Customer Reviews

Action Packed!

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Who were The Action? Simply put, The Action were one of the best of the British Mod bands of the 60's, sadly forgotten in favour of The Who, The Yardbirds and Small Faces by music historians. They were in many ways superior to these bands in terms of their subtlety and deft arrangements of R&B. The Action, never released a Long Player, and the material here is culled from 45's. Songs like "Shadows and Reflections" show a stunning grasp of melody and harmony far beyond that of their contemporaries. Their approach to American R&B is relaxed and natural, listen to "Since I lost my Baby" to get the truly delicate touch these lads had. But they could also churn out the dance power "I'll Keep On Holding On" is a wonderful marriage of Soul and British Invasion guitars with rock insistance and soulful pleading. "Wasn't It You" is another stunning track that showcases the bands masterful blending of British-brewed Soul. Lots of the early 60's British bands (including the Beatles) were heavily influenced by R&B, but no one married the two genres as well and as natrually as The Action. A wonderful collection of songs by a top-notch band. Someone should really this stateside, maybe dig up some long lost tracks off of the rumoured unreleased LP. Even as is this compilation is a stunner.

Action, not, "The Action" were one of the best club bands in the UK in the mid 60's along with Alan Bown. They were one of the first British bands to play Motown. Action shows were always first class and I saw them often working as a DJ at the Blue Moon Club. Reggie King was a first class singer. The band never really made it commercially due to the fact that, like Alan Bown they always sounded better live than on record and also the fact that there records were usually cover versions. Still a great CD to own and it brings back many memories.

Normally I'm a real smart-alecy buster when it comes to these reviews, but let me tell you that this stuff is up there with the best of The Small Faces and is much better than early Who, (and I love early Who!) I know Phil Collins says that The Action are one of his favorite bands. Don't let that stop you from checking them out, he sounds NOTHING like them. Shadows and Reflections is a marvel, but it's the Since I Lost My Baby that is the show stopper. The best Brit. aranbee slowjam cover. Must be heard to be believed. Ace, as I hear they used to say.

While the Who and the Small Faces were slugging it out for the attention of the mod kids in mid-60s England, The Action were left to fight for what was left of their musical attention spans.

The Action were more heavily influenced by American R&B and Northern Soul than their more famous contemporaries, but were not afraid to be fierce on the guitar. Despite being signed by George Martin of the Beatles/EMI fame, the Action languished in obscurity and petered out by 1967.

This disc is one of a few that has captured the band's sparse music catalogue (The Ultimate Action, which I presume is out of print, is another one that comes to mind).

The band was heavily into covers, but their version of "Since I Lost My Baby" is a real gem and would make Smokey Robinson proud.

Superb seventeen track collection of this mid-to-late '60's mod rocker's repertoire. Surprisingly enough, we get an almost completely different track listing than the one on 'Rolled Gold' (see my review). Didn't they put out like only five 7" singles? What's up with that? Must've apparently had a lot of unreleased material in the vault, no doubt. Tunes I was most impressed with were their cover of the Motown classic "Land of A 1000 Dances", "I Love You (Yeah)", the catchy "Hey Sha-Lo-Ney", "Baby You've Got It", "Come On Come With Me" and "Something Has Hit Me". Another case of some of the BEST music you've likely never heard before. Recommended.

I dont honestly know how this band did`nt catch on and have hit after hit.
In my opinion they were just as good as any other top notch 60s band if not better than some that made it to being house hold names.
I cant compare reggie kings voice to any other and theres a great mix of covers and original titles on this album as well as having a great info poster/booklet with it(which you probably dont get if you just download the album)call me old school but i do like to know what year and other info while listening to music

This band should have made it big.I saw them in the mid sixties several times and loved them.Reggie had the best voice,love all the tracks.RIP Reggie I'm still listening to you.

The Action were superlative, both in their Mod incarnation and also in their later, transfigured, Sufi-influenced, Mighty Baby form. These songs are all perfect pop-songs from the Mod phase and also driving dance songs. Energy will exude from every pore of your music system. Listening to these compositions takes you to the state of duende which only the very best music can achive. Buy this CD, and buy it now.

I first heard of them on Nuggets II set and then discovered the last unreleased album Rolled Gold which is terrific. This cd collects all there recorded singles during the mod era. Singer Reg King is really a lost treasure and these soul covers and pop songs just flow beautifully

I have several times seen The Action being compared to great sixties Mod bands like the Who and Small Faces. This, of course, makes you curious to heard some of the band's music, which is really releatively limited - they never released an album during their time together.

They may very well have been a great live-band, with the vocals as their greatest strenght, but judged from this compilation, comparisons with the two aforementioned bands seem a little far-fetched. Agreed, the album has its great moments, but genereally the band lacked interesting original material, and several of their cover versions aren't really that interesting.

Soundwise the recordings are pretty uneven, too. On some tracks the drums sound as if they were recorded in a gymnasium, which of course does not help the overall impression of the band.

As I said some tracks do stand out, and these may indicate what the band might have grown into. In fact they did record an album, which I unfortunately never have heard so far, but songs like the melodic "Since I Lost My Baby", the catchy "The Place" , their original "Something Has Hit Me", the Goffin/King song "Wasn't it You" and their final single "Shadows and Reflections" are all great tracks in themselves. Interesting that 2 of these highlights weren't released until long after the band split up.

Uneven compilation with some great moments.