Firstly, "Just Because" an instrumental by The Chessmen an old track from the EMI vaults. The Chessmen were the first backing band that Johnny Chester worked with and their song "Teeny" was their first hit with Johnny. They hailed from Melbourne. Some of their tracks have made it to CD but this one is still missing. Their first work was on the W&G label but this release was on HMV.
The second track "Nightmare" by The Raiders is from the old Festival subsidiary called Rex records. It is a short instrumental from 1961 and was given a kind of mild spooky set of chords and overdubs. The A-side was "Nature Boy" (which I can't present here because the vinyl record was damaged and I could only salvage the B-side). The Raiders were almost a house band for Rex records as they worked behind many acts including Bix Bryant and Candy Williams.
The third track is "That's The Way It Goes" by Sydney band The Crickets - this one has vocals. This band are Ozzies, and should not be confused with Buddy Holly's backing band also called The Crickets. It appears this is the only song released under the Ozzie group name "The Crickets". The song was released in 1965 on the Leedon label it was written by Bruce Welsh & Hank Marvin - two men from the UK group, The Shadows. According to Bruce the reason this song sounds familiar is because it was a reworked version of "It's So Easy" by Buddy Holly - I wonder did the Sydney group The Crickets know there was this spooky connection to Buddy Holly?
Lastly, the Leedon label's second ever release "The Last Drag" by the American band The Voxpoppers. The Leedon label was started by American promoter Lee Gordon who often released overseas acts here on his own label. Lee and Johnny O'Keefe were partners in this record label and their relationship was tempestuous at best. The second release by Leedon LS-002 was for the American combo The Voxpoppers. The song is in pretty good condition and sounds better than I imagined - almost CD quality.All songs are in a zip file (no password) courtesy of Jimmy Barnes who has kindly given them to me to convert and set up as downloads. Many thanks, Jim!
http://rapidshare.com/files/294392563/chessmen_crickets_raiders.zip
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