Between June 1964 and September 1966, London-area R&B band Downliners Sect issued ten singles, one EP and three albums on EMI’s Columbia imprint. A lot of records. Especially so for a band which barely charted. Only one of the singles, their Columbia debut, a dash through Jimmy Reed’s “Baby What’s Wrong” got anywhere – 29 on the New Musical Express Top 30.
Despite its meagre hit parade status, the single sounds irresistible – an unfettered headlong rush. But it, and subsequent releases, did not achieve the traction needed to take Downliners Sect to the level of their similarly minded Columbia label mates The Animals and the ever-evolving Yardbirds. And with their chart stats, Downliners Sect ought to have had a discography analogous to another R&B band signed to Columbia – the non-charting Cheynes, for whom it was three singles and no more.
A hint at the reason the Sect issued such a volume of vinyl comes from reading the liner note on the back of the sleeve of their third album, April 1966’s The Rock Sect’s In. There, it says they “topped the Swedish charts with ‘Little Egypt’ [their second UK single]. They have a large and faithful following both here [in the UK] and in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland where they are rated one of top three groups.”
Hyperbole was undoubtedly at play. Actually “Little Egypt” got to number three on Sweden’s Tio i topp chart: The Beatles and the Stones aced them. But they really were big in Sweden, where “Little Egypt” was issued in January 1965 as opposed to September 1964, when it hit the UK’s shops. The Swedish success is captured by extraordinary TV footage of their May 1965 arrival there, which survives on YouTube. There were mobbed.
In the booklet of the new three-CD clamshell box set Sect Maniacs - The Complete Sixties Sessions, band member Terry Gibson is quoted saying “we started getting plays on Swedish pirate radio. All of a sudden, we became big news out there. They flew us out there for a one-off gig [on 16th May 1965]…and we topped the bill at the Stockholm Ice Hockey Stadium in front of about 15,000 screaming kids. That was amazing, just like being The Beatles, so much so that the police stopped the show a few times to calm the kids down. It was a different world. We were ushered out of the back door into a limo, screaming girls trying to open the doors.” There was even a Sweden-only album, a 1967 collection mopping up all the tracks from singles which had not appeared on the three other LPs.
No wonder Downliners Sect were not dumped by Columbia.
However, once the deal with their management company – who licensed their records to the label – ran out, September 1966’s “The Cost of Living” / “Everything I’ve Got to Give” single became their last release for Columbia. The story didn’t end there and what came next in the Sixties is more-than fully covered by Sect Maniacs.
The Swedish adventures point to idiosyncrasy being core to this frequently fantastic band. One example – their second LP, July 1965’s The Country Sect found the band ditching then-current fashions and taking-on country music. In Canada, the album was marketed as “The In Sound – Country-Rock.” Take that, America’s country rock pioneers. Another example – their humour. Lots of their song titles included puns on the word “sect”: “Be a Sect Maniac!” “Sect Appeal,” “Insecticide.” Then there was their bizarre July 1965 EP The Sect Sing Sick Songs. On the back of the sleeve, it was noted it featured “four horror songs…we confidently expect this record to be banned by all and sundry. Tell your friends about it. And your enemies.” One track was a version of Jimmy Cross’ crazy country death song “I Want my Baby Back” and another was “Now She's Dead," written by US country singer and songwriter Bob Reinhardt. Furthermore, enhancing the eccentricity, one of the band members, Don Craine, habitually wore a deerstalker hat.
In contrast with all of the above, the origin story is straightforward. Downliners Sect formed in west London’s suburbs and were made up of R&B fanatics. The band was integral to what’s now dubbed the “Thames Delta” scene. On the same gigging circuit as The Rolling Stones, they had settled on a line up by early 1963, when songs by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley were staples of their repertoire. Their name came from the title of a Jerry Lee Lewis B-side.
They soon bedded in on the gigging circuit. In the box-set’s booklet, it is noted that “by late September/early October 1963, the Sect were performing at two early Brit R&B strongholds: Ken Colyer’s Studio 51 club in Great Newport Street, just off Shaftesbury Avenue in central London, and Eel Pie Island Hotel.” On record, their first move was the wonderful, independently issued, Nite In Gt. Newport Street EP. After being picked up by music publisher Campbell-Connelly offshoot Cee Cee Productions for management, their records came out via Columbia. Following this – limited chart action at home, but a mass of records.
Of these records, there are many gems. The wild June 1965 single “I Got Mine.” The ruff ’n’ tuff November 1964 debut album The Sect. The Country Sect is, notwithstanding its oddness, one of the period’s great albums. "Glendora," a June 1966 A-side is a for-real garage-punk classic. Indeed, a frequently fantastic band.
All of this is on the smart, diligently compiled Sect Maniacs. The deep digging goes far in: amongst the rarities collected are a trio of tracks by a rump Downliners Sect which emerged on three Swedish various-artists jukebox EPs in 1968 and 1969.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering their innate peculiarities, the story did not end in the Sixties. "Little Egypt" was reissued in the late 1976, and a Downliners Sect duly re-emerged in 1977 and issued a punk-simpatico single on the aptly named Raw Records label. There was also a Peel Session, and wild punk-styled recordings under the names F.U.2 and The Vacants.
In time, Downliners Sect became perennials on the Sixties-inclined circuit, where they were a seemingly ever-present reminder of the R&B scene from which they emerged. Billy Childish was an avowed fan. Terry Gibson (aka Terry Clemson) died in September 2020 and a full stop came with the passing of Don Craine (born Michael O’Donnell) in February 2022. Taking it back to where it all began, Sect Maniacs - The Complete Sixties Sessions is a great tribute to a great band.
- Next week: Shop Around - The Smokey Robinson Songbook
- More reissue reviews on theartsdesk
- Kieron Tyler’s website
Add comment