Before things get too serious here at Rock On Vinyl, I thought it might be fun to post a song / album at the end of each month, that could be categorized as being either Weird, Obscure, Crazy or just plain Korny.
Glenn started singing for the Australian band 'The Twilights' in 1964, eventually clocking up eight consecutive national hit singles including "Needle in a Haystack" and "What's Wrong With The Way I Live". After the Twilights, he helped form another Australian band with mate Brian Cadd called 'Axiom', which evetually released three top 10 hits: "Arkansas Grass", "Little Ray of Sunshine" and "My Baby's Gone".
Axiom toured both Australia and England over a 2 year period, but when Axiom decided to go back to Australia for the second time in 1971, Glenn decided to exit the band and said 'goodbye', choosing to remain in England. Like a lot of other people at the time, he was trying to find himself - his marriage had broken up and he was heavily into meditation, macrobiotic food and all that. He was looking for something to do and Carry Spry, who was in London with The Groove (Eureka Stockade), came to his aid. At that time he was hanging out with other Australians, like the Master's Apprentices, and that's when his relationship with Glenn Wheatley began.
Carry managed to get Glenn a deal with the management record company MAM, which was owned by Gordon Mills, the manager of Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdinck and Gilbert O'Sullivan. He negotiated a good contract with MAM which paid a weekly wage rather than a big advance. Signed to MAM's publishing arm (which was to eventually prove rather profitable for them), Glenn recorded a considerable number of demos but released only three singles for MAM. Into the picture had stepped Twilights producer McKay, who was also based in London; and the Decca group Quartet, which comprised former Adelaide comrades Terry Britten (his old mate from The Twilight days), Kevin Peek, Alan Tarney and Trevor Spencer (all ex members of The James Taylor Move)
The first single cut by this collective under Glenn's name, "Let's Get The Band Together", stiffed (perhaps because he didn't have a live band together) but the second, Mann and Weil's lovely "Rock'n'Roll Lullaby", at least picked up reasonable airplay. Glenn described the flipside, "When God Plays His Guitar" as 'a pretty good indication of where his head was at around that time.'
Another Shorrock MAM single, the mock-French "Purple Umbrella", was recorded under the alias of Andre L'Escargot & His Society Syncopaters, with his Decca group Quartet backing band. The A-Side was written by Frisco & Head, while the B-Side "Petunia" was written by Shorrock. This single is not well known (probably due to the alias name used by Glenn's group) and has become very much a rarity for record collectors, along with his earlier solo releases.
Another Shorrock MAM single, the mock-French "Purple Umbrella", was recorded under the alias of Andre L'Escargot & His Society Syncopaters, with his Decca group Quartet backing band. The A-Side was written by Frisco & Head, while the B-Side "Petunia" was written by Shorrock. This single is not well known (probably due to the alias name used by Glenn's group) and has become very much a rarity for record collectors, along with his earlier solo releases.
So for this WOCK post, I am ending the drought on these rarities, and I'm providing all three for your enjoyment. So, it's not rocket science which box this months WOCK post ticks - Obscure, but also just alittle Weird, based on the group alias he chose for his second single. All singles have been ripped to MP3 (320 kps) and artwork has been included where available.
Single 1971
Glenn Shorrock
01 - Let's Get The Band Together
02 - Contemporary Caveman
Andre L'Escargot And The Society Syncopators (feat. Glenn Shorrock)
01 - Purple Umbrella
02 - Petunia
Single 1972
Glenn Shorrock
01 - Rock 'n' Roll Lullaby
02 - When God Plays His Guitar
Rare Glenn Shorrock Singles (43Mb)
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