The Freakbeat Goes On
Chris Andrews SONG OF THE WEEK
Since the late 1990s I’ve worked with Chris Andrews, a British actor, singer-songwriter, and collaborator with Roger Daltrey, David Essex, and the late Davy Jones (The Monkees). Chris started as a child actor in 1962 (in the musical OLIVER!) and he continues to release new music.
The track that put Chris on the rock’n’roll map is “Mud in Your Eye” by Fleur de Lys, the lively British rock band credited for starting the “freakbeat” sound—a mash-up of psychedelia, r’n’b/soul, and garage rock.
In April 1966 FDL was embarking on a series of line-up changes. Chris came on as guitarist-vocalist to replace Frank Smith, who’d quit FDL right as their single “Circles” (a Who cover) was getting airplay. Then FDL signed to Polydor Records and were set to lay down new tracks in IBC Studios in London (Sidebar: The studio where the first tapes were made for the famed Mellotron keyboard). They went in with 2 new tracks—a cover of The Impression’s “I’ve Been Trying,” and the “jagged, pounding” A-side, “Mud In Your Eye.”
Chris said, “The night before the session, Phil (Sawyer of FDL) and I were sitting in my mum’s kitchen wondering what we were going to record for the session. Neither Phil nor I had any songs ready…so we semi-wrote ‘Mud…’ the night before we went into the studio.” Sawyer was supposed to sing lead but couldn’t nail it, so Chris laid down a snarling, gritty vocal that fit well with Sawyer’s slashing guitar and the heavy rhythm section of Keith Guster and Gordon Haskell. Upon release in November 1966, “Mud” didn’t perform well as a single, but today it’s toasted as a hallmark classic in the playfiles of British Rock and psychedelic music—and Fleur de Lys gets props for sparking the careers of Gordon Haskell (“Harry’s Bar” + King Crimson), guitar hero Bryn Haworth, and Pete Sears (Jefferson Starship). Meanwhile, here’s “mud in your eye”—and also check out the videos I made in 2022 (the longer alternate version has rare footage of mod London in the late 60s).
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