Peter & Gordon (Official Thread)

[elfranco]

Official Website

A World Without Love (1964)
I Don't Want to See You Again (1964)
I Go to Pieces (1965)
True Love Ways (1965)
Sing and Play Hits of Nashville (1966)
Woman (1966)
Best of (1966)
Lady Godiva (1967)
Knight in Rusty Armor (1967)
In London for Tea (1967)
Hot, Cold & Custard (1967)



I Don't Want To See You Again, a very well produced single. These guys were light and made love songs and ballads. Let's rap about it.

 

[Flower]

Re: Peter & Gordon

From Wikipedia ~

Peter and Gordon were a British Invasion-era performing duo, formed by Peter Asher and Gordon Waller, that rocketed to fame in 1964 with "A World Without Love" and had several subsequent hits in that era.

History

Peter Asher's sister, actress Jane Asher, was dating The Beatles' Paul McCartney, so Peter and Gordon recorded several songs solely written by McCartney, but credited, as most compositions by either were at the time, to Lennon/McCartney. Those hits included "A World Without Love" (U.S. #1), "Nobody I Know," "I Don't Want To See You Again," and "Woman." "Woman" is credited to "Bernard Webb"; McCartney used this pseudonym to see if he could have a hit song even without his famous name attached to it. The song reached number 14 in the US and number 28 on the British charts. Peter and Gordon also recorded the John Lennon penned Lennon/McCartney song, "If I Fell."

Other hits for the group included "I Go to Pieces" (U.S. #7), which was written by Del Shannon and given to the duo after the two acts toured together, and remakes of "True Love Ways" by Buddy Holly and "To Know Him Is To Love Him" by the Teddy Bears, retitled "To Know You Is To Love You." Peter and Gordon had their last hits in 1967 with "Lady Godiva" (U.S. #6), "Knight In Rusty Armour" and "Sunday for Tea."

Asher became head of A&R for Apple Records. Asher has continued his career as a recording executive in California where he exlusively managed and produced Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Peter has also produced recordings for Cher, 10,000 Maniacs, and Diana Ross. His daughter Victoria Asher is a member of the alternative group Cobra Starship.

In August 2005, Peter and Gordon reunited onstage for the first time in over 30 years, as part of two tribute concerts for Mike Smith of the Dave Clark Five in New York City. This was followed by more complete concerts at The Festival for Beatles Fans (formerly Beatlefest) conventions beginning the following year. Paul McCartney heard about the reunion shows, and sent a message to them congratulating them for deciding to reunite. In the spring of 2007 and 2008 Peter and Gordon were featured performers in the "Flower Power" concert series at Disney's EPCOT in Florida. Also in 2007 they performed as part of "Love-In: A Musical Celebration" (Home | Love In The Musical), a tribute to the music of the 1960s, filmed at the Birch North Park Theatre in San Diego, California, and released on DVD in March 2009.

The pair played numerous times at the "50 Winters Later" celebration in February 2009 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper. This was held in Clear Lake, Iowa at the Surf Ballroom.

They since performed in Chicago, New Jersey and at the Festival for Beatles Fans convention in Las Vegas July 1 and 2, 2009, where according to a report by Journalist Peter Palmiere for Beatlefan magazine, the pair was the performing highlight of the convention. Peter and Gordon both told Palmiere at the Las Vegas Festival for Beatles Fans that they were to perform at the 2006 Adopt-A-Minefield show with Paul McCartney until it was cancelled by McCartney himself due to his impending divorce from Heather Mills. On August 21, 2008, they performed a free concert on the pier in Santa Monica, California.

Waller died on 17 July 2009 at the age of 64.

 

[Flower]

Re: Peter & Gordon

 

[elfranco]

Re: Peter & Gordon

Thanks for that as it sheds light on just another of the many acts of the time.

 

[Flower]

Re: Peter & Gordon

I don't think that I was alone in mixing up (at times) Peter & Gordon with Chad & Jeremy ...

Chad & Jeremy ...



Here's an interview from ClassicBands.com

Peter and Gordon enjoyed considerable musical success in the mid 60s with songs like "A World Without Love", "Nobody I Know", "Woman", "Lady Godiva" and "I Go To Pieces".

Gordon Waller talked with us recently about Peter and Gordon.


Q - Is it true that both of you and Peter came from well-to-do families?

A - Well, I wouldn't say well-to-do, but we weren't on the poverty line. I think if you want to put it into a class, we'd be called Middle Class. Peter might consider they were Upper Class, but my family was certainly not.

Q - I almost forgot to ask, when you were doing Joseph And His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the '70s, were you recognized?

A - Oh yes of course. They knew exactly who I was.

Q - How did Peter and Gordon get a record deal? Who pointed the finger at you and said - "You!"

A - Well, quite a lot of people did. This was the early time of independent labels. Of course we'd never heard of 'em so we really didn't take much interest. Having said that, if we had taken a little bit more interest we probably would've gotten a better royalty rate and probably able to get out of it a lot easier. But, it was a producer from E.M.I. in London who asked us if we'd like to do an audition, gave us his card and we said yes, we'd love to. At the time it was E.M.I. or Phillips or Decca. Those were really the only three record companies in England. E.M.I. of course had loads of subsidiaries like Columbia, Parlophone. Then Decca was Decca and Phillips was Phillips.

Q - After you got this record deal, you obviously went on tour. Who did you tour with?

A - Lots of people. We toured with The Stones. We toured with The Beatles. We toured with The Kinks. We toured with Roy Orbison, Gene Pitney, Jerry Lee Lewis, James Brown.

Q - I'm guessing you got that record deal in '63.

A - Yeah. October '63.

Q - Did you know what was happening in England was going to explode all over the world?

A - No. At that time we didn't know at all. When they said to us in April '64...May '64, "Capitol Records have decided to take you on", oh, wow, does this mean our record is going to come out in America? They said yeah, of course. That's what Capitol Records is. We were the first group after The Beatles to have a number one in the 60s, the first English group.

Q - In the U.S. or Europe?

A - In the United States. We were the first group to be number one in the United States apart from The Beatles. So, that was pretty cool.

Q - Where did you tour with The Beatles?

A - We did Germany with The Beatles. We did about a six week tour with The Rolling Stones in England. Then we did loads of tours in America here.

Q - What year would you have toured with The Beatles?

A - '66. That was some tour. \

Q - By that time, they had grown weary of being on the road.

A - Yeah. In fact I was looking at a recording of it the other day. They hardly played any of their hits. They played what they wanted to play. Mind you, it didn't really matter. Number one, you couldn't hear them or they couldn't hear themselves and number two, the fans didn't really give a shit what they played, it was this is The Beatles and that's it. Whatever they do is going to be good.

Q - How did that work for you? What happened when you went on stage?

A - We'd had a couple of fairly big hits in Germany. We had a captive audience who knew who we were. So, we went down really great.

Q - They didn't boo you then?

A - Oh, no. If they'd booed us, The Beatles wouldn't have gone on, so that was it.

Q - You appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show?

A - Yes, we did.

Q - Now, what was that like?

A - That was frightening because Ed Sullivan was a pretty sullen bloke. You didn't know whether he was going to speak to you or not. People said, when you finish your song, if he asks you over to shake hands, then he likes you, if he doesn't, don't worry about it, there's still millions of people who have just seen you. But in fact, he invited us over and we've got photographs with him.

Q - I don't know if anyone else has ever brought this up, I suppose they have...

A - I'll soon tell you.

Q - Yeah. I know you will. In the mid 60s, there were two very popular duos, Peter and Gordon and Chad and Jeremy. I used to get the two duos confused at times.

A - Silly you.

Q - I know. I'm just telling you the truth. Did you ever hear that from other people as well?

A - They don't get us muddled up, but they do get us muddled up as to where we performed. Chad and Jeremy did the Patty Duke Show I believe, which we never did. People come up to us and try to be buddy buddy and friendly and say "Hey, I saw you on The Patty Duke Show. You looked great!" You'd say, well thanks very much. Glad you enjoyed it, but it wasn't us. But these things happen, who cares? It doesn't alter anything in the end. The people who come up with the wrong questions are just one of many millions.

Q - You stopped having hit records in 1967. Would that be accurate?

A - '67, '68, something like that. Yeah.

Q - Why would that have been? What was the problem there?

A - 'Cause we weren't making records. In the end it all comes down to enjoying it and making money. The actual artistic side of it got to the stage where it wasn't worthwhile financially going out, in other words sometimes we went out on tours where we actually lost money. So, it was purely a promotional tour. That really shouldn't have been us taking the burden of that. That should've been down to the record company.

Q - I know that Peter and Gordon performed at one of those Beatles conventions recently, but where else do you perform?

A - Well, anywhere if it's right. Peter and I have only done one Beatles Festival. Fest for Beatles fans as they now have to call it. I've done about nine of them on my own. We've done a couple of casinos. We went to the Philippines in December (2005). We did a couple of shows there. That was excellent. Great audience. Great reaction. Considering their age, great musicians. It's like anything out there, you give 'em something and they all copy it. It was the same in the sixties. We went over there. All we did was we just sent them a record in those days and just ticked off the ones we wanted them to learn and they learned them note for note. The only thing we had to do was try and get a little more feeling into it. When they're actually copying something, it's not quite a spontaneous.

Q - When you're out on the road, do you travel with your own musicians?

A - No. There's a band over in the Philippines that I used a couple of years ago. When I go out on my own, I do about five Peter and Gordon songs and the rest of it is stuff that either I've written or old rock 'n' roll things. When Peter and I went over there we used the same band, but we got a different keyboard player. We got this young kid who was so good it wasn't true. He really had everything programmed. He could make all the string sounds and all the horn sounds and brass section sounds. He was really excellent.

Q - How about recording. Do you put out any CDs of your own these days?

A - What, new stuff you mean?

Q - Yes.

A - No. We haven't recorded anything since 1968 or 1969. I think we did an album in 1969 just to fulfill our contract. Then I put out a few solo songs, none of which were hits of any sort. After Peter and Gordon finished, I had a recording contract on my own with E.M.I.

Q - How long did that contract last?

A - They were all two year contracts. Then I went to a company called Bell Records. Then I went to a company called Vertigo, which is a subsidiary of Phillips. Once again they didn't spend the money promoting it. They expected me to spend the money and I said well, I haven't got that kind of money it takes to promote it. You promote it and do the business and I'll be there. I'll do the songs.

Q - Were Peter and Gordon ripped off? I've heard so many horror stories from sixties artists.

A - Let's not go into horror stories unless you've got about a week and a half to listen.

Q - That bad?

A - Oh yes.

Q - Very seldom do you hear of a performer from the sixties who didn't get ripped off.

A - When you're seventeen, eighteen, how the hell are you to know, if you've never heard of a recording contract before, if it's good or bad? The Beatles were big enough to be able to change their contract. We weren't. But, initially we had exactly the same recording contract as they did. They were powerful enough to say we're not going to record, sue us if you want.

Q - I thought maybe Brian Epstein would've taken you under his wing.

A - No. He had quite enough on his plate.

 

[Flower]

Re: Peter & Gordon

Elfranco .. I don't remember this tune at all .. I Don't Want To See You Again ...

 

[Hepcat]

Re: Peter & Gordon

I've always liked this one:



***:

 

[Groovy Man]

Re: Peter & Gordon

Me and my brother used to go wild over this song...

We had the 45...



Seventeen, a beauty queen
She made a ride that caused a scene
In the town

Her long blonde hair
Hangin' down around her knees
All the cats who dig striptease
Prayin' for a little breeze
Her long blonde hair
Falling down across her arms
Hiding all the lady's charms
Lady Godiva

She found fame and made her name
A hollywood director came into town
And said to her
"How'd you like to be a star?"
"You're a girl that could go far"
"'specially dressed the way you are"
She smiled at him
Gave her pretty head a shake
That was Lady G's mistake
A-hey-hey-hey
Lady Godiva

He directs certificate 'X'
And people now are craning their necks
To see her
'cause she's a star
One that everybody knows
Finished with the striptease shows
Now she can't afford her clothes

Her long blonde hair
Lyin' on the barber's floor
Doesn't need it long anymore
Lady Godiva

 

[Flower]

Re: Peter & Gordon

I go to Pieces ...

 

[Flower]

Re: Peter & Gordon