C&J Split! Uncle, Maya Cancelled! Brian Jones’ Dilemma! Cowsills Taking Over?
AND AWAY WE GO: With all the latest news from Hollywood and the international pop scene, that is!
Stones: By now you know that Brian Jones has been sentenced to nine months in prison for possessing marijuana and allowing it to be smoked in his home. He was denied bail pending the appeal, the results of which were not yet known when this column was written. We’ll tell you what happened next month.
Briefly, the facts are these: On May 10 (the same day Mick Jagger and Keith Richard had the preliminary hearing on their drug charges, Brian’s flat was raided and various substances confiscated. Brian and a friend were in the apartment at the time.
Then in October, Brian’s trial came up. He denied that the marijuana found in the apartment was his, but admitted it was technically in his possession since it was found in his home. He said it had been brought there by friends, and also admitted he had allowed it to be smoked in his flat.
At the trial, Dr. Leonard Henry, a psychiatrist, testified that he had been treating Brian since his arrest, and said that Brian now had “a sensible and sane approach to his problem and had ceased smoking marijuana.” He further stated that he felt “that any confinment [sic] in prison would completely destroy his (Brian’s) mental health, and he would go into phychotic [sic] depression, as he could not possibly stand a stigma of a prison sentence. He might well attempt to injure himself.” The judge, however, told Brian that since he occupies a position by which he has a large following of youth, it behooved him to set an example which he had broken down on, and therefore he was handing down a prison sentence to underline the seriousness of the offense.
In the gallery a crowd of teen-age girls burst into tears at the sentencing.
C & J SPLIT: Chad and Jeremy, who’ve been rocking the pop world with their album Cabbages and Kings, are splitting, at least temporaily [sic]. Jeremy, whose first love was acting anyway, is joining the cast as one of the leads in Broadway’s newest production, “Black Comedy” and will be with it at least six months.
Chad, meanwhile, will spend his free time writing, arranging and in general preparing for the future C & J album.
COWSILLS: Are the Cowsills taking over? This is the question everyone in Hollywood seems to be asking. We know there’s plenty of money behind them, and we know that the world is ready for a new “thing’ or gimmick. Will it be a 39-year old mother and five of her offsprings? Ed Sullivan apparently thinks so, because he has already signed them for 10 personal appearances. In order of age the Cowsill family (their real last name) are Sue, 8; John, 11; Barry, 13; Bob, 18; Bill, 19; and their mother Barbara. Their first single “The Rain, The Park and Other Things” was a pretty big hit. We’ll see.
SITARIST Ravi Shankar has accepted a teaching post at New York City College. He started out with only 30 kids enrolled, but it seems as if at least 150 others are sitting in. When the master plays the youth of the world listens. He also played at the United Nations to capacity crowds in December.
SOUL: Lou Rawls and the Fifth Dimension have been set to tour with Dick Clark Productions in March, playing in such towns as Memphis, Cleveland, Atlanta and Cincinnati… Soul artists are the biggest thing to hit the British Isles in a long time, too. As Ray of Them stated, “We haven’t got any Negro soul artists of our own, so we naturally love all of yours. But as a result we don’t like very many of your White groups!”
LOCAL GROUPS such as the Living End, the Reaction, the Rationals, the Flock and many others seem to be having a hard time hitting it nationally. Wonder why? All have groovy sounds and plenty of loyal fans at home.
The Strawberry Alarm Clock is one local group that is hitting it big, though. Uni, the company they record for, pulled themselves up and cut of the red with “Incense and Peppermints” and now they’re expanding. The album is fantastic, too, expecially [sic] the first cut. It’s 8 ½ minutes long, and if Uni is smart, they’ll release it in a short version for a single.
That’s how the Doors made it with “Light My Fire.” Local stations began playing the long version from the album on the air, and everyone got so many requests that Electra released a short version. The same is true of the Buffalo Springfield’s “Bluebird”, which is much longer on the album. Time will tell. Speaking of the Springfield, Bruce and two members of the Doppler Effect, Clark and Lance, were involved in an automobile accident at Malibu Beach, just up the coast from us. Bruce is all right, but Clark and Lance will probably be in the hospital a long time, and the group will probably be out of commission for three months.
COMMERCIALS: Groups are all doing commercials these days, Dino, Desi and Billy filmed a Royal Crown ad at the Hollywood Bowl, and The Sunshine Company have just completed a bit for the Clairol people. Only their hairdressers know for sure…
Canned Heat, A San Francisco group with a folksyblues sound, is having court troubles. When they were in Denver appearing at the only local club, the Family Dog, they were arrested for possession.
They held a press conference in Los Angeles shortly afterwards, and told their story—a frame-up all around, according to the boys. The ideal police heavy was barred from harrassing [sic] the Family Dog (he has a bulletin board in the police station with pictures of all long-hairs in the area, and a little button appears when he can finally get them for something) so he started harrassing [sic] the group that was playing there, in this case, Canned Heat. Them had appeared a few weeks later, though, and heard the Heat were asking for it. (Speaking of Them, they’re fantastic, both as people and performers. Clean cut, too. They were in town for three brief days, and filmed several TV shows, as well as going to the zoo with TS editor T. I suppose she’ll tell you that story next month—she wouldn’t take me with her…).
BRITISH BITS: The Beatles may have postponed their proposed tour to India indefinitely. No one seems to know.
Michael Crawford, one star in “How I Won the War,” talked about the good times they all had. John, especially, was easy to work with, he said, he just hated to get up in the morning! Seems they were always having to carry him from his bed to his Rolls Royce! John, John…
George is giving Pattie full credit these days for all the Beatles having become interested in the Maharishi. He said that SHE was the one who really started it all by having joined the Transcendental Meditation Center a long time ago.
The Beatles and Stones merger is beginning to look bigger all the time. Said The Jagger, “It’s fantastic. Just something Paul and I talked about. We’d like to build the best recording studios in the world. It would be like five years ahead of its time. A record label together is another possibility… I don’t want to do any more of the old Rolling Stone tours, in the same way that I don’t want to shake rattles or eat baby food. To my mind, people are too influenced about the need to have money. I don’t only want to do things for money… We don’t have a manager now, we manage ourselves. It takes a lot of work and a lot of organization, too.”
Mick doesn’t mind being linked with the Beatles on most things (John and Paul are his best friends) but he refuses to talk about meditation and the Maharishi. Wonder why, since he and Marianne went with the Beatles and their girls to Bangor? Speaking of Marianne, Mick is recording her next album, but he’s being hung up because of her film.
Meanwhile, John’s first book, “In His Own Write” is to be adapted for the stage, by the National Theatre, as an experimental production, only, and it’s set for sometime this year. Wonder when “Yellow Submarine” the Beatles cartoon will be coming out?
Monkee Bits: Micky is Hollywood’s newest baby sitter, but he won’t let me tell you what photographer’s two-year old son he’s sitting for. I won’t drop any hints though, okay, Bobby?
Mike and family moved into their new house recently, dog, mini-cooper and all. Mike even has a big black limousine and a chauffer, who is none other that Ralph Bicknell, the Beatles old chauffer! (Alf Bicknell was the Beatles’ chauffeur, but this is likely referring to Alf Weaver.) Seems John loaned Ralph to Mike when he and Phyllis were in England, and they took him back here to the States with them!
Lynn Randall was seeing a lot of Peter when she was in town recently… Davy, meanwhile, has been dating the Flying Nun—Sally Field.
GROUP ITEMS: Electric Prunes Jim and Mark came up to the TS offices the other day, just to chew the fat. Seems they’ve recorded the Catholic Mass in F Minor, done in “New Baroque”. It’s different, and is getting critical acclaim.
The Young Rascals are going all over these days. The State Department even has them set for a tour of Japan! . . . Sky Saxon of the Seeds recently just blew $100,000 on a beach house in Malibu . . . Procol Harum came into town . . . Dionne Warwick has married for the second time to the same man, musician William Elliot, in Milan, Italy. They were first married in May, 1966 . . . Lulu got a gold record for “To Sir with love” . . . Is Jerry Lee Lewis retiring? Some trades have him merely going to Hollywood to make a musical version of Othello. Jerry as OTHELLO?? . . . Where’s the Brotherhood? . . . I know Phil, Drake and Smitty wanted to make the first record a good one, but it’s been almost a year . . .
Stevie Wonder is dating Diana Ross’s younger sister Rita. They both go to the same campus . . . The W.C. Fields Memorial String Band has kicked out their lead singer because he felt that he was holding them back and keeping them to one sound. Seems he was too like the Jagger . . . Britain’s The Move is, at the same time, being hailed as the New Stones; Mick wished them luck, but “You haven’t heard the last of the (real) Stones” quoth he . . . Work permit for them hinges on Brian, now.
Paul Revere and the Raiders have a new gimmick—a cross between the Monkeemobile and Batmobile called the Voxmobile. It’s got an organ in the back for Paul, and while it can go over 167 mph, it also is a moving amplifier for the rest of the Raiders to plug in their instruments! It has a good sound, too. (But which of the three cars would win in an out-and-out race?)
There’s some new ideas in the business, apparently. Britain has Arthur Brown, whose act consists of such things as flying through the air with his hair on fire, singing “Give Him A Flower.” Over here we have a gimmick called Spontaneous Sound. One man sits on a stage loaded with gongs, tumpani, cymbals, bells, chimes, flutes, reeds and Tibetan temple horns, and plays whatever pops into his mind. It’s all impromptu ad-libbing, and interesting…
THE LIVING END: Well that’s all for right now, meet you here next month—same Vox time, same Vox channel.
