ZOOT
Adelaide - Melbourne 1965-71
The final lineup
of Zoot (probably early 1970)
yearning to escape from the dreaded pink duds,
(l-r) Beeb Birtles, Rick Brewer, Daryl Cotton, Rick Springfield
|
First
lineup, Adelaide 1965-68
(Note: the band was originally called Down The Line in 1965-66 and was
renamed Zoot in 1967)
Beeb Birtles (vocals, bass)
Daryl Cotton (lead vocals, guitar)
John D'Arcy (guitar, vocals)
Ted Higgins (drums)
Second lineup, 1968
Beeb Birtles (vocals, bass)
Daryl Cotton (lead vocals, guitar)
Ted Higgins (drums)
Rick Brewer (drums) 1968
Steve Stone (guitar) 1968
Third lineup, 1969-71
Beeb Birtles (vocals, bass)
Daryl Cotton (lead vocals, guitar)
Rick Springfield (guitar, vocals)
Rick Brewer (drums) 1968-71
|
History
Zoot became one the most popular Australian
bands of the second 'pop wave' of the late 'Sixties when they and other
acts like The Valentines, the Masters Apprentices, Russell Morris and
The New Dream were scoring hits and causing riots. Like so many groups
at the time, Zoot were drawn along by the rapid stylistic shifts of
that uncertain period and they suffered under some ill-advised
management decisions that led to them being tagged as a lightweight
'bubblegum' act — an undeserved reputation which overshadowed
their fine musicianship and their genuine desire to be taken seriously.
Ironically, they're probably best remembered these days for the 1970 single that
they hoped would scuttle their pop image for good — their
classic heavy-metal version of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" —
and also for the fact that Zoot was first successful outing for two future stars -- solo
performer and soapie heart-throb Rick Springfield,
and Little River Band lynch pin Beeb Birtles.
Zoot was one of several significant Aussie bands that emerged
from the fertile musical hothouse of Adelaide in the mid-1960s -- the
same scene that produced The Masters Apprentices and The Twilights.
Zoot started out as one among scores of hopeful young beat groups who
that formed in and around the migrant settlement suburbs around the
South Australian capital of Adelaide. New satellite suburbs such as
Elizabeth and Port Noarlunga were established in the 1950s to receive
the huge influx of "New Australians", and many of the young British
kids who settled there with their families had actually seen the
leading British beat groups in person before leaving for Australia.
In this respect the scene was similar to Sydney, where the
Villawood Migrant Hostel and its surrounding areas spawned The Easybeats. Australia's
greatest beat group. The Twilights,
another band comprised of migrant lads, were the first Adelaide group
to break nationally in late 1965, and they were quickly followed by The Masters Apprentices, who
had honed their chops playing for the young migrant audiences at the
same clubs and local dances before shooting to national prominence in
1966.
The founder members of Zoot were English-born John
D'Arcy and Netherlands-born Gerard Bertelkamp,
who became mates at Plympton High School. They used to get together
after school to rehearse songs and harmonies by their idols -- acts
like The Hollies and The Who. John, a recent arrival from Manchester,
worshipped hometown heroes The Hollies, and his love of their
distinctive close harmony style soon rubbed off on Gerard, who had a
strong musical background himself, with both parents having both sung
in amateur operetta productions in the Netherlands.
Together with drummer Ted Higgins and an unnamed bass player,
John and Gerard formed their first band, named Times Unlimited
in 1966. They only played one gig at a scout hall before the bass
player decided to leave. John told Gerard (who was universally known by
his high school nickname, "B.B.") that he would have to learn to play
bass guitar and sing at the same time. Fortunately, B.B. was up to the
task, so they hand-made B.B.'s bass guitar and began to practise. Next,
they recruited singer Darryl Cotton from another local band, The
Murmen, and changed the name to Down The Line,
taken from the Hollies song of the same name.
Gerard's nickname also took on its final form, thanks to Daryl
Cotton, as Beeb explained to the ABC's David Kilby in 1999:
Beeb: "When I was
going to Plympton high school, there was a cartoon series on TV called The Dick Tracy Show, and they had all different characters in it,
like Mumbles and a little Chinese character. But there was also a
character called Bee-Bee-Eyes! And, I don't know why this happened, but
the kids at school started calling me Bee-Bee-Eyes, which got
abbreviated to Bee-Bee, and for most of my years in high school I was
known as Bee-Bee. And then it was Daryl Cotton who abbreviated that to
Beeb, and so it kinda stuck, and became my professional name. Because
my last name is actually Bertelkamp, which is very Dutch-sounding, so I
abbreviated that to Birtles and anglicised the spelling of it, and
that's how I got my name."
Down The Line played regularly around Adelaide during 1966,
and they became friendly with local heroes The Twilights, often
catching their sets on Friday nights at the Caledonian Hall in King
William Street (not far from the pub where The Masters Apprentices
rehearsed). Religiously each Sunday morning, the group would tape the
ABC radio replay of British TV's "Top Of The Pops" and work out their
own stage versions of hits by the mod icons of the day, The Move, The
Small Faces The Who and their beloved Hollies, songs that would usually
not be released until weeks or months later in Australia. Like The
Twilights, Down The Line's ability to perform note-perfect renditions
of current overseas hits gave them a strong appeal with local Mods.
Daryl: "We were the
mod band in Adelaide, we played the mod dance at Scot's Church every
Friday night."
By 1967 Down The Line had become a hot live attraction, and
like many other bands they supplemented their gigs by backing visiting
solo singers. It was a common practice at that time for established
local groups to provide backing for solo artists, and solo singers like
Ronnie Burns and Russell Morris often had a roster of bands in each
major city that they could call on for backing when they toured.One
such singer, with whom they worked on several occasions, was a young
English-born vocalist, Johnny
Farnham who had just split from Melbourne band The Mavericks.
The connections between Farnham and Zoot are yet to be fully
clarified, but here's what we've pieced together so far: Zoot's first
recordings apparently came about through them backing Farnham when he
played in South Australia. He was ' discovered' by
accountant-turned-pop manager Darryl Sambell, who
at that time was the manager (and boyfriend) of Adelaide singer Bev Harrell. It's usually
reported that Farnham was singing with Strings Unlimited when he was
spotted by Sambell at a gig in Murray Bridge, South Australia, and he
was signed to EMI in September 1967 but this might be a case of
mistaken identity.
The source of the confusion seems to lie with Zoot's original
name, Times Unlimited. Glenn A. Baker's liner notes for the EMI
compilation Zoot Locker claim that the band changed
its name from "Down The Line" to "Strings Unlimited", but this is
incorrect. According to the Who's Who of Australian Rock,
Strings Unlimited was an entirely different band, based in the
Mornington Peninsula area of Victoria, who competed in the Victorian
state final of the inaugural Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds, and Who's
Who states that Farnham was a member of this band for about
six months. Curiously though, Who's Who also lists
Beeb Birtles as a member of Strings Unlimited, but this seems to be a
(rare) mistake.
What is known for sure is that sometime in mi-1967, Down The
Line backed Farnham on several 'demo' tracks recorded at Adelaide's
Gamba Studios. One of these tracks, "Half Heaven, Half Heartache", has
never been commercially released, although it did eventually surface on
Volume 3 of bootleg CD-R compilation series Obscured (But
Unscarred). Another of the Gamba demo tracks, "In My Room",
was evidently considered good enough to be released as the B-side of
Farnham's breakthrough hit "Sadie, The Cleaning Lady". It would appear
that these demos were made as part of Sambell's successful bid to get
Johnny signed to EMI.
Just after the recordings with Farnham, Down The Line changed
its name:
Beeb: "Doc Neeson
(later the lead singer of The Angels) was living in Adelaide at that
time, and he was in partnership with another guy, and I think they
were
seeking to do a management thing or something. And they really liked
the group when it was called Down The Line but they didn't like the
name. And it was actually Doc Neeson who suggested: 'Y'know, you should
change the name to something short and punchy like Zoot'. I think he
was meaning a name that really doesn't mean anything, you know. And we
didn't hear any more from those guys as far as management was
concerned, but we liked the name, and that's how we came to change our
name to Zoot ... To this day I've never spoken to Doc Neeson about
this, or whether he even remembers saying this to us. It was just one
of those things in history that happened, and then we locked into the
name, and that's what we were known as."
Zoot continued to perform around their hometown for another
year. By that time their The Twilights and The Masters Apprentices were
established as two of the top groups in the country, and it was clear
that Zoot would have to leave Adelaide if they wanted to further their
careers. In mid '68, EMI producer David
McKay was on the road with The Twilights, and when the tour
hit Adelaide he was finally introduced to Zoot (who were one of the
local support acts) by Twilights vocalist Paddy McCartney. Mackay might
have already aware of them via the Farnham demos, but he was suitably
impressed, and immediately offered them a recording deal:
Beeb: "Within a
couple of years Zoot became a very popular Adelaide band, playing all
the different places where you play in a particular town; and in late
'68 we decided that we couldn't go any further in Adelaide. We had to
either move or do something and that's when we decided to move to
Melbourne ... At the time we were leaving Adelaide to go to Melbourne,
we did some shows with The Twilights and they had another singer, other
than Glenn Shorrock -- a guy called Paddy (MacCartney) was the other
singer in the group. And he really loved us and brought us to the
attention of EMI Records."
Daryl: "We only had
homemade guitars and amps and hardly any money to go to Melbourne to
make our first single. So The Twilights loaned us their incredible
Marshall amps and paid our train fares across"
Checking in to Melbourne's hit factory, Armstrong's Studios,
they recorded the tracks for their first single -- a dynamic psych-pop
cover of Jackie Lomax's "You'd Better Get Going Now ", backed by a
fairly awful novelty tune called "Three Jolly Little Dwarfs", an album
track by UK psych band Tomorrow. The power-packed A-side showed off
their formidable musical chops, and especially the high, bright
harmonies that have become a trademark of Beeb's work. Zoot returned to
Adelaide to await its release. This was to be the only commercial
recording by the original Zoot lineup and John D'Arcy then left the
band, to be replaced by Steve Stone. In a notable coincidence, John
later joined Alison Gros
with Graeham Goble, the group that evolved into Mississippi and finally LRB.
In late August Zoot made a second trip to Melbourne at McKay's
behest. "McKay was pleased with the record" says Cotton, "but he
insisted we needed management. The next day a fellow called Wayne de
Gruchy knocked on our door". Wayne was the manager of Berties Disco and,
together with owner, Anthony Knight, he came up with a masterstroke of
promotion: "Think Pink - Think Zoot". Zoot's debut single was launched
at a now-legendary media party at Berties on September 3. Knight decked
out the disco in pink, adding accessories like pink champagne and pink
carnations. The launch didn't do a great deal for the single in
Melbourne --- although it reached #12 in Adelaide -- but the night was
a huge success from a promotional stance -- although in the long run it
took on a life of its own and became a millstone around the boys' necks.
Beeb: "... there was a
guy in Melbourne who was a manager, called Wayne De Gruchy, and Wayne
came over to see the group and saw a lot of potential in us becoming a
very popular young band in Australia. And when they brought us over to
Melbourne, he and another guy that owned the Bertie's disco in
Melbourne, decided that they needed a gimmick of some sort, to really
get the band going. And the image that was decided on was "Think pink -
think Zoot"! It was this outrageous thing where the band dressed up in
all-pink clothes, which of course, y'know, all the young girls loved us
in these ridiculous outfits and all their boyfriends hated our guts,
y'know? (laughs) And that's really how the whole thing came about. I
always felt very, very uncomfortable dressing that way, 'cos it wasn't
me. But, at the same time, it worked, and you can't knock the success
that the band had over that two-year period between '69 and '71 when we
travelled all over Australia and became a very popular teenybopper
group ..."
A second single was quickly recorded, but this time both sides
were produced and written by Twilights
guitarist Terry Britten, who was then branching out into a
wider role as a freelance producer
and songwriter. Zoot's second single, "1 x 2 x 3 x 4", (backed by
another excellent Britten original, "Sailing", was released in December '68 and
it became a moderate Melbourne hit (#32). However but combined with the
"Think Pink" campaign, it cemented Zoot's image as an lightweight
bubblegum pop outfit.
Daryl: "We'd never
really decided to go in that direction" offers Cotton, "but we played
the style of the Top 40 and when it changed, we changed. By 1969 the
charts were full of American bubblegum".
Shortly after the second single was recorded Higgins and Stone
left the band and returned to Adelaide, but Beeb and Daryl were
determined to continue, so they recruited Roger Hicks, a talented young
classically-trained guitarist from the posh inner-Melbourne suburb of
Toorak, and Rick Brewer , an experienced ex-Adelaide drummer, living in
Melbourne, who was an old schoolmate of Beeb and Daryl's, and who had
already recorded for EMI as a member of The Third Party.
Soon after the new members joined, Zoot had a narrow escape
when, on 12 November, their van was hit by a car running a red light
through a Melbourne intersection. The band's psychedelically painted
vehicle was written off and Roger Hicks was hospitalised but
fortunately his injuries were minor and Zoot were quickly back in
action.
And they thought the pink outfits
were bad?? Zoot Mark III, probably early 1969. (L-R) Cotton,
Hicks, Birtles, Brewer
Less than a week after their car accident, on 17 November,
Zoot got a major publicity boost thanks to a giant outdoor concert at
the Melbourne Velodrome, jointly staged by 3XY and the TV pop show Uptight
and televised on Channel 0. Zoot were bottom-billed to a swag of
leading acts -- The Twilights, The Masters Apprentices, Johnny Young,
Iguana, Compulsion, The Wild Cherries and The Chelsea Set -- but Zoot
reportedly stole the show, which was no mean feat given the live clout
of groups like the Twilights and the Masters. This was partly due to a
dedicated corps of female fans, assembled for the event by fan club
president Jan Gilbert. The unexpected audience frenzy they whipped up
greatly impressed the Uptight production team, and they soon
became regular guests on the show.
Of course there was a downside to all this teen adulation.
Like The Easybeats before them, it was considered unwise for such
eligible bachelors to be seen with female companions (even The Beatles'
relationships and marriages were kept secret until late in their
career) so Wayne de Gruchy barred Zoot from appearing in public in the
company of a female. According to Glenn A. Baker, Darryl's girlfriend
was forced to climb over his back fence whenever she wanted to visit
him, so that she wouldn't be spotted by the diehard fans routinely
camped out in front of his house.
Early in 1969, Roger Hicks took time out to join members of
The Groop at the sessions for the first solo single by former
Somebody's Image lead singer Russell
Morris. The single, was of course "The Real Thing" and
Roger's acoustic guitar part (with a little bit of added 'flanging' for
the full psychedelic effect) became the instantly recognisable "hook"
of the song.
It was during this period that the group parted ways with de Gruchy
and signed with Johnny Farnham's management team, Darryl Sambell
and Jeff Joseph -- much to the chagrin of rivals
and stablemates The Masters Apprentices, who soon came to feel (with
some justification) that Sambell was neglecting them in favour of
Farnham and Zoot. Rivalry between the two bands was exacerbated by the
fate of the Masters' first 1969 single, which bombed, while Zoot's
"1x2x3x4" fared considerably better. Rightly or wrongly, the Masters
blamed Sambell and Zoot for this. Matters were not helped by a
confrontation later in the year at the 1969 Battle of the Sounds, when
Zoot refused to let the Masters use some of their equipment.
The band gained more good exposure in Melbourne with their
appearance on 12 April at another major concert at the Princess Gate
Tower, alongside Doug Parkinson In Focus and The Valentines, in front
of a crowd of 15,000 people.
Zoot's third single came out in June '69. The jaunty, Ian
Meldrum-produced "Monty & Me" was an engaging ditty
co-written by former 18th
Century Quartet member Hans Poulsen and ex-Seeker Bruce
Woodley. The psyched-up production, with touches of
flanging, shows clear similarities with Meldrum's concurrent
studio magnum opus "The Real Thing" (which was about to be released), on
which Roger Hicks had played the opening guitar part.
"Monty and Me" fared rather better than its
predecessor, and though it only made #33 in Melbourne, it surprisingly
shot to #1 in Brisbane. It was a purpose-made "think
pink" tie-in -- the 'Monty' of the title was Daryl's hapless Afghan
hound, which had been roped as part of 'Think Pink' campaign, and had -- along
with their car and clothing -- been dyed bright pink. It was backed by a
leftover Terry Britten production "Little Roland Lost" (co-written by Beeb and Daryl,
and the first of many writing credits for Beeb) with lead guitar also
courtesy of Britten and featuring an interesting tremolo effect on the
vocal fadeout.
In July they took to the road on their first major tour,
slogging through the backblocks of Queensland alongside Ronnie Burns, Jon Blanchfield and
The Sect, generating teen frenzy all along the way. In August they lost
the playoff final of Hoadley's National Battle of The Sounds to Nova
Express. Two months later, in September, they joined Russell
Morris, Johnny Farnham, Johnny Young, Ronnie Burns, The Valentines, The
Masters Apprentices and Doug Parkinson In Focus on the famous Operation
Starlift, a huge (but financially disastrous) national
capital city tour by the top echelon of the Australian pop world.
Around this time, EMI assigned their new house producer, New
Zealand-born Howard
Gable, to look after Zoot. It
was a fruitful relationship, although it began with some conflict. In
October, EMI released Zoot's fourth single -- the Brian Cadd/Don Mudie
song "It's About Time" (backed by Rick Springfield's "Sha La La") --
but Zoot apparently knew nothing about it until they saw it mentioned
in the Go-Set "New Releases" column. EMI had
pressed and released it without consulting the band, and it caused a
major stink. Zoot thought that the songs had only been recorded as a
demos to assist in picking the tracks for their next single, and they
fully expected to re-record whatever would have been finally chosen for
commercial release. Zoot's strenuous public objections to EMI's
cavalier behaviour virtually ensured the single's chart failure.
Just before the Operation Starlift tour, Roger Hicks decided
he had had a gutful of the "pretty pink pansies" ridicule and defected
to The (Brisbane) Avengers. Ironically, The Avengers settled on Hicks
after missing out on their first choice, Rick Springfield.
Born in Merrylands, in Sydney's west, and based in Brisbane at
the time, Rick had toured Australian military bases in Vietnam with a
reformation of MPD
Ltd and was playing in Pete Watson's Wickedy
Wak
when a Johnny Young-composed, Ian Meldrum-produced single "Billie's
Bikey Boys" brought him to wider attention. At the time that Roger
Hicks left Zoot, both The Avengers and The
Valentines were vying for Rick's services and they were soon
joined by Zoot, who had first met him during their Queensland tour.
Evidently they hit it off at once, since Beeb actually sang harmonies
on the Wickedy Wak single.
Rick considered all the offers and decided that his best
chance lay with Zoot. If they had been good teen-idol fodder before,
the arrival of Springfield took it to new heights. From the band's
perspective Rick was an ideal choice, being a singer, guitarist and
songwriter of considerable talent and potential, and it certainly
didn't hurt that he was also extremely good looking.
In spite of some setbacks, they had a remarkably successful
year, which they rounded off with a December tour of Tasmania with
Russell
Morris, and they made up for the Hoadley's loss by being voted 'Top
Australian Group' in the 1969 Go-Set Pop Poll, beating their rivals The
Masters Apprentices into second place.
Zoot's desire to rid themselves of the 'Think Pink' gimmickry
(which dogged them to the end) was given added impetus by Springfield's
arrival. Although he initially donned the pink outfits, his distaste
for the teenybopper image was obvious and in early the new year the
group ceremonially burned all the hated pink gear on camera during a TV
appearance on Uptight's successor, Happening
70. Their own contempt for the image was being reinforced by
outside pressures -- as well as sniping from the media and their peers,
they were being subjected to some heavy abuse and harassment from
audiences, which culminated in a well-publicised incident in December
'69 when the group was attacked in Brisbane by a gang of louts, leaving
Darryl with a mild concussion.
As Rick began adding his considerable creative input, Zoot set
to work on their first and only album - Just Zoot,
recorded early in 1970 and released mid-year. It was a highly
creditable effort. Besides the preceding single A-sides, there were
several strong originals from Rick Springfield -- "Mr Songwriter", the
acidy, Who-influenced "Flying", (which suggested that Rick, for one,
had been experimenting with substances not normally available over the
counter!) and two more superb Britten compositions, including a
magnificent rendition of Britten's "I Feel Glad", a gorgeous,
Hollies-style ballad that ranks as one if the great hidden gems of 60s
Australian psychedelia.
For Zoot fans, their first obvious shift in direction came in
April with the release of the (Zoot-approved) fifth single, "Hey
Pinky". It marked a sea change for them-- the Rick Springfield song was
a blistering piece of riff-driven heavy rock, its lyrics a caustic and
vehement attack on their former image and their manipulation by
management and the media. It was promoted by a cheeky Go-Set
ad sporting a nude rear-view shot of the group (though it has to be
admitted that it probably did little to increase their credibility).
Interestingly, this seems to have been the only Zoot single
from this period that didn't make the charts. A possible explanation is
that the single was released at the height of the 1970 Radio Ban
--
the infamous dispute between commercial radio and the record companies,
during which commercial radio and record companies were boycotting
each other because of a dispute over a new royalty that the record
companies were demanding.
It's probable that the Ban affected the single's airplay,
since Zoot's were signed to EMI, one of the group of labels
that imposed the Ban. Certainly other progressively-oriented bands of
the time on major labels, such as The Dave Miller Set, suffered a
similar fate. Their classic single "Mr Guy Fawkes" was a major success
in late 1969, went Top Ten in Sydney and was named Go-Set
'Single Of The Year', but their follow-up, a cover of Chicago's "Does
Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?", released in early 1970, received virtually no
airplay because of the Ban, and sank without trace. According to
Dave Miller, its total failure led directly to the band
splitting up a couple of months later.
Zoot were admittedly in a difficult situation. The music scene
was changing fast -- the emergence of the pub rock scene in Melbourne,
and the rise of the new wave of serious-minded progressive, blues and
hard-rock bands like Spectrum, Chain and the new Aztecs was making
teen-oriented bubblegum groups like Zoot and The Valentines look
increasingly silly and irrelevant, despite their undoubted popularity
with teenage female audiences.
In this respect, Zoot's fate has strong parallel to that of Sherbet
in the late 70s. Like
Zoot, Sherbet's main audience base was teenage girls, and their
image that of a lightweight pop band -- which belied the quality
of musicianship that drove the band and its music. In the latter stages
of their careers, both groups struggled in vain to overcome the
teenybopper tag, and in spite of the excellence of their later
recordings, they were written off by the press who obviously felt that,
in both cases, the bands had outstayed their welcome.
The event which really marked their intention to change took
place on June 20, when the "new" Zoot played at the nationally
televised Go-Set Pop Poll and literally stopped the
show with a defiant performance that presaged Cold Chisel's infamous
set-smashing routine at the Countdown Awards more than a decade later.
With backs to the audience they slammed into a pounding, heavy-metal
rendition of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" that brought the house down.
In the poll itself they performed rather poorly, coming in fifth behind
The Masters, Axiom, New Dream and The Town Criers -- a disappointing
result after their outright win in 1969. Two months later they also
narrowly lost Hoadley's National Battle of the Sounds to The Flying Circus (who would
soon face battles of their own over their perceived status as a
bubblegum band) in a controversial decision that caused considerable
resentment among die-hard Zoot fans. But these setbacks were, for a
time, overshadowed by the excitement generated by their Pop Poll
performance, although they still had to contend with the aggressive
attitudes of male 'fans' -- on 19 July Beeb Birtles was bashed by three
youths at a dance a Werribee and had to be taken to hospital for
treatment.
RIGHT: Zoot put on a brave face after
losing out to The Flying Circus at the 1970 Hoadley's Battle of the
Sounds (Photo: Laurie Richards Collection,Victorian Museum of
Performing Arts)
Zoot were obviously getting inspiration from the heavy rock
trends in the UK, exemplified by tracks like Black Sabbath's
"Paranoid". Zoot's radical take on the melancholy Beatles classic was
just one of a series of contemporary faves they reworked in similar
fashion for their live set, including The Beatles' "Hello, Goodbye",
Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock" and Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man". According
to Beeb, "Eleanor Rigby" was one of their most popular stage numbers.
After the strong reaction to the Pop Poll performance, Gable insisted on
"Eleanor Rigby" as the next single and it was duly released in December
1970.
Beeb: "Well, y'know,
Zoot were making the transition from being the "Think pink, think Zoot"
thing, which was really starting to get old with us, and the majority
of us hated wearing those pink clothes. So it was around the time when
music was getting heavier. Black Sabbath was starting to release their
records and it was shortly before Led Zeppelin came along -- Deep
Purple and bands like that. So we started taking a lot of the well
known hit songs, you know, top forty songs and giving them a heavier
treatment. And "Eleanor Rigby" wasn't the only song that we treated
like that -- we did some songs by Neil Diamond, we did a version of
"Summer In The City", that was kind of our own version. But it was the
version of "Eleanor Rigby" that Rick Springfield had a lot to do with
... because of the distinctive guitar riff that opens that song. And it
became so popular with our live audiences that we decided to record
that song ... It wasn't that long after The Beatles and the treatment
definitely was very different. In fact, we got some very irate
reactions from people who just absolutely loved The Beatles' version
and hated our version of the song!"
The single got an equally strong but positive response from
radio, who picked it up on the day of release and by the first week of
the new year it was in the national Top 5, eventually peaking at #3
during its 21-week chart run. Unfortunately sales fell just short of
gold single status at the time, although that was rectified in 1979
after a re-release (urged by Birtles and Cotton).
In retrospect, it's a shame that Zoot weren't able to develop
further during this final progressive phase of their career. Some
pop-loving critics have dismissed this move into heavier music as a
mistake, and Glenn A. Baker damned them with faint praise in his liner
notes to Zoot Locker, dismissing them as "a
simple pop-rock band". Such criticism is ironic, considering
that Adelaide rivals The Masters Apprentices have been lionised for
making the same transition from pop idols to serious rock band.
Notwithstanding Baker's somewhat jaundiced view of the music
scene in the early 70's, it's clear that Zoot were both hip to the
changes and very keen to be taken seriously. They
undoubtedly had the chops as a performing and recording unit, and on
the evidence of the Springfield-penned songs from this period, and his
burgeoning talent as a songwriter, it's quite likely that they could
have matured into a very significant band in the early '70s. It's also
worth remembering that Beeb was just beginning to develop as a writer.
It's anyone's guess what might have happened if Zoot had been able to
take up the offers to tour and record in America. but given the
subsequent success there of both Rick Springfield as a solo artist, and
Beeb Birtles as a principal writer in LRB, it's a tantalising thought.
This success of "Eleanor Rigby" confirmed the band's judgement
that they should play heavier, louder and more complicated music, and
they were determined to stick it to their critics by winning over the
"head" audience. According to Glenn A. Baker, Rick Brewer was a prime
mover in this, due to his obsession with British progressive rock, but
there's little doubt that Rick Springfield, who was rapidly developing
both as a writer and a guitarist, had a great deal to do with the
group's new 'heavy' direction.
Daryl: "We really
began to fire as a band then, but it was a bit too late - we just
couldn't escape our image. The pink thing haunted us."
Their excellent follow-up single, the Springfield-penned
concept piece "The Freak" / "Evil Child" should have continued their
success, and it still stands up well against the work of their
contemporaries like Blackfeather and The Masters Apprentices. The
ambitious A-side "The Freak" is an impressive work, but to be fair it
was probably just too left-field to have been successful in the charts
and in retrospect it's likely that they would have done better if radio
had flipped the single and played using the bluesy, brass-driven B-side
"Evil Child", which is similar in sound to the Masters Apprentices
classic "5:10 Man". In the event, the new single fared relatively
poorly after the huge success of "Eleanor Rigby" reaching #27 in
Melbourne only.
Zoot battled on through the watershed year of 1970, but by
early 1971 the frustrations of their loss to Flying Circus in the 1970 Battle Of The
Sounds and the poor showing of "The Freak" led to rumours of
an impending break-up, fuelled by reports that Birtles might be called up
for National Service, and that Springfield was being courted to pursue
a solo career (which was true) and that he had threatened to leave the band unless they
went to the US. The crunch came in May when RCA America -- who were
very excited about "Eleanor Rigby" -- were
thwarted
in their attempts to secure Zoot for a US deal because of work visa
problems. With their chances of heading overseas success thwarted,
Zoot announced their split later that
month.
After Zoot ...
Daryl and Beeb stuck together and formed a soft-rock/harmony
duo called Frieze, which
brought with it some
rather amusing problems, as Beeb recalled:
"Well, it had a fashion connotation only
because we were sponsored by a suit manufacturer called Frieze
Brothers. In fact, the story is actually a lot more embarrassing ...
Because, when we first met with these advertising people -- Frieze
Brothers was one of their clients -- they came to us with the idea that
they wanted us to form another group. And they wanted each of the guys
in the band to be named after a material, meaning like a cloth
material. So Darryl Cotton was fine! But, you know, they wanted me to
change my name to Terry Lene and I was to have a brother called Crimp!
And so, we had just come outta the Zoot thing and we just laughed in
these guys' faces and said 'Listen, you can't be serious -- we've just
come from out of "Think pink, think Zoot" -- we've been there and done
that!' And so we talked them into doing a duo idea, and that's where
the suits came in, you see?"
Frieze issued a cover of the Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil song
"Feelings" (September 1971) as a single on Robie Porter's Sparmac
label, which was a minor hit in Melbourne. The duo originally performed
using backing tapes, but later drafted in former Brisbane four-piece
Burke & Wills as its backing band. Using an all-star lineup
including Brian Cadd, Barry Sullivan, Ray Arnott, and Phil Manning,
Frieze
recorded the album 1972 BC for the recently established Australian divison of the Warner Brothers labels. They released
two singles, "Try Yourself" and the awfully-titled "Why Do Little
Kids Have to Die?". Daryl and Beeb
dissolved the partnership in June 1972 and Daryl left for the USA the
next month.
Thanks to Jean Gair of the AMBO agency, Beeb scored a job answering
phones at the AMBO office for $50 a week. It was there that took a call
from someone who was trying to contact him -- it was Graeham Goble (Alison Gros, Drummond) who invited Beeb to join his new group Mississippi; they had some local success under that name, tried their luck in
England for a while, and then re-organised in 1975, bringing in Beeb's
old Adelaide colleague and ex-Twilight Glenn Shorrock
as lead singer. Renamed The Little River Band, they enjoyed huge
success and acclaim, becoming the first Aussie band to finally achieve
major and consistent commercial success in the USA through the late
'70s and early '80s, with a string of hugely successful albums and
singles to their credit.
Rick Brewer worked in a succession of bands including I'Tambu
and Jim Keays' Southern Cross (1976) before joining
The Ferrets, playing on their national #1 hit "Don't
Fall In Love", in 1977 and the album Dreams Of A Love.
He later joined the Motivators (1980-82)
Rick Springfield launched his solo career, signing to Robie
Porter's Sparmac label, then shifted base to the west cost of America,
where he began forging a new career as a solo artist. After a lengthy
struggle, during which he recorded his solo hit "Speak To The Sky", he
established himself in Los Angeles and eventually broke into TV, where
he enjoyed a highly successful career, including a long-running part in
the TV soapie General Hospital. The TV fame also
helped to rekindle interest in his music and he scored a major
international hit in the 80s with the single "Jessie's Girl" and the
album Working Class Dog. He has been a popular
recording and performing artist ever since, as witnessed by the many
fan site on the WWW. For more on the Rick Springfield story, see our
MILESAGO page on Rick, or see our Links
section below to connect to the many fan sites about him.
Daryl Cotton left Australia in July 1972, and travelled to the
UK where he worked for several months with Mick Flynn (ex-Mixtures). In early 1973 he
received an offer to join a band in the US called Friends
(not to be confused with the Australian band of the same name, led by
Leo De Castro) with American Michael Lloyd and fellow Aussie expatriate
Steve Kipner (ex-Steve
& the Board, Tin Tin).
Friends signed to Warners and issued one self-titled album, plus a
couple of singles including a cover of the Vanda and Young classic
"Good Times", retitled "Gonna Have a Good Time" (b/w "Would You Laugh?"
(1973). The A-side was a cover of (later covered by INXS and Jimmy
Barnes), which was rather curiously credited to
Vanda-Young-Cotton-Lloyd-Kipner on the record label.
Cotton and Lloyd continued as Cotton, Lloyd
& Christian with new member Chris Christian. The
vocal trio recorded a self-titled album for 20th Century which was also
used as the soundtrack to the 1976 US teen film The Pom Pom
Girls directed by Joseph Ruben. Cotton Lloyd &
Christian issued the single Crying in the Rain in
April 1977, after which Daryl toured as guitarist and backing vocalist
for Olivia Newton-John
before returning to Australia in early 1978.
Daryl signed to Ross Wilson and Glenn Wheatley's Oz label
(through EMI) and issued the single "Don't Let It Get to You" / "Can't
Face the Music" (August 1978), which charted in Melbourne, peaking at
#22 during October. In January 1979, Cotton was in Adelaide hosting the
television pop show "Summer Rock" for the Nine Network. He issued two
more singles on Oz, a cover of Hall and Oates' "I Don't Want to Lose
You" / "Let the Music Take You Away" (February 1979) and "Glamour
Girl" / "Childish Games and Foolish Pride" (July) before turning
to acting. Cotton appeared in the Nine Network's soapie The
Young Doctors for a season, before hosting another series of
'Summer Rock'.
In 1980, he signed to EMI and enjoyed his biggest solo
hit when "Same Old Girl" / "What'cha Gonna Do?" (February
1980) reached #6 on the national chart in April. The single came from
his debut solo album Best Seat in the House, which
had been produced by his old bandmate Chris Christian. Daryl then
formed a backing band, dubbed The Charts, which
comprised Joey Amenta (lead guitar; ex-Taste, Redhouse, Russell Morris
Band), Randy Bulpin (guitar; ex-Mondo Rock), Terry Davidson
(keyboards), Simon Gyllies (bass; ex-Mondo Rock) and Andy Buchanan
(drums). The band toured the Australian pub circuit with some success.
Cotton issued three more singles on EMI, "Here Comes Another
Heartache" / "Dance" (June 1980), a cover of
the Bacharach-David standard "My Little Red Book", backed
by a cover of the Small Faces' "Rollin' Over" (May
1981) and "Nice Girls" / "All Nite" / "Break Out
Tonight" (November). Cotton's 1981 touring band, The Divers,
comprised Amenta, Davidson, Spiro Philipas (bass) and Robert Ross
(drums).
In July 1983, Daryl issued a duet single with Heather
Favell on CBS, "Baby You're Changing" / "No One Wants to
Dance", and in 1984 he cut an album of rock'n'roll standards
for the Hammard label called Rockin' Good Fun.
After this, Daryl retired from live performances for almost a decade,
returning to television to host the Ten Network's Saturday morning
children's show The Early Bird Show, with puppet
partner 'Marty the Monster'. Since 1996, Cotton has
toured with his old '60s pals Russell Morris
and Ronnie Burns, who was replaced by Jim Keays after
Ronnie's retirement from music, playing the revival circuit. The
three issued a self-titled album during the year, comprising three solo
recordings by each, plus three new recordings by the trio.
Discography
Like many on EMI's Australian roster, Zoot has been rather poorly
served in terms of reissues. In the late 80s Glenn Baker compiled the Zoot Locker anthology, which was reissued on CD in 1995,
but this omitted a couple of fine tracks from the Just Zoot
LP ("Shake a Feather" and "Who's Afraid of You") and the excellent
"Turn Your Head" (B-side of Eleanor Rigby"). To date there has been no
complete commercial reissue of the Zoot catalogue.
Singles
Aug. 1968
"You'd Better Get Going Now" / "3 Jolly Little Dwarfs" ( Columbia DO-8438)
Jan. 1969
"1x2x3x4" / "Sailing" (Columbia DO-8605)
Jun. 1969
"Monty & Me" / "Little Roland Lost" (Columbia DO-8801)
Oct. 1969
"It's About Time" / "Sha La La" (Columbia DO-8930)
Apr. 1970
"Hey Pinky" / "Strange Things" (Columbia DO-9169
Feb. 1970
"Eleanor Rigby" / "Turn Your Head" (Columbia DO-9317)
Apr. 1971
"Evil Child" / "The Freak" (Columbia DO-9434)
1979
"Eleanor Rigby" / "Turn Your Head" (Columbia DO 11929)
EPs
1969
4 Shades Of Pink (Columbia SEGO 70191)
Albums
Jul. 1970
Just Zoot (Columbia SCXO-7916)
"It's About Time" (Brian Cadd-Don Mudie)
"Feelings"
"Flying" (Springfield)
"Hey Mr Songwriter" (Springfield)
"Monty & Me" (Poulsen-Woodley)
"1 x 2 x 3 x 4" (Britten)
"Sailing" (Britten)
"Sha La La" (Springfield)
"Shake a Feather"
"She's Alright" (Britten)
"Who's Afraid of You"
"Yes I'm Glad" (Britten)
1971
Zoot Out (Columbia SOEX 9842) LP
"Eleanor Rigby" (Lennon-McCartney)
"Evil Child"" (Springfield)
"Flying" (Springfield)
"The Freak" (Springfield)
"Hey Pinky" (Springfield)
"Monty & Me" (Hans Poulsen-Bruce Woodley)
"It's About Time" (Brian Cadd-Don Mudie)
"Mr Songwriter" (Springfield)
"1 x 2 x 3 x 4" (Terry Britten)
"Strange Things" (Springfield)
"Turn Your Head" (Springfield)
"You Better Get Going Now" (Jackie Lomax)
1980
Zoot Locker
(EMI EMY 502) LP; (814832) CD
"You Better Get Going Now" (Jackie Lomax)
"1 x 2 x 3 x 4 "(Terry Britten)
"Monty & Me" (Hans Poulsen-Bruce Woodley)
"It's About Time" (Brian Cadd-Don Mudie)
"Sailing" (Terry Britten)
"Yes I'm Glad" (Terry Britten)
"Little Roland Lost" (Cotton-Birtles)
"She's Alright "(Terry Britten)
"Sha La La" (Springfield)
"Flying" (Springfield)
"Mr Songwriter" (Springfield)
"Strange Things "(Springfield)
"Hey Pinky" (Springfield)
"The Freak" (Springfield)
"Evil Child" (Springfield)
"Eleanor Rigby" (Lennon-McCartney)
References/Links
Glenn A. Baker
liner notes to Zoot Locker (EMI, 1980)
Beeb Birtles
interview with David Kilby, 2CN Canberra,
October 1999
Noel McGrath
Encyclopedia of Australian Rock
(Outback Press, 1978)
Ian McFarlane
Australian Encyclopedia of Rock
& Pop (Allen & Unwin, 1999)
Rate Your Music - Zoot
http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/zoot
Beeb
Birtles official website
Rick Springfield
There are heaps of Rick
sites on the web, including:
www.rickspringfield.com
- the official site
Still
Crazy For Rick - the Rick's Loyal Supporters Fan Club page
Uniting
Rick Springfield Fans
Okielady's
Rick Springfield Site
Ricktopia