New Pretty Things Get a Led Zep Uplift

LONDON – The Pretty Things were there at the beginning. Phil May, the band’s lead singer and only original member, followed Keith Richard out of England’s Kent Art School a year after Richard formed the Rolling Stones. With original Stones guitarist Dick (not Mick) Taylor, the Pretty Things’ raunchy R&B sound made them one of Britain’s top mid-'60s bands before various problems turned the last eleven years into a struggle for recognition. Now, after more than a decade of laboring and changes, the Prettys, who have just released a more metallic Silk Torpedo for Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song label and begun a tour in the States, may finally be climbing up from the depths.