The Action
Formed in Kentish Town in 1963, the front man of The Action was
singer Reg King, a natural lunatic in the Keith Moon mould. He and
the band had originally come together as The Boys, to back singer Sandra
Barry.
The Action sought out the best of American soul music, and
played their discoveries to hip audiences everywhere.
At
Portsmouth, a phalanx of Mods on scooters would meet their van
outside the city limits, and escort them to the gig as if they
were royalty. They were sacked from a support slot with The
Who by Kit Lambert for being too good.
No less a figure than George Martin
spotted their innate musicianship, and he recorded a string of
near hit singles with them, in which underground soul covers like Land
of a Thousand Dances and I'll Keep On Holding On,
gave way to band compositions, Never Ever and Shadows
and Reflections. The latter was particularly gorgeous, paying
homage to the softer harmony sound of the likes of The
Association, percolating through from the West Coast.
Although an LP was planned, and readers of Rave
magazine were even invited to design its cover, the band imploded
at this point, and Watson jumped ship. It was not until 1981 that
- rediscovered by such 'new' Mods as Paul
Weller, who wrote their liner notes - The Action finally
released an album - The Ultimate Action.
Finally in 1995, Brain records issued a CD The Lost
Recordings 1967/68. Demos for the never-released album Rolled
Gold, they capture perfectly the point when mod was becoming
hippie, a mix of the tuneful and the other-worldly when all was
fresh and hopeful.
The recordings show the added musical dimension given by new
arrivals Martin Stone and Ian Whiteman. Whiteman brought a jazz
sensibility on keyboards and flute and saxophone, while Stone was
already a blues legend from his guitar work on the first Savoy
Brown LP.
Reg King had already left by the time the band became Mighty
Baby and demos from late 1968 eventually emerged on the 1985 Actions
Speak Louder Than LP, mistakenly attributed to The Action,
and with a picture of that band on the cover.
Some are embryonic versions of the songs which emerged on Mighty
Baby, released in 1969, an archetypal product of the London
underground, on the independent Head label, produced by DJ and
scene maker Guy Stevens - who banned lan Whiteman's flute; "I
don't record flutes" - and with a startling sleeve designed
by Martin Sharpe of Oz magazine.
 The band became a fixture at open air festivals. Live, their
music stretched out into infinity on set-piece jams like India.
On their day, Mighty Baby was the nearest Britain ever came
to The Grateful Dead - with better
singing and with the same ego-less charm.
Of course, on a bad
night, they were almost unlistenable.
The original Action line-up of the band reunited on August Bank
Holiday 1998 at Ryde Town Hall on the Isle of Wight as the
highlight of a Mod rally.
Though somewhat rusty, and balder and
broader than thirty odd years before, the band swung with a
passion. and played much the same set that they would have done in
1966.
Mike Evans passed away in January 2010. Reg King died on 8
October 2010.
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