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The Pretty Things

Pretty Things, The

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Pretty Things: Silk Torpedo

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, January 1975

THE PRETTY THINGS are back, and this time, with a new label and expected tour, can realistically be expected to enter the American top-40 album ...

Audio interviews

The Pretty Things' Phil May (1995)

Interview by Johnny Black, Rock's Backpages audio, 1995

Pretty Things mainman Phil May, joined by manager Mark St. John, talk about the early days of the band, their rivalry with the Rolling Stones, their disappearing bandmates and their legal battles to regain their copyrights.

File format: mp3; file size: 52.3mb, interview length: 54' 28" sound quality: ****

List of articles in the library

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Peter Jones' New Names: Look At These Pretty Things!

Profile by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 2 May 1964

IN LONDON'S West End, there are a number of night clubs that deal almost exclusively with beat music — but always jazz tinged beat. These ...

The Pretty Things: The Things Hit Back!

Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 20 February 1965

ONE ACCUSATION that can't be levelled against the Pretty Things is that they're dull. In fact this wild-sounding, and equally wild-looking group are one of ...

Reigning Cats And Dogs

Report and Interview by Sylvia Stephens, Fabulous, 27 March 1965

Switched on people are definitely animal lovers, and dogs and cats top the pop stars own hit parade... SYLVIA STEPHEN has done some vetting on the subject. For ...

Scotland's Really Wild Report Pretty Things

Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 16 July 1965

APART FROM being banned from swimming pools, finding their dressing-room in the middle of the girls' cloakroom, and being pulled off stage with alarming regularity, ...

The Pretty Things: Why The Things Like Their Hair...

Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 17 July 1965

PRETTY THING Dick Taylor was gazing out of the window of his flat in Kensington, London, recently when a group of girls happened to look ...

The Pretty Things: Viv — "It's All Lies"

Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 23 September 1965

'I could sue them' says Viv Prince, about newspaper articles which appeared about him in New Zealand. Norman Jopling reports...' ...

The Nice, Traffic, Pretty Things, the Action, Eyes: Hyde Park, London

Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 3 August 1968

"ALL THIS needs is for John Peel to appear with three loaves and five fishes and he could feed the ten thousand," said an observer ...

Traffic, Nice, Junior's Eyes, Pretty Things: Hyde Park London

Live Review by Hugh Nolan, Disc and Music Echo, 3 August 1968

Such a NICE day in the park ...

Pretty Things Kick Off Their Old Image

Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 4 January 1969

ONE OF Britain's oldest and most hallowed group relics are the Pretty Things, who must go down in the pageant of pop history as men ...

Tamla invest in Pretty Things

Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 10 May 1969

ONE OF the most astounding pieces of news recently has been the signing by Tamla Motown of the Pretty Things, a group famed for its ...

Hawkwind, Pink Fairies, The Pretty Things: Windsor Free Festival, Berkshire

Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 30 September 1972

THE SIGNS were there once again at what was in effect just another one-day festival that a bummer was to be had by one and ...

Pretty Things: Decade Of Dues Now Pays Off

Interview by Jonh Ingham, Rolling Stone, 1 February 1973

THE ENGLISH BANDS that have survived since the first days of the British Invasion can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The Stones, ...

The Pretty Things: Still As Strong As Bo Diddley's Guitar Arm

Report and Interview by Jonh Ingham, New Musical Express, 24 March 1973

FEEL THE svelte red leather. Take in the expensive walnut dashboard surrounding the precision instruments; the speedo flicking between 70 and 80. Experience the full ...

The Pretty Things’ Phil May

Profile and Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, May 1973

PHIL MAY, vocalist with the Pretty Things, is one British rock musician who really has seen it all. ...

Maggie Bell, The Pretty Things: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 12 October 1974

OKAY, FIRST things first. When Maggie Bell's done a few more gigs (and maybe even a couple more rehearsals) with her new band, then there's ...

The Pretty Things: Silk Torpedo

Review by Jonh Ingham, New Musical Express, 23 November 1974

IT GIVES you faith to know that through all the impermanency and transience of this beast we call rock, The Pretty Things soldier on. ...

New Pretty Things Get a Led Zep Uplift

Interview by Steve Turner, Rolling Stone, 10 April 1975

LONDON – The Pretty Things were there at the beginning. Phil May, the band’s lead singer and only original member, followed Keith Richards out of ...

The Pretty Things: Silk Torpedo

Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 8 May 1975

THE PRETTY THINGS are from a different part of town. Once competitors with the Stones in the raunch-and-outrage genre, the Pretty Things began a progression ...

The Pretty Things: Greatest Hits 1964-1967

Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 6 December 1975

FOR A SHORT time, around the London clubs and art school dances, back in 1964, it seemed as though the Pretty Things might just unseat ...

The Pretty Things: Savage Eye

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, March 1976

NOT AS, NOT AT all as, not nearly as, doesn't even come close to being anything at all as good as their last one, Silk ...

The Pretty Things: Savage Eye

Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, May 1976

ANGLOID DROOLERS can breathe a sigh of relief (toot, toot). Although the twittering (sometimes hairy, often comical) falsettos of 10cc and Sparks are cracking under ...

Uriah Heep/Pretty Things: Empire Pool, Wembley

Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 19 June 1976

THE PRETTY Things can, on occasion, succumb to being ordinary, but usually they're great. This night was no exception. Using the cavern of Wembley Empire ...

The Pretty Things' Phil May (1995) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Johnny Black, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 1995

This is a transcript of Johnny's audio interview with Phil May and manager, Mark St. John. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

The Pretty Things: Live At The BBC, 1964-2018 (Repertoire)

Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 11 November 2021

DURING THE 1960s British R&B boom the Pretty Things were the band the UK press loved to hate.  Lead singer Phil May's shoulder-length locks were ...

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