Johnny Kidd & the Pirates

English rock and roll group

Johnny Kidd & the Pirates (known simply as The Pirates after their reunion) were an English rock band led by singer/songwriter Johnny Kidd. Their musical journey spanned from the late 1950s to the mid 1960s, during which they achieved considerable success with hit songs like "Shakin' All Over" and "Please Don't Touch". Their stage act was theatrical, including wearing full pirate costumes, echoing their rock 'n' roll contemporaries such as Screaming Lord Sutch & the Savages and Nero and the Gladiators. The group disbanded after Kidd's sudden death in an automobile accident, but former members of the band reunited as The Pirates and continued performing until the late 2000s.

The original group came under the management of Guy Robinson and was signed to HMV in 1959 under the auspices of producer Walter J. Ridley. Their first single was the raw "Please Don't Touch", penned by Kidd. This became a minor hit reaching number 25 on the UK singles charts in 1959. The song has been covered many times since, most successfully by the team of Motörhead and Girlschool known as Headgirl. When the group appeared on Saturday Club between 1959 and 1961, Mike West and Tom Brown shared the vocals with Kidd.

Kidd and the Pirates' most famous song was "Shakin' All Over", memorable for opening guitars and solo from Joe Moretti, it reached number one in the UK singles charts in 1960. The song and the group's proto power trio line up both made a strong impression on the Who, who would cover it in their 1970 album Live at Leeds, whose CD liner notes proclaim the original to be the UK's best pre Beatles rock single. Canada's The Guess Who reached No. 1 in their home country and skirted the US Top 20 with a cover version in early 1965. The swansong recording of this line up in 1961, "Please Don't Bring Me Down" failed to chart. However, it featured a B side which turned out to be a minor UK rock 'n' roll classic. "So What" featured a piano solo from Morgan "Thunderclap" Jones. When the single failed to chart, the Pirates—Clem Cattini, Alan Caddy and Brian Gregg – decided to jump ship and joined Colin Hicks as his "Cabinboys" on a 6 week tour to Europe. After this liaison ended, Cattini and Caddy joined a Joe Meek backing band who evolved into the Tornados. Kidd meanwhile cut a "solo" single backed by a bigger band sound. "Hurry on Back to Love" was more bluesy than anything Kidd had previously attempted and indicated a possible new musical path. A new Pirate trio was recruited. Johnny Spence (bass), Frank Farley (drums) and Johnny Patto (lead guitar), had recently backed Cuddly Dudley as "The Redcaps". Patto soon left and was replaced by Mick Green (lead guitar), who had also backed Dudley. The new line up's first single with Kidd, "A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues" (coupled with "I Can Tell") managed to break Kidd's dry spell, entering the lower reaches of the chart toward the end of 1962. In retrospect this disc, which debuted Green's unique playing style incorporating alternating lead and rhythm guitar figures, can be viewed as the sonic bridge marking the transition of British rock and roll into British beat. Over time, Kidd developed a visual show. The group would deck out in 19th century pirate costume in front of a huge backcloth of a pirate galleon, with Kidd toying with a cutlass. A projected single in keeping with the new sound, "Some Other Guy" was left unreleased in early 1963 allowing The Big Three to score their first chart entry. The explosive rise of the 'beat groups' in 1963 outshone the slow burning R&B scene; without a single release Kidd and his Pirates were losing valuable momentum on the chart front. Kidd responded by recording Gordon Mills' "I'll Never Get Over You", originally a Buddy Holly styled B side issued by Mills' erstwhile group The Viscounts and reaching number 4 on the UK chart in the summer of 1963. The follow up, "Hungry For Love", was also written by Mills and broke into the top twenty during the autumn, fending off a competing EP version by The Searchers. The "Hungry For Love" recording session was very productive, also yielding a Pirates only single. Both sides, "My Babe" and "Casting My Spell" featuring Spence on vocals were recorded in one take each, a sign of this Pirates line up's power, ability and confidence. According to Mick Green, this single was issued to test the waters whether Kidd and the Pirates could be split into two successful acts; however, the single was not a hit, which put a stop to any further experiments on this front.

In 1964, the Pirates added organist Vic Cooper to their line up. The hits again tailed away and the long awaited debut album, featuring the expanded line up with Vic Cooper on organ/piano duties, was never mastered for release. One step behind the Beatles and losing ground, Kidd abandoned dual tracking his powerful voice and switched back to R&B where his vocal strengths lay. After 1964's "Always And Ever" (based on “Santa Lucia”), Mick Green left during the summer season at Blackpool and joined Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. The Tornadoes were on the same bill in Blackpool, so their guitarist Stuart Taylor filled in until Kidd found John Weider, a fan of Green's, to come aboard. Eventually the group parted company with Kidd. Johnny Spence, Frank Farley and guitarist Jon Morshead (who replaced Weider) continued as The Pirates (keeping the name with Kidd's blessing) and recorded one single, "Shades of Blue" for Polydor before a lack of success calling it a day in mid 1966. Kidd, meanwhile, kept recording and gigging with an anonymous group of backing musicians. His penultimate single "It's Got To Be You", and an unreleased version of Otis Redding's "I Can't Turn You Loose", showed that a mix of R&B and soul may have been where his future musical path lay. In 1966, one of the anonymous musicians, organist Ray Soaper contacted some mates. Mick Stewart (lead guitar), Nick Simper (bass) and Roger Truth (drums) came together with Soper and presented themselves to Kidd as his new Pirates. With his newly christened "New Pirates" (necessarily distinguishing them from the other "Pirates"), a revitalised Kidd worked towards a comeback to the point he spoke about the possibility of recording a new album. On returning from a cancelled gig at the Imperial in Bolton, he was killed in a car accident near Bury, Lancashire, on 7 October 1966, with companion Nick Simper being injured. The group had a new single. "Send For That Girl", (coupled with a version of the Lee Hazlewood written "The Fool"), which was released posthumously in November but failed to chart. This line up of the Pirates (with John Kerrison replacing Truth at late notice) carried on in tribute once Simper had recovered, though there were no further recordings. As the pop scene changed and bookings became harder to obtain, the group split in May 1967.

After the band's chart successes in 1963, a number of tracks were recorded in early 1964. Not much is known about how far a Johnny Kidd album progressed. Their then current single release "Always and Ever" failed to get into the Top 40 and EMI, already handling a good number of successful acts, may have decided to progress it no further. "Shop Around" was the only track released at the time, on the B side of the "Jealous Girl" single (HMV POP 1309) in June 1964. Others had to wait another twenty years before being released in mono and / or stereo on various compilation albums on the "See for Miles" label.