David John & The Mood - Diggin’ For Gold : Joe Meek’s Tea Chest Tapes

David John & The Mood’s Diggin’ For Gold : Joe Meek’s Tea Chest Tapes is one of the latest in an ongoing series of releases from Cherry Red Records, taken from the legendary collection of his tea chest recordings.  During their short time together, this British band only recorded seven tracks, three singles, two of which were produced by Meek, along with an additional song that was previously unreleased.  This CD is basically a complete anthology of their career including dubs of their singles, various alternate versions, backing tracks from the Meek tapes and a songwriter's acetate for their song “Diggin’ For Gold”.  Even though their time as a band was brief and their output was minimal, what they did release was very impressive and had me wishing there was more.  Their debut single was a ragged take on Bo Diddley’s “Pretty Thing”, which is produced by the legendary Shel Talmy and featured Mick Jagger on maracas.  The flipside is “To Catch That Man”, a punchy British Beat / R&B original that they actually credited to W.C. Charnley, which is the name of the street where their administrative office was and “W.C.” for water closet.  Although by no means a bad single, their debut was definitely not as good as what was to come from their work with Meek.  Interestingly, the catalogue number issued to the single by their label Vocalion was V 9220, while V 9221 was given to “Liza Jane”, the debut from Davie Jones with The King Bees (David Bowie), which led many to believe that since the sound and name were similar, and the numbers were back-to-back, that “David John” was actually Bowie.  During a conversation with the band The Puppets, who were being produced by Meek, it was suggested they should also try to work with Meek and after camping out at his door he gave them an audition and they passed.  For their next single they once again went to Bo Diddley, with their take on “Bring It To Jerome”.  Without losing any of the swagger of the original they give it an insanely infectious raw Merseybeat / R&B groove what will have you bopping your head and singing it to yourself for days.  The song is also notable for its unique Meek-influence percussive effect, that was basically a toilet chain dropped into a biscuit tin on the beat, which Meek then layered with echo.  Another band original, “I Love To See You Strut”, again credited to Charnley, was the b-side and is a great upbeat 60’s R&B track with a bit of an early Rolling Stones swagger.  The song for their final single "Diggin' For Gold" was an acetate sent to Meek as a songwriters’ demo that he then gave to the band to learn.  It is a hard-charging R&B rocker with a thumping Peter Gunn like bass, some great guitar work, and piano from Peter Cook (aka Peter London), who regularly played for Meek.  Driven by Cook’s driving boogie woogie piano, “She’s Fine”, the final “Charnley” song, was on the flip and is a rollicking rocker.  In addition to the six single tracks there is a cover of the Bobby Freeman song “That Little Old Heartbreaker Me” that was previously unissued and in their hands is similar to the slow, soulful original but much darker and moodier.  The release is rounded out by alternate versions and backing track versions of most of the songs that were also previously unissued. While for the most part not radically different than the actual releases, and not necessarily something you would listen to over and over, they are very interesting and if you pay attention, you can hear some of Meek’s tinkering, with things like songs being slightly sped up or slowed down.  The final track is the aforementioned songwriters acetate of “Diggin’ For Gold”, which makes for a nice addition to complete the collection.  Also included is a very detailed informative CD booklet detailing the band's history.  

(Cherry Red Records)