The Action should have been the next great pop band of the 1960s. Rooted in the mod/R&B scene of the time, the London five-piece seemed to have everything going for them. George Martin signed them to Parlophone and produced an early single. The Small Faces took them under their wing and had Fortnum & Mason hampers delivered to their bedsit. Ironically, while the Small Faces were abandoned for going too "pop", the Action became the band that real mods went to see (including a young Phil Collins) .
Like the Rolling Stones, the most impressive aspect of the band's development was how quickly they graduated from faithful covers of American standards to writing their own material. While their live performances were legendary among the head-nodding in-crowd, it was the album posthumously released under the title Rolled Gold in 1990 that reveals how far they'd developed. From the anthemic opener Come Around, via urgent mod stompers (Something To Say, Really Doesn't Matter) to trippy-dippy mysticism (Icarus, Brain), there is evidence of genuine songwriting talent, while Reg King proves himself a true frontman rather than a mere soul man copyist. Considering most of the songs on the released album were compiled from rough demos recorded in 1968, the production values and arrangements are impressively fleshed out (listen to the harmonies on In My Dream for instance).
To many mod completists, there's nothing new about any of this. But to anyone who has yet to be converted - button down your collar, straighten up your tie. If Martin was prepared to mention them in the same breath as the Beatles, Hendrix and the Who, they've got to be worth a punt.
