Biography
In 1967 Sweet Feeling issued their lone single, coupling "All So Long Ago" with "Charles Brown." The A-side presented a serviceable Kinks-styled number whose everyday-British-life perspective closely mirrored the observational songs Ray Davies was then composing. Its B-side, however, overshadowed it completely: "Charles Brown" delivered one of the most unsettling specimens of British psychedelia, recounting the life of an ordinary British family man through an eerie melody and some of the most disorienting backwards effects on any rock disc of the period.
The group’s subsequent development took an intricate route toward the somewhat better-known British mod-psychedelic act Rupert’s People. Manager Howard Conder—a drummer who had performed with the Barron Knights, the Moontrekkers, and sessions for producer Joe Meek—commissioned Sweet Feeling songwriter and guitarist Rod Lynton to rewrite "Charles Brown" with fresh lyrics and a new melody. The revised piece, issued as "Reflections of Charles Brown," departed markedly from its source, basing its tune on Bach’s Air on a G String and cultivating a gentler, more uplifting mood. Conder next enlisted Les Fleur de Lys, already responsible for several respectable mod-rock releases that had failed to chart, to record the track in an arrangement recalling early Procol Harum. Les Fleur de Lys also supplied the B-side "Hold On," yet declined further work with Conder after the sessions. The single nevertheless appeared and has since been valued by collectors as one of the stronger lesser-known British psychedelic 45s.
Conder’s initial plan called for Sweet Feeling to rename itself Rupert’s People so a ready-made band could promote the record. When the musicians refused, he assembled an alternate Rupert’s People lineup around vocalist Chris Andrews (distinct from the mid-1960s U.K. pop hitmaker of identical name), who had sung on the "Reflections of Charles Brown" single; ex-Merseybeats drummer Johnny Banks; and Tony Dangerfield, who had recorded solo and played in Screaming Lord Sutch & the Savages. That configuration dissolved quickly without releasing any material. Conder then returned to Sweet Feeling with the same name-change proposal; this time they accepted, and the reconstituted band issued two further singles in 1967–1968. Both sides of Sweet Feeling’s solitary single later resurfaced on the Rupert’s People compilation The Magic World of Rupert’s People.
The group’s subsequent development took an intricate route toward the somewhat better-known British mod-psychedelic act Rupert’s People. Manager Howard Conder—a drummer who had performed with the Barron Knights, the Moontrekkers, and sessions for producer Joe Meek—commissioned Sweet Feeling songwriter and guitarist Rod Lynton to rewrite "Charles Brown" with fresh lyrics and a new melody. The revised piece, issued as "Reflections of Charles Brown," departed markedly from its source, basing its tune on Bach’s Air on a G String and cultivating a gentler, more uplifting mood. Conder next enlisted Les Fleur de Lys, already responsible for several respectable mod-rock releases that had failed to chart, to record the track in an arrangement recalling early Procol Harum. Les Fleur de Lys also supplied the B-side "Hold On," yet declined further work with Conder after the sessions. The single nevertheless appeared and has since been valued by collectors as one of the stronger lesser-known British psychedelic 45s.
Conder’s initial plan called for Sweet Feeling to rename itself Rupert’s People so a ready-made band could promote the record. When the musicians refused, he assembled an alternate Rupert’s People lineup around vocalist Chris Andrews (distinct from the mid-1960s U.K. pop hitmaker of identical name), who had sung on the "Reflections of Charles Brown" single; ex-Merseybeats drummer Johnny Banks; and Tony Dangerfield, who had recorded solo and played in Screaming Lord Sutch & the Savages. That configuration dissolved quickly without releasing any material. Conder then returned to Sweet Feeling with the same name-change proposal; this time they accepted, and the reconstituted band issued two further singles in 1967–1968. Both sides of Sweet Feeling’s solitary single later resurfaced on the Rupert’s People compilation The Magic World of Rupert’s People.