• Source: All-Stars (band)

The All-Stars were a short-lived English blues combo active in the early-mid 1960s. Originally known as the Cyril Davies (R&B) All-Stars, their later recordings are often credited to the Immediate All-Stars due to their releases on Immediate Records. In 1999, the group reformed as the Carlo Little All-Stars.




History






= The Cyril Davies R&B All-Stars

=
The All-Stars were initially formed as a backing band for vocalist and blues harmonica player Cyril Davies after his departure from Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated in October 1962. The original lineup was tentatively named 'The Cyril Davies Blues Band' and was made up of former members of Screaming Lord Sutch's group, the Savages, including Nicky Hopkins on piano, Carlo Little on drums and Ricky Fenson (aka Rick Brown) on bass. The band also featured Jimmy Page on guitar for a brief period, though he soon backed out to focus on his burgeoning career as a session musician and was replaced by Bernie Watson, another former member of the Savages.

In December 1962, Davies was in competition with Korner to recruit Long John Baldry as a second lead vocalist. Baldry had previously performed with Blues Incorporated while Davies was still a member, with both vocalists being featured on the 1962 album R&B from the Marquee. Following the formation of the All-Stars, Baldry played a few shows with each band before eventually committing to join Davies' camp in January 1963.
Around this time, Davies also added female backing singers to the lineup in the form of South African vocal group the Velvettes (not to be confused with Motown trio, the Velvelettes), who had emigrated to England after touring with the musical stage production King Kong. The Velvettes were initially a quartet made up of Peggy Phango, Hazel Futa, Patience Gcwabe and Eunice Mamsie Mthombeni, though Phango soon departed to pursue a solo career, leaving the rest of the group to join the All-Stars as a trio.
On 27 February, the All-Stars recorded their first single for Pye Records: the original compositions "Country Line Special" and "Chicago Calling", released under the name 'Cyril Davies and His Rhythm and Blues All-Stars'. However, Baldry and the Velvettes are not featured on these recordings.

In May 1963, illness forced the departure of Hopkins as he was hospitalised for several months. Former Blues Incorporated pianist Keith Scott was recruited in his stead, but growing tensions between Davies and the other band members meant that Fenson, Watson and Little each soon left the group to be replaced by bassist Cliff Barton, guitarist Geoff Bradford and drummer Micky Waller.
In August, this lineup recorded the R&B All-Stars' second single for Pye: "Preachin' the Blues", a Robert Johnson cover, and "Sweet Mary", a Lead Belly cover. As with the previous recordings, Baldry and the Velvettes are not featured. Instead, backing vocals for "Preachin' the Blues" are provided by Alex Bradford and Madeline Bell. Towards the end of 1963, Scott and Waller were themselves replaced by the group's final members Johnny Parker and Bob Wackett.
Cyril Davies died on 7 January 1964 of pleurisy and endocarditis. Following this, Pye Records paid tribute to Davies by re-releasing the four tracks he had recorded for them as the EP The Sound of Cyril Davies and His Rhythm and Blues All-Stars.
Baldry assumed the role of band leader, and with fellow All-Stars Barton, Bradford and Parker went on to perform as 'The Hoochie Coochie Men' together with Rod Stewart on vocals and Ernie O'Malley on drums. Carlo Little also joined them briefly in June 1964, but soon left due to "a difference in musical opinion" between himself and Baldry. The Hoochie Coochie Men released one album, Long John's Blues, before disbanding in October 1965. Baldry and Stewart went on to form Steampacket with former All-Stars Ricky Fenson and Micky Waller.
At least one further song is known to have been recorded by the All-Stars during Davies' lifetime: a cover of Little Walter's "Someday Baby", first issued by Immediate Records on the 1968 compilation album Blues Anytime Vol. 3. This track was credited to 'Cyril Davies and the All-Stars', although it is not clear when the recording was made, nor with which lineup. In 1986 a sixth track was released: a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" on the Castle Communications compilation album White Boy Blues Vol. 2, again credited to 'Cyril Davies and the All-Stars'.




= The All-Stars featuring Jeff Beck

=
By 1965, Jimmy Page had established himself as a prolific session musician and was signed to Immediate Records as an in-house producer. Around eighteen months after Cyril Davies' death, Page brought together former All-Stars Nicky Hopkins, Carlo Little and Cliff Barton to record with him and his friend Jeff Beck. Together they recorded five original tracks, with Hopkins taking the lead on "Piano Shuffle", Beck on "Chuckles" and "Steelin'", and Page on "Down in the Boots" and "L.A. Breakdown".
The first track from this session to be issued was "Steelin'", although its initial release was not credited to the group. London fashion photographer David Anthony (under the pseudonym 'Charles Dickens') had recorded a cover of The Rolling Stones' "So Much in Love" for Immediate Records, and when this was released as a single in 1965 it featured "Steelin'" as its b-side under the title "Our Soul Brother TH", credited solely to Dickens. The rest of the tracks from this session would eventually get their first release in 1968, alongside "Steelin'", properly credited to 'The All-Stars featuring...' on the Immediate compilation album Blues Anytime Vol. 3.




= Page, Clapton and the Immediate All-Stars

=
In June 1965, Jimmy Page invited Eric Clapton to join him in a jam session at his home studio on Miles Road in London, and the two guitarists recorded seven instrumental tracks together: "Choker", "Draggin' My Tail", "Freight Loader", "Miles Road", "Snake Drive", "Tribute to Elmore" and "West Coast Idea". Page and Clapton were both of the opinion that the tracks they recorded were merely rehearsals rather than fully formed songs, but representatives of Immediate Records soon approached Page informing him that they legally owned the publishing rights to all recordings he made as per the terms of their contract. Page reluctantly gave them the recordings of the jam session in fear of a lawsuit and was asked to clean them up by adding overdubs, which he recorded that August at Olympic Studios with a new lineup of the All-Stars. This time, the group featured members of The Rolling Stones: Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, Ian Stewart and Charlie Watts (credited as Chris Winters), facilitated by the Stones' manager at the time also being Immediate Records' co-founder, Andrew Loog Oldham. This was seen by Clapton as a betrayal of confidence on Page's part, and greatly damaged the personal relationship between the two guitarists for years to follow.

"That was a real tragedy for me... Eric and I got friendly and he came down and we did some recording at home, and Immediate found out that I had tapes of it and said they belonged to them, because I was employed by them. I argued that they couldn't put them out because they were just variations of blues structures, and in the end we dubbed some other instruments over some of them and they came out- with liner notes attributed to me (on earlier copies) though I didn't have anything to do with writing them. I didn't get a penny out of it anyway... Stu from the Stones was on piano, Mick Jagger did some harp, Bill Wyman played bass and Charlie Watts was on drums."
Immediate Records first released these tracks alongside the All-Stars' previous recordings in 1968, spread out across their compilation albums Blues Anytime Vol. 1–3. The tracks were initially attributed simply to Eric Clapton, or 'Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page', although many subsequent releases have given the credit to 'The Immediate All-Stars'.




= The Carlo Little All-Stars

=
In late 1962, the Rolling Stones were beginning to gain a following as a new band on the London blues scene. At the time, the band consisted of vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Brian Jones, and pianist Ian Stewart. The group played with a number of different bassists and drummers during this period, including members of the Cyril Davies All-Stars Carlo Little and Ricky Fenson. Little and Fenson made a strong impression on the younger musicians, and were repeatedly asked to join the band, but the Stones at the time couldn't afford to match what they were earning with the All-Stars. After finally recruiting permanent bassist Bill Wyman in December 1962 and drummer Charlie Watts in January 1963, the Stones played a support slot for the All-Stars for about a month, with Little and Fenson continuing to occasionally fill in for Watts and Wyman whenever the latter two were unavailable to play.

"Monday 14th Jan, 1963: Flamingo Club. Surprise!!! Rick and Carlo played. Without a doubt the Rollin' Stones were the most fantastic group operating in the country tonight. – Rick and Carlo! Little was a killing drummer, great energy. From time to time they'd sit in with us - that's when Charlie still wasn't with us, and it's why he decided to join the band, because he heard we had this red hot rhythm section. Ricky and Carlo, if they went into a solo, they would go into turbo max. The room would take off; they almost blew us off the stage they were so good. When Carlo set into that bass drum, this is what I'm talking about. This was rock and roll! That was the first time I got three feet off the ground and into the stratosphere."
Decades later, in March 1998, Little was interviewed by Mojo magazine about his time playing with the Rolling Stones, which led to several more interviews and a TV documentary being produced for Channel 5. Little flew to Paris for the documentary, where he was reunited with the Stones, meeting them backstage at one of their shows and being invited to attend Jagger's 55th birthday party at their hotel.
Capitalising on the attention and publicity he was now receiving, Little reformed the All-Stars in 1999 with Fenson on bass and including vocalist Art Wood, guitarist Alex Chanter, Eddie Armer playing harmonica and Johnny Casanova on keyboards. They recorded an album together in 2001, named Never Stop Rockin', which also featured Ronnie Wood, Jeff Beck, Long John Baldry, Matthew Fisher and the Chanter Sisters, though this remained unreleased for several years.
Carlo Little died of lung cancer on 6 August 2005. The Carlo Little All-Stars' album Never Stop Rockin' was released posthumously by Angel Air Records in January 2009.




Personnel






= 1962–1964

=
Cyril Davies and the R&B All-Stars
Note: Dates represented here are approximate, accurate only to within a month.

Timeline




= 1965

=




= 1999–2002

=
The Carlo Little All-Stars
Carlo Little – drums, band leader
Art Wood – vocals
Alex Chanter – guitar, vocals
Eddie Armer – harmonica
Johnny Casanova – keyboards
Ricky Fenson – bass




Discography






= Pye Records

=
All releases credited to Cyril Davies and His Rhythm and Blues All-Stars.




= Immediate Records

=
Listed here is only the initial release of each track recorded by the All-Stars. Following Immediate Records going out of business in 1970, these tracks have been released on many compilation albums by multiple record labels, major and independent.

Castle Communications

^* It has been suggested that this track was in fact recorded by Dave Berry and the Cruisers and misattributed to Davies.




= Angel Air Records

=
Carlo Little All-Stars.




References






External links


The All-Stars at Discogs
• Source: Allstars (band)

Allstars (stylised allSTARS*) were a British pop group, who were active between 2001 and 2002, achieving some chart success in the UK. Consisting of Sam Bloom, Thaila Zucchi, Ashley Taylor Dawson, Rebecca Hunter and Sandi Lee Hughes (the initial letters of the band members' names making up the "stars" of in the name of their group), they were probably best noted for having their own television show, STARStreet*, on CITV between 2001 and 2002.




Formation and split


The group managed to score four Top 20 singles in a year. The first was "Best Friends", which peaked at No. 20 in June 2001. The second was a double A-side of their own track, Things That Go Bump in the Night, and a cover of Duran Duran's "Is There Something I Should Know?", the former track later appearing on the soundtrack to the first Scooby-Doo movie. It reached No. 12 in September 2001.
Their third single, released in January 2002, was another cover, this time of Bucks Fizz's "The Land of Make Believe", and it gave them their first and only top 10 hit, reaching No. 9. Their fourth single, released in late April 2002, was another double A-side, but this time both were original tracks, "Back When" and "Going All the Way", the latter appearing on the soundtrack to the movie Thunderpants. This however reached No. 19, and when their self-titled debut album only managed to peak at No. 43 – spending only 2 weeks in the UK Albums Chart, the band parted ways with their record company, Island, and split up soon after, in June 2002. The album was re-released with a bonus remix CD.
The band appeared in their own television programme STARStreet* which aired on ITV1's CITV block where they played fictionalised versions of themselves living inside a supernatural house. The show's theme tune was "Best Friends" and in each episode the band would perform one of their songs. The first season aired in early 2001 and was often repeated on CITV throughout the year and the second season aired in Spring 2002. The series ended when the band split up. STARStreet* has also aired in Canada on Vrak.tv as S.T.A.R.S in french.
Before the band split up, there was a soundtrack album from STARStreet*, which was going to be released however, due to the band splitting up, the album titled STARStreet: The Music was cancelled.




After the band


Thaila Zucchi did some presenting work in the Meridian region of ITV, which included announcing the regional results for Record of the Year in 2003. In 2005, she played the Bunny Boiler character in Channel 4's Balls of Steel. In 2006, she was one of the lead characters in Channel 4's Star Stories. She also appeared as "fake" housemate Pauline in Big Brother 8 but was evicted for being found out to be fake by the housemates. In Summer 2007, she appeared in an advert for Setanta Sports with Des Lynam. She played minor roles in Shameless and Hollyoaks Later in 2013 and in 2017 starred in the Dominic Brunt movie Attack of the Adult Babies.
Rebecca Hunter played Melanie in Channel Five soap opera Family Affairs from 2003 to 2005. She got married in 2007 and moved to California. She has two children; a son born in 2010 and a daughter born in 2013.
Ashley Taylor Dawson returned to playing the role of Darren Osborne in Channel 4's Hollyoaks in 2003, having previously left the role when he joined Allstars. In 2010 he was nominated for three British Soap Awards. He is engaged to Karen McKay and they have two sons called Buddy Mac and Mason Taylor Dawson. He also appeared on Strictly Come Dancing with partner Ola Jordan in 2013.
Sandi Lee Hughes has kept a low profile since the band's separation. She married children's TV presenter Dominic Wood in 2005 and the couple appeared on ITV1's All Star Mr & Mrs in May 2008. They have two sons: Tommy and Sam.
Sam Bloom appeared in minor roles in The Last Detective and Kerching! in the mid-2000s before embarking on a short stage career. In 2009 he co-founded 'Inspiring Interns', an award-winning recruitment agency for interns and graduates in Central London.




Discography






= Albums

=




= Singles

=




References

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