Fleur De Lys – ‘Circles’ / ‘You’ve Got To Earn It’ (7″ Vinyl)

*Shipping from 9 August*

Since we finally brought Countdown into the Acid Jazz orbit four years ago, we have released a series of excellent records, all tied to our own Ed Piller’s roots in the mod scene. After all, Ed originally founded the label (with Maxine Forte and Terry Rawlings), as an offshoot of Stiff Records, against the backdrop of the mod revival of the early ‘80s

Something that we have been looking to do for a while is launch a special series of Countdown 7” singles, looking back at the original Mod classics of the 1960s – and the time is now!

The first release is from the Fleur De Lys – who we have been working with for some time – pairing their 1965 cover of Pete Townshend’s ‘Circles’, with the first-time single release of their cover of The Temptations’ ‘You’ve Got To Earn It’.

The band emerged from the vibrant Southampton scene with a love of Soul and R&B, and were signed to the Immediate label by Tony Calder, who had connections on the South Coast. Their first single was ‘Moondreams’ (produced by Jimmy Page no less), before their incendiary take on ‘Circles’ – a number originally slated as The Who’s follow up to ‘My Generation’, before getting caught up in legal matters. The Fleur De Lys version remains one of the finest slices of the Pop Art Mod sound, and is as fresh today as it was then. Originally released to take advantage of The Who’s misfortunes, it was rush-released and failed to chart. It proved to be their final release on Immediate, before they signed with Frank Fenter.

‘You’ve Got To Earn It’ is from a tantalising, lost session from 1966 (which also included takes of The Impressions ‘Amen’ and Don Covay’s ‘Sookie Sookie’). All that survived from the session was an acetate of this amazing cut, found by group member Gordon Haskell, from which this cut derives. We originally released it as the title track of the first Fleur De Lys compilation on Acid Jazz in 2013. It has never before been available on 7” vinyl.

The record will be presented in a classy new Countdown housebag, designed by The Unknown, taking the vintage motor racing imagery to knew heights with a befitting circular ‘chequered flag’ monochrome geometric sleeve. With sharp black labels and a great new series logo, it seemed only right that we pressed this on white vinyl.

We have several more releases lined up in the series later in the year, so keep your eyes peeled for more Countdown Mod Classics.