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the milkshakes

Dutronc

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dutronc

Dutronc – Mini, Mini, Mini

Wild Wild Records – WILD 4 [1995]
Mini Mini Mini – Sur Une Nappe De Restaurant / Les Gens Sont Fous, Les Temps Sont Flous – Ça Plane Pour Moi

Dutronc

Dutronc, as its name suggests, is a Franco-British tribute band to Jacques Dutronc, a renowned French singer and songwriter, formed in the mid-1990s. The group is made up of well-known figures of the Medway and British garage scene, including Parsley (Billy Childish and the Blackhands, The Adventures of Parsley) on vocals, Bruce “Bruno” Brand (Milkshakes, Headcoats) on guitar, Rudie Spence on bass and Debbie Green aka Bongo Debbie (Ug And The Cavemen, Headcoatees) on drums.

This EP, which was released in 1995, features three covers of Jacques Dutronc and “Ça Plane Pour Moi” by Plastic Bertrand.

Parsley sings everything in French with a very strong English accent, which gives the group its unique identity. The band emphasizes the original characteristics of the songs. “Sur Une Nappe De Restaurant” is a psychedelic blues with the appropriate organ. “Les Temps Sont Flous” is supported by a heady buzzsaw fuzz guitar, and “Mini Mini Mini” could rival the best of The Kinks. The EP closes with a powerful version of “Ça Plane Pour Moi,” also covered by the Headcoatees during the same period.

This EP, along with most of Dutronc’s recordings, is a curiosity that will interest any fan of the Medway scene.

Debbie & Jackie

Milkshakes (the)

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The Milkshakes – It’s You

Milkshakes Records – BILK-0 [1982]  
 It’s You / Please Don’t Tell My Baby 

Mickey Hampshire (guitar and vocals) and Mark’ Banana Bertie’ Gilbert played with two friends in a band called Mickey and the Milkshakes. They also accompanied the Pop Rivets (featuring Billy Childish on vocals and Bruce Brand on guitar) during a tour of Europe as roadies. When half of the Milkshakes lost interest in the band, and the Pop Rivets broke up, the natural move was to merge both bands. Childish learned to play the guitar in the process, and Brand switched to drums.

Childish and Hampshire quickly began to pen minor classics one after another, becoming the Garage rock equivalent of Lennon & McCartney, Childish bringing the Punk energy and Hampshire the melodic side.

The career of the Milkshakes was placed under the double influence of the early Beatles and the Kinks (with always some Link Wray thrown in for good measure.) The A-side of this single is clearly on the Kinks’ side. It’s You bears more than one common point with the Kinks’ I Need You (B-side of Set Me Free.)

Sung in a husky voice, Please Don’t Tell My Baby is more desperate and shows the band’s Punkish side. But lyrics like “Please don’t tell my baby I saw her last night / I saw her kiss that boy / Please don’t tell her that I know / ’cause when I catch her gonna get it all / I’m gonna put it on the line / That I’ll take her…all her lying / She made me very mad / I’m gonna treat her bad / She gonna wish she never told the lie she had” remain close to the Beatles’ Run For Your Life.

The Milkshakes – Soldiers of Love

Milkshakes - Soldier of love

Upright records – UP-6 [1983]
Soldiers of Love / Shimmy Shimmy

By 1983, Russ Wilkins, formerly of the Pop Rivets, had replaced Mark Gilbert on bass, but that was the only change in the band since, stylistically-wise, the Milkshakes didn’t change their musical formula. Their second single was a vivid demonstration of their love for the Star Club days of the Beatles. If both songs weren’t from the pen of Lennon and McCartney (Soldiers of Love was an Arthur Alexander song and Shimmy Shimmy derivated from a traditional jazz tune), the Milkshakes versions were obviously inspired by the covers of the same songs made by the Beatles; they even got the same wrong credit as the Beatles for Shimmy Shimmy.
Soldiers of Love is also the first apparition by the Milk-Boilers who soon became the Delmonas.

Debbie & Jackie