The Scaffold

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2009)

The Scaffold
Origin	Liverpool, England
Genres	Pop music
Years active	1964-1977
Labels	Parlophone Island Warner Bros. Bronze
Associated acts	Grimms Liverpool poets Wings
Former members
Mike McGear Roger McGough John Gorman

The Scaffold were a comedy, poetry and music trio from Liverpool, England, consisting of Mike McGear (real name Peter Michael McCartney - brother of Paul McCartney), Roger McGough and John Gorman.

Contents 1 Career 2 Discography 2.1 Singles 2.2 Albums 2.3 Discography Notes 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Career

The Scaffold performed a mixture of comic songs, comedy sketches and the poetry of McGough, as evidenced on their 1968 live album, and released a number of singles and albums on Parlophone and EMI between 1966 and 1971, with several more on Island, Warner Bros. and Bronze thereafter.

The Scaffold achieved Top 10 success in the UK with:^[1]

• "Thank U Very Much" (# 4), composed by McGear;
• "Lily the Pink" (# 1), based on a traditional song about Lydia Pinkham.
• "Liverpool Lou" (# 7) (written by Dominic Behan), recorded during the 1974 McGear sessions with Wings.

In addition to the hit singles, The Scaffold's output included four albums: The Scaffold on Parlophone in 1968, L. the P. on Parlophone in 1969, Fresh Liver on Island in 1973, and Sold Out on WB in 1975. The Scaffold's first greatest hits album, entitled Singles As & Bs, was released on See For Miles Records in 1982. This was followed by a second greatest hits collection, the first on Compact Disc, The Scaffold: The Songs, in 1992. Three additional compilations of the band's Parlophone tracks have since been released (two of which also include the Warner Bros. “Liverpool Lou” track).

Jack Bruce, Elton John, Graham Nash and Jimi Hendrix were among the session musicians who performed on The Scaffold's early records (since none of the trio were musicians).^[2] Tim Rice, who was at that time an assistant to their producer Norrie Paramor, contributed backing vocals to some of their material.

In 1970, The Scaffold appeared in a children's television series, Score With The Scaffold.

In early 1971, they provided some catchy tunes for inclusion in a television publicity campaign heralding the introduction of decimal currency to the UK. In this series of five-minute programmes, titled Decimal Five and shown on BBC1, they sang such inspired lyrics as "Give more, get change" and "Use your old coppers in sixpenny lots".

In 1972, they made a ½ hour musical movie called "Plod" based on an earlier stage production. The film was made on location in Liverpool, and included boys from the Liverpool Institute High School, earlier attended by the McCartney brothers and Beatle George Harrison.

In 1973, The Scaffold transferred to Island Records and released one album, Fresh Liver, from which no singles were released. The group then merged into the expanded line-up of Grimms with the likes of Neil Innes, Andy Roberts, Adrian Henri and Brian Patten.

After the 1974 success of "Liverpool Lou," recorded with Paul McCartney and Wings, The Scaffold reunited for their final album, Sold Out, on Warner Bros. Records. The B-side of "Liverpool Lou", "Ten Years After on Strawberry Jam", was an instrumental composed by Paul and Linda McCartney and performed by Wings. The Scaffold moved to the Bronze Records label in 1976, and continued touring through 1977. After that the group disbanded, although there have been occasional reunion performances. The group also reunited to record a new track for a special album, commemorating Liverpool’s 2008 "European Capital of Culture” event.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

UK Releases

• "2 Days Monday" / "3 Blind Jellyfish" (Parlophone R 5443) May, 1966
• "Goodbat Nightman" / "Long Strong Black Pudding" (Parlophone R 5548) Dec., 1966
• "Thank U Very Much" / "Ide B The First" (Parlophone R 5643) Nov, 1967
• "Do You Remember?" / "Carry On Krow" (Parlophone R 5679) Mar., 1968
• "1-2-3" / "Today" (Parlophone R 5703) June, 1968
• "Lily the Pink" / "Buttons Of Your Mind" (Parlophone R 5734) Oct., 1968
• "Charity Bubbles" / "Goose" (Parlophone R 5784) June, 1969
• "Gin Gan Goolie" / "Liver Birds" (Parlophone R 5812) Oct, 1969
• "All The Way Up" / "Please Sorry" (Parlophone R 5847) June, 1970
• "Bus Dreams" / "If I Could Start All Over Again" (Parlophone R 5866) Oct, 1970
• "Do The Albert" / "Commercial Break" (Parlophone R 5922) Oct., 1971
• "Lily the Pink" / "Thank U Very Much" / "Do You Remember?" (EMI 2085) Nov., 1973
• "Liverpool Lou" / "Ten Years After on Strawberry Jam" (Warner Bros K 16400) May, 1974
• "Mummy Won't Be Home For Christmas" / "The Wind Is Blowing" (Warner Bros K 16488) Dec., 1974
• "Leaving of Liverpool" / "Pack Of Cards" (Warner Bros K 16521) Mar., 1975
• "Wouldn't It Be Funny If You Didn't Have A Nose" / "Mr. Noselighter" (Bronze BRO 33) Oct., 1976
• "How D'You Do" / "Paper Underpants" (Bronze BRO 39) Apr., 1977
• "Lily the Pink" / "Thank U Very Much" / "Do You Remember?" / "Gin Gan Goolie" (EMI 2690) Oct., 1977

US Releases

• "Thank U Very Much" / "Ide B The First" (Bell 701) Jan, 1968
• "Do You Remember?" / "Carry On Krow" (Bell 724) May, 1968
• "Lily the Pink" / "Buttons Of Your Mind" (Bell 747) Dec., 1968
• "Charity Bubbles" / "Goose" (Bell B-821) Aug., 1969
• "Jelly Covered Cloud" / "Liver Birds" (Bell B-849) 1969
• "Liverpool Lou" / "Ten Years After on Strawberry Jam" (Warner Bros WBS 8001) July, 1974

Canadian Releases

• "Thank U Very Much" / "Ide B The First" (Capitol 72524) Feb., 1968
• "Lily the Pink" / "Buttons Of Your Mind" (Capitol 72562) 1968
• "Liverpool Lou" / "Ten Years After on Strawberry Jam" (Warner Bros WBS 8001) July, 1974

[edit] Albums

UK Releases

• MCGOUGH AND MCGEAR (Parlophone PMC 7047 [mono], PCS 7047 [stereo]) [LP] May, 1968
• THE SCAFFOLD (Parlophone PMC 7051 [mono], PCS 7051 [stereo]) [LP] July, 1968
• L. THE P. (Parlophone PMC 7077 [mono], PCS 7077 [stereo]) [LP] May, 1969
• FRESH LIVER (Island ILPS 9234) [LP] May, 1973
• SOLD OUT (Warner Bros. K 56067) [LP] Feb., 1975
• THE SCAFFOLD SINGLES A'S AND B'S (See For Miles CM 114) [LP] Oct., 1982 [Compilation, containing 22 EMI and Warner Bros tracks]
• MCGOUGH AND MCGEAR (Parlophone PCS 7332) [LP] Apr., 1989 [Reissue of the 1968 album]
• MCGOUGH AND MCGEAR (EMI CDP 7 91877 2) [CD] Apr., 1989 [Reissue of the 1968 album]
• THE BEST OF THE EMI YEARS: THE SCAFFOLD, THE SONGS (EMI CDP 7 985022) [CD] Feb., 1992 [Compilation, containing 20 EMI tracks]
• THE VERY BEST OF THE SCAFFOLD (Wise Buy WB 885572) [CD] Feb., 1998 [Compilation, containing 12 EMI and Warner Bros tracks]
• THE SCAFFOLD AT ABBEY ROAD, 1966-1971 (EMI 7243 496435 2 9) [CD] Aug., 1998 [Compilation containing 27 EMI tracks, including 7 previously unreleased]
• THE VERY BEST OF THE SCAFFOLD (EMI Gold 7243 5 38474 2 5) [CD] Mar., 2002 [Compilation, containing 26 EMI and Warner Bros tracks]
• LIVE AT THE QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL 1968 (Él ACMEM63CD) [CD] Jan., 2006 [Reissue of the 1968 album, The Scaffold]
• LIVERPOOL-THE NUMBER ONES ALBUM (EMI 50999 5 19522 2 8) [CD] Feb., 2008 [Multi-artist commemorative album, including one newly-recorded track by Scaffold]

US Release

• THANK U VERY MUCH (Bell 6018) [LP] Sept., 1968

Japanese Releases

• SOLD OUT (Muskrat RATCD 4228) [CD] Aug, 2004 [Reissue of the 1975 album]
• FRESH LIVER (Island UICY 94110) [CD] May, 2009 [Reissue of the 1973 album]

[edit] Discography Notes

• The album, MCGOUGH AND MCGEAR, is by Roger McGough and Mike McGear. All other releases by The Scaffold.
• Tracks which were first released from 1973 onward show the artist as Scaffold (rather than The Scaffold).
• See also Mike McGear Discography.
• See also Grimms Discography.
• There were probably other albums released in Japan. The two above are included because they have not been released on Compact Disc in the UK.

[edit] See also

• Liverpool poets

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Scaffold; Airbrushed from history? - Independent article on the history of The Scaffold. Endorsed by the band members.