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Beck's reluctance to tackle vocal duties was neatly solved by enlisting Rod Stewart for the role in the Jeff Beck Group, the touring entity which was going to generate the income to cover day to day expenses after the Graham Gouldman penned Tallyman, another pop tune cut from the same cloth as Hi Ho (which reached #14 on the UIK charts) failed to repeat its moderate success. 

The plan seems to have been a Yardbirds-like lineup with Rod Stewart on vocals, Beck and Ronnie Wood on guitars and a rhythm section. A succession of bass players and drummers were tried before Wood switched to bass and Mickey Waller, who'd been a member of Steampacket along with Stewart, Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger, took over behind the drum kit. 

Despite the presence of a singer destined to become huge in his own right Most wanted to persist with Beck's undistinguished vocals in pop mode, although the outfit's live performances (I've managed to track down a couple of bootlegs) presented a heavily Anglicised Chicago-style blues band with plenty of flash guitar-vocal interplay.

Hughesy's memory may be playing tricks here, but I seem to recall an article somewhere stating that Stewart's shyness meant that the microphone was located out of sight of the audience on early Beck Group gigs, producing bewilderment among audience members who couldn't work out where the vocals were coming from. 

Had Me a Real Good Time, on the other hand has the Beck Group starting a two-night gig at the Fillmore East opening for the Grateful Dead where Stewart's vocals went missing (as in nothing came out), requiring a generous application of medicinal brandy behind the speaker stacks. 

Ah, well, that shyness bit always seemed totally out of character...

Beck's third single, an acoustic instrumental cover of Love Is Blue, was a major hit, but presumably failed to find a spot in the Jeff Beck Group set-list.

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© Ian Hughes 2015