The Colors
In early 1979, Australian Robert Vickers left the band The Numbers and travelled to New York. "I went to New York, met a whole lot of people, went out to Max’s and CBGB’s. CBGB’s seemed a lot friendlier and a lot more people I liked seemed to go there more often. The night I came the Colors had played. They didn’t have a bass player so they played without one, just guitar, singer and drums. So I started talking to them and went down to the guitarist’s flat which was disgusting but interesting and just started playing with him and joined the band within a matter of a week. What I was aiming for with the Colors was more along the lines of the Rascals and the Lovin’ Spoonful, that sort of New York brightness which is sometimes confused with California. With the Colors I wanted to do a very commercial sort of thing but I still wanted to get subtlety into the Colors" (This quote comes from Clinton Walker's Book The Next Big Thing - Contemporary Australian Rock.)
After releasing a 7" EP on Infinite Records the Colors hooked up with New Jersey's legendary Johnny Dirt and the Dirt Club label for a cut on the Dirt Compilation Vol. 1, a 6-song 12", and a Clem Burke produced lp where the track "Go Go Getter" is from.
The Colors were: Tom Cookman - vocals; The Elf - drums; Charlie Pip - guitar, vocals; Paul Sass - guitar, synthesiser, vocals; Robert Vickers - bass, vocals.
Vickers went on to The Go-Betweens and Charlie Pip joined the David Johansen Group.
Johnny Dirt can be found behind the bar at Rudi's Bar & Grill on 9th Ave. in Hell's Kitchen, NYC.
You can find three more tracks from the Colors on the excellent new "Yellow Pills: Prefill - A Power Pop Prescription" compilation released today on the Numero Group label.
Go to the download page to get the Colors - "Go Go Getter"
6 Comments:
Nice song from the LP!
The new Yellow Pills CD has my fave Colors song "Growing Up American" and also two early tracks by The Speedies who, incidentally, (get ready for the plug) covered The Student Teachers song "Looks" (on stage).
http://www.thestudentteachers.com/
Your blog is sweet! Thanks!
I love the Colors and remember them appearing on The Uncle Floyd Show and lip synching to Growing Up American.
Charlie Pip also played in The Bee's who had a seven inch out with a cool song called "Circuit Breaker Boy". He also is probably still playing in the (New Jersey) band THE SKULLS who we used to go see every wednesday at The Dirt Club in the late 80's.
Wow! I can't believe anyone outside of NJ knew about these guys. I have an EP by them with one side that plays at 33rpm and the other at 45rpm (one of the tracks is 'Growing Up American', I think). Cool.
as drummer for the GO, I got to know the COLORS through our CBGB appearances. a great bunch of guys as well as a great power-pop band.
Colors trivia: original guitarist Paul Sass can be seen in the movie "Times Square" as a member of (the charactor Niki's) backing band.
I know the original drummer for the colors right now - through his daughter.
It's crazy that he was part of this. totally crazy. He's still an awesome guy - he's now a defense lawyer.
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