The Pretty Things were one of England’s founders of rock and roll. Lead by Dick Taylor, an original member of The Rolling Stones, The Pretty Things were covered a decade later by David Bowie for his ‘Pin-Ups’ album.
The Pretty Things
Bowie covered two Pretty Things songs on that album, ‘Rosalyn’ and ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’. Dick Taylor told Noise11 how the Bowie song impacted on him at the time.
“I’d love to say when Bowie did it that money came in but nothing like that unfortunately happened, Dick tells Noise11.com. “In retrospect, it is great that he did it. It helped later. It was a great compliment but at that time I wasn’t actually with The Pretty Things, funnily enough,” Dick said. “At that time I was having a bit of a holiday from The Pretty Things. It wasn’t until 1978 when I started working with The Pretty Things again”.
The original song was actually based on a Bo Diddley riff. “We signed to signed to a record company, the guy who introduced us was a guy called Jimmy Duncan. He wrote this song and he had a demo of it. It was this piano and the kind of the melody of the song was kind of there. It was a totally different animal to what got released. We said ‘what are we gonna do with this’. So we came up with the idea of having a Bo Diddley beat behind it. That’s how we put it together. Then once we had the Bo Diddley beat and that idea and made it a bit faster than a Bo Diddley record, then it seemed to have a life of its own”.
The Pretty Things are about to tour Australia for the very first time for Tombowler touring. Dick gave us a hint of what to expect. “We do quite a lot of stuff from the really early days. We do a chunk of ‘S.F. Sorrow’. Phil and I do a blues section in the middle, just a couple of tracks where I play slide acoustic and he sings. We do a few new numbers. We try and concentrate on the 60s music because that’s what people want to hear”.
December 2012 tour dates are:
Tues 4th December – The Corner Hotel, Richmond
Tickets $49+BF
Wed 5th December -Lizotte’s, Dee Why
Tickets $110 – Show w/ main meal, $68 – Show only w/ bar menu available
Fri 7th December – The Factory Theatre, Marrickville
Tickets $49 + BF
Sat 8th December – Goodgod Small Club, Sydney
Tickets $40.70 + BF
Thurs 13th December – Caravan Club, Oakleigh
Tickets $55 + bf (Standing), $69 + BF (Seated)
Fri 14th December – Caravan Club, Oakleigh
Tickets $55 + bf (Standing), $69 + BF (Seated)
