The Play-Boys

How can you talk about Vince Taylor without associating his success to the super band that was : The Play-Boys. Like Tony Harvey said, The Play-Boys were not any ordinary backing group. They were part of the show. Vince played with them like they played with him. This king of complicity jumps out at you when you look at the live recordings of the band. Vince needed to be able to exchange glances with The Play-Boys and the musicians attitude, as much theatrical as musical show this every time. The most well-known formation of the band was built up at Bobbie "Clarke" Woodman: drums, Johnny Vance: bass , Alain "Le Claire/Hamilton" Cocks : piano, Tony Harvey : guitar, Bob Steel : guitar.

Tony Harvey- Johnny Vance - Alain Leclaire- Bobbie Clarke photo Bob Lampard

 Although various articles recount the facts as in his biography : Alias Vince Taylor, Vince complains about the conditions for the recording of the 15 titles for Barclay, in Vince's eye, one night (?) according to Tony Harvey several months (?) not more than two, seeing the date of release on the LP 25 cm 'Le Rock c'est ça' obviously each and every one of these titles a gem in itself.

The sound of The Play-Boys with Bob Steel on guitar, (Tony couldn't play, he was held back by his contract with Nero and the Gladiators in London) was superbe. The clearness of Bob's solos, sustained by two locomotives, John Vance and Bobbie Clarke and the piano links so simple but so efficient of Alain Le Claire, they were at his service and there to put Vince's voice in the highlight. His voice was not harsch like those of other rockers, like Little Richard or Jerry Lee Lewis or sometimes Elvis, but sensual and feline, always on the limit of breaking sliding like a snake over the play-backs with rare precision. In the interval, Tony Harvey was finally convinced by Vince and Bobbie to start up the group again, knowing how to keep the same style, simple and clear like for the first single. When listening to the 25 cm 'Le Rock c'est ça' which survived, we are hit by the osmosis and the similarity which the two guitarists have, alternating their duties, Bob went on to rythm guitar whilst Tony took solo.

OBSERVATION

 Vince had no need of that fuzz guitar sound, which of course became a musical style some years after. His voice loosened up badly and became distorde, he often needed to force his voice (which was'nt made for that), in order to overcome the play-back which was too loud, where the ego of 'musician producers' goes over the limit and the final goal, a goal which should stay keeping the improvment of his voice.

When we listen with windsight the great LP Barclay 'Vince' and we can hear the pitiful 'simulacre' of the live recording, with a crowd if you listen close enough who shout and scream, but the same shout and the same scream every 3 seconds (technology not allowing at the time for an atmosphere to be recorded on a 1 and a 1/2 meter tape and be recorded and the same time as the final mix). Astonished by the second-rate of the producers of this album, who thought that they had hit the big time, and could also hide the violent scenes common to these concerts and open up to a larger public-market .

Long live the re-edition which came out several years after, without the public, ouf .... Thanks....

His voice may have been well backed after in several records except for "Luv" and 'Bien compris' for Big Beat Record, but Vince's voice never found the richness and the sparkle which he had with The Play-Boys.

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