Retrosonic Podcast Episode 48 "Why Don't You Smile Now?" with Special Guests Buddy Ascott & Rob Green of The Fallen Leaves. Features Exclusive New Unreleased Song by Thee Headcoats Sect

Steve from Retro Man Blog welcomes special guests Buddy Ascott and Rob Green from The Fallen Leaves into the studio to discuss their upcoming tribute and fundraising show in the memory of Deerstalker hat wearing guitar legend, Don Craine of Downliners Sect at The Half Moon Putney on Sunday August 21st. To help raise awareness of this very special event, Damaged Goods Records have very kindly granted us an exclusive unreleased new song by Thee Headcoats Sect featuring Billy Childish, Bruce Brand and original Downliners Sect band member Keith Grant. This episode also features news of Buddy's recent recording sessions with Speakeasy, The 79'ers and The Fallen Leaves and another charity show with Vox Pop. Steve chats about some of the gigs he's attended since the last episode including Baby Shakes at the Pump It Up Power Pop Weekender and The Undertones at the Camden Electric Ballroom where we also praise the merits of vocalist Paul McLoone. Then there's the stunning performance by Love Revisited with Johnny Echols at the Garage and The Gruesomes first ever U.K. show at Weirdsville. Steve also talks about his visit to Spinroad Vinyl Factory studio and pressing plant in Sweden and the problems for small bands and labels getting their vinyl pressed. There's music from The Masonics, The Undertones, Downliners Sect, Baby Shakes, Vox Pop, The 79'ers, Love, The Gruesomes, The Fallen Leaves and of course, that very special Thee Headcoats Sect exclusive! You can subscribe to Retrosonic Podcast for free at Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts or direct from our SoundCloud site below:

Retrosonic Podcast · Episode 48 "Why Don't You Smile Now?" with special guests Buddy Ascott & Rob Green

For tickets to the Don Craine Tribute Show at The Half Moon Putney on Sunday August 21st, please contact the venue at this link. Tickets and info for the Sound of Woking event can be found here. Here's the full track-listing to this episode, please click on the highlighted links for further information on the featured bands and how you can purchase their music.

The 79'ers "Maybe Tomorrow" (Live)

Vox Pop "Cor Blimey"

The Undertones "Dig Yourself Deep"

Baby Shakes "Really, Really"

The Gruesomes "Stop It, Girl"

Downliners Sect "Why Don't You Smile Now"

Thee Headcoats Sect "The Baker Street Irregulars" EXCLUSIVE NEW SONG

The Masonics "When You Cry At Night"

The Fallen Leaves "Green Eyes F.C."

Love "She Comes In Colours"

With sincere thanks to Buddy, Rob Green, Rob Symmonds and Ian at Damaged Goods Records. 

Podcover star: Amy K-B.

Downliners Sect, The Masonics & The Fallen Leaves - Tribute Show for Don Craine at The Half Moon Putney, August 21st

Sunday August 21^st at our favourite venue The Half Moon in Putney sees a very special afternoon tribute show for the head Headcoat, the late, great Don Craine of The Downliners Sect. Contemporaries of the Rolling Stones, Pretty Things and The Yardbirds, Downliners Sect came into being in Spring 1963 when deerstalker-hatted rhythm guitarist Don Craine found Keith Grant and the Sect was born. They played their own brash and exciting brand of R'n'B and still do, Don and Keith played together for 60 years. They agreed that, whatever happened to either of them, the group would carry on. With the sad loss of Don in February, Keith, as promised, carries the name Downliners Sect on. This concert is a tribute to the Deerstalker wearing Head man himself, Don Craine. Downliners Sect fans and friends, The Masonics and The Fallen Leaves will be fitting special guests on the day. In fact, Don and Keith teamed up with Billy Childish and Bruce Brand, the current Masonics drummer, to form Thee Headcoat Sect in the 90’s. The Fallen Leaves are rooted in the classic vein of their locality of Eel Pie Island/Richmond/Twickenham British Beat and R'n'B and feature members of Subway Sect and The Chords. This is sure to be a very special afternoon so book your tickets directly from the Half Moon Putney now from this link. All proceeds to Macmillan Cancer Support. For more details please check out the Facebook Event page here and please note this is an afternoon session starting at 1pm. Here are some great photos of The Downliners Sect by my Retro Man Blog colleague, the photographer Paul Slattery.

Top photo The Downliners Sect at the BBC radio studios control room Maida Vale with Rob Symmons of The Fallen Leaves. Second photo, the band in the studio. Third photo Don with Bruce Brand of The Masonics backstage at the 100 Club. Bottom photo Don onstage at the 100 Club. All photos copyright of Paul Slattery.

The Downliners Sect - Photos by Paul Slattery of the 60's R'n'B Legends Recording a Marc Riley BBC Radio Session

The Downliners Sect at BBC Studios Maida Vale - Photo by Paul Slattery

My Retro Man Blog and Retrosonic Podcast colleague the Rock Photographer, Paul Slattery was recently invited to the BBC studios in Maida Vale to witness The Downliners Sect recording a session for Marc Riley. He went along with fellow Sect fan Rob Symmons, once of Subway Sect and now The Fallen Leaves and kindly filed the following report and photos: "When you get a phone call from one of this country’s most singular guitar players then you know it’s important, and that guitarist happens to be Rob Symmons of the Fallen Leaves. I’ve been going to see the 'Leaves for some years now - they just get better and better. Their mantra is "Punk Rock for gentlemen" and, as I am of course a gent, their gigs are always absolutely perfect. Rob wanted to know if I was interested in going over to the BBC Maida Vale Studios to see a live recording by the doyens of the English 60's R'n'B music scene The Downliners Sect for a Marc Riley 6Music session. I’d only been there once before and was keen to go over and see this cavernous space again. It started life as an ice rink but the BBC took it over in 1933/34 and converted it into the studio that still exists today. 

The Downliners Sect at BBC Studios Maida Vale - Photo by Paul Slattery

The Downliners Sect at BBC Studios Maida Vale - Photo by Paul Slattery

Some of the studios are massive and are big enough to accomodate a complete orchestra. It’s like an iceberg as three quarters of the space is below ground but all the studios have natural light. Rob and I headed for Studio MV3 where we found the band getting in some rehearsal time before their live session on Mark Riley’s show on Radio 6. There is a plaque here commemorating Bing Crosby’s last recording session on 11 October 1977. MV3 had a fairly regular Peel session on Sundays and Peel kept this studio and the next door studio MV4 busy with live sessions for more than thirty years. I’ve always been fond of "Hatful of Hollow" by the Smiths which is mostly a Peel session recording, plus it does use my photo of The Smiths on the gatefold sleeve! 

The Downliners Sect at BBC Studios Maida Vale - Photo by Paul Slattery

You can’t help feeling the music history walking into this place and The Downliners Sect, contemporaries of The Rolling Stones and The Pretty Things are one of those bands who started the English Rock scene back in the early sixties. In this country though we have scant regard for such notables, in France such musicians would be lauded, have a state pension and be heroes of the Republic. I’d seen the band play at the 100 Club a couple of years before and was enthralled. 

The Downliners Sect at BBC Studios Maida Vale - Photo by Paul Slattery

The Downliners Sect at BBC Studios Maida Vale - Photo by Paul Slattery

It’s great chatting to Don and Keith, Don’s a West London lad like myself so there’s a common bond with the West London Rock scene and Eel Pie Island. This is a really class band, and while they are doing their live set they let me wander round and take photos in the studio. Their three numbers "Soup In A Basket", "Escape From Hong Kong" and "Let It Rock" are British Blues at its finest. I was brought up on this kind of music and it’s great to see it being played live. 

The Downliners Sect at BBC Studios Maida Vale - Photo by Paul Slattery

BBC Studios Maida Vale - Photo by Paul Slattery

Tireless drumming by Mark Freeman and fluent bass and vocals from Keith Grant anchor the set while Don’s vocals and guitar give us the soul. Del Dwyer adds more clever guitar and John O’Leary's harp is superb. This is a truly great band, one of the originators of British rock music and I'd recommend that you go see them play at the earliest opportunity."

Rob Symmons of The Fallen Leaves with The Downliners Sect at BBC Studios Maida Vale by Paul Slattery

Thanks to Paul Slattery for the report and photographs, to see Paul's pics of The Downliners Sect live at The 100 Club please check the feature in the Blog archive here. For more information on The Downliners Sect you can check out their official web-site here. The excellent Eel Pie Island Museum in Twickenham has a superb collection of display material on the history of the local music scene revolving around the Eel Pie Island Hotel. From the initial Jazz, Mod and Blues scene through to the raw R'n'B sound of the early Rolling Stones, The Others, The Pretty Things and of course The Downliners Sect. You can check out the archive for the feature on the pop-up British Beat Explosion exhibition that preceeded the opening of the Eel Pie Island Museum here. The Eel Pie Club at The Cabbage Patch in Twickenham puts on regular live events featuring some of the legends of the scene such as The Pretty Things and Geno Washington, check out their site here for information.

Photo Retro Man Blog

The Downliners Sect & The Masonics at The 100 Club February 12th - Exclusive Paul Slattery Photographs

Don Craine of The Downliners Sect photographed by Paul Slattery

The legendary Sixties R'n'B group The Downliners Sect made a rare live appearance with a recent gig at The 100 Club on February 12th along with very special guests The Masonics, and it was great to see two superb purveyors of prime stripped back R'n'B on the same stage. The links between the two bands go back via The Masonics drummer Bruce Brand from when he was in Thee Headcoats Sect, the collaboration with Billy Childish and Thee Headcoats (named after Don Craine's famous deerstalker hat), Don Craine and Keith Grant. Rock Photographer Paul Slattery, who worked with Thee Headcoats, was there to capture the action and here is a selection of his excellent photographs of the night, which included guest appearances from Ludella Black and Johnny Sutton.

The Masonics photographed by Paul Slattery

The Masonics photographed by Paul Slattery

Special Guest Ludella Black photographed by Paul Slattery

Mickey Hampshire photographed by Paul Slattery

The Downliners Sect photographed by Paul Slattery

The Downliners Sect photographed by Paul Slattery

Bruce Brand and Don Craine photographed by Paul Slattery

Here's a video of The Masonics with "Don't Talk To Me" from the night:

Photographer Paul Slattery picks his favourite Downliners Sect track in Episode 21 of Retrosonic Podcast. You can listen/download for free at our Soundcloud site or subscribe for free at iTunes.

All photos courtesy of and copyright Paul Slattery 2016.

Retrosonic Podcast Episode 21 "Can't Help Thinking About Me"

Lemmy, Copenhagen 1987 photographed by Paul Slattery

In Episode 21 of Retrosonic Podcast, Steve & Adam are joined by Rock Photographer Paul Slattery to spin and chat about a mix of oldies, new releases and exclusive tracks. Paul explains how Lemmy influenced his choice of career in music photography and he picks his favourite Motörhead track. One of Paul's photos graces the cover of the brand new single from Billy Childish & CTMF so we give that a play and talk about Paul's work with Billy over the years. Staying in the Medway there's the debut single from Graham Day's new outfit The Senior Service and we're still recovering from our sold-out launch party with the band at the Half Moon Putney. Of course we can't avoid the untimely death of David Bowie and we pick a Mod classic from his time with The Lower Third. Along the way we chat about some upcoming gigs by some influential and legendary British R'n'B bands The Pretty Things and The Downliners Sect plus there's the long-awaited return of The Long Ryders. There's a cracking new track from The Rezillos and a classic from That Petrol Emotion. We go all International with The Stompin' Riff Raffs and The Mayflowers from Japan, there's some raw R'n'B from the Loire Valley and Sharpers and an exclusive unreleased track from Brazil's brilliant Autoramas! Oh, and there's a brand new slice of Psycho Rock 'n' Roll from Dick Venom & The Terrortones! Here's the play-list, if you liked the music we played we'd really be pleased if you could take the time to click on the highlighted links to check out more information on the featured bands.

The Senior Service "Depth Charge"

The Senior Service photographed by Paul Slattery

The Downliners Sect "Glendora" 

David Bowie & The Lower Third "Can't Help Thinking About Me"

The Pretty Things "Don't Bring Me Down"

Dick Venom & The Terrortones "Gun of A Tongue"

Billy Childish & CTMF "A Glimpse of Another Time"

Cover Photo of Thee Headcoats by Paul Slattery

The Stompin' Riff Raffs "Linda"

The Mayflowers "Good Times Bad Times"

The Long Ryders "10-5-60"

That Petrol Emotion "Swamp"

The Rezillos "Animal"

The Rezillos photographed by Paul Slattery

Autoramas "Quando A Polícia Chegar" 

Sharpers "Hurt By Love"

Motörhead "Leaving Here"

You can now download and/or listen to the episode free of charge from our Retrosonic Podcast Soundcloud site here, subscribe at iTunes or stream at Mixcloud. Otherwise just check this out...

All Photographs Copyright Paul Slattery.