All The Pretty Things

DICK TAYLOR, GUITARIST AND FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE PRETTY THINGS, DEPARTED THE BAND AFTER THEIR CONCEPT ALBUM S.F. SORROW, BUT RETURNED IN 1979 FOR THE LONG HAUL, UNTIL THE RECENTLY RELEASED (AND LAST) ALBUM, BARE AS BONE, BRIGHT AS BLOOD.

- DAVE THOMPSON

‘‘When I left the band after S.F. Sorrow, I thought we had made a really good album,” says guitarist Dick Taylor. “But it wasn’t about disappointment over the sales, which is what people think. ‘Oh did you leave because it should have been a hit?’ In fact, I left before it hadn’t started not selling, when it could still have been a hit.

“I left because I’d made an album I was really proud of, and I didn’t think we’d ever improve on it. And that’s how I feel about the new one. I’m happy about Bare as Bone, Bright as Blood being our last one, because I’m very pleased with this one, as well.”

It’s six months since Phil May, founder member and vocalist with The Pretty Things, passed away (on May 15), and Taylor still finds it difficult to keep the emotion out of his voice as he recalls his fallen friend. Because they were friends, had been since they met at Sidcup Art School, in 1961 or so.

Taylor was already in a band, a little outfit called the Rollin’ Stones (the “g” came later); he quit around the same time he and May moved up to the Central School of Design and Art, and decided to form their own band. They called it The Pretty Things because… they weren’t.