Polaris

[rogera]

Here's an old instrumental by The Boys from 1963.

I don't know what guitar they used but would guess that it was a Fender Bass VI.
With the recent issue of the very reasonably priced Squier Bass VI I thought that it would appeal to those members that have
bought one (that includes me!).

I found that the middle pickup got me closest to the original sound and I just added a splash of reverb.

I hope that you like it - any comments welcome.

Polaris

[ecca]

Great sound.

[Keith Bateman]

Nice one Roger. I hope you include the backing on your next cd as it would be another one for me to give my Fender VI a workout. I've strung mine with tapewounds now which, as others have said, give a more authentic 60s sound.

Keith

[Stratpicker]

Hi Roger
You certainly can trawl these up from Nowhere! What a great tune.
Impressive sound from the Squier VI and brilliant playing from you. Cracking BT too.
Did some digging to find out WHO "The Boys " were - made interesting reading (as you probably know).
cheers
ian

[rogera]

Thanks for the replies - it's always encouraging.

Ian I did look briefly for info on The Boys but kept finding references to a later group.
Any chance you could put a link on here?

[Stratpicker]

I gleaned the info from various places but this is the upshot of it -
The Composer "Frere Manston" is Marty Wilde. It was a pseudonym he used back in the day - another one was "Zappo"
(He also wrote The Casuals "Jesamine", Lulu's "I'm A Tiger", The Quo's "Ice In The Sun" amongt several.)
"The Boys" are, of course, The Krew Kats", as in the expression "And now The Boys are gonna play "Polaris""
cheers
ian

[rogera]

Very interesting - I knew that Marty Wilde was quite a prolific writer and of course that would lead
to the Wildcats / Krew Kats doing the recording.

[cockroach]

Good stuff!

I also enjoyed the flipside of Polaris which was called 'Jumpin'- another good instrumental featuring Bass VI...

[UlrichS]

"The Boys" are, of course, The Krew Kats", as in the expression "And now The Boys are gonna play "Polaris""
cheers
ian

Hi Ian,

It might be that The Boys are The Krew Kats, but not 'our' Krew Kats.

The single Polaris b/w Jumpin' was released in May 1963 and Brian Bennett had joined the Shadows in October 1961 and Brian Locking in April 1962.

There was a group The Krew Kats in France, backing Dick Rivers in his early career (lead guitar: Ted Tunnicliffe, rhythm guitar: Rob Nichols, bass guitar: Norman Bradley, drums: Don Hawkins). They released two EPs in France and on the first was a track Polaris penned by Frere Manston:

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I only have the recording of the French Krewkats and not of The Boys, so I am unable to compare them. Perhaps someone else can do.

Best wishes

Ulrich

[rogera]

Thanks for that information Ulrich. In fact I have the recording "Polaris" by the French group The Krewkats and although the tune is the same, it is quite different
from the recording by The Boys. One main factor being that the French group uses a 'normal' 6 string guitar for the lead line rather than a bass.

You can here The Boys version here :-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Qog1ifvEE

The French Krewkats version is here :-

Polaris - The Krewkats