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Freddie and the Dreamers | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Manchester, England |
Genres | Beat, novelty |
Years active | 1962–2000 |
Labels | Columbia (EMI) (UK); Capitol, Tower, Mercury (US) |
Past members | Freddie Garrity Roy Crewdson Derek Quinn Peter Birrell Bernie Dwyer |
Freddie and the Dreamers were an English beat band that had a number of hit records between 1962 and 1965. The band's stage act was enlivened by the comic antics of Freddie Garrity, who would bounce around the stage with arms and legs flying.
The band, formed in March 1962 in West Didsbury, Manchester, consisted of vocalist Freddie Garrity (1936–2006), guitarist Roy Crewdson (born 1941), guitarist/harmonica player Derek Quinn (1942–2020), bassist Peter Birrell, and drummer Bernie Dwyer (1940–2002). [1] Although the band was grouped as part of the Merseybeat sound phenomenon centred around Liverpool, they came from Manchester. [1] Prior to becoming a singer, Garrity had worked as a milkman in Manchester and bassist Birrell was a shoe salesman. [2]
They had four Top 10 UK hits: a cover of James Ray's hit "If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody", which reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart in mid-1963, "I'm Telling You Now" (number 2 in August), "You Were Made for Me" (number 3 in November) and a cover of The G-Clefs' "I Understand", which hit the number 5 spot in November 1964. [1]
Their eponymous debut album was released in the United Kingdom in 1963, peaking at number five in the UK Albums Chart and reaching number 19 in the US albums chart on 22 May 1965. It was the only LP by the group to chart in America; their subsequent four albums in the UK failed to chart.[ citation needed ]
On stage, the group performed rehearsed, synchronised wacky dance routines. They appeared in four British films: What a Crazy World with Joe Brown, Just for You, Cuckoo Patrol with Kenneth Connor and Victor Maddern and Every Day's A Holiday (US title Seaside Swingers) with Mike Sarne, Ron Moody and John Leyton. [1]
Between 1968 and 1973, Garrity and Birrell appeared in the UK ITV children's show Little Big Time, a zany music/talent/adventure show with audience participation. [3]
Garrity and Birrell formed a new version of Freddie and the Dreamers in the mid-1970s, releasing three albums on the Arny's Shack label in 1976, 1978 and 1983, although Birrell had left before the third release.
In the 1980 Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll, Lester Bangs wrote of the group:
Freddie and the Dreamers [had] no masterpiece but a plenitude of talentless idiocy and enough persistence to get four albums and one film soundtrack released ... the Dreamers looked as thuggish as Freddie looked dippy ... Freddie and the Dreamers represented a triumph of rock as cretinous swill, and as such should be not only respected, but given their place in history. [4]
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Freddie and the Dreamers is the eponymous debut album from the British Invasion band Freddie and the Dreamers from Manchester, England. It was released in the United Kingdom in 1963, peaking at number five in the UK Albums Chart and reaching number 19 in the US albums chart on May 22, 1965. It was the only 331⁄3 RPM record by the group to chart in America.
Music of the United Kingdom developed in the 1960s into one of the leading forms of popular music in the modern world. By the early 1960s the British had developed a viable national music industry and began to produce adapted forms of American music in Beat music and British blues which would be re-exported to America by bands such as the Beatles, the Animals and the Rolling Stones. This helped to make the dominant forms of popular music something of a shared Anglo-American creation, and led to the growing distinction between pop and rock music, which began to develop into diverse and creative subgenres that would characterise the form throughout the rest of the twentieth century.
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