Biography
In 1967 the British ensemble the Living Daylights cut an album of rugged freakbeat and groovy post-beat pop that introduced the first English-language version of the '60s chestnut "Let's Live for Today." The set remained largely forgotten, appearing only on scattered obscure compilations, until Grapefruit Records issued it in full in 2022 as Let's Live for Today: The Complete Recordings.
The group formed through the merger of two leading beat outfits from the Essex town of Harlow. The Naturals and the Guyatones had each built large local followings; the Naturals secured a recording contract and released several singles, among them the 1964 track "I Should Have Known Better," which nearly reached the Top 20, and another that contained the first cover of a Pete Townshend composition, "It Was You." By 1967, as the beat boom yielded to freakbeat and psychedelia, the Naturals had split while the Guyatones sought fresh options. Their core—guitarist Garth Watt-Roy, bassist Norman Watt-Roy and drummer Ron Prudence—absorbed vocalist Bob O'Neale and guitarist Dougie Ellis from the Naturals. Rebranded the Living Daylights, the new lineup came under the wing of publisher Dick James, signed to Phillips and entered the studio with producer Caleb Quaye.
James, aiming to repeat the Rokes' Italian success with "Let's Live for Today," supplied the band the song, now fitted with new English lyrics, as their debut single. Their energetic reading was outpaced by a fresh Rokes version in the UK and by the Grass Roots in the US, though Murray the K's support earned the Daylights modest airplay in New York. The chief reward was the chance to record an album. It combined several catchy Garth Watt-Roy originals in the chunky freakbeat vein, a pair of Beatles covers chosen because James controlled the publishing, and Quaye's "Cos I'm Lonely," a melancholy post-beat ballad. Finished by mid-1967 and pressed to acetate, the album never reached stores, though a handful of tracks appeared on a French EP and "Always with Him" surfaced as a single later that year.
Continued live work failed to persuade Phillips to release the finished LP, and the group disbanded in early 1968. Garth Watt-Roy, Norman Watt-Roy and Prudence regrouped as the Greatest Show on Earth, signing to Harvest and shifting toward progressive material. After that band ended, Garth played in Fuzzy Duck while Norman joined Ian Dury & the Blockheads and worked extensively as a session bassist.
Living Daylights songs began surfacing on British freakbeat and psych anthologies in 1984, when "Let's Live for Today" and "Always with Him" appeared on the first volume of the Rubble series, The Psychedelic Snarl. No further material from the album reached the public until Grapefruit Records released Let's Live for Today: The Complete Recordings in 2022, complete with liner notes recounting the band's full history and remastered mono and stereo versions of the long-unheard freakbeat recordings.
The group formed through the merger of two leading beat outfits from the Essex town of Harlow. The Naturals and the Guyatones had each built large local followings; the Naturals secured a recording contract and released several singles, among them the 1964 track "I Should Have Known Better," which nearly reached the Top 20, and another that contained the first cover of a Pete Townshend composition, "It Was You." By 1967, as the beat boom yielded to freakbeat and psychedelia, the Naturals had split while the Guyatones sought fresh options. Their core—guitarist Garth Watt-Roy, bassist Norman Watt-Roy and drummer Ron Prudence—absorbed vocalist Bob O'Neale and guitarist Dougie Ellis from the Naturals. Rebranded the Living Daylights, the new lineup came under the wing of publisher Dick James, signed to Phillips and entered the studio with producer Caleb Quaye.
James, aiming to repeat the Rokes' Italian success with "Let's Live for Today," supplied the band the song, now fitted with new English lyrics, as their debut single. Their energetic reading was outpaced by a fresh Rokes version in the UK and by the Grass Roots in the US, though Murray the K's support earned the Daylights modest airplay in New York. The chief reward was the chance to record an album. It combined several catchy Garth Watt-Roy originals in the chunky freakbeat vein, a pair of Beatles covers chosen because James controlled the publishing, and Quaye's "Cos I'm Lonely," a melancholy post-beat ballad. Finished by mid-1967 and pressed to acetate, the album never reached stores, though a handful of tracks appeared on a French EP and "Always with Him" surfaced as a single later that year.
Continued live work failed to persuade Phillips to release the finished LP, and the group disbanded in early 1968. Garth Watt-Roy, Norman Watt-Roy and Prudence regrouped as the Greatest Show on Earth, signing to Harvest and shifting toward progressive material. After that band ended, Garth played in Fuzzy Duck while Norman joined Ian Dury & the Blockheads and worked extensively as a session bassist.
Living Daylights songs began surfacing on British freakbeat and psych anthologies in 1984, when "Let's Live for Today" and "Always with Him" appeared on the first volume of the Rubble series, The Psychedelic Snarl. No further material from the album reached the public until Grapefruit Records released Let's Live for Today: The Complete Recordings in 2022, complete with liner notes recounting the band's full history and remastered mono and stereo versions of the long-unheard freakbeat recordings.
Albums
