flicks  ..In March 1978 a young John Butler put together an unlikely pairing of musicians in a North London studio to lay down some tracks in order to fulfil a publishing commitment. Half the people were Londoners he knew from his time livng in the city and the other half were from his home town where he had decided to return to after touring the USA as a replacement singer for the recently disbanded rock band Widowmaker.

The sessions were pretty informal and were undertaken at best as a creative experiment. Nobody could have foreseen that by July the songs would have led to a major record deal with the then massively successful Ariola Records. That summer was spent forging the players into a highly charged rock n roll band an in rehearsal some pretty stunning results suggesting a conquering line up and sound.

By the autumn and without having done even one live show  the band now called The Flicks  were open- ended booked into Startling Studios at Tittenhurst Park Ascot Berkshire a location known to the world as the former home and studio John Lennon and the place where the Imagine record was mostly recorded  and conceived.

What followed were three months of residential recording and a free reign of the house with Beatle stuff all over the place. The album that emerged later in 79 is a peculiar beast and all the more relevant because of just that. Laden with three part harmonies and a three pronged guitar approach via a Strat- Gretsch-Rickenbacker axis it really does anticipate the whole power pop wave which was still years away .Coming out at a time when commerciality and gimmick had even entered the punk bloodstream its no surprise the album sunk without trace and after just one tour of the UK the band inevitably dissolved into the void from whence it at sprang.

 The record however  lives on to demonstrate just what can be achieved combining well written melody with driving rock n roll and employing the secret weapon of extremely well performed edgy harmony. Given that Butler and the bands drummer David “Moth” Smith went on to be founders of Diesel Park West the style of this release can be held as a link between the late seventies and late eighties and a refusal to bow to the prevalent trends in either decade. The Flicks were   John Knapp  gtr- vocal

John Butler gtr- vocal

Tommy Willis gtr

Moth Smith drums –vocal

Lee Hunter-bass

Tracklist