Various Artists - Colour Me Pop, Vol. 1

Here is the first installment of an obscure three-part anthology of British music that has its origins at the long-defunct Faintly Blowing blog, which specialized in obscure 1960s sounds.

The series is a  called Colour Me Pop, and collects up (mostly) obscure British singles from the late '60s. Title notwithstanding, this series has nothing to do with the old British music TV program from the late 1960s that was also called "Colour Me Pop." So if you're expecting a collection of rare live performances by acts like the Small Faces, The Move, etc., you're in the wrong place. These sets are filled with artists that most people don't even know existed.

I discovered the Colour Me Pop sets when Faintly Blowing posted them in 2008. I've listened to them regularly, but apparently few others have 'em because I never see them posted anywhere. So I thought I'd bring them back here, replete with info in the MP3 tags.

If all of this sounds familiar, it's because I did a similar thing back in November, when I posted a full month of psychedelic rock and pop collections (see link below). Back then, I realized I was in possession of the early, original home-brew editions of the Piccadilly Sunshine series, which also originated over at Faintly Blowing.

The focus of Colour Me Pop isn't all that different from Piccadilly Sunshine. Each collection serves up slices of little-heard post Sgt. Pepper pop-rock. The songs are whimsical, lyrical, and defiantly British, at least in most cases. The early BeeGees and Hollies seems to be a touchstone for a lot of these acts. Since these collections are not really psychedelic per se, I didn't include them with all the other psych (and popsike) sets I put out in November. However, there is some psychedelic influence in most of these records, which isn't surprising considering what was happening at the time.

I going on the assumption that the blogger who used to run Faintly Blowing put these together, since I can't find any earlier referenced to them online. If that's the case, let's give him a big metaphorical round of applause since he did a fantastic job. I've listened to these collections regularly for years. To make this all the more mysterious, a third volume of Colour Me Pop also exists but it's not featured in that original blog post. Somehow I obtained it back around 2010, and I'll present that one too. Wonder where I got it? Who knows.

As for the songs, several have become favorites of mine over the years. But I'll single out just one that I especially love: Locomotive's "Rudi's In Love," which was a Top 30 UK hit. It was also and a follow-up to their classic tune "Rudy -- A Message To You," best known for its cover version by The Specials. I'm not sure why the compilers thought to include this pop-reggae tune among the more Lite Pop-styled tracks here, but I'm glad they did.

If you want more info, check the MP3 tags or the file names themselves. These sets came with label info, and I took the time to also add songwriting credits. Speaking of which, the final track was written and performed by some of the guys who later formed 10cc.

Finally, the front cover images in this series are of poor quality because that's the way they were when I got them. I'm guessing that the images were small because back when these were made, everyone had less disc space and the way to cut down on file sizes was to keep the J-Pegs tiny.

Related posts:
30 Psychedelic Collections (Nov. 2016)

Track list:
1. Double Feature - Come On Baby
2. The Gass Company - Everybody Needs Love
3. Los Bravos - Brand New Baby
4. Promise - Just For You
5. Eyes Of Blue - Don't Ask Me To Blend Your Broken Heart
6. The Kool - Room At The Top
7. Jon Gunn - Now It's My Turn
8. Bats - Stop, Don't Do It
9. The Bunch - You Can't Do This
10. Warm Sounds - Birds And Bees
11. The Doughnut Ring - Dance Around Julie
12. Grapefruit - Yes
13. Jigsaw - Let Me Go Home
14. Katch 22 - Makin' My Mind Up
15. Honeybus - Girl Of Independent Means
16. Denny Laine - Ask The People
17. The Montanas - Mystery
18. Simon Dupree And The Big Sound - Thinking About My Life
19. Toby Twirl - Back In Time
20. Young Blood - Green Light
21. The Twilights - Needle In A Haystack
22. The Sweet - Slow Motion
23. The Locomotive - Rudi's In Love
24. Pregnant Insomnia - You Intrigue Me
25. Andy Ellison - Fool From Upper Eden
26. Frabjoy & Runcible Spoon - I'm Beside Myself