Monday, August 4, 2008

Flames - Soulfire!! (1968)

The Flames were from Johannesburg and led by the brothers Steve, Brother and Ricky Fataar. "Soulfire" (Rave (S)RMG (5)1234 / 1968) was their fourth album and it can be best described as soul-pop with hints of psychedelic. "Lost" and "If You Think You're Groovy" are one of the better tracks here. They did also a fair version of "You keep Me Hanging On" and "Solitude" is a masterpiece of eastern influenced psychedelic music. The rest of this album is pretty lame. "Useless Illusions" for instance is the biggest "Nights In White Satins" rip-off ever. The whole thing is not really my bag but it was a request and so I post it here (I've got this rip from Soulseek once, the bitrate is 128 kBit/s and there's sadly no artwork). You can find more informations about The Flames on their website.

Tracklist:
- Lost
- If You Think You're Groovy
- For Your Precious Love
- I Was Made To Love Her
- Useless Illusions
- Try A Little Tenderness
- Restless
- A Place In The Sun
- Wishes
- Solitude
- You Keep Me Hanging On

Personnel:
Steve Fataar (gtr) [ABCD]
Brother Fataar (bs) [ABCD]
George Faber (drms) [A]
Eugene Champion (gtr) [A]
Ricky Fataar (drms) [BCD]
Edries Fredericks (gtr) [B]
Baby Duval (gtr) [C]
Blondie Chaplin (gtr) [D]


Band origin:
Durban (South Africa)

Discographie:
Albums:
1. (B) Ummm! Ummm! Oh Yeah!!! (Rave RMG 1213) 1965
2. (B) That's Enough (Rave RMG 1228) 1967
3. (D) Burning Soul! (Rave (S)RMG (5)1232) 1967
4. (D) Soulfire!! (Rave (S)RMG (5)1234) 1968
5. (D) Ball Of Flames (Rave BP 1025) 1970
6. (D) The Flame (Trutone STO 737) 1970

[6. as The Flame]

45's:
 1. Dixie/Mr. Moto (Rave 45 R 219) 1963
 2. Maniac/Modern Casanova (Rave 45 R 220) 1963
 3. Is It You/Nobody Tells Me [What To Do]
    (Rave 45 R 239) 1964
 4. One Of These Days/Don't Play That Song
    (Rave R 276) 1965
 5. Like A Baby/Glory Of Love (Rave R 285) 1966
 6. He'll Only Hurt You/You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
    (Rave R 286) 1966
 7. If You Need Me/You Better Move On (Rave R 292) 1967
 8. Respect/Down In The Valley (Rave R 295) 1967
 9. Lost/Restless (Rave R 301) 1968
10. For Your Precious Love/A Place In The Sun
    (Rave R 307) 1968
11. Don't Make Your Children Pay/Purple Haze
    (Rave R 309) 1968
12. Can't Help Myself/Purple Raindrops (Rave R 310) 1968
13. Streamliner/Follow The Sun
    (Fan Records Fan 101/1) 1968
14. Tell It Like It Is/Don't Fight It
    (Trutone Tos 539) 1969
15. See The Light/Get Your Mind Made Up
    (Trutone Tos 757) 1970

[2. as Steve & The Flames]
[6. as Zane Adams & The Flames]
[13. flip side by The Several]
[15. as The Flame]

Get it here

Listen to Solitude

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank youuuuuuuuuuu. Nice record in this great blog, of course.

Marcos.

Anonymous said...

Great Album of Band desconocida para mi. Best "Restless", "Useless Illusions" y Very Good la versión "You Keep Me Hanging On" a la altura de Vanilla Fudge. Fantastic blog...To Feeling no English.

Anonymous said...

great post
Thanks a lot
KNP from GR

Anonymous said...

Thanks, very rare. cannot wait to hear it...:)

Adrian said...

All the references I have seen say the group was from Durban (see http://www.the-flames.com/). I have an original Soulfire!! album and their sound was and still is superb - their version of "For your precious love" is the best I've ever heard.

Anonymous said...

If you even knew what you were talking about maybe someone should take notice, but you don't.

The Flames came from Durban, not Johannesburg.
Edries Fredericks, a member of the band, was not a brother of the Fataars. The other Edries was always called "brother".

Soul Fire was the third album, not the fourth.

And The Flames published 'Useless Illusions' long before the Moody Blues came out with 'Knights in White Satin'. They ripped the song from The Flames.