A MEGA RARE ROCK AND ROLL CLASSIC FROM THE VIPERS

"SUMMERTIME BLUES" 

b/w "LIVERPOOL BLUES'"

BOTH ON THIS VERY SCARCE UK PARLOPHONE 78

sheet music not included in sale!

The Vipers formed in early 1956 at London’s fabled Bread Basket Coffee Bar by Whyton, Johnny Booker and Jean Van den Bosch, by July the group had a residency at the legendary 2 I’s, the proving ground for so many of Britain’s earliest rockers. It was there, in September 1956, that the band was discovered by producer George Martin and, within two months, Parlophone was releasing the Vipers’ debut single, “Ain’t You Glad.”

Over the next six months, the Vipers Skiffle Group released five singles, earning two successive British Top Ten hits, “Don’t You Rock Me, Daddy-O” and “Cumberland Gap,” plus a Top 30 berth for “Streamline Train.” They might, even at this early stage, have been doomed to forever play second best to the unstoppable Lonnie Donegan, but in the world of British skiffle, the Vipers Skiffle Group had no peers. Donegan, after all, was already beginning to embrace the music-hall traditions which would characterize much of his best-remembered work; the Vipers, on the other hand, were absorbing rock ’n’ roll as though it were going out of fashion, creating a fusion whose rudiments remain integral to even the most contemporary modern British band.

Whyton himself constantly underplayed this element of the band’s appeal. Talking about the Vipers’ early days in 1986, he acknowledged, “If I was aware [of Bill Haley and Elvis Presley], it was something that didn’t appeal to me. Even now, very strange, I can’t take Presley. [And] I always thought Bill Haley looked like a bundle of shit tied up. I didn’t really go for his music. I suppose I was pretty much a musical snob.”

Whyton’s refreshing honesty notwithstanding, the group’s importance can best be gauged, somewhat ironically, through the later work of three band members whose stint in the Vipers is barely remembered even by the participants. Hank Marvin (one week), Tony Meehan (three months) and Jet Harris (six months) were all Vipers during the confused period following the departure of original member Van den Bosch; the trio would, of course, soon become better known as members of Cliff Richard’s backing band, but catch their early live sound, across Cliff’s Rock ’n’ Roll Years boxed set, and the benefits of their apprenticeship are there for all to hear.

Applying the hiss of the Vipers to the roar of sundry Presley standards, the group took Whyton’s vision to the next level. And within five years, The Beatles would have taken it even further, and there would be no looking back. Even today, and even in the U.K. itself, there is a tendency to regard the Fab Four as British Pop’s Year Zero. Without Cliff and the Shadows, though, there could have been no Beatles — and without Wally and the Vipers …

The Vipers broke up in 1959, shortly after the release of their tenth and final single, THIS cover of “Summertime Blues.”

Whyton would remain with Parlophone for a little longer, cutting a brace of solo singles under his own name and also offering up a role model for all that Joe Meek and Screaming Lord Sutch would later achieve, with the blood-drenched classic “The Horror Show”/“Cool Gool.”

September 22, 1958 - Abbey Road Studios

Wally Whyton (voc/poss. g) - Johnny Martyn aka Johnny Booker (voc/poss. g) - 'Zom' (voc)
Jet Harris (bass)  Tony Meehan (drums/perc) - 2 unidentified guitars (could be Hank Marvin)

- Summertime Blues

- Liverpool Blues (additional vocal overdubs on September 24)

UK PARLOPHONE  R 4484      10" 78rpm  SHELLAC

SIDE 1 :- SUMMERTIME BLUES

SIDE 2:-  LIVERPOOL BLUES 

CONDITION - EX+

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ONE ONLY AVAILABLE

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email greg.butler@ntlworld.com or call 01223 872 937