Wild Things-Wyld Kiwi Garage 1966-69

Dear friends,

Today I am going to present you a wild collection with primitive sounds from New Zealand’s 60s music groups. This is a collection of 16 singles where the Kiwis compensated for their isolation with crude mania, and this has some ferocious pounders.

My favourite from this compilation is the “I can’t make a friend” by the Action with very snotty vocals and a real hunting tune. Also the 13th Floor Elevators “You’re gonna miss me”, covered by Tom Thumb is one of the most powerful covers of this all time garage-punk classic.

This compilation shows the real hunger of 60s youth to play music and express their feelings, which was the same almost all across the word.

Track List

1.La De Da's - "Don't You Stand In My Way" (2:14)
2.La De Da's - "How Is the Air Up There?" (2:32)
3.The Smoke (NZ) - "No More Now" (2:12)
4.Sandy Edmonds - "Come See Me" (2:28)
5.Crescendos - "Now She's Mine" (2:50)
6.The Action - "I Can't Make a Friend" (2:16)
7.Tom Thumb - "You're Gonna Miss Me" (2:00)
8.Tom Thumb - "I Need You" (2:06)
9.Bluestars - "Social End Product" (2:32)
10.Challenge - "The Crunch" (2:44)
11.Principals - "I Can't Stop" (2:44)
12.Pleazers - "Hurtin' All Over" (2:37)
13.Chants R&B - "I Want Her" (2:36)
14.Chants R&B - "I'm Your Witchdoctor" (2:00)
15.Chants R&B - "Neighbour Neighbour" (2:25)
16.Tomorrow's Love - "7 and 7 Is" (2:03)

Download here

The Action (New Zealand)

The Action isn't the UK group of the same name but a New Zealand group from Auckland. Seems like they didn't mind being confused with their more famous namesake, as they recorded the UK Action's Never Ever for their second 45. Not an unusual practice at the time, there's also an Australian group calling itself the Birds who covered two of the UK Bird's 45s, No Good Without You and Say Those Magic Words.
This Action cover the Vagrants on the flip side of their first 45, Romeo and Juliet, doing an excellent job of it too. This was recorded in April of 1967. Though you wouldn't think it from this song, they were actually known as more of a soul and r&b band than pop or garage.
Evan Silva wrote to me about I Can't Make a Friend: "That was the first song I recorded with the Action at Stebbings studio in Eldred Stebbing's basement. I sing on all but Romeo & Juliet. The A sides were Stebbing's suggestion for the pop market and we selected the B sides. We never played the A sides live as we did not like them, except for Try A Little Tenderness we played that regular especially in Oz! Brett [Neilsen] our drummer was the La De Da's drummer prior to us and did not want to go back to Oz, then joined the Action and off we went to Oz!"
Brian Harris then took Brett's place in the La De Da's!
Eldred Stebbing was the owner of the Zodiac label. Many of the great New Zealand bands recorded at his studio, and the Action, the Pleazers and the La De Da's all played residencies at his nightclub, the Galaxie.
A detailed history of the band is available here

The Action - I Can't Make a Friend