The success of Rhino’s 1998 Nuggets boxset justified a follow-up. The sequel covers the rest of the world since the first volume only chronicled the USA.
Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969 emerged in 2001. It features music from countries such as Iceland, Uruguay, and Japan. I’m profiling and rating each of the 109 tracks, working backwards.
Track 77—Sad by The Australian Playboys
From: Melbourne, Australia
10
Credits
3/23. SAD – The (Australian) Playboys (Australia)
(Brian Peacock)
PERSONNEL/MICK ROGERS: vocals, guitar * TREVOR GRIFFIN: organ, vocals * BRIAN PEACOCK: bass, vocals * CRAIG COLLINGE: drums
Produced by MIKE HURST
Recorded in London, England
Sunshine single #QIK-1872 (1967) [Australia]
The Australian Playboys
The Playboys formed as the backing group for Normie Rowe. Rowe was Australia’s most successful solo act of the 1960s, although he had limited success outside his native country. His double a-sides ‘Que Sera Sera’/’Shakin’ All Over’ and ‘Ooh La La’/’Ain’t Nobody Home’ both topped the Australian single charts. The former was reputedly the highest-selling single in Australia in the 1960s.
Rowe moved to the UK in 1966 to further his career. The Playboys now included two New Zealanders, including Brian Peacock, the writer of ‘Sad’.
Despite some heavy PR and several quality releases, Rowe’s career failed to take off in the U.K. However, The Playboys used the extended stay to their advantage, absorbing the sounds of the rapidly evolving English scene and taking some British players on board, including Mick Rogers and Trevor Griffin. Unfortunately, this hybrid Aussie-Brit lineup only recorded this one superb single.
Mike Stax, Nuggets II liner notes
Sad
The Playboys signed with Andrew Loog Oldham’s Immediate Records. They only recorded one single, ‘Sad’, backed with ‘Black Sheep RIP’.
It’s fantastic – one of the great long singles of the 1960s. It sounds like a 1964 Beatles song covered by 1967 psychedelic Beatles, shot through with a large dollop of melancholy.
The Aftermath
The band only made one single. When they returned to Australia, they formed the psychedelic rock band Procession.
(Australian) Playboys’ lead vocalist Mick Rogers later formed Manfred Mann’s Earth Band with Manfred Mann. They’re most famous for their Bruce Springsteen covers, notably ‘Blinded by the Light’.
Meanwhile, Normie Rowe was drafted to the Vietnam War. In 1991, broadcaster Ron Casey punched him on live television after a heated political debate. Casey made derogatory remarks about Rowe’s service in Vietnam.
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Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
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Awesome single…I agree. That mid-tempo psychedelic just what I like. You described the song perfectly about being a 64 Beatles cut covered by 67 Beatles…I couldn’t have put it any better.
The producer Mike Hurst…I’ve heard of him before…he worked with Cat Stevens.
Wow…that was exciting! Throwing some knuckles on a talk show…we had a show called The Jerry Springer Show…that he would ask sometimes the most awful people and they would go at it.
Feels like the guest was being pretty aggressive in this case.
Yeah – I loved this song, one of my faves from Nuggets II so far.