Another terrific memory reviver on Sounds of the 60s. Tin Soldier. Not a big hit but a great example of how good Steve Marriott was as a singer. His ad libs were super. Nostalgic memories of long nights at the Scotch and Cromwellian where we posters used to gather, chatter, drink (only milk in my case), sometimes make love, analyse our careers and lives and relationships, and try to sort out the world.

Strange for me. Having survived all the normal school stuff and entered University, simultaneously I entered the equivalent of "big school" - the music world. Steve was a cockney child actor. I think he played Artful Dodger or similar in Oliver (type casting if ever I saw it - just like Jack Wild who I also knew). By the time I knew him he'd put all that behind him and was a pop star.

One reason why I love the Saturday morning Radio Two series so much. Fewer of the obvious sounds but many obscure or lesser tracks that spark off all those memories about my life in my twenties. Which, of course, I've also been reliving during the huge clear out of my house, completed over the Easter break.

It was a wonderful time and I never stop appreciating my luck to have been there and experienced it. For me the ensuing decades have been just as satisfying, but I wasn't as young!

When the band performed Tin Soldier on TOTP in early 1968 they did the live vocals/music playback mix so common then. The vocals from Steve Marriot & Pat Arnold were so good during the rehearsal that the normally unphased TOTP technical crew gave them a standing ovation!
It struck me 7 years ago - just as pop music was sliding into the generic, stale sound so prevalent now - when Sha La La La Lee came on my car radio just how well produced their records were, still managing all these years to sound fresher and more vibrant than 'new music'.