The Later Days
The hits again tailed away and the long-awaited debut album, featuring the expanded line-up with Vic Cooper on organ/piano duties, was never mastered for release. One step behind The Beatles and losing ground, Kidd abandoned dual-tracking his voice and switched back to R&B, with mixed results. Green left to join Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas to form a twin lead guitar line-up, alongside Mike Maxfield. Eventually the group and singer parted company. The Pirates recorded one single, "Shades of Blue", for Polydor before calling it a day.
Kidd kept recording. His single "It's Got To Be You", and an unreleased version of Otis Redding's "I Can't Turn You Loose", showed that a mix of R&B and soul may have been where Kidd's future lay.
When Kidd was on the verge of a comeback with a promising 'New Pirates' group — Mick Stewart (lead guitar), Nick Simper (bass), Ray Soaper (organ) and Roger Truth (drums) — on returning from a cancelled gig, he was killed in a motor car accident in Bury, Lancashire on 7 October 1966, with companion Nick Simper being injured.
The single "Send For That Girl" was released posthumously in November but failed to chart. This line-up of The Pirates (with John Kerrison replacing Truth) carried on in tribute until mid-1967, although there were no further recordings.
Read more about this topic: Johnny Kidd & The Pirates
Famous quotes containing the word days:
“Methinks a Man cannot, without a secret Satisfaction, consider the Glory of the present Age, which will shine as bright as any other in the History of Mankind. It is still big with great Events, and has already produced Changes and Revolutions which will be as much admired by Posterity, as any that have happened in the Days of our Fathers, or in the old Times before them.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)