The Story

Pussy Plays

It's 1968.  Steve Townsend and Barry Clark are jamming in a basement in deepest Hertfordshire.  They were brought together by an ad in Melody Maker.  Barry had a recording contract with Morgansound studio.  Morgan wanted to get in on the flourishing British Prog/Psych scene by launching a new record label, Morgan Blue Town - and Barry was looking for musicians to form a "progressive" band for the label.

So, Barry and Steve find they are on the same musical page.  Steve invites two members of his recently deceased band, We Shake Milk - Dek Boyce and Jez Turner, vocals and bass respectively - to join, and Barry brings in his old friend Peter Whiteman on keyboards.

After a minimum of meetings and rehearsals the band - now called Pussy - are in the vast Morgansound studios in Willesden recording tracks mainly written by the album's producer, Danny Beckerman.  The intention is to make the songs "progressive" and a lot of improvisation goes on during the sessions.  Then the master tapes are whipped away and the band knows nothing more until the album is released in March 1969.

And it quickly sinks without trace.  Left without support from the record company and with no proper management, after a handful of gigs the band folds.

Fast Forward to the late 1990s.  Steve now lives and drums in Cornwall and, as usual on a Saturday morning, is sitting in the drum room at Modern Music in Truro chatting to the drum guy, Dave.  And Dave says, "Hey - you know that band you said you were in - Pussy?  And the album you made - Pussy Plays?  Well, look at this..."  And he produces a copy of the current Record Collector magazine and opens it at a double-page spread all about Pussy Plays.  The sheer rarity of the album means that original copies change hands for thousands, but the writer of the piece was at pains to point out that, in this case, the music itself merited the cost of the album.

The article was written by David Wells and Steve manages to contact him via the magazine.  Over the years the album has gained something of a cult following and has even spawned bootleg copies.  And it turns out that David has been asked to provide the liner notes for a legit CD release on the Edsel label - due out in 2001.  So the notes become a product of David interviewing Steve.

Record Collector and David Wells were good to Pussy Plays over the next few years.  In 2005 they produced a glossy book entitled 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records, and Pussy Plays was in there - along with The Who, The Yardbirds, Pink Floyd, and even Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles.  Then, in 2009, when they started a series of high-quality vinyl limited re-pressings of significant albums, the first one they chose was Pussy Plays - in collaboration with Secret Records, who had acquired the Morgan Blue Town label.  And that was followed by Uncut magazine's Ultimate Record Collection: 1960s in which Pussy Plays was featured as one of the most collectable albums of the decade.

With the advent of social media the album has gained a whole new global audience who regard it as an iconic example of British Psychedelia - so much so that Secret Records have produced several re-pressings - on various shades of vinyl - and the album is still available at the present day.  Discogs shows 22 different LP and CD releases, plus one Test Pressing.  There was one single released from the album - in Italy.

Pussy Plays Again

It is now 7 February 2018.  Steve is back in Hertfordshire and has been persuaded to attend an Open Mic / Jam session - the monthly Guitar Club - at Hertford Corn Exchange.  He has no intention of participating but a friend adds his name to the list and he gets up and plays a few numbers with the House Band.  And that - unbeknownst to Steve, Bob, Rick and Paul - was the first time that Pussy Plays Again made music together.

Steve goes back to The Guitar Club on 2 May.  Bob and Rick also play in the House Band for another monthly Open Mic / Jam session - Heavy Fuel, at The Herald in Harlow.  They invite Steve to the next one - on the 31st.  From then on Steve is a regular at both events, eventually taking over the drum stool in both House Bands.  By now the four unsuspecting Pussy Plays Again band members have become firm friends.

The next notable date is Thursday 26 July 2018.  Steve walks into Heavy Fuel wearing a T-shirt on which his daughter-in-law has printed the Pussy Plays logo.  Bob is intrigued, "What's that all about?".  So Steve explains that he is the drummer on the album.  Bob is gobsmacked!  He is heavily into prog and psychedelia and has an enormous collection of CDs - of which Pussy Plays is one, and which he thinks is rather good.  The two of them have plenty to talk about,  The Pussy Plays album - and Bob has just published a memoir of his time with Iron Maiden and Praying Mantis, "Iron Maiden And Praying Mantis - The Early Days".

A short fast-forward this time, through the pandemic, to 17 April 2022.  For many years Bob has created music and recorded it in his home studio.  He plays Steve one of the tracks and Steve - half-jokingly - remarks that it would go nicely on a Pussy Plays Volume 2 album.  The pair idly kick around some half-serious scenarios but don't really get anywhere.  Four days later Bob has called a pub meeting.  He's been thinking the Pussy Plays Volume 2 thing through and thinks it may have some sort of future.  Rick is also at the meeting as Bob thinks that he and Paul would be the ideal pair to complete the band line-up.  Bob has several half-finished tracks which would make a good basis for the album, so the band agrees that recording needs to start as soon as possible.  And the very next day Bob announces the project to the world on Facebook!

7 June 2022 sees the first recording session at Apollo Audio Studios in Hertford.  Over the course of the next three months all the basic tracks are laid down at Apollo using the band's own portable recorders.  Bob takes the tracks to his home studio and adds vocals and psychedelic magic.  Except for New Age Dystopia which is recorded in a "lockdown" manner - each player adding his contribution at home and then Paul bringing it all together.

The album and the band are now Pussy Plays Again.  A hundred CDs are produced and sold mainly via Facebook - and all the music is streamed across the internet through a deal with DistroKid.  The band really want it out on vinyl but the cost of private pressings is prohibitive.  But here's another significant date - 27 April 2023.  Steve gets a message from a friend saying that a record plant in Luton has just pressed another run of Pussy Plays.  Maybe a deal could be struck whereby they would press a smaller volume of the new album.  Unfortunately, their smaller run would still be too expensive for a speculative private pressing.

And then - a Eureka moment!  Steve figures, why go to the pressing plant?  Why not approach the record company directly?  He finds the website of Secret Records and - another significant date - on 2 May emails them with an outline of the project and saying that if they were not willing to take it on, the band would still be grateful for any help or advice they could give.

Time passes.  Then on 10 May an email from Secret Records.  They are interested!  Please send them the tracks!  No sooner said than done!

And then - a lot more time passes.  But the final decision comes from Secret Records on 19 June.  They will take on the project and press the vinyl (and a new CD) - and it will be released on the Morgan Blue Town label!  Everything happens very quickly after that.  Contracts are signed - artwork is finalised - Secret Records polish up the tracks - but the release has to be put off until the first quarter of 2024 because of lack of capacity in UK pressing plants.

Finally the release is set for 22 March 2024.  The original 12 tracks have had to be cut down to 8 because of the limitations of vinyl - so the album will be offered as a bundle with the full 12-track CD.  The CD will also be offered on its own.

Friday 22 March 2024.  The Pussy Plays Again album is released exactly 55 years after Pussy Plays - and on the same label.  It is immediately distributed to all the major outlets - HMV, W H Smith, Amazon, Rough Trade, etc - and the band celebrate with a hugely successful Launch Event at Bedford Esquires music venue.

But this is not the end of the story.  It's the end of the start of the story...