Wednesday, August 6, 2008

La-De-Da's - How Is The Air Up There? (1966-67)

This Auckland band's debut album was one of the best Garage/R&B/Mod efforts that came out of New Zealand. On their follow up "Find Us A Way" they veered towards to a more but less interesting Mod/Soul style. They continued to release further albums till the '70s. This CD (Ascension ANCD018 / 2000) contains the cool first album (with their fantastic version of "How Is The Air Up There?"), some tracks from the aforementioned second release and all their 45's from 1966-67, most notably the great garage punker "Don't You Stand In My Way". There's also an other compilation around. You can find it on the Pessimist Club blogspot.

Tracklist:
- On Top Of The World
- How Is The Air Up There?
- Little Red Book
- Jump Back
- Bright Lights, Big City
- I Put A Spell On You
- What Ya Gonna Do About It
- Land Of A Thousand Dances
- I Take What I Want
- Shake
- Parchman Farm
- The Pied Piper
- I've Got My Mojo Working
- Ride Your Pony

[Bonus Tracks]
- Find Us A Way
- All Purpose Low
- Too Many Fish In The Sea
- Rosalie
- Tell The Truth
- Gimme Some Lovin'
- Cool Jerk
- Thank You For The Flowers
- Don't You Stand In My Way
- Hey Girl
- Hey Baby
- Coming Home
- I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore
- Stupidity
- Respect

Personnel:
Kevin Borich (lead gtr, vcls, piano) [ABCDEFGH]
Phil Key (rhythm gtr, vcls) [ABCDEFG]
Trevor Wilson (bs) [ABCDF]
Brett Neilson (drms, vcls) [AB]
Bruce Howard (organ) [BCDEF]
Brian Harris (drms) [C]
Keith Barber (drms) [DEFGH]
Reno Tehei (bs, rhythm gtr) [EF]
Peter Roberts (bs) [G]
Ronnie Peel (bs) [H]


Band origin:
Auckland (New Zealand)

Discographie:
Albums:
1. (B) La De Da's (Philips PL 08791) 1966
2. (B) Find us a way (Philips PL 08792) 1967
3. (D) The Happy Prince (HMV SCXO 7899) 1969
4. (H) Rock And Roll Sandwich (EMI EMC 2504) 1973
5. (H) Legend (EMI EMA 309) 1974

45's:
 1. (A) Little Girl/Ever Since That Night
    (Talent City TCS 2002) 1965
 2. (B) How Is The Air Up There?/Pied Piper
    (Philips PF 338077) 1966
 3. (B) Don't You Stand In My Way/I Take What I Want
    (Philips PF 338078) 1966
 4. (B) On Top Of The World/Hey Girl
    (Philips PF 338090) 1966
 5. (B) Hey Baby/Other Love (Philips PF 338092) 1967
 6. (B) All Purpose Low/My Girl (Philips PF 338094) 1967
 7. (B) Rosalie/Find Us A Way (Philips PF 338095) 1967
 8. (D) Come Fly With Me/Swallow Little Swallow
    (Columbia DNZ 10637) 1969
 9. (D) Come Together/Here Is Love
    (Parlophone NZP 3343) 1969
10. (G) Sweet Girl/I Can't Find A Reason
    (Columbia DO-9375) 1971
11. (G) Gonna See My Baby Tonight/Fare Thee Well
    (Columbia DNZ 10761) 1971
12. (G) Morning, Good Morning/You And Me
    (Columbia DNZ 10782) 1972
13. (H) I'll Never Stop Loving You/It' The Beginning
    (Columbia DNZ 10829) 1973
14. (H) Too Pooped To Pop/Honky Tonkin'
    (Columbia DNZ 10862) 1974
15. (H) Too Pooped To Pop/She Tells Me What To Do
    (EMI EMI 10464) 1974
16. (H) The Place/No Law (Against Having Fun)
    (EMI EMI 10467) 1974
17. (H) Honky Tonkin'/Temple Shuffle (EMI EMI 10579) 1974

[10., 15.-17. australian release]

E.P.'s:
1. (B) Stupidity (Philips PE 420601) 1967

Get it here (Artwork included)

Listen to On Top Of The World

5 comments:

Robert Charbonnier said...

Great group. Thank you very much.

And for the pessimistic link too, always nice to find new blogs.

Tarkus said...

The track N°7 is corrupted!

Thank you very much.

60sbeatfan said...

Welcome back. And thanks for returning. I can imagine the time one must put into maintaining a blog - you earned the time off. The wait was well worth it. I've gotten some terrific downloads from your blog. Thanks again.
60sbeatfan

Anonymous said...

Found my way to your blog an very glad I did. As a Kiwi I was amazed to find some great bands from my youth who played all the top Wellington spots. A great trip down memory lane and thanks for the opportunity to relive a great period of my life...from Queensland, Australia.

Anonymous said...

Great NZ Albums. Many thanks for the posts.
Collector