The local area has been home to many notable musicians, who I have written about in the past; including but not limited to Kate Bush, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. There is another group, who by all reasonable standards ought to be mentioned alongside this list, the biggest group you probably have not heard of. The band were revered by David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, and they were the first people to hear Sergeant Pepper when the Beatles recorded next door to them at Abbey Road. Guest stars for their final gig included Van Morrison, David Gilmour and Bill Nighy. The band were called The Pretty Things; in many ways The Pretty Things were an offshoot of the original lineup of The Rolling Stones, as members of both bands met at Sidcup Art College. Members of The Pretty Things came from Dartford, Sidcup, Erith and Slade Green; whilst they were initially described as a free form rhythm and blues band, they were later described as the very first Punk band. The Pretty Things were the also-rans of the British Invasion, a band that never got its due. Despite this lack of recognition, they were never quite ignored, cultivating a passionate following that stuck with them through the decades. Before Led Zeppelin, The Who or even the Rolling Stones arrived on the scene, local band the Pretty Things were the acknowledged perpetrators of mayhem, outrage and general carnage. Musically and visually they were well ahead of their time. In the early 60s their hairy visages constantly graced the pages of the tabloids alongside sordid tales of debauchery that would make Mick and Keith blush. In a recently published interview, which was actually recorded back in 2008, the late Pretty Things front man Phil May recounted stories of the band and the people that they met. Brian Jones (The Rolling Stones) - "He lived with us at the notorious house in Chester Street. It was weird, because Brian and Viv [Pretty Things drummer Vivian Prince] had this love/hate relationship. I liked Brian a lot, but he was his own worst enemy, very paranoid. And of course he had the ignominity of being dropped off at the enemy’s house every night after gigs. I didn’t know it, but at the time the big thing in school playgrounds was that you either had to be into the Rolling Stones or the Pretty Things, you couldn’t like both. And their original manager, Andrew Oldham, played on the rivalry, as he couldn’t handle the fact that we got the publicity for being uglier, noisier and more unruly. So Brian was literally sleeping with the enemy. We went out a lot, and we’d be walking through the markets in the early hours of the morning and the old fellers on the fruit and veg stalls would shout out: “Alright, Brian! Alright Mick!” And Brian would run over to them and say: “No, no that’s not Mick, that’s Phil. He’s from another group.” He wouldn’t even say our band’s name. Led Zeppelin - "I first met Jimmy Page around Denmark Street; he was doing sessions. He first played with us when Bobby Graham was producing the second album and he bought Jimmy down to some of the sessions. He co-wrote the opening track on the album called You Don’t Believe Me. We kept in touch over the years, and that’s why when Zeppelin formed the Swansong label Jimmy and Robert approached me. They were very conscious that they didn’t want it become a big stars vehicle and just use the Zeppelin name. They were very insistent that they controlled the artist roster. I actually had earlier dealings with Peter Grant. He was like a father figure. Extraordinary. He was incredibly caring and careful about his acts. I remember when we went to play for [promoter] Bill Graham in San Francisco. I’m sure that Bill doesn’t normally come to bands’ soundchecks at three in the afternoon, but there he was and he immediately ran over and said: “Is everything okay? Food okay? Do you have towels and showers etcetera?” I said: “Bill, what’s the matter? This isn’t how we are normally treated.” And he said: “I had your manager [Grant] on the phone, and he said that if everything wasn’t okay I’m in big trouble.” Bill desperately wanted Zeppelin to play this show at Candlewick Park, and he flew Peter out there and put this little English tea table on the middle of the stage, served tea and cream cakes and even had a maid in a little outfit. Peter sat down, had his tea and cake, looked up at Graham and said: “That’s very nice, but you’re not getting Zeppelin,” and then got up and flew home. John Bonham loved the Pretty Things, and any time we recorded a track he insisted on getting a copy. We had the album when we were staying at the Hyatt House and Bonzo was in the penthouse suite. And the Hyatt had a balcony that went all the way around the penthouse, with big, 20-foot sliding doors. When you pushed the doors they’d hit this rubber buffer and come back, and after about three or four minutes they’d close again. So we’re listening to the album on the balcony and suddenly the doors closed; it was like someone had turned the record off. Bonham was furious. He just turned round and put his foot through the massive plate glass doors. They shattered and splintered everywhere". Jimi Hendrix - "I met Jimi quite a few times. I got quite friendly with him as we kind of shared a girlfriend – the beautiful black Beverley – who had this absolutely fantastic apartment, which I think was provided by an Arab prince. I saw Jimi there quite a bit. My story with Jimi is that we were playing together in Paris at a university. Jimi had never been to France, and the whole Hendrix experience was very new. I sort of wound him up about how much the French would fall on their knees in reverential disbelief when they saw him. We went on first and there were about 6,000 people there. Poor old Jimi went on, and after about two numbers he cleared the place [laughs]. I don’t think he ever trusted me again. Of course, a couple of months later he went down a storm. But that’s the French: they need to be told when something is hip. I saw him about two weeks before he died, and that was at the usual sort of venue – in a kitchen at a party. Jimi was strange, because he was one of those people that until he plugged in he almost seemed half asleep. He didn’t say a lot, he communicated with body language. I wasn’t shocked when he died, because the last time I saw him he seemed quite low, and I always remember backstage after a show, the better the gig was, the more down he was; it left him nowhere to go". Iggy Pop - "During our Led Zeppelin years, the Pretty Things played at an infamous LA venue called the Roxy. Iggy came along. He wasn’t that well known, then but The Stooges were massive fans of The Pretties and we used to hang out together. So Iggy came along, and we thought that he was going to sing. But he didn’t, he just ran from one side of the stage to the other and head-butted the wall! So in the end I’m covered in blood, because he’d come up and danced around me. He’d completely split his forehead open and covered the band in blood and wasn’t even aware of it. With our history of having had two drummers who caused complete mayhem this wasn’t unusual, but it was still strange because I was expecting him to sing along. Instead we got carnage". The White Stripes - "Their tour manager was a big Pretty Things fan, and Jack [White] asked him to invite us to meet them when they played at Alexandra Palace. Jack is a lovely, talented man. And he was really interested that we had recorded our latest album on original analog equipment. It was quite an insight to watch Jack at work from the side of the stage. I hadn’t seen him live and I kind of expected there would be a couple of other musos on stage to fill in. It was quite extraordinary to see him do it all on his own with Meg. There isn’t any comparison musically, but there’s a kind of Bolanesque quality about him. Bolan used to have that kind of rapport with audiences, although I don’t think that Bolan had the depth or feel for music that Jack has. Jack is a man of the times. Anything he puts his hand to has that certain distinct stamp of quality". The Pretty Things were so raucous and rebellious that they made the Rolling Stones seem sedate by comparison. Their hair was longer, their behaviour more outrageous, and their R and B rocked without a hint of restraint. But they were not to share the Stones' success, and after two classic albums they turned their backs on the Blues, to become pioneers of British Psychedelia and record the first “Rock Opera.” Dartford lad Dick Taylor took his first steps towards becoming a Pretty Thing when he and schoolmate Mick (then Mike) Jagger teamed up with Sidcup Art College student Keith Richards to explore their mutual love of R and B. Along with fellow enthusiasts Bob Beckwith and Alan Etherington, they formed a band that they named Little Boy Blue & the Blue Boys , possibly after the DC comic characters created by Batman writer Bill Finger, or perhaps in reference to Sonny Boy Williamson II, Rice Miller, who in his early days toured the Delta under the name ‘Little Boy Blue.' While the Blue Boys were rehearsing in Dick's front room, Brian Jones, then calling himself “Elmo Lewis” and playing slide guitar in the style of Elmore James, had paired up with mouth-organist Paul Pond, who later adopted Brian's surname to become Paul Jones, and sing for the group Manfred Mann. When Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated started their new London residency in March 1962 they attracted Blues devotees from far and wide, so it was no surprise that there should be Blue Boys in the audience when “Elmo and Paul” were bashing out their Blues at the Ealing Club. When Brian decided to put a band together, though Paul couldn't be persuaded to join, Keith Mick and Dick all passed the audition. Despite these changes in style, they rarely racked up hits on either side of the Atlantic. In the United States, they didn't chart until 1975, a full decade after they released their rough-and-tumble debut. Back then, the Pretty Things seemed like rivals to the Rolling Stones and that was no great leap: guitarist Dick Taylor played bass in the first incarnation of the Stones, not long before he teamed up with Phil May to form the Pretty Things in 1963. Taking their name from a Bo Diddley song, the Pretty Things were intentionally ugly: Their sound was brutish, their hair longer than any of their contemporaries, their look unkempt. This nastiness was evident on their first pair of singles, "Rosalyn" and "Don't Bring Me Down," two 45s that charted in 1964 whose success helped to get their eponymous debut into the U.K. Top Ten a year later, but that turned out to be the extent of their commercial success. For reasons best known to the band's management, The Pretty Things never toured the U.S.A. Their Don't Bring Me Down was banned there, but a garage band managed to have a regional hit with the song in Florida. And though manager Bryan Morrison confidently told Record Mirror 'It now looks fairly certain that they will visit the States early in the New Year,” that never came to pass. Certainly they had more than enough work to keep them busy, though they never failed to cause rifts and ructions wherever they went. At home, their road manager was fined £25 for pulling a shotgun when the lads were menaced by local thugs at a gig in Trowbridge. Phil May was cut and bruised when he was pulled off stage by five girls in High Wycombe, and they were kicked out of their rented flat in Belgravia because of neighbours' complaints. On their first visit to Holland, where they had a large and dedicated following, there were uncontrollable riots during their appearance at the 1965 Blokker Festival, which was being shown on Dutch TV, and the broadcast was terminated when outraged citizens rang the station to complain. Their notoriety continued; When the band embarked on a tour of New Zealand, Drummer Tony Prince's relations with the rest of the group became increasingly strained by his drunken antics, which included carrying a dead crayfish around for days, and breaking into the dressing room with an axe after they'd locked him out. The press took the opportunity to savage them, claiming the band drank whisky at the New Plymouth Opera House, broke chairs, lit fires backstage, abused officials, and ruined heartthrob Eden Kane's stage act. The New Plymouth Daily News defended the band, saying “theirs was R and B at its raving best. Electric excitement, and an original stage style, plus good R and B drumming.” But too much damage had already been done, and when Prince was thrown off their flight home for disorderly behaviour, his days as a Pretty Thing were numbered. Rather than bring stability to the band, he'd proved himself to be the most unstable of them all. As May later put it, "we were sort of novice lunatics, but suddenly they hand us, like, the high priest of lunacy." As a result, the band received a lifetime ban from New Zealand. The Pretty Things may not have shown up on the charts, but their cult proved to be influential: it's been said Pete Townshend was influenced by The Pretty Things pioneering rock opera "S.F. Sorrow" to write Tommy for the Who, and David Bowie covered both "Rosalyn" and "Don't Bring Me Down" for his 1973 album Pin Ups. Critics liked them too, but that affirmation didn't sell records. Nevertheless, the Pretty Things were survivors, soldiering on through the '70s, turning into a harder, heavier outfit that was rewarded with marginal U.S. success -- 1974's Silk Torpedo and 1976's Savage Eye made the lower reaches of Billboard -- cutting a credible new wave album at the dawn of the '80s. The Pretty Things would split not long afterwards but their cult remained so strong that they became a semi-active concern at the beginning of the new millennium, as they would occasional reunite for tours and recordings. Founder member Phil May, who for many years lived in a Victorian cottage in Crescent Road, Erith, died suddenly in May of 2020 - five years ago this week. Comments and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.
The London Borough of Bexley has the second highest number of children being home schooled in London. There are multiple reasons for this, including but not limited to problems with a child's mental health, disability, behavioural issues, special educational needs, cultural and religious issues and problems that the child may have experienced with bullying in the past. The reason why so many children in the borough are home schooled is currently unclear, although it may be at least partly due to parents being unsatisfied with the level of service being given by schools in the area. Alternatively, it may be because they feel that they are able to provide a better level of education for their offspring compared with the school system. Overall, the schools in Bexley Borough are regarded as being satisfactory or better according to Ofsted. It may be that the perception that parents have is at variance with the reality. On top of this, it is known that some parents are unsatisfied with the current exam based qualification system, which they feel does not adequately reflect the talents and abilities of their children who may be less academic and more inclined towards other activities such as the arts or sport.
The end video this week is an account of a man who has been travelling the entire length of the River Thames by hand rowed kayak. The video has been broken up into individual episodes, and this is the final one of his epic journey, where he visits Erith on his way down river, and spends some time at The Running Horses pub on the river side. Apologies in advance, as he calls the town "Errith" rather than "Earith", but it is well worth a watch. Comments and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.
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