P & C 2002 Pluto Music Limited

Available to buy at

If you ever doubted that there was depth to the band Herman's Hermits,then you need to take a trip to the Pluto music website.
On the site you will find a full discography,complied by top Hermit fan Olaf Owre and also you will see Cds for sale that include songs written by the band that had never before being released before.

Vault 69 is the latest offering in this collection of songs that had been planned to be used by the band,but ultimately never were.
The CD is made up of 12 tracks,written mostly by Keith Hopwood & Lek Leckenby with Karl Green credited on 2 tracks.Pete Cowap,who was to join the band in the early 1970's after they had parted with Peter Noone,also has written 2 of the songs on the CD as well as providing vocals for 4 of the songs.


 
   

After listening to this CD,what i fail to understand is why none of these songs never appeared on any of the Herman's Hermit albums as 9 of the songs were written between 1966 & 69,certainly the Kinks sounding "Sleepyhead" and the excellent "A Little Bit Of Love" should have featured somewhere.  

The inclusion of 3 songs sung by Lek Leckenby ,was an additional bonus for me,as i was not aware that Lek had actually been lead vocals on any of their songs.
Just need Keith to discover a recording of Barry Whitwam(Herman's Hermits drummer) singing a cover of "act Naturally"!
 

In his sleeve notes,Keith points out that as all the tracks on the CD were demos,and that the quality of them varies widely and he goes on to apologize for this. Apart from the starting error on the song"Same Old Line", I found that the  quality of the Cd was excellent.

 

One minor niggle that i do have,is the lack of information on some of the people that contributed vocally to some of the songs.
On past CDs released by Keith have given some information on vocalist Dee Christopholus,but iam left still wondering who is Marsh who provided the vocals for the  wonderful "Sleepy Head" and also Dulson who sang Pete Cowaps' song"The Sultans Daughter"  

1. Sleepy Head (Hopwood /Leckenby) Vocals Marsh,Hopwood
2. Summer Deutschland Evening(Cowap) Vocals Cowap
3. Uncle Ernest(Hopwood/Leckenby) Vocals Cowap,Christopholus
4. Same Old Line(Hopwood) Vocals Hopwood
5. Ain't Nobody Like You(Leckenby/Hopwood/Green) Vocals Leckenby
6. A Little Bit Of Love(Hopwood/Leckenby) Vocals Cowap
7. You're A Big Girl Now(Hopwood/Leckenby) Vocals Christopholus
8. W.L. & Son(Hopwood/Leckenby) Vocals Cowap
9. Not Going Back(Leckenby/Hopwood) Vocals Leckenby
10. The Sultans Daughter(Cowap) Vocals Dulson
11. Jumbo Freaks(Hopwood) Vocals Hopwood
12. Do It(Leckenby/Hopwood/Green) Vocals Leckenby    

To sum up,if you fancy seeing more of a band that musical press would only ever have you believe were capable of only recording old music hall songs and being staged managed by Mickie Most,then i can recommend that you purchase this Cd. You won't be disappointed.