British band the Pretty Things, in the midst of the farewell tour, hit Australia for the final time next month. ILYOS looks at the influence of the band, their influence and a career spanning 55 years.  

Legendary British R&B, psychedelic and hard rock group the Pretty Things are winding down activities after 55 years of live performance and recording. They will play their final show ever in London, with special guests David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Van Morrison, and the actor Bill Nighy. Before then, they hit Australia for a run of shows,  including a big night in Sydney with super-fans, Tumbleweed.

Whilst they had a number of hits in the 60s, including the likes of “Roadrunner” and “Rosalyn”, the Pretties are probably best known for the impact they on the scene in the 60s and beyond. From the very beginning, Pretty Things lead guitarist and co-founder Dick Taylor was involved in something that would become massive – the Rolling Stones. As explained in this video, Dick, an old school chum of Mick Jagger’s, shared in Mick & Keith’s love of blues, and the three of them formed their first band together, Little Boy Blue & the Blues Boys. After playing out under that name, the trio merged with Brian Jones and Ian Stewart’s outfit and the Rolling Stones as we know them were born, with Dick Taylor on bass. After 6 months Dick decided he wanted a band of his own so left and Billy Wyman joined. Dick was then free to form the Pretty Things with his mates Phil May on vocals and John Stax on bass.

The Pretty Things became a sensation. As esteemed broadcaster John Peel put it, “The Beatles were cute, The Stones were students, but The Pretty Things were plain frightening.” The Pretty Things had the longest hair, and they were the wildest and the wild; they even got thrown out of New Zealand in 1965. This vintage footage hints.

One of the Pretty Things biggest fans in the early days was a young R&B singer David Jones. By the end of the 60s David Jones was David Bowie, and in 1971, on Hunky Dory, he released a song called “Oh You Pretty Things”. Then, in 1974, at the height of his first flush of success, he released an album called Pin Ups paying homage to his early music heroes, and the Pretty Things were represented with covers of two of their early hits.

The Pretty Things had left their primal R&B roots behind by 1968, when they recorded their groundbreaking SF Sorrow LP in 1968. The first “rock opera”, it hugely influenced The Who’s Tommy, and had been recorded at Abbey Road, with Pink Floyd producer Norman Smith at the controls. Pink Floyd, who’d been influenced by the Pretties in their early blues band days, were now contemporaries with the older band on the burgeoning London psychedelic underground scene.  The Pretty Things’ next album, 1970’s Parachute was, according to David Gilmour, a major influence on Dark Side of the Moon.

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Check out David Gilmour guesting with the Pretty Things on performances of “She Says Good Morning” & “Old Man Going” from a live recreation of “SF Sorrow” in 1998

The Pretty Things had a big influence on other contemporaries as well, and when Led Zeppelin decided to start their own label, Swan Song Records, in 1974, their first signings were Bad Company and a new look Pretty Things. The Pretty Things’ Swan Song debut Silk Torpedo was a hard-rocking classic that reflected the esteem they were held in and the influenced they had exerted on contemporary 70s hard rock bands, from Queen to Aerosmith.

The Pretty Things’ wild attitude and hard core approach to music went onto influence further generations of artists. The punks loved them - the Stooges and New York Dolls had been big fans, and the Ramones, Sex Pistols, Damned, and Aussies the Saints and Radio Birdman all acknowledged them. And subsequent garage-rock influenced bands, from the Hoodoo Gurus, who used to cover the Pretties version of “Come See Me”, to the aforementioned Tumbleweed, to You Am I, who included a version of the Pretties’ “Midnight to Six Man” on their “Heavy Heart” CD single, to the White Stripes to King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and associated acts are all fans. Brit rockers, from Primal Scream to Oasis to Kasabian, have also spoken of them.

So get yourself a ticket to catch the Pretty Things when they say farewell to Australia in October (full details available here) , and check this out for a taste of what you’ll experience.