Spaghetti junction

[Stan666]

Were they only a Marvin/Rostill vehicle?
Any idea about they line-up?
Did they only a single?
Three questions for a summer.

[Moderne]

In an interview in the early '90s, Hank said that he 'and a bunch of musos' had recorded his ersatz-reggae song, Works Nice - If You Can Get It, about the unemployment problem, "still sadly topical today", under the name Spaghetti Junction in 1972. (No idea who the lead singer on the B-side is (Step Right Up)...Terry Britten, possibly? (It's a Britton (sic) composition). He once claimed (regarding his demo of Don't Talk - which was a minor hit for Hank in 1982) that he was arguably a better singer than Hank...)

[iefje]

Were they only a Marvin/Rostill vehicle?
Any idea about they line-up?
Did they only a single?
Three questions for a summer.

This certainly wasn't a Marvin/Rostill collaboration. From memory, the musicians on "Work's Nice - If You Can Get It" are Terry Britten and Kevin Peek on guitars, Alan Tarney on bass guitar and Trevor Spencer on drums with Terry Britten and possibly Kevin Peek handling the vocals. I don't really know if Hank himself also plays/sings on this record. By the way, I managed to obtain a copy of this very rare single on eBay, a couple of years ago.

[petercreasey]

Here ya go .[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkM9Vfwy_Y/youtube]

take care

[drakula63]

Here's the link again...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkM9Vfwy_Y/youtube


Intersting at 1:41 there is a 'live' photo of Hank playing the early '70s white Strat before he had it resprayed black. I have seen photos of it but never actually being played live. This would seem to be about 1973 I would guess.

As for the song. Great. Love it.

The group. Tarney, Britten, Peek and Spencer were known as 'Quartet', but I suppose this COULD be them as well.

[JimN]

It's definitely Hank singing on this record.

I really don't know how anyone can be unsure of it - it's Hank's voice!

He used the white (actually: blonde) Stratocaster quite a bit around 1972 - 1974. I saw it in use (with the Gibson HB in the bridge position) at a performance by Marvin and Farrar * at Bailey's Nightclub in Liverpool, around autumn 1974. During a brief chat after the show, Hank explained that he had had the pickup installed by well-known West End luthier / repairman Sam Li (who had a workshop in Gerrard Street).

Later, the Gibson pickup was moved to the neck position and a Fender WRHB was fitted in the bridge position along with extra switching. Eventually, there was a respray of the body (to black), the replacement of all the hardware with gold-plated items and a set of non-OEM Schaller tuners to replace the Schaller-made Fender-branded units which came as standard on the guitar.

[* Hank, John Farrar, Pat Carroll (kbds), Mo Foster (bs) and [I think] Trevor Spencer (drs)]

[bor64]

The guitar can be seen on the Cilla Black Show when The Shads play and Cilla sings Dance On and also The Shads without Cilla play Jungle Jam

https://youtu.be/l0hl0MzBS2U DO

https://youtu.be/IyKcCILKi_4 JJ

Cheers Rob

[russ]

I wonder why this and a few other tracks haven't been included on any Rarities Compilations? Could this be one of the songs that members of the Shads made clear they don't want released?
On the RGM release of Jerry Lordan's "All My Own Work" it had the demos for "Diamonds" and "Scarlett O'Hara" on it, great to hear those.
Not sure if they still exist, but I am sure I read that John Rostill's demos were so good they could be released as masters. Would love to hear his demos of "Let Me Be There' or "If You Love Me let Me Know". Would give a fascinating insight to the songwriting creating process of much loved songs, in this era of modern music that lacks so many good memorable melodies and song longevity.

[cockroach]

Here's the link again...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkM9Vfwy_Y/youtube


Intersting at 1:41 there is a 'live' photo of Hank playing the early '70s white Strat before he had it resprayed black. I have seen photos of it but never actually being played live. This would seem to be about 1973 I would guess.

As for the song. Great. Love it.

The group. Tarney, Britten, Peek and Spencer were known as 'Quartet', but I suppose this COULD be them as well.

Those players started their careers in the early '60's here where I live in South Australia...they were all top players and Terry Britten and Alan Tarney were composers too...I saw them play in top local bands (Terry was lead guitar and songwriter for The Twilights, and Kevin, Alan and Trevor played in the James Taylor Move and other bands..they all decamped to the Uk in the late '60's/early '70's and gained fame as session players, composers, members of Cliff's band and the Shadows etc

By the way, the backing vocals on that Spaghetti Junction song would probably have been Terry and Alan mainly...Kevin never sang as far as I know!

[Stan666]

A Side it's available on YouTube, but flipside no. Am I right?