Pete Miller, a guitarist from Britain who performed under enigmatic aliases, issued a string of eccentric singles during the 1960s that later acquired cult status among aficionados of psychedelic music. He began his career playing in the little-known British outfit Peter Jay & the Jaywalkers before launching a solo path near the end of 1965 via the track “Baby I Got News for You,” a fuzzy-guitar-driven piece bearing clear echoes of the Troggs. Credited simply as Miller, the recording featured backing from Peter Frampton alongside Herd musicians. Over the ensuing years he focused chiefly on songwriting for U.K. publishing houses while also cutting personal demo recordings.
Early in 1968 a follow-up single appeared under the Big Boy Pete moniker; titled “Cold Turkey,” it showcased haunting, spaceship-elevator-style psychedelic guitar bursts paired with sharp mod-psych vocals and has since earned enduring classic standing despite scant contemporary exposure. Adding another layer to the already peculiar narrative, Miller declined live appearances, prompting a substitute vocalist to tour under the name and thereby sparking prolonged debate among ’60s scholars over Big Boy Pete’s actual identity until the matter was resolved.
Eventually Miller relocated to San Francisco, where he took up production and engineering work while sporadically issuing albums on small independent labels. Both “Cold Turkey” and, to a reduced degree, “Baby I Got News for You” later surfaced on anthologies devoted to rare British psych and mod sides from the era; the Damned, recording as Naz Nomad & the Nightmares, also delivered a cover of “Cold Turkey.” Multiple collections of previously unreleased Big Boy Pete demos from the late 1960s have likewise been made available.
