Track Listing The Bitter End - Too Much Monkey Business The Librettos - I'm A Dog The Breakaways - Ain't Got You The Minors - Lies Peter Nelson & The Castaways - Down In The Mine Sounds Unlimited - Loves Gonna Live Here The Selected Few - Get The Picture Mr Lee Grant - Love The Fourmyula - My Mama George Retaliation - Morning Dew The Top Shelf - Time Beyond The Avengers - Water Pipe The Fourmyula - If I Had The Time Tom Thumb - If I Were A Carpenter The Simple Image - The Grooviest Girl In The World ALBUM INFO

LABEL: Universal Music New Zealand
GENRE: Rock

Wellington, the New Zealand windy city and capital was the base for NZ HMV in the sixties and seventies. Their in-house studio was strongly influenced by Abbey Road and manned by some of NZ's most intuitive engineers and producers of the time, not to mention benefitting from a direct supply of EMI recording equipment. While they pumped out pop music for the nation they were no strangers to capturing the wilder side of  Wellington rock and roll for single release. Many of these singles now fetch high prices with collectors.

Too Much Monkey Business is a collection of the fuzzy pop and garage nuggets that were recorded at HMV in Wellington between 1965 and 1969 with producers Frank Douglas, Peter Dawkins, and Howard Gable. Expect much abuse of fuzz boxes and locally made Jansen amplifiers.

The Bitter End from the Hutt area of the Wellington region fire on all cylinders with the 200 mph version of this collection's title track, The Selected Few out-raunch The Pretty Things, and The Fourmyula get very very fuzzy with if I Had The Time, while poppers The Simple Image bring buzzy trouble to their rendition of the Fun And Games bubble gummer  Grooviest Girl In The World.

Side one concentrates more on the R&B , tough beat, and garage, while side two gets a little more serious. The Top Shelf go Wah crazy, and the Avengers get a little drug fugged with Water Pipe. The Fourmyula's My Mama George is a dance floor filler with serious nods to the Small Faces and Easybeats. Drumming for the Fourmyula was a young Chris Parry who would go on to manage the Cure, start Fiction records and discover The Jam.

Mr Lee Grant is now professionally known by his real name of Bogdan Kominowski. Based in London, he has made a name for himself in theatre and Love from his first album is a dance floor favourite with European sixties DJs.

ALL TRACKS from master tape TRANSFERRED and mastered by Steve McGough at Stebbing Studio Cover artists are The Breakaways - their version of Ain't Got You comes from their incredibly rare and sonic second album titled "Album Two" Two page insert Produced for re-issue by John Baker Limited to 300 copies worldwide the Nuggets type collection of essential HMV sounds from the 60s.