Grim Ltd: Shakin' It Up At The Nicoberg (Frenzy)

In recent months Grant Gillanders' Frenzy label has released albums which were interesting but perhaps of most appeal to band members or those who were there at the time in the Seventies: the album-that-never-was by Cimeron and the Inbetweens' sole album reissued.

But let's pull out all the stops for Grim Ltd because here was a raw'n'raucous R'n'B band recorded live at Palmerston North's Nicoberg Coffee Lounge in August 1966.

And playing as if their lives depended on it.

This previously unreleased collection captures them at their farewell gig after 18 months and they were going to go out with a bang, crash and roar of wound-up tight covers and stinging treble guitar.

Here was a band which sidestepped the niceties of Beatle pop and headed into rough-edge R'n'B as trail-blazed by the Stones, the great Downliners Sect, the Who and of course the Pretty Things.

Their aggressive set – 14 songs on the vinyl, a whopping 30 on the CD, you need both – is sometimes heavy on the familiar . . . but “it ain't what you do it's the way how you do it”, as Little Richard memorably said.

And Grim Ltd just lit the fuse and dived headlong into what we would now call garageband rock.

Among the songs getting the Grim Ltd treatment are Sleep John Estes' Milk Cow Blues, Chuck Berry's less familiar Oh Baby Doll and Talkin' Bout You (later covered by Dr Feelgood), Bo Diddley's Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut (familiar from the Pretty Things' version), the Who's Kids Are Alright and Substitute, James Brown's I'll Go Crazy (covered at the time by Blues Magoos) and, of course, Van Morrison's partyshaker Gloria.

Guitar Clive Whelan could strip paint with his playing, the vocals of Lee Taylor err towards the snarling yelp and sometimes salacious style of the Downliners Sect and the rhythm section of bassist Donal McKenzie and drummer John van der Reyden have studied at the feet of Entwistle and Moon.

It is a thrilling, explosive mix.

Little wonder this band – in its previous incarnation of members and in this final line-up – were so popular locally, they were chosen to open for Ray and the Invaders, Dave Miller and the Byrds, the Breakaways and others.

They topped a 1965 poll of local groups and, by design, when they broke up in 1966 they went back to the Nicoberg where it had all begun.

And best of all for us at this 57-year distance, drummer van der Reyden was working in sound for the National Film Unit so recorded this final show.

On limited edition period-appropriate black vinyl – none of that fancy coloured stuff for this noise – this is one of greatest garage band rock albums of the era and an exciting release.

The CD has 23 songs by this line-up from that show: Sam the Sham's Little Red Riding Hood, the Kinks' Well Respected Man, an off-the-mark Dancing in the Street and a party-down romp through Da Doo Ron Ron among the non-vinyl extras.

The final seven songs (which include Get Off of My Cloud, a terrific One Ugly Child which gives the Sect version a real run for its money and the Uglys' Wake Up My Mind) are by the first line-up.

One Ugly Child by Grim Ltd, first line-up

 

Grim Ltd were far from grim.

They delivered a life-affirming injection of raw energy with an edge of rough sandpaper.

Shakin' It Up At The Nicoberg is an exciting discovery, essential even . . . and it comes to you from an appropriately-named label: Frenzy.

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You can buy this album on CD and vinyl through JB Hi-Fi stores here.

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