Music Reissues Weekly: Rain - Tomorrow Never Comes: The NYC Sessions 1967-1968

The Undertakers were central to the Merseybeat boom. The best of what they issued on single in 1963 and 1964 captured the raw, stomping sound adored by Liverpool’s audiences. But hits were elusive and they dropped off the musical map at the end of 1964. The Beatles never forget The Undertakers though. In 1968, former Undertaker Jackie Lomax was signed to their label Apple.

Tomorrow Never Comes: The NYC Sessions 1967-1968 captures a different aspect of the end game to that represented by Lomax’s solo endeavours. What’s heard are the final recordings by the rump of The Undertakers, made by a band with the Beatles-referencing name of Rain at the same time as Lomax struck-out on his own path.

Nothing on the collection has been heard before: a full album made by Rain in New York during late 1967 and early 1968, and six tracks under their last-gasp name Gypsy Wizards, completed in the same 1968 to 1969 time frame. A significant release, it demonstrates that what came out of Liverpool – The Beatles and other big or biggish names aside – did not necessarily evaporate after the early glory years.

As per their name, Rain were very much a Beatles band – as were a later Rain, which became Oasis. Opening cut “Sapphire Skies" opens with a flurry of phased drums, has a slight Hendrix vibe and some creamy vocal harmonies. But the defining reference point is Revolver's "Tax Man." Next, "One is All, And All is One" is in a folk-rock bag, but comes across as "Nowhere Man" were it reconfigured by UK freakbeat outfit The Mirror. After this, the driving "No Deposit, no Return," a cousin of The Bee Gees' "In my Own Time." Great as all this and what ensues is, none of it comfortably fits with the New York of 1967 or 1968. The tracks credited to Gypsy Wizard are less distinguished, vaguely like Spirit yet still conforming to a UK psych-pop mould (the apocalyptic, bizarre final track, “In Deadication” features air raid sirens, bomb noises and a baby crying). On this evidence, irrespective of the music’s quality, this band had little chance of success in the America of 1967 to 1969.

The story of how it got to this point is notable. Curious too. The Undertakers formed in Wallasey in early 1961. Inclined towards tough R&B, they rocked hard, picked up a following on the local and regional circuit, and rejected an overture from Brian Epstein to be their manger. In July 1962, in common with many of their contemporaries, they played Hamburg’s Star Club. They were picked up by Pye Records, which issued four singles in 1963 and 1964: the last of which credited to The ’Takers as The Undertakers was deemed to have impeded their commercial progress. In this period, the band was Chris Huston (lead guitar), a non-Rolling Stones Brian Jones (sax, vocal), Jackie Lomax (bass, lead vocal), Geoff Nugent (rhythm guitar) and Bugs Pemberton (drums). A version of the band is still playing. (pictured left, The Undertakers, 1964. Left to right: Brian Jones, Bugs Pemberton, Jackie Lomax, Chris Huston, Geoff Nugent)

In summer 1965, Huston saw an ad touting available work for British bands in the US. Accepting they could go no further in their home country, The Undertakers – without Nugent – duly flew to New York that August, where they made one single and, presaging what was to come, recorded an unreleased album. The adventure ultimately went nowhere, and the band fell apart at the end of 1965. Jones returned to the UK while Huston began working in a studio capacity with The Young Rascals. Pemberton joined a Queens band named The Mersey Lads. Then, Pemberton and Lomax, now playing guitar, ended in The Lost Souls with US musicians John Cannon (guitar) and Tom Caccetta (bass). Linda Eastman, the future Linda McCartney, was a fan.

A break came when The Beatles were playing New York in August 1966. Pemberton and Lomax met up with them. Brian Epstein, with a push from Cilla Black, subsequently brought The Lost Souls to the UK and renamed them The Lomax Alliance. Under this name, one single was issued in the UK in May 1967. Following a prompt from John Lennon, Lomax then left and ended up solo on Apple. (pictured right, The Lomax Alliance, 1966. Left to right: John Cannon, Tom Caccetta, Jackie Lomax, Bugs Pemberton)

Once Lomax was gone, the remaining three – Cannon, Caccetta and Pemberton – went back to New York, got two Lomax Alliance tracks issued as a single credited to One and began recording with Huston, now an established recording studio engineer. Assuming the name Rain, the trio played New York and Boston and moved to California around May 1968, where they played Los Angeles and San Francisco. Despite being two-thirds American, the band was billed in LA as “Direct from England.” Deciding that Rain was passé, they became Gypsy Wizard and/or The Gypsy Wizards Band in summer 1968. In early 1969, after recording more tracks in New York with Huston, they called it a day.

On the face of it, Tomorrow Never Comes: The NYC Sessions 1967-1968 is a footnote, belated evidence for the existence of a late Sixties band barely anyone had heard of. Yet the route leading to Rain and Gypsy Wizard tracks back directly to the earliest days of Merseybeat, the UK’s first internationally significant boom in popular music. Furthermore, it shows The Undertakers were not just all about hothousing Jackie Lomax. It also helps that Rain were obviously a terrific band. Check this out. It won’t disappoint.

• Next week: A more clear-cut case of Merseybeat with Gerry & The Pacemakers and I Like It! Anthology 1963-1966
  
• More reissue reviews on theartsdesk
• Kieron Tyler’s website

@MrKieronTyler