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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

Lee Rocker

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Lee Rocker - Night Train to Memphis
Lee Rocker – Night Train to Memphis

Lee Rocker – Night Train to Memphis

Upright records [2012]
Rockabilly Boogie – Night Train To Memphis – Slap The Bass – Twenty Flight Rock – Wild Child – Honey Don’t – That’s Alright Mama-Blue Moon – Tear In My Beer – Lonesome Tears – Built For Speed – So Sad – All I Have To Do Is Dream

Covers albums usually don’t thrill me, that’s the reason why I didn’t expect much from this one. But Lee Rocker’s latest effort. was a surprinsingly good surprise. First he has the good idea to keep it short : twelve tracks like in the good old days of vinyls. Rock’n’roll albums are not supposed to be long. Then he manages to stay true to these classics and make them his own in the same time. With the help of his sister on some backing vocals, a great band (Buzz Campbell, Brophy Dale and Jimmy Sage),  innovative arrangements and an instrumation that goes beyond the drums/double bass/guitar format, like a dobro or a banjo on the Stray Cats’ Built For Speed, he gives to songs that you’ve heard a thousand times a totally new approach and manages to make them sound fresh again.
Vocally, Rocker’s is on top form and especially shines on the more country tinged tunes, like Hank Williams’ Tear In My Bear. The surprise, but that’s a good surprise, also comes from softer tunes like Buddy Holly’s Lonesome Tears and the Everly’s So Sad and All I Have to Do is Dream.
And when he rocks he takes no prisonners like on the Burnette’s Rockabilly Boogie. The sole self penned tune is Slap That Bass. As the title indicates its a slap bass driven rockabilly number with jazzy guitar licks.
There’s no mistakes, although the credits read Lee Rocker on just one track, this album is 100% his own.

Lee Rocker - Hot'n'Greasy Vol.1
Lee Rocker – Hot’n’Greasy Vol.1

Lee Rocker – Hot’n’Greasy Rockabilly Vol.1

[2012]
Rebel – Crazy When She Drinks – Black Cat Bone – Say When – Texarkana To Panama City – . Stray Cat Strut – I’ll Cry Instead – One More Shot – Blue Suede Night

A collection of live songs recorded at concerts and radio broadcast . The sound is very good, the performance perfect and the setlist perfect with songs taken from Bulletproof, Black Cat Bone and Racin the Devil and a cover of Stray Cats Strut. Nice addition to your collection. According to Rocker there’ll be two more volume released in the forthcoming months.

Kee Rocker - Cat Tracks
Kee Rocker – Cat Tracks

Lee Rocker – Cat Tracks

Stray Cat Strut, Rock This Town, Runaway Boys, Sexy & 17  [2012]
Digital only

The title says it all. Four of the best and most successful Stray Cats songs re-recorded by Lee Rocker and his band. They perfectly manage to recreate the sound of the Stray Cats early albums. I don’t know if Rocker plans to record more Stray Cats songs in the future but being a far better singer today than he was at the time,  it’d be good to hear him re-cut “She’ll Stay Just One More Day” and “Drink That Bottle Down” .

Fred “Virgil” Turgis