Posts tagged "TOM JONES DAYS"

Micky Gee Discography

By Ari Niskanen

This is not a complete discography. There certainly are some recording sessions that I don’t know of.

I have tried to mention every song only once. However in some cases it would be confusing to mention some song only once. For example, when Shakin’ Stevens’ LP “A Whole Lotta Shaky” was released in 1988 it was combination of new songs and old songs from the early 1980’s. Not to mention old songs would leave wrong impression that Micky didn’t play on those cuts.

Information of recording sessions that are not listed here is welcome.

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SHAKIN’ STEVENS & SUNSETS

I’M NO J.D. LP
CBS Records, 1971

Right String Baby / Come Along With Me / Rock’n’Roll Singer / Honey Don’t / Superstar / Sea Of Heartbreak

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SHAKIN’ STEVENS

MARIE MARIE LP
Epic Records, 1980

Baby If We Touch / Marie, Marie / Lonely Blue Boy / Make It Right Tonight / Move / Slippin’ & Slidin’ / Shooting Gallery / Revenue Man / Make Me Know You’re Mine / Two Hearts / Nobody

Comments: Micky told me that he played on all the other songs on this LP than except “Hey Mae”. Roger McKew plays lead guitar on “Lonely Blue Boy” and “Make It Right Tonight”.

THIS OLE HOUSE single
Epic Records, 1980

This Ole House / Let Me Show You How

Comments: Micky also sings background vocals on “This Ole House”.

SHAKY LP
Epic Records, 1981

Mona Lisa / You Drive Me Crazy / I’m Knockin’ / Don’t She Look Good / It’s Raining / Don’t Bug Me Baby /Don’t Tell Me Your Troubles / I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter / This Time / Baby You’re Child / Don’t Turn Your Back / Let Me Show You How / I’m Lookin’

IT’S RAINING single
Epic Records, 1981

It’s Raining / You And I Were Meant To Be

SHIRLEY single
Epic Records, 1982

Shirley / I’m For You

GIVE ME YOUR HEART TONIGHT LP
Epic Records, 1982

Oh Julie / Vanessa / Shirley / Too Too Much

HOW MANY TEARS CAN YOU HIDE single
Epic Records, 1988

How Many Tears Can You Hide / If I Really Knew

HOW MANY TEARS CAN YOU HIDE maxi single
Epic Records, 1988

How Many Tears Can You Hide (extended version) / If I Really Knew

Comments: In this case an extended version means an extra guitar solo in the end of the song.

A WHOLE LOTTA SHAKY LP
Epic Records, 1988

What You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For / How Many Tears Can You Hide / Jezebel / Sea Of Love / True Love / Just One Look / Oh Julie / Do You Really Love Me Too / I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter / Hello Josephine / Woman (Look What Have You Done To Me) / Heartbeat / Tired Of Toein’ The Line / Mona Lisa

I MIGHT single
Epic Records, 1990

I Might / Love Won’t Stop

THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF MUSIC… ROCK’N’ROLL LP
Telstar Records, 1990

Love Attack / I Might / Yes I Do / Tell Me/Tear It Up / My Cutie Cutie / The Night Time Is The Right Time / Pink Champagne / If I Lose You / Queen Of The Hop / Rockin’ The Night Away

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE LP
Epic Records, 1991

Rockin’ Little Christmas / White Christmas / Sure Won’t Seem Like Christmas / I’ll Be Home This Christmas / Silent Night / It’s Gonna Be A Lonely Christmas / The Best Christmas Of Them All / Merry Christmas Pretty Baby / Christmas Wish / So Long Christmas

Comments: Album credits claim that Micky plays on all the tracks but he’s not the guitarist on “Merry Christmas Everyone” or “Blue Christmas”.

RADIO single
Epic Records, 1992

Radio / Oh Baby Don’t (Outtake)

Comments: Micky plays only on the b-side.

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DAVE EDMUNDS

I HEAR YOU KNOCKING single
MAM Records, 1970

I Hear You Knocking / Black Bill

BORN TO BE WITH YOU single
Rockfield Records, 1973

Born To Be With You / Pick Axe Rag

Comments: Micky plays only on the b-side.

TWANGIN LP
Swan Song Records, 1981

Baby Let’s Play House

Comments: “Baby Let’s Play House” was recorded in 1968 but it was released 13 years later.

D.E.7 LP
Arista Records, 1982

Deep In The Heart Of Texas / Louisiana Man

Comments: Micky told me that he played on “Deep In The Heart Of Texas” although record sleeve doesn’t mention that.

THE WANDERER EP
Arista Records, 1982

The Wanderer / From Small Things Big Things Come / Your True Love

Comments: Some pressings of “D.E.7″ had this free live EP which was recorded at The Venue (London).

I HEAR YOU ROCKIN’ LP
Columbia Records, 1987

Girls Talk /Here Comes The Weekend / Queen Of Hearts / Paralyzed / The Wanderer / Crawling From The Wreckage / Slipping Away / Information / I Hear You Knocking / I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock’n’Roll) / Ju Ju Man

Comments: This is a Live LP which was recorded at Roseland (New York City), The Venue (London) and The Capitol Theatre (Passaic, New Jersey).

BACK TO THE BEACH (Various Artists) LP
Columbia Records, 1987

Wooly Bully

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MEMPHIS BEND

RIGHT STRING BABY single
United Artists Records, 1973

Louisiana Hoedown / Right String Baby

UBANGI STOMP single
United Artists Records, 1976

Ubangi Stomp / Tennessee

GOOD ROCKIN’ TONITE LP
United Artists Records, 1977

Boogie Woogie Country Girl /Mystery Train / Big River / Ting-A-Ling / Honky Tonkin’ / If You Can’t Rock Me / It’s My Own Business / Maybelline / Settin’ The Woods On Fire /Good Rockin’ Tonite / Tennessee / Red Hot / Will The Circle Be Unbroken

Comments: Album credits claim that forth song is “Ain’t Got No Thing” but it’s really “Ting-A-Ling”. Micky sings lead on following tracks: “Mystery Train”, “If You Can’t Rock Me”, “Maybelline”, “Good Rockin’ Tonite”, “Red Hot”.

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GERAINT WATKINS

IT’S ROCK’N’ROLL VOL. 2 (Various Artists) LP
Super Beeb Records, 1978

Don’t You Lie To Me / Flip Flop & Fly

GERAINT WATKINS & DOMINATORS LP
Vertigo Records, 1979

Man Smart Women Smarter / Casting My Spell / In The Night / Grow Too Old / Blue Moon Of Kentucky / Gotta Find My Baby / Paralysed / Nobody / Deep In The Heart Of Texas / Don’t You Just Know It / If Walls Could Talk / My Baby Left Me / Cakewalk Into Town

Comments: Micky is one of the vocalists on “Don’t You Just Know It”, he plays bass on “Deep In The Heart Of Texas”. On “Blue Moon Of Kentucky” and “If Walls Could Talk” he sings background vocals. He also plays percussion on “If Walls Could Talk”.

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CARL PERKINS

IT’S ROCK’N'ROLL VOL. 2 (Various Artists) LP
Super Beeb Records, 1978

Matchbox / CC Rider

JET PROPELLED THE 1978 COMEBACK CD
Sanctuary Records, 2002

Matchbox / CC Rider / Glad All Over / Be Bop A-Lula / That’s All Right Mama

Comments: This CD includes Carl’s complete 1978 It’s Rock’n'Roll session. Micky’s name on record sleeve is Micky King!

BLUE SUEDE SHOES: A ROCKABILLY SESSION CD
Snapper Records, 2006

Ringo Starr: Honey Don’t / Ringo Starr, Carl Perkins & Eric Clapton: Matchbox / Mean Woman Blues / Turn Around / Rosanne Cash & Carl Perkins: Jackson / Rosanne Cash: What Kind Of Girl / George Harrison: Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby / Carl Perkins, George Harrison & Dave Edmunds: Your True Love / Medley: That’s Alright Mama, Blue Moon Of Kentucky, Night Train To Memphis / George Harrison & Carl Perkins: Glad All Over / Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On / Gone Gone Gone / Blue Suede Shoes / George Harrison, Dave Edmunds & Carl Perkins: Blue Suede Shoes / Gone Gone Gone

Comments: This CD was recorded live in London, October 1985. Micky plays acoustic and electric guitar. He doesn’t play on following songs: “Boppin’ The Blues”, “Put Your Cat Clothes On”, “The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise”.

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MAN

CHRISTMAS AT THE PATTI 10″ LP
United Artists Records, 1973

Dave Edmunds & Micky Gee: Jingle Bells / Run Rudolph Run

Comments: Welsh band Man held Christmas party/live concert at the Patti Pavillion (Swansea, Wales) on December 19th 1972. This record is a document of that night.

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ANDY FAIRWEATHER-LOW

MEGA-SHEBANG LP
Warner Bros Records, 1980

Night Time Djuke-Ing / Hard Hat Boogie / Whole Lotta Someday / Bingerama

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VARIOUS ARTISTS

PARTY PARTY LP
A & M Records, 1982

Dave Edmunds: Run Rudolph Run / Sting: Tutti Frutti / I Need Your Love So Bad

Comments: Album credits claim that Micky plays on the Dave’s track but I think that there’s only 1 guitarist, Dave.

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PHIL EVERLY

PHIL EVERLY LP
Capitol Records, 1983

Phil Everly & Cliff Richard: She Means Nothing To Me / Phil Everly & Cliff Richard: I’ll Mend Your Broken Heart / Phil Everly: Oh Baby Oh (You’re The Star)

Comments: Mark Knopfler plays lead and Micky handles rhythm on all the 3 tunes.

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THE JETS

BLUE SKIES single
EMI Records, 1983

Blue Skies / Tonight Will Be Alright

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MARSHALL DOKTORS

WORRYIN’ KIND single
Rewind Records

Worryin’ Kind / O Kay

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NORMAAL

DE BOER IS TROEF LP
WEA Records, 1983

De Boer Is Troef / Kisjeskearl / Ies Kan Liehn / Lever Moar In / De Atoombom / Ik Val Altied Um (Vroum Hanselman)

DE KLOP OP ROCK LP
WEA Records, 1984

Deur Sneeuw En Kolde Veute / Luie Leen / Dansen

STEEN-STOAL EN SENTIMENT LP
WEA Records, 1985

Elektronika Woemahoeptjoep / Diana

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WILLIE AND THE POORBOYS

WILLIE AND THE POORBOYS LP
Mercury Records, 1985

Baby Please Don’t Go / Can You Hear Me /Revenue Man / You Never Can Tell / Saturday Night / Let’s Talk It Over / All Night Long / Chicken Shack Boogie / Sugar Bee / Poor Boy Boogie

Comments: Micky is the lead vocalist on “Revenue Man”.

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JERRY WILLIAMS

ONE AND ONE LP
Sonet Records,1987

Naturally / I Wanna Love You / Worryin’ Kind / Friday Night

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NICK LOWE

PINKER & PROUDER THAN PREVIOUS LP
Demon Fiend Records, 1988

Lovers Jamboree

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KATSQUIRE

COMIN’ TO YOUR TOWN CD
Kat Records, 1992(?)

All Work And No Play

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TED HEROLD

READY TEDDY! LP
Teldec Records, 1982

Cool wie Humphrey Bogart / Ready Teddy / Alte Liebe
rostet nicht / Jetzt oder nie

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FRANKIE ALLAN

JUST A COUNTRY BOY single
Rockfield Records, 1977

Just A Country Boy / I Need You Every Hour

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MIKE READ

PROMISED LAND single
MCA Records, 1984

Promised Land / Somebody To Love

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BILLY

BILLY LP
Polydor Records, 1984

Tous Les Sarmedis Soirs (One More Saturday Night) / Bye Bye / Je Me Sens Loin De Vous / Le Rock a Billy / Quand J’serai Grand J’serai Vieusc

Comments: Micky plays electric and acoustic guitars on these tracks.

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TOM JONES

TOM JONES ON STAGE EP
Decca Records, 1965

Bama Lama Bama Loo / I Can’t Stop Loving You / Lucille / Little By Little

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ROB ASH

Rob Ash is a Welsh gospel musician. Micky did sessions with him, but I don’t know any other details.

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I’d like to thank Jaap, Stuart Colman and Phil Morgan for their help.

Tom Jones Days

TOM JONES DAYS  -  By Ari Niskanen

In 1964 Micky started to play with a Welsh band Tommy Scott and The Senators. He quit his day job when the band headed to London in the June and he was to be a full time musician from then on. When they reached London they changed their name to Tom Jones and Squires. But in the beginning life in London was rough living in a lousy basement flat in Ladbroke Grove, that the bands manager Gordon Mills had got them. Plus they were only given £1 a day each to live on, and most of the time they were starving.

The band didn’t get much money from gigs either, as they played old 1950′s Rock ‘n’ Roll music and it was difficult to get gigs. Micky: “It wasn’t very hip to be Welsh in those days. If you were Irish or Scottish, or best of all from Liverpool, you had a bit of credibility, but Welsh groups were unfashionable. All the other groups we met used to sneer and put us down, ’oh no, anything but bloody Welsh.’ We were definitely not the in thing. Welsh kids were then so naive, and we were more naive than most. We used to support bands like the Rolling Stones and all the other hairy groups and Tom would come out with his hair slicked back in a DA and wearing tight trousers and a frilly shirt. We would be in our little Marks and Spencers shirts that Gordon had got us, so we hardly looked like we came from the same planet. Worse still we had weird and wild looks so we had to have our hair dyed black to match Tom’s.”

Things changed when Gordon Mills and Les Reed wrote a tune called “It’s No Unusual”.  Originally Mills wrote that song for Sandie Shaw and he wanted Tom and the Squires to make a demo recording of the song for her. Micky: “Gordon played it for me, he was a good musician, and straight away I smelled some interesting chords.   I thought ’Yeah that’s for us. That’s nice, that’s different.’ But Dave Cooper and Vernon, rhythm guitarist and bassist of the Squires, couldn’t get it all. They couldn’t learn it, they were great blokes, but not great musicians.  So we went in and recorded it without Dave and without Vernon, with no bass and no rhythm guitar. Tom sang, Chris Slade the drummer played tambourine, and I played lead and dubbed in some rhythm.”  “After recording it we all went to the  pub and I said loud and clear that I wanted Tom and the Squires to record it.”  Finally Gordon agreed to give the song to Tom if Sandie Shaw turned it down. Fortunately Shaw did reject the offering so the song was handed back to Tom.

But Gordon had not failed to register the Squires’ musical limitations. He made Tom go into the Decca studios and record it again without any of the Squires playing. In fact it was Jimmy Page who played guitar on “It’s No Unusual,” which was released in January 1965, before Tom and the Squires started a nationwide tour with Cilla Black and Tommy Roe in February 1965.  Tom had no promotion organised for the record, but one or two radio shows played it, and he started to get acknowledged both on air and on the tour. Then as he crept into the charts he got moved up another notch on the tour billing.

In March the song reached the number one spot in UK and Tom and the boys could afford a more comfortable life style. They moved away from their Ladbroke Grove flat in Spring 1965, and Tom bought himself a mansion in Shepperton whilst the Squires were rehoused in a modest, rented, semi-detached house in Hounslow.  The Squires can actually be heard, from this time, on a Tom Jones Live EP, which was also released in 1965.

Micky later recalled the days of success: “At first it was great. Most of the times we would just get pissed and knock off birds whenever we could. Even when Tom was number one and we were touring on circuits like the Top Rank, and before we went on, you would find us up in the bar pouring beer down our throats and holding court in our mohair suits.”  “We would have eight, nine or ten pints and then go on, so we were real pissheads. It was a bad habit to get into and I had a real problem for a time, as it got out of hand.  In a way it was not surprising as we were living in Swinging London at its height and we had more booze and girls than we could handle.”  “I remember I was twenty-one and I went to the doctor and he said, ’if you keep drinking at this rate by the time you’re thirty you’ll be twenty stone.’ Even so I was around thirteen stone. But it got worse when we went on tour to Australia, you would buy a round and get a great jug full.”  But his whole time with Tom badly affected him as Micky recalls, “I remember Tom decided that because he had black hair all the rest of us had to have black hair. I’m sure that’s why I’ve gone bald, all that dyeing your hair is not good .”

Back when Tom and the boys lived in poverty, everything was shared equally but now only Tom got the big bucks. That really annoyed his band. Micky: “After the number one I would often complain about our treatment but Gordon would always tell me, ’there are plenty more guitarists in Wales, Micky.’” However, after this first hit the Squires got £10 a week and in 1967 they earned £40 a week.

Following “It’s No Unusual” Tom had many other hits like “What’s New Pussycat” and “Green Green Grass Of Home”.  Micky: “Once Tom was famous I was made musical director and Tom used to fly me out to places like Bermuda to work on routines with him. But I only got the job because none of the others could read music. Tom found his best-known song, ’Green, Green Grass Of Home’ on a Jerry Lee Lewis album, ’Country Songs For City Folks’, and he gave it to me to write out the chords for the boys. Tom said, ’that’s a great song, I want to do that,’ so I just sat in a hotel in Wigan and wrote out the chords and said, ’there you are, lads, we’re doing that tomorrow night’.  When I met Micky in 1990 he told me that he can’t read music, but that it is possible to write out a song without the ability to read.

On one particular Bermuda trip Tom and Micky were supposed to continue to the USA. Micky: “When we got to Bermuda, Tom and I were supposed to be going on to Los Angeles where Tom had some more concerts booked. More than anything in the world it was my ambition to meet Elvis Presley and I kept saying to Tom, ’let’s meet Elvis’ but Tom scoffed. He didn’t think it would be possible. He didn’t think we could get to see Elvis – but I did – and I kept on at him, and telling him that he had had a big hit in the United States. I remember telling him, ’how can you think about just lying on the beach when Elvis is only a few miles away?’ I knew we could fix it.”
“But then Linda, Tom’s wife, said to me quietly one night, she was supposed to be flying back to Heathrow, that she wanted to go with Tom to LA.  She asked if I didn’t mind swapping tickets with her and I could go home? Mind! I minded like hell!  I was devastated but what could I say, I couldn’t refuse her, as she hadn’t seen much of Tom for months.  However, he didn’t seem bothered either way.  Anyway, I flew back to Britain and then I remember a week later I was in the house in Hounslow when Tom came in and proudly showed me a picture of him with Elvis. I was green with envy.”

Today Micky feels that “It was fun while it lasted, but even after all that happened with the boys and that, I would never take away his singing ability.   He had a remarkable voice and even in the van when we were going to a gig he would be singing Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Salomon Burke in that amazing voice.”

Micky played an Epiphone guitar when he was with Tom, and this is one of the few times that he played a different guitar to his trusty old Telecaster.  He bought that guitar from his brother Thomas in the 1960’s. But his Tele is a hard-wearing instrument, and Micky likes that because it will take knocks many times over when he plays gigs on the road, and Micky knows that he can trust his Tele because it won’t break down.
Micky has never been a snob when it comes to equipment and in 1983 when he did a session for Phil Everly and Cliff Richard the lead guitarist was Mark Knopfler. There was Micky with his little Session amp and Telecaster, and on Knopfler’s side of the studio was a full range of guitars, amps and gadgets.  Knopfler went over to Micky and said “Is that all you are going to use?”. Micky just looked at him and said “that’s all I f&#?ing need”!

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(this is just one chapter from Ari Niskanen’s biography of Micky Gee
hopefully more chapters will follow – Phil Morgan)