Genre: garage
Rating: *** (3 stars)
Title: Mod ... Is the British Modbeats
Company: Red Leaf
Catalog: RED 1002
Year: 1967
Country/State: Toronto, Canada/UK
Grade (cover/record): VG/VG
Comments: minor ring wear
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4547
Price: $220.00
Cost: $66.00
Born in the UK, but raised in St. Catharines, Ontario, Fraser Loveman (great name for a musician) started his artistic career as a dancer. By the early 1960s Loveman had turned his interest to music, forming The Lintels. Essentially a Ventures-styled cover band, the group was good enough to make a name for themselves on the local club scene. Loveman was also clever enough to spot a marketing opportunity in the form of the growing popularlity of the Mersybeat sound. An early adapter, Loveman changed the band's name to the much hipper 'The Mods' and became one of the first Canadian musicians to opt for a 'mod' look, complete with long hair and Carnaby Street-styled clothing. Those attributes generated huge word of mouth attention, which in turn brought them to the attention of the small Red Leaf Records.
Signed by Red Leaf, the band debuted with the 1966 single 'Whatcha Gonna Do About It' b/w 'Price Of Love' (Red Leaf catalog number TTM-620). A cover of an old Doris Troy song, the single promptly went top-40 in Canada. After modifying their name to 'The British Modbeats', the group went on to release a series of three more Canadian charting singles:
- 1966's 'Love's Just a Broken Heart' b/w 'You're My World' (Red Leaf catalog number TTM-625)
- 1966's 'Somebody Help Me b/w 'Ain't Nobody Home But Me' (Red Leaf catalog number TTM-632)
- 1967's 'Try To Understand' b/w 'Sorrow' (Red Leaf catalog number TTM-636)
More than
willing to take advantage of the group's commercial breakthrough, Red Leaf
decided to release an album's worth of material. 1967's Stan Klees
produced "Mod ... Is the British Modbeats"
served to compile the four earlier singles ('A' and 'B' sides), along with
three previously unreleased tracks (a decent cover of The Pretty Things'
"L.S.D', Chris Kenner's 'Land of a 1000 Dances' and 'More Love').
Other reviewers have said the same thing, but in light of the stunning cover
photo (those are some pretty friggin' amazing bell bottoms), the band's set
of popular covers is somewhat disappointing. There's nothing
particularly wrong with any of the material, but tracks such as 'Whatcha
Gonna Do About It' , 'The Price of Love'
and 'NoMore Love' sound surprisingly tame and even bland, seldom rising
above the level of competent bar band fodder. Best of the lot are the up
tempo 'Somebody Help Me' and 'The Pretty Things
cover 'L.S.D.'. Interestingly, Loveman's vocals sound like he suffered
from a lisp.
"Mod ... Is the British Modbeats" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Whatcha Gonna Do About It (Payne - Carroll) - 2:22
2.) Love's Just a Broken Heart (Shuman - Bendome - Lynch) - 2:15
3.) The Price of Love (Phil Everly - Don Everly) - 2:05
4.) Ain't Nobody Home But Me (Scott) - 2:24
5.) L.S.D. (Taylor - May) - 1:57
6.) Land of a 1000 Dances (Chris Kenner) - 2:47
(side
2)
1.) Somebody Help Me (Jackie Edwards) 1:55
2.) Sorrow (Feldman - Goldstein - Gottehrer) - 2:31
3.) More Love (Blaikley) - 2:06
4.) Try To Understand (Sawyer - Burton) - 2:21
5.) Don't Answer Me (Zambreni - Enriques - Callendar) - 2:16
The
band toured through 1968, but with popular tastes changing, called it quits
the same year. Loveman kept active in music, including The Village
Stop, The cleverly-titled Frazer Loveman Group and The Yenmore Blues
Band. He did some local theater work, operated a concert hall and
eventually went to work in a local paper mill.