Belfast Gypsies

Them Belfast Gypsies

GRAPEFRUIT What happened when Van Morrison absconded with Gloria?

Thieves fell out big-time when Van Morrison instigated one too many slanging matches with his erstwhile pals in Them, but drummer Pat McCauley and new vocalist brother Jackie endured his management wrath (mind yer kneecaps) and hooked up with the peculiar American Svengali Kim Fowley, a patron saint of lost causes and instigator of many.

Originally a ’67 Sweden-only release, this lavishly packaged, well annotated reissue pulls in a few demos, and a French EP from that year that tackles Bob Dylan’s It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue with more zip than the master’s original. No doubt substances were taken judging by their version of Donovan’s

Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness), while the Fowley-fronted People! Let’s Freak Out and the proto-Cream I Want You give the in-house R&B blueprint a tasty makeover.

The 60s didn’t exactly swing for these Gypsies, and in Suicide Song and Secret Police there’s an air of desperation that reminds us there was something rotten in the state of Denmark Street. It’s unlikely the Belfast boys were fully prepared for Fowley’s vision of shock rock; Bo Diddley and John Lee Hooker were more their bag. They disappeared into obscurity. Morrison not so much. ■■■■■■■■■■