Pretty Savage

A genre-spanning 2CD mix of hit singles, slow burners and lost gems from soul, funk, psych, garage and rock’n’roll. The 45s that defined 1965 and crystallised author Jon Savage’s memories of the year. 1965 was the year of Dylan, folk-rock and protest, and the year when the post-beat bohemian subculture took over from traditional showbiz as the principal youth culture. Suits and group uniforms were out: denim, suede and long hair in. It was also a vintage Motown year. In the first week of 1965, the Supremes were at #2 US and three other Motown records were in the Billboard Top 40. Two weeks later the Supremes reached #1, the first of six Motown achieved that year – and, in March, EMI UK launched the Tamla Motown label with hits by the Supremes and Martha & the Vandellas. Harder core soul artists such as Wilson Pickett and James Brown also had US pop hits and, thanks to the pirate radio stations and inspired promotion by Decca PR Tony Hall, Pickett narrowly missed the UK Top 10.

Screamin' Live is the first live album of the Danish hard rock/heavy metal band Pretty Maids. The album was recorded live in June 1995 in Tivoli, Copenhagen.

After raging through R&B early in their career, then exploring the limits of psychedelia, the Pretty Things changed their direction with Freeway Madness, which in retrospect seems like the first part of a musical trilogy (along with Silk Torpedo and Savage Eye). With a huge change in personnel and the team of Phil May and Pete Tolson doing most of the writing, the sound featured John Povey's keyboards, while the lush harmonies that had buoyed Parachute became a mainstay of the sound, which turned decidedly more American radio-friendly. They could rock as hard as ever, but the softer side was decidedly mushier (as on "Love Is Good"), with harmonies so tight you could bounce a quarter off them ("Peter"). Decidedly less original than the work they'd done on Parachute, it still had its moments, such as the delicious "Havana Bound" or the rock boisterousness of "Rip off Train," and while their alliance with Warner Bros. only lasted for this album, it pointed the way to their mid-'70s future.