Graham Reid | | 1 min read
The short-lived Syndicates were one of those raw R'n'B bands out of Britain alongside the young Rolling Stones (before they wrote their own songs), the Downliners Sect (whose debut The Sect is an Essential Elsewhere album), Pretty Things, Animals, Yardbirds and others.
In many ways there's not much of great interest and their story, such as it was.
But they did record with Joe Meek, this B-side (an original by guitarist Ray Fenwick and keyboard player Jeff Williams) was a close cousin to the Downliner Sect in its attack and that in their first incarnation they had Steve Howe on guitar.
Howe would leave to be replaced by Fenwick then Fenwick left and was replaced by Peter Banks.
And the keen-eyed trivia freak would note that Banks was the first guitarist in Yes . . . and when he left he was replaced in Yes by Steve Howe.
It was a small, revolving door of players.
The Syndicats (in their various versions) were of course big on covers as many bands were and in their repertoire were Chuck Berry (Maybelline was their first single), Willie Dixon (Howling for my Baby their second) and Leiber-Stoller's hit for Ben E King On the Horizon (their third and final).
They also covered Little Willie John's Leave My Kitten Alone which was a favourite of John Lennon.
Ironically their most well-known member Howe wasn't in the band for their best known song, Crawdaddy Simone (which covered by the Horrors on their debut EP).
When it came to unfiltered noise and freak-out guitar, the Syndicats had it all going on with Crawdaddy Simone.
Something of a lost classic in the garageband R'n'B genre.
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For more one-off, oddities or songs with an interesting backstory see From the Vaults.
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