Box Of Pin-Ups: The British Sounds Of 1965 (Box Set 3CD)

Three CDs. The latest instalment in Grapefruit's acclaimed series of a specific calendar year in British pop history. 1965 saw the beat/R&B revolution of the previous two years twisted into new, more ambitious shapes as British pop reached a shattering crescendo of sound, with feedback, fuzzboxes and (in Graham Bond's case) the Mellotron adding to the sonic mix. The year was a dizzying melange of visceral Pretty Things/Kinks/Small Faces garage band raunch, blue-eyed club soul (courtesy of mod-favoured groups like The Action), Searchers-derived jingle-jangle folk-rock and Zombies/Poets-style minor chord introspection. While 'A Slight Disturbance In My Mind' examined the proto-psychedelic sounds of 1966, Grapefruit now reverses into 1965 with 'Box Of Pin-Ups', named after David Bailey's epoch-defining publication chronicling the nascent Swinging London scene. Boasting 92 tracks, 'Box Of Pin-Ups' takes in the market leaders as well as the year's hard-up heroes and nowhere men. Established Top Ten acts like Manfred Mann, The Hollies and The Yardbirds are joined by cult names and such glorious one-shot unknowns as Glenn Athens & The Trojans and Irish band The Spectres, both now legally included on CD for the first time. Presented in a striking clamshell box that houses a 48-page booklet crammed with rare facts and photos, 'Box Of Pin-Ups' also includes formative efforts from young hopefuls Elton John, Jimmy Page, Rod Stewart and Marc Bolan, all of whom would eventually shake off their status as minor players on the mid-60s London club scene to become pin- ups in their own right.