My Brothers and Sisters in Rock:

Ahhh, the lazy, hazy days of Summer 2002 are creeping to a close, but that does not mean it is time to shelve all of your dreamy, psychadelic Los Angeles sunshine pop and/or swinging London records quite yet. Included in that lot should be, if not already, Billy Nicholls’ “Would You Believe”. This pop-lovers gem is yet another one of those albums that was “lost” for far too long [and, incidentally, has still never found ANY proper release, in ANY form, in the US]. “Would You Believe” was finally released [in the UK] in 1999, having otherwise been available with great difficulty, and high price, after almost thirty years of obscurity. Its orignial recording dates back to 1968, at the height of [Andrew Loog Oldham’s] Immediate Records success; due for proper release in April 1968. However, for unsaid reasons (see “cash flow problems”), just after advance copies had been distributed to radio stations, the entire project was prematurely aborted.

Some might still ask, just who is Billy Nicholls? In 1966, while still in his mid-teen years (16 to be exact!!), Nicholls (then one of the most Beach Boys-influenced British singer/songwriters) found his first recording industry contact by mustering enough courage to approach [Fab] George Harrison (RIP–Rock In Peace) for help getting his tunes recorded and heard. Unfortunately, after Harrison forwarded Nicholls’ demo tapes to [the Beatles] publisher Dick James, James “lost” all of the tapes. As an apologetic gesture for his bumbling the project, James aranged for Nicholls to receive free studio time to record the demos all over again.

Enter Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones manager, who had just created his own record label, named “Immediate”, and was in the process of building his roster of acts. Oldham was stunned that a sixteen-year old was cranking out such ornate pop jams; high praise from a man who was an avowed fan of Phil Spector and “Pet Sounds”/Smile”-era Brian Wilson Beach Boys. With that, Oldham signed Nicholls to Immediate as in-house songwriter and, as well as recording under his own name, Nicholls wrote and produced for other artists: the Who, Leo Sayer (don’t stop reading yet), Justin Hayward, the Small Faces (inc. “Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake”), the Nice, Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan and David Gilmour.

Oldham would produce “Would You Believe”, and probably due to the aforementioned affection for the work of Spector and Wilson, the album is beautifully laden with baroque keyboards, tactfully arranged brass and sticky-sweet multi-part harmonies. The album’s title track, “WYB”, was actually released, back with “Daytime Girl”, echoing Ray Davies-esque/“Village Green”-era Kinks meets the Beatles “Lucy In the Sky”. The Small Faces’ Steve Marriott contributed heavily to this tune; with especially prominent backing vocals and well-defined guitar work. Despite favorable reviews, the single failed to chart.

“Come Again” continues the pleasurable listening experience, albiet a bit darker and more acoustic, and forshadows the very sound Peter Townshend would ape on his first solo effort “Who Came First” (Nicholls went on to co-write, sing and play on “Forever’s No Time At All” with Townie, featured on “Who Came First”). Nicholls carries on the record by employing a gustier Brit rock vibe (with Steve Marriott’s seering axe work in full effect) on “Girl From New York”. Nicholls’ vocals are spruced up with a bevy of vocal harmonies, accompanied by Marriott’s layered guitar work and keyboards. Other well known artists appear throughout the remainder of the album as well; including future Marriott’s Humble Pie comrade, Jerry Shirley on drums (then a member of Apostolic Convention), the “Session Man” himself Nicky Hopkins, versitile Zepp instrumentalist John Paul Jones and the Small Faces’ Ronnie Lane.

Despite such a “supergroup” line-up, and, dare I say, “Pet Sounds” arrangement, Immediate’s notoriously tenuous financial shape (even with the success of the Small Faces) and Nicholls’ young age and inexperience with the recording industry, the album was indefinintely suspended.
Arguably, “WYB” could have been Nicholls’ masterwork, and perhaps no other Immediate artist was hosed as badly as Nicholls. His career just never seemed to find another launch pad after “WYB’s” cancellation; although he did some uncredited backing vocals on the Small Faces’ opus “Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake”. Nicholls did release a proper solo effort in 1974, “Love Songs”; was a member of the seminal act White Horse in 1977; and became musical director of the Who post-Keith Moon.

*“WYB” should be filed next to Beach Boys “Pet Sounds”, Beatles “Revolver”, Booker T & the MG’s “Hip-Hug Her”, Blood Sweat & Tears “Child Is the Father to Man” and the Zodiac “Cosmic Sounds” [see Unsung Review by the Seth Man]

**Listeners should also hunt down “Snapshot”, releaed in 2001, an album of entirely “WYB” demos and outtakes that did not make the final album: ironic, an album of unreleased demos from an unreleased album! HA! Rumoured, by many of the album’s very musicians, to be even better than “WYB”!

Let’s Rock, Hard.

Hollywood Z