"THE SORROWS - TAKE A HEART" (FREAKBEAT UK 1965 JAPANESE Edition )

"The Sorrows" were the raunchiest, hard-edged, most aggressive band in England in 1965.

They were formed in 1963 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England.
The Sorrows were: "Philip 'Pip' Whitcher" (lead guitar and vocals), "Don Fardon" (vocals), "Philip 'Phil' Packham" (bass guitar), "Wez Price" (rhythm guitar), "Bruce Finley".

"The Sorrows" from left to right: "Wez Price", "Pip Witcher", "Don Maughn", "Bruce Finley" and "Phil Packham"

"The Sorrows" are considered perhaps to be the archetypal FREAKBEAT band: their brand of thumping Rhythm and Blues/Blues/Rock at the time was groundbreaking and way ahead of it's time.


Their music made "The Rolling Stones" sound like easy listening, which was no mean feat.
The musicianship is excellent, the lead guitar breaks by "Pip Whitcher" are lightning fast and raw. The drumming of "Bruce Finley" is frantic yet still tight. The pounding, booming vocals by "Don Fardon" literally take your breath away.

The Sorrows: "You've Got What I Want" / "No No No No" (Piccadilly PYE Records 7N.35277, UK 1965)

The musicianship is excellent, yet the band failed to achieve much success, probably because their brand of proto-Punk Rock and roll and roll was simply too far ahead of its time.

Their biggest British hit, "Take a Heart", stopped just outside the UK Top 20; several other fine mid-'60s singles met with either slim or a total lack of success.

The Sorrows: "Take A Heart" / "We Should Get Along Fine" / "Teenage Letter"/ "Baby" (PYE PNV 24150, France 1965)

With the rich, gritty vocals of "Don Fardon", taut raunchy guitars, and good material (both self-penned and from outside writers), they rank as one of the better British bands of their era, and certainly among the very best never to achieve success of any kind in the US
"The Sorrows" released their first album, "Take a Heart", in 1965 on the "Piccadilly Records" label which was a subsidiary of "Pye Records".

The Sorrows: "Verde, Rosso, Giallo e Blu" / "No, No, No, No" (Pye Records 45NP 5122, Italy 1966)

After their sole LP, they issued a couple of singles with Psychedelic and Dylanesque overtones, and had somehow relocated to Italy in the late '60s.