Billy Pepper and the Pepperpots

[lovelyrita]

Like the researcher I can be, I thought I'd do a google search on Billy Pepper and the Pepperpots and I came up with some information.

I find several sites that offer to sell a record they recorded in England on the PickWick Label called "Merseymania". The one site offered a review called "rubbish exploitation album". Well, considering the vocal talents of Billy/Faul, it would wane in comparison to JPM.

the site is
www.psychedelicado.com/blog/showrecord.php?title=Merseymania&performer=Billy%20Pe
If you get another artist, like I tried to go to the site, scroll to bottom of the review and type in Billy Pepper and the Pepperpots.

It seems that they were in England in the same time the Beatles first became popular worldwide. And they must have recorded a "rubbish exploitation" album. Which one would not be surprised.
The cover shows screaming fans, probably a picture of a crowd of real Beatles' fans. But no pic of the group.
If someone else can find something in their own research to add, that would be great.

But at least we have a group in England, same time as Beatles. So they would have probably met the real Beatles, and if this Billy really resembled Paul, they probably struck up some sort of acquaintance and eventually Paul's replacement.

[lovelyrita]

Upon further thinking and recollecting things I've read on this forum and TKIN, and when I did the google search on the group, they were also mentioned along with guess who, the Bonzo Dog Doo Da Band.

Here's my theory, If Billy Pepper and the Pepperpots were of the same caliber as Bonzo Dog Band, a cabaret type of thing with costumes and different characters, and making bonds with the real Beatles, that these two bands were possible "replacement" members in the event of something catastrophic...so we have Billy from the Pepperpots as a Paul type and Viv from Bonzo band....Makes sense to me...there's both candidates, from colorful cabaret bands, and possible back ups....

If it's true that the Beatles had been "warned" by the "system" that if they didn't comply, their "hourglass" would be up, that they knew their end could happen when the time had come, they would have looked for, found and have prepared replacements, that all they needed to do was comply for the facial surgery to make the physical changes.

It's all falling into place if you ask me.

[totalinfo]

Upon further thinking and recollecting things I've read on this forum and TKIN, and when I did the google search on the group, they were also mentioned along with guess who, the Bonzo Dog Doo Da Band.


URL please?

[nicolas]

LovelyRita said:

But at least we have a group in England, same time as Beatles. So they would have probably met the real Beatles, and if this Billy really resembled Paul, they probably struck up some sort of acquaintance and eventually Paul's replacement.

Billy had "naturally" no resemblance with James Paul McCartney.

He was a vocal imitator with a great "compability" in profile and jawbone shape, two fundamental feature to "build" a replacement.

[lovelyrita]

www.franklarosa.com/vinyl/Biglmg/beat.jpg
You can see shots of Billy and the Pepperpots' record. Billy is right-handed in the photo. While the picture is dark, and his hair is dark, we can't see his "fair-hair" like when he's on the MMT bus at opening shot. But wigs, contacts, hair color very useful for "impersonators".
It seems Billy always wanted to be a Beatle. A cheap imitation then, and after years of cosmetic surgery and help from his "friends", He still is. Although after some thought, Billy should have stayed Vivian, at least he knew his limitations. But becoming Paul Mc Cartney, he became more than he ever could be as a lounge singer.
VERY Strange....

[lovelyrita]

I'm sorry, I typed that in so fast ,
I repeat it here
www.franklarosa.com/viny/Biglmg/beats.jpg

[lovelyrita]

The fingers going at different pace than brain.
Or as the mad scientists in Help called it "brain drain"
www.franklarosa.com/vinyl/Biglmg/beats.jpg

[TheDZ]

You mean this, right?

www.franklarosa.com/vinyl/BigImg/beats.jpg
www.franklarosa.com/vinyl/Exhibit.jsp?AlbumID=69

[TheDZ]

Good find by the way....

[nicolas]

digilander.libero.it/p_truth/billy_shepherd.html

This page was on line since a year....

[TheDZ]

There's this too.

link

Bin There, Heard That ARCHIVES
4/15/2004

The Merseyside Sound
Artist: The Beats
Label: Design Records
Year of Release: 1964
It was 40 years ago today / Beatlemania was all the rage / And emulating the latest style / Were cover bands lined up for miles / So may I introduce to you / Just one of those many acts / The Beatle-y Merseyside Sound of the Beats!

Jumping on the Beatle bandwagon during the initial days of Beatlemania were the Beats. As a matter of fact, the Beats jumped on this same bandwagon three times with this LP alone: The album was released with three cover variants -- one with five photos, another with two photos and yet another with one large photo. The band also volleyed between names, releasing product as the Beats and sometimes as the Liverpool Beats. Not only are Beatles fans confused, but fans of Liverpudlians The Merseybeats are also vexed. Two other releases are credited to the Beats; both are Beatle-style, Beatle-homage, Beatle-esque, Beatle-ish or, more succinctly, Beatle rip-offs. A blatant example is the LP A Hard Day’s Night by The Beats of Liverpool. Hello, Infringement Police? I have a fiendish thingy you need to take care of.

Of the 10 songs on this LP, only two are Beatles covers: “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw Her Standing There.” The rest are, of course, Beatles-by-the-numbers with the wooh’s and yeah-yeah-yeah’s in all the right places. And the two Beatle tracks? Well, enthusiasts, let’s just say I might have found the original “Butcher” cover.

Pepperpots have a Monty Python Connection
Episode 1 Whither Canada?

ANIMATION:The Blackboard with the coloured pigs drawn on it, is reproduced on the first few frames of the animation film. A real hand comes into the picture and crosses off a third pig. Thereafter action follows the dictates of Señor Gilliam's wonderfully visual mind.
At the end of this animation we have an advertisement for Whizzo butter.
Voice Over (on animation) Yes, mothers, new improved Whizzo butter containing 10% more or less is absolutely indistinguishable from a dead crab. Remember, buy Whizzo butter and go to HEAVEN!
Cut to a group middle-aged lower-middle-class women (hereinafter referred to as 'Pepperpots') being interviewed.
First Pepperpot I can't tell the difference between Whizzo butter and this dead crab.
Interviewer Yes, you know, we find that nine out of ten British housewives can't tell the difference between Whizzo butter and a dead crab.
Pepperpots It's true, we can't. No.
Second Pepperpot Here. Here! You're on television, aren't you?
Interviewer (modestly) Yes, yes.
Second Pepperpot He does the thing with one of those silly women who can't tell Whizzo butter from a dead crab.
Third Pepperpot You try that around here, young man, and we'll slit your face.

That is, they are female impersonators.

[lovelyrita]

Female impersonators, Vivian Stamshell, Paul Raymond, Billy Sheppard, Faul
But yes, that's the picture and the other album cover is great too. It's too bad the picture is so shaded and small that it could not be examined closer.
Something else I observed, like the Meet The Beatles/With the Beatles cover, half the faces shaded, as well as these imitations...what's with shadows, living in the shadows.
And the Rolling Stones song "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing in the Shadows"...
And a group called the Shadows?
Only the "Shadow" Knows.....
I wonder if other areas of entertainment were aware of the "replacement", like the musicians did?
Just a strange curiosity....

[lovelyrita]

I do remember seeing a photo of "Billy's" head, but not the entire album cover on the 60 IF site.
Has anyone done a side by side photo of Billy Pepper, the guy on the bus and Faul? I've seen side by side Billy Pepper and "Sgt. Pepper" but not of the guy on the bus at the begining of MMT or Faul.
This picture of the Pepperpots would be about 41 years old now? I'm trying to picture the guy with the guitar as being the man we know as Faul...
Does anybody have any audio of their music? That would be an interesting sample...

[perplexed]

Copy-cats abounded.

[TheDZ]

60if.proboards21.com/index.cgi?board=Essential&action=display&thread=1092212404&page=4
This is the link to the thread where the Pepperpots were
discussed earlier LovelyRita. (Delta's post at the bottom shows the link you found too)
Still a good find though...the comments on the Frank LaRosa
page are interesting. Someone mentioned that Lou Reed was on the cover...
If anyone can get a high res scan of those covers, that would be great...

[totalinfo]

Wait, who said they thought Lou Reed was on the cover?

Anyone trying to get a better scan of this album, make sure you get this US-released LP and not the UK Pepperpots album with the same pictures, because the printing on that one is just horrible.

[TheDZ]

Hey Total..
In the Comments www.franklarosa.com/vinyl/Exhibit.jsp?AlbumID=69&allComments=1

near the bottom

Peter Ball (peter@the curiosityshop.org) says:
All these comments about this record, and yet nobody caught the coolest thing about it: isn't that photos of Lou Reed among the Beatle- clones on the cover? I have two Lou Reed bios that feature one of those photos! Fact is, Lou at the time was working for Pickwick Records in New York. Pickwick did ripoffs of surf, dragstrip and Brit invasion records. Note: my father, circa 1964, brought this record home for me thinking he was giving me a Beatles disc! Adults buying records for their kids were well- victimized by these Pickwick-type imposter discs! Also, there were other discs of this type with the same pictures on the covers but with different titles and songs. Collect them all! (05-23-2000)

Peter Ball says:
That's Lou Reed on the cover. Really! He worked for Pickwick Records in the sixties. (05-23-2000)

Reliable? dunno..seems sincere enough.
Not sure which guy he's referring to.

[totalinfo]

Well, that domain name is down now, so I can't email that guy. An search of the one searchable Reed bio at Amazon does confirm his Pickwick gig, but no mention of the Pepperpots.

If anyone wants to do fades of the Pepperpots... how about Mal Evans and Badfinger?

[lovelyrita]

Something struck me as I was looking at the picture of the group on the left hand side of the first post..The album cover of the Pepperpots..if I only had a scanner and the equipment to do a side by side comparison of Billy's face and Paul's from the "Meet The Beatles/With The Beatles" shadow cover, that would be a close way to compare the two faces...But I don't. If this is "Billy"/"Faul", and the same man at the back of the bus in MMT, was his hair dyed dark for the Pepperpots? Or was it bleached blonde to be on the bus and/or wearing a blonde hairpiece???

Another thing that would be interesting is to have a "sound bite" of Billy Pepper's voice in those days, does it sound like the voice we've been conditioned to think is JPM?

Another thought, the comment of Lou Reed being in the group Beetle Beat..There is one fellow that resembles Lou on the front cover of that album, second from the left...Could it be that this man was the REAL Lou Reed and the man we have seen since is Foo Reed, a replacement? Nothing would surprise me.

[reallyreallydead]

thedezombificator said:

Pepperpots have a Monty Python Connection
Episode 1 Whither Canada?

ANIMATION:The Blackboard with the coloured pigs drawn on it, is reproduced on the first few frames of the animation film. A real hand comes into the picture and crosses off a third pig. Thereafter action follows the dictates of Señor Gilliam's wonderfully visual mind.
At the end of this animation we have an advertisement for Whizzo butter.
Voice Over (on animation) Yes, mothers, new improved Whizzo butter containing 10% more or less is absolutely indistinguishable from a dead crab. Remember, buy Whizzo butter and go to HEAVEN!
Cut to a group middle-aged lower-middle-class women (hereinafter referred to as 'Pepperpots') being interviewed.
First Pepperpot I can't tell the difference between Whizzo butter and this dead crab.
Interviewer Yes, you know, we find that nine out of ten British housewives can't tell the difference between Whizzo butter and a dead crab.
Pepperpots It's true, we can't. No.
Second Pepperpot Here. Here! You're on television, aren't you?
Interviewer (modestly) Yes, yes.
Second Pepperpot He does the thing with one of those silly women who can't tell Whizzo butter from a dead crab.
Third Pepperpot You try that around here, young man, and we'll slit your face.

That is, they are female impersonators.

Sorry to go off topic, but just wanted to point out that Monty Python rules! ;D ;D ;D

Anyway...

[lovelyrita]

I was looking at some other sites and found these two links to audio from the masterpiece recorded by Billy Pepper and the Pepperpots.....I use the term "masterpiece" loosely.

www.jojoplace.org/Shoebox/More_Mersymania_Pepperpots/Pepperpotsside1.mp3

www.jojoplace.org/Shoebox/More_Mersymania_Pepperpots/Pepperpotsside2.mp3

I only to listened to the first clips on both sides, just enough to keep from gagging, and I do detect Billy's voice, but not the lead singer, though, at least it sounds like it could be his voice to me. It's not clear, being recorded from a vinyl with scratches..but enough to hear the talent.....ah hem...

It surely does sound like Billy Shepherd was a cabaret singer...
Makes sense with all the Vegas lounge recordings in his post Beatle days.
Talk about a cheap imitation, you can't get much cheaper than this...It reminds me of the hip band attempting to sing I Want To Hold Your Hand on the Munsters....Do you remember all the beatniks hangin' out with Herman and Lilly? I wonder if Bill would fit in with the Munsters? Or Adams Family...
He's creepy and he's kooky
Mysterious and spooky
He's altogether ooky

Faul Mc Addams

Oh by the way, I read the crawl at the bottom of the screen on CNN that Faul will be performing a benefit concert with others to help raise money for Katrina Victims... will it be a show filled with "replacement" entertainers?

Haven't they suffered enough?

I'm sure he'll take a sad song, and try to make it better....If you catch my drift.