Arrows were a Trio signed to Mickie Most's Rak label, home of Mud and Suzi Quatro. New Yorkers Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker joined Englishman Paul Varley and in 1974 their recording career began. Alan Merrill had already had a decent recording career in Japan, having moved there when his mother remarried. He released two solo albums, had a stint in Godzilla and then an album with Vodka Collins in 1973 called Tokyo - New York.
In 1974, Hooker persuaded Merrill to fly to London from Tokyo and paid his air fare. The band were signed to RAK and the hunt for singles began. Very much like Sweet's singles career with RCA, their five singles featured outside writers for the A Sides with the band handling the B Sides. It all started so well with Chinn and Chapman writing the debut, the splendid Touch Too Much which was a hit. That was followed by another Chinnichap song Toughen Up which failed to light up the charts.
The B Sides to both songs were impressive, We Can Make It Together has a great chorus and a splendid Jangle, Diesel Locomotive Dancer is a great slice of Glam Rock. 1975 brought three more singles with A Sides written by Roger Ferris, The first, My Last Night With You made the Top 30 but all three songs were more suited to Brotherhood Of Man. Again the band B Sides were far superior revealing a more earthy Blues Rock not a million miles away from Bad Company.
Why the mediocre Broken Down Heart was an A Side when the label had I Love Rock n Roll was put on the B Side, I know not. The mistake was realised and the single flipped, but it was all too late. Both Joan Jett and Britney Spears proved how big a mistake that was. Also included in the set are three tracks from Mickie Most Sessions in 1974. Wake Up is akin to what John Miles would gain success with whilst Bam Bam Boomerang added Cozy Powell as a second drummer for a great Bubblegum affair that would have made a great TV Theme,
The band were signed up by Granada TV for a TV Series in the Bay City Rollers slot that would go on to feature the Bolan TV Series. The show had two series with 29 episodes in all. This coincided with the band's only album, First Hit. Produced by Phil Coulter with four songs written by Coulter and his writing partner, Bill Martin, the album was a real mish mash of an affair. Martin and Coulter's four songs tried to turn the band into The Walker Brothers and some additions that were obviously aimed at the Teen market. But there are self written songs that are ace. First Hit, Don't Worry 'Bout Love and Feelin' This Way are great Bluesy songs, again in the Bad Company mode.
The second series of the show featured a spoof Eurovision segment when the band would play unreleased songs recorded in Granada's Four Track Studio. I can attest to the frustration of how Granada TV treated its archive, so much was taped over or discarded. In 2004, Alan Merrill went into London's Stone Room Studios to faithfully record five of those songs. Phil Hendriks who was part of those sessions writes detailed cover notes in the accompanying booklet. These recordings underline how Arrows should have been left to their own devices than use poorer material from outside writers.
Alan Merrill went on to form Runner and play with both Rick Derringer and Meatloaf in the 80s, before embarking on an underrated solo career. Paul Varley went on to form Darling and Jake Hooker went on to marry Judy Garland's daughter, Lorna Luft and manage her career. Sadly all three are no longer with us. During my Anything Should Happen days, Alan Merrill discovered the Blog and contacted me irregularly. We rarely talked about his own recordings, he wanted to talk about the music on ASH and those conversations were ace, he was a real music fan.
Arrows story is a chastening one. A band on a successful Singles label that were given the wrong songs when their own were better. The mismanagement of I Love Rock n Roll that should have been a monster band single. 29 episodes of a prime time kids Music show without a single being released. The guests alone on that series meant the audience figures would be high. A band that sadly never made it, yet deserved to. It is an all too familiar story.
You can buy the album here.
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Great write up, Don!
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