March 27, 2017

The Best ’60s Band You’ve Never Heard Of

The Creation may have been chart failures—but they’re a raging creative success.


The Creation
Action Painting
Numero Group
 

Courtesy of Conqueroo

Possibly the best ’60s band you’ve never heard of, Britain’s The Creation issued a series of terrific 45s that would make them cult faves for decades to come, yet never really caught on at the time. Mixing tough-as-nails rhythm and blues with wild-eyed psychedelic weirdness on sizzling singles like “Biff Bang Pow” and “How Does It Feel to Feel,” the quartet featured exuberant singer Kenny Pickett and influential guitar hero Eddie Phillips, who attacked his instrument with a violin bow long before Jimmy Page did it in Led Zeppelin. This typically excellent Numero Group set collects everything The Creation recorded on two action-packed CDs spanning 1965 to 1968, and highlights the wonderfully dense, punchy production by Shel Talmy (who also worked with the early Who and Kinks). They may have been chart failures, but Eddie and the lads were a raging success creatively.

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