Peter & The Silhouettes - Claudette Jones (1966)

(Kevin Clancy - Peter Rechter)
 Australia
Original version

Peter & The Silhouettes 1964-1966
The Silhouettes, from Bendigo in Victoria, were formed in 1964. Claudette Jones was one of two Silhouettes tracks included on The Scene From Northern Victoria, a 1966 LP recorded in Melbourne by various artists from Bendigo and nearby towns. The producer was Melbourne music and radio star Johnny Chester.

From the album’s liner notes:
PETER & THE SILHOUETTES … Northern Victoria’s most popular R & B group, have represented Bendigo at the 1966 final of “Battle of the Sounds”. This band has built up a tremendous following throughout central Victoria and seems assured of a long and successful career on “the Scene”.
Personnel: Lead guitar – Kevin Clancy, Rhythm guitar – Manuel Pappos, Bass guitar – Keiran Keogh, Drums- Tony Truscott, Vocalist – Peter Rechter, (Assistance by – Len Gaskell)

♫ Press play below or go directly to the track at Spotify.

Tol-Puddle Martyrs 1966-1969
In 1966, with a partially changed line-up, The Silhouettes became Tol-Puddle Martyrs, whose keyboard-driven r&b sound and lyrics of social commentary made them one of the hippest and most popular bands in their region. They recorded two still highly-regarded singles, Time Will Come / Social Cell (1967) and Love Your Life / Nellie Bligh (1968).  

♫ Time Will Come (1967) official video at YouTube

Ginger 1977, The Secrets 1979, 1996
Peter Rechter’s post-Tol-Puddle Martyrs band, first formed in 1977 as Ginger, became The Secrets in 1979.

The Secrets disbanded in the 80s but were re-formed in 1996 by Peter with co-writer and multi-instrumentalist Graham McCoy. A further version of Claudette Jones from this period by The Secrets was released on a 2003 Tol-Puddle Martyrs retrospective album, along with the original version.

♫ Claudette Jones (2001): open in Spotify
NB! This track is wrongly labelled at Spotify as Time Will Come (2001), and vice versa.

Revival: 1990s to 2000s
In recent years there has been renewed interest in The Silhouettes and Tol-Puddle Martyrs, especially by aficionados of overlooked 60s beat/garage bands. Reissues, broadcasts and remakes of Claudette Jones have come from a number of independent sources, often beyond Australia. Italian label Misty Lane released Puddle With… The Tol-Puddle Martyrs (2003), an EP reissue of the two Tol-Puddle Martyrs singles from the 60s.

Early Tol-Puddle Martyrs tracks have added some 1960s ambience to several film and TV soundtracks, including for What We Do in the Shadows (2019), The Oath (2019), and the trailer for A Very English Scandal (2018)

Remastered live tracks from 2006 were ♫ digitally released in 2024, including Claudette Jones, Time Will Come and later material from the Rechter–McCoy era.

On to the 2020s: Tol-Puddle Martyrs with Peter and Graham
Peter Rechter has continued to write and record with Graham McCoy, releasing several albums under the revived Tol-Puddle Martyrs name. The latest, Houdini in Reverse was released in 2023. See also, for example, Brain Fade (2019) and Under a Cloud (2021), accessible from ♫ the band’s YouTube channel along with the other albums from this period.

Discover more: audio, video, commentary
• Facebook: News, videos, photos at Tol-Puddle Martyrs official page

• Tol-Puddle Martyrs at All Music: Biography by Richie Unterberger, distinguished US music writer.

• Essential reading: Jason Barnard’s 2024 interview with Peter Rechter at the website of UK podcast Strange Brew.

♫ Tol-Puddle Martyrs Channel at YouTube: The whole history in 64 tracks from the Silhouettes in the 1960s to the latest Tol-puddle Martyrs albums in the 2020s. Watch, listen and subscribe.

♫ Live at Bar Open 2006 (remastered 2024): All tracks are collected as a streaming YouTube album.    

♫ Retrospective album ↓ Tol-Puddle Martyrs (2003). The original classics plus bonus re-recordings:

Press play above or go directly to the album at Spotify.

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Thanks to Peter and Graham.