Reading this feature about the gorgeous but short-lived 1960s magazine London Life I came across this marvelous bit of pop trivia about a promotional idea cooked up by managing editor David Puttnam (yes, that David Puttnam):
One of his more extravagant (though certainly forward-thinking) ideas was to ask Burt Bacharach to write a song for the magazine. “He was very big at the time and it struck me that if he could write a song with London Life as the title it could help us,” says Puttnam. The idea was that the song would garner huge, free publicity for the magazine through radio play. So Puttnam headed up to the Edinburgh Festival, where Bacharach was performing, to suggest the idea. Luckily, he took Jean Shrimpton with him. “Bacharach was much more interested in meeting her than me,” says Puttnam, and he agreed to the plan. Lulu was to have recorded it: she was unavailable, so Anita Harris did it instead.
It’s extra marvelous to me because I work in the magazine business and this is like my dream of what the job should be like. Sadly, my chances of jetting off to meet a pop star with a supermodel on my arm are slim to none. While I’m sure they gave him a large pile of money to do it, I’m still amazed that Bacharach agreed to write a promo song for a magazine, but I guess the presence of Jean Shrimpton will persuade a man to do anything. Hell, I’d write a song for a church newsletter if she asked me to.
I think the story is a bit better than the actual record though. The song is fine but Anita Harris isn’t exactly Dusty, let alone Lulu.
Lots to enjoy in this TOTP clip. Not just the lovely face and voice of Polly Brown but some really unfortunate hair choices (you’ll know who I mean) and dancing dollies shaking their thing. The drummer looks a bit bored though.
This isn’t really part of the “brief” here either but this new single makes me so damn happy I could skip, and Lord knows I’ve needed things to make me smile lately. Poppy and The Jezebels aren’t some manufactured pretty pop puppets but a proper band who sound like an indie Bananarama produced by Joe Meek. It’s enough to restore your faith in pop music.
If you’re thinking “Christ, I must be getting old because they look young enough to still be at school” — you’re not because they are. All four of them go to a Comprehensive in Birmingham but they’ve already released several singles and a mini-album. Kids today, eh?
As a bonus here’s a rather lovely acoustic version of the same song.
I was at a concert with the wife last week and she asked me if I was going to write about it on my blog to which I replied “no, because it’s not part of the brief” which I guess is a bit silly as it’s my blog and I can write about whatever I damn well please. Besides, I’m not really in the mood for maudlin nostalgia at the moment.
The gig in question was a performance by A Camp, a wonderful group with a stupid name fronted by The Cardigans’ lead singer Nina Persson. If you’ve never heard of them you’re not alone because apparently no one has outside of Nina’s native Sweden either which explains why there were only about 50 people at the concert — they could easily have done the gig in my living room. Which is a shame as it was a bloody marvelous show and A Camp have recorded two fabulous albums full of lush, grown-up pop music that should be much better known. I hope that those who like that sort of thing will find they like this sort of thing a lot.
The sentimental musings of an ageing expat in words, music, and pictures. Mp3 files are up for a limited time so drink them while they're hot.
Contact me: lee at londonlee dot com
