The Mickey Finn The Mickey Finn 1964/1967

The Mickey Finn Lived The Life. They May Not Have Notched Up Any Hit Records, But Their Sixties Adventures Took Them From The East End Of London To Trendy Clubs In The South Of France And The Bahamas. Along The Way They Hobnobbed With Millionaires, Movie Stars, Murderers And Scoundrels, And Left Behind A Tidy Pile Of Sought-After 45s, One A Freakbeat Monolith Revered As One Of The Era's Best. And By `Era' We Mean Since The Invention Of The Gramophone.This Collection Of Their Work Is An Impressive Tribute To Their Maverick, Hedonistic Spirit, Comprising All Their Released Recordings Plus Some _unissued At The Time_1966 Tracks That Have Never Been Available On Vinyl Before. Guitarist Mickey Waller And Drummer Richard Brand Formed The Earliest Incarnation Of The Group In London's Bethnal Green In 1962. Originally Known As The Strangers, By Late 1963 They'd Added Bass Player John Burkett And Lead Singer Alan Mark Andchanged Their Name To The Central Sound, Bethnal Green Being On The Central Line Of London's Tube System.In 1964 The Blue Beat Label Had Just Released A Single Recorded By Members Of The Checkmates But Credited To An As-Yet Fictional Group, Mickey Finn & The Blue Men, "Tom Hark" B/W "Please Love Me." The Record Needed To Be Promoted, So At Theirmanager's Insistence The Central Sound Changed Their Name To Mickey Finn &The Blue Men. Since There Was Already A Mickey In The Group, Mickey Waller Was Designated As Mickey Finn. They Were Now "Recording Artists" Before Ever Having Set Foot In A Recording Studio.After Adding A New Member, John "Fluff" Cooke On Keyboards, The Group Began Its Real Recording Career In March 1964 When Oriole Released A Single Featuring Hip Bluebeat Arrangements Of Two R&B Numbers, Bo Diddley's "Pills" And Jimmy Reed's "Hush Your Mouth." For The Recording Session At Regent Sound, They Were Joined By Their Friend Jimmy Page On Harmonica. Page Also Played A Handful Of Gigs With Them And Also Blew Harp On Their Next Single, A Version Of Chuck Berry's "Reelin' A...