Them - Gloria's Dream / Secret Police - Multiple titles - 45 RPM 7" Single - 1st Pressing - 1967

Them – Gloria's Dream / Secret Police (Negram / Disque Vogue HV 2057) made in Holland 1967 original picture sleeve 45RPM 7" single | vinyl: NM (mint-) | cover: NM (mint-) Garage Punk / Garage Rock
alternate 'THEM' without Van Morrison (he went solo) --> Produced by Kim Fowley.

United Kingdom rock band formed in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1963 most prominently known for the rock standard "Gloria" and launching singer Van Morrison's musical career.

Mostly worthy it for the tense, paranoid, psychedelic stomper "Secret Police." The other three are more typical (but good) '66 garage rock

The music of the 1960s may be known for the steps forward made in sound and altruistic intents of its creators, but the business side was rife with old-school flim-flam merchants eager to make a fast buck. Belfast r&b hooligans Them suffered as much as anyone. After making their name at sweat-drenched and raucous gigs at the Maritime Hotel in their hometown, they were signed by Decca Records in 1964. After two big hit singles in quick succession in Baby Please Don’t Go and Here Comes The Night, it became the usual story of management plugging the band into a back-breaking schedule, in an effort to wring every last penny out of them.

After the Angry Young Them debut album Pat McAuley decided he had enough of this, with the session musos like Jimmy Page being brought in on their recordings and the inference that it was just Van’s backing band also understandably rankling. But more importantly his patience with the management’s questionable motives and methods was totally spent. Also bowing out at the time was original guitarist Billy Harrison.

Banding together, these two reasoned they had as good a claim as anyone to the name and with the original band’s future unsure, put together a new Them line up including Skip Alan (later of the Pretty Things). The Van Morrison group’s management hit back, threatening legal action on the use of the name and this brief aggregation foundered, with Alan and Harrison quickly departing. The latter poured cold water on the McAuley version of Them, saying it was “not the group the kids know”.

The legal wrangling continued as McAuley brought in a new line up, led by his brother Jackie on vocals with Mark Scott and Ken McLeod completing the band. It’s this version of the band which features here. A March 1966 court ruling meant the band could use the name Them outside of the UK, but in Britain they had to be called by another name. They sardonically choose the Other Them as their UK moniker, but what could have been seen as trading on their past glories didn’t result in many offers to gig or record. I suppose the concert hall management and record labels wanted the Morrison band. They did fill in at a live performance for them at least once, oddly enough on the behest of Morrison’s own management.

Bearing in mind their various problems with music business types, it is perhaps ironic that deeply dodgy customer Kim Fowley helmed their one and only LP. Fowley stumbled across the band in London and whisked them into the famous Regent Sound studio in Denmark Street aka Tin Pan Alley. What was set down over the course of three sessions forms the basis for the Belfast Gypsies album. One thing that is immediately apparent is that this version of Them were as tough a bunch of r&b punks that ever drew breath. Jackie McAuley’s vocals border on sheer, beautiful mayhem and the snotty, ramshackle attack of the band is a joy to behold.