Where Did You Go to My Lovely

by Fred Dellar

The lost sounds and stars of the sixties.

Genres: Music

221 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 1983

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars for quality, and five stars for being such an interesting by-product of pop music culture. Fred Dellar, who wrote "Where Did You Go To, My Lovely?" is a legendary British music journalist who worked for New Music Express (NME), as well as Melody Maker, if not mistaken. He now works for Mojo Magazine, doing the "Ask Fred" column.

Published in 1983, Dellar managed to locate most of the British Invasion bands and artists to find out what they were doing now (in 1983). Which mostly were retired, or still struggling with the music business. Some of the artists in Dellar's 'whatever happened to?" are now very much respected and well-known (still). The Zombies, Scott Walker, The Troggs, The Pretty Things, and the late Dusty Springfield. On the other hand who remembers The Temperance Seven or Eden Kane & Peter Sarstedt? My huge discovery in this outdated and out-of-print book is that Morgan Fisher of Mott the Hoople, and eventually moved to Tokyo to do music (and maybe still there) used to be in the band Love Affair. Or that bassist John Gustafson (played with Roxy Music for one album) was in The Merseybeats. Those two facts for some odd reason, I find totally fascinating. So that knowledge is five stars alone, but as a book, it's only for the obsessive people like me.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd hardly call Dusty Springfield or Donovan a 'lost star', but maybe things were different in 1983. Anyway, this gave me plenty of info about one-hit wonders who actually had several hits, bands that went through many iterations, and groups I hadn't heard of and would probably enjoy. Humorous without being mocking; the author is genuinely happy when someone's doing well for themselves, whether touring the clubs or working as a decorator. My favourite bit, though, was where a previous owner had used biro to correct the title of Marianne Faithfull's mum from 'Countess' to 'Baroness'.

[Malcolm Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fred fact; this must have been an interesting book to read when it was first published and the facts were fresh. It must have been like his column in the NME in book form. But journalism, particularly music journalism, ages very badly very quickly unless the journalism is about some act whose name is so far above the medium they are part of that they are always interesting. E.g. David Bowie and The Beatles.

More difficult for me was where there were interesting facts, names of projects that sounded interesting but obscure, then the internet has wiped out any record of these projects. That I chose to read the book after the author died recently aged 89 and publishing his column in 'Uncut' right up to his death, says it all really; the past has it's limits as somewhere to live.

[Stephen Mc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its strictly for the 60's anoraks this one . As it was written in early eighties it needs an update .
I read it as a tribute to fred who died recently a great journalist who I admired.