Pretty Things

Live archive release from the British rockers. Recorded in 1992. They roar through a collection of classic material including 'Louie Louie', 'I Want Candy' and '96 Tears'. Lending a hand are some of their musical friends including members of the Inmates and Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum.

If there's a band that deserves a good compilation, it's the Pretty Things. Thankfully, Snapper has the rights to the band's entire catalog, and has done an excellent job of remastering individual albums. This best-of is derived from that remastered material and does the Pretty Things proud with an extensive and exhaustive trawl through the group's archives…

In the late 1960s the Pretty Things recorded for the Music DeWolfe company, which provided soundtrack music for television programs. Such music would be "copyright cleared" and could be used repeatedly without having to pay residuals every time it was played for a program…

Before the Pretty Things began dabbling with psychedelia in the late '60s, they were primarily a R&B-influenced rock band. The double-disc, 34-track The Rhythm & Blues Years collection compiles the work from that early era in the band's history…

It is a hefty box in every sense: 13 CDs, supplemented with two DVDs, accompanied by a gorgeous hardcover book and a variety of tchotchkes, including a poster that traces the twisted family trees and time lines of the band and, just as helpfully, replicas of legal documents that explain why the group didn't retain rights to its recordings for years…

The legendary cult heroes' final electric performance, recorded at the O2 Indigo London in December 2018. Celebrating 55 years of the greatest band most people have never heard of, The Final Bow captures The Pretty Things at their rocking and unique best across 3 sets of classic tracks featuring guest appearances from David Gilmour and Van Morrison…

After a few years of outdoing the Rolling Stones at their own game, Messrs. May and Co., clearly affected by their love of swinging London nightlife and all that went with it, injected their primal R&B roots with added spice (as Mike Stax, "numero uno Los Pretty Things fan," points out in his excellent liner notes). "Can't Stand the Pain" (from the 1965 Get The Picture album) has "a remarkably effective mood with a sense of a dreamy disembodiment that foreshadows what was yet to come with the arrival of psychedelia." By April 1966, B-side "LSD," yet another controversial shot in the Pretty Things' canon, helped pioneer the "freakbeat" sound, whilst the media's attacks on the Pretties slack, druggy values were foremost to the changing times - in fact, the record was a play on words about the English economy and not a celebration of the merits of LSD usage…

"The EP Collection… Plus" offers a great overview of the Pretty Things, who played alongside the Rolling Stones in the small clubs of mid-60s London. The Pretty Things offer a brand of hard R&B that was similar to the Stones of that period, but harder and rawer…