Nuggets II: When The Alarm Clock Rings by the Blossom Toes

Credits

4/28. WHEN THE ALARM CLOCK RINGS – Blossom Toes (U.K.)
(Jim Cregan)

PERSONNEL/BRIAN GODDING: vocals, guitar, keyboards * JIM CREGAN: guitar * BRIAN BELSHAW: bass, vocals * KEVIN WESTLAKE: drums
Produced by GIORGIO GOMELSKY
Recorded in London, England
From the album We Are Ever So Clean, Marmalade #607/608-001 (1968)

When the Alarm Clock Rings

Nuggets II ends with a pleasant chamber-pop song from London band Blossom Toes. ‘When the Alarm Clock Rings’ was never a single, buried midway through the second side on the band’s first album.

It’s a modest song. But with the harmony arrangement and flutes, it’s a lovely late-1960s pop confection. Chronicling mundane life, it’s reminiscent of ‘Run, Run, Run‘ by The Third Rail, from the first Nuggets box.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oefX2Mlg9eU

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Blossom Toes Biography

Taken (with some editing) from Magic in the Air’s website, now only available on the web archive. All opinions from here on down are from the original author, not mine.

Beginnings

Blossom Toes formed in 1962 at the Halver and Watts scientific instrument factory in Highbury and Islington, North London as The Gravediggers. The original members were bassist Brian Belshaw, lead guitarist Alan Kensley, and rhythm guitarist/vocalist Brian Godding. They then got in drummer Fred Love. Kensley left to get married and was replaced by Eddie Lynch, a gawky guy with national health specs and rabbit teeth! Belshaw and Godding later changed the name of the band to The Ingoes.

When Eddie Lynch left The Ingoes he joined The Cheynes. This band included Peter Bardens on organ and vocals (later in Them), Mick Fleetwood on drums, and Phil Sawyer on lead guitar (later in The Spencer Davis Group).

Drummer Colin Martin replaced Love in the Blossom Toes. The Toes recruited lead guitarist/vocalist Jim Cregan. Cregan replaced Lynch, who was asked to leave and went to The Cheynes. Martin left and was replaced by Kevin Westlake (ex-Johnny B Great and the Quotations, who included future Rockpile guitarist Billy Bremner). Later in 1967, The Ingoes became The Blossom Toes. When Kevin Westlake left Blossom Toes, he was replaced by Poli Palmer in late 1967. Palmer was replaced by Barry Reeves, ex-soul band Ferris Wheel. Palmer later joined the bands Election and Family.

The We Are Ever So Clean album

They were then housed in a flat in Fulham by manager Giorgio Gomelsky and entered Chappell Studios to record their debut album, We Are Ever So Clean, with an arranger and an advanced copy of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album. Much of the album’s backing was recorded by an orchestra and by session men. The album was a 15-track group collection of inventive psych pop (i.e. Telegram Tuesday, When The Alarm Clock Rings) with its share of weirdness (i.e. ‘The Remarkable Saga Of The Frozen Dog’). In 1967, the band contributed music to “La Collectionneuse”, a film by Éric Rohmer and appeared in “Popdown” by Fred Marshall.

When The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in June 1967, its impact on the music scene was incalculable. It represented a whole range of new advances in composition, arrangement, instrumentation, and recording technique. The possibilities seemed endless, and groups scrambled to apply them to their own ideas.

Blossom Toes were among the first to answer the call, with the release of their first album, We Are Ever So Clean, in October 1967. The effects of Sgt. Pepper’s were apparent, with plenty of freaky orchestrations, complicated arrangements, and studio trickery applied to songs that were full of English whimsy and a certain twisted sense of humor. Referring to the group’s manager/producer, a reviewer in Melody Maker went so far as to dub the record “Giorgio Gomelsky’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

Mike Stax, Nuggets II liner notes

Unfortunately, their live act at this time suffered due to the inability to reproduce most of the album on stage. As a live recording from their 1967 Swedish tour reveals, the Toes live material from this time has the band playing Captain Beefheart & Tim Hardin songs. It’s hard to imagine how that fitted in with material from their debut. But it hinted at the style changes they would make two years later, by the time of their second album. After a Swedish tour, Westlake left the band.

Subsequent career

During 1968, two singles were released. Both featured new member Poli Palmer on drums, flute, and vibes. They released a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘I’ll Be You Baby Tonight’. This was followed by a true lost gem, ‘Postcard’, backed with ‘Everyone’s Leaving Me Now’. The latter was written and sung by Poli Palmer. It shows them playing on the jazzy side, while the ‘A’ side is a tightly crafted psych-pop song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou9qiRR8mac

Palmer left shortly after ‘Postcard’. Hewas replaced by Barry Reeves from the soul band Ferris Wheel. Their second album, If Only For A Moment was released in 1969. It was much less psychedelic than their debut, but it was still a strong album in the hard rock vein. It has some fine moments with the epic Love Bomb and the madness of the first track, ‘Peace Loving Man’.

Around this time, the band guested on Julie Driscoll’s 1969 album. There are also some recordings of the Blossom Toes of their BBC sessions which feature a few tracks off their second LP that show what the songs might have sounded like if Palmer stayed with them as well as unreleased songs like ‘Collects Little Girls’ and ‘Ever Since A Memory’.

The Blossom Toes split in 1970. Their spirit lived on most notably with B.B. Blunder, which consisted of Belshaw and Godding who rejoined Westlake. They recorded an album, Workers Playtime, with some excellent moments, including a remake of the Blossom Toes obscure 1969 single ‘New Day’.

Finally in 2007, Sunbeam Records reissued both albums in cooperation with the band. These releases include bonus tracks with all their non-LP singles and demos, outtakes and live tracks collected plus liner notes by Brian Godding.

Read More

• Nuggets Song by Song
• 1960s Album Reviews