Keith West, Mark Wirtz and The Teenage Opera Story

One of the most fondly recalled singles of the 1960's is the memorable "Excerpt From A Teenage Opera" better known to many as "Grocer Jack" by Keith West. His only hit, it was one of those perfect records for the Summer of Love, highly ambitious and extravagant in ways singles weren't usually. The release of The Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" in late 1966 had a definite influence for there was a single that totally defied the medium. That was the work of Brian Wilson whilst "Grocer Jack" was masterminded by the enigmatic Mark Wirtz.

The story behind this record and Keith West begins back in 1962 when a German youngster Mark Wirtz emigrated to the UK. Wirtz had ambitions of going into record production and by the mid 1960s' he was a member of the team at Abbey Road Studios in London. He was into composing and orchestration and worked on a series of instrumental albums which hinted at an unusual talent. Whats more inside his head, he had an unusual and ambitious idea...

Keith West was lead vocalist in an Rn'B band called Four Plus One. They released a couple of singles before West joined The In Crowd, again playing hardcore Rn'B. West was experimenting with writing songs. Meanwhile, a group called The Syndicats were breaking up. The Syndicats were just one of many bands signed up by Joe Meek and with him cut three singles. The final single "On The Horizon" was released after its guitarist quit the band, making way for Ray Fenwick who got to play on the legendary B' side "Crawdaddy Simone"... one of the greatest freakbeat records ever with Fenwick playing some truly extraordinary and manic guitar solos that defied description at the time!

The departing guitarist was Steve Howe. He joined The In Crowd but that band were reaching the end of the road. Another band in a similar predicament were The Fairies. They had released a handful of singles that failed to hit the charts. Again, they were heavily rooted in Rn'B and their drummer John Alder was regarded as being rather eccentric being better known as Twink. Twink was looking for a new band and joined the remnants of The In Crowd alongside West, Howe and bassist "Junior" John Wood.

Fed up, and seeing that Rn'B was fading, the new line up decided to focus on more original material and covers by bands such as The Byrds. Based in the heart of Swinging London, they saw all the new developments that were taking place around them and became a part of it, dropping acid and becoming part of the developing psychedelic hippie culture. In mid 1966, they changed their name to Tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Italian film director Michaelangelo Antonioni was in London preparing to make a film entitled "Blow Up". He experimented with the idea of having a rock soundtrack since he wanted a rock band to appear in the film. He desired The Who, since he liked their instrument smashing routine, but they were unavailable for the movie. Antonioni somehow got to hear of Tomorrow and asked them to come up with somet music for the film. They recorded a two song acetate, one song being titled after the film, a rather urgent snappy rocker that described the film in its own style whilst the other side was the meandering and moody "Am I Glad To See You". Antonioni unfortunately passed on the songs and gave the task of soundtracking the film instead to Herbie Hancock. He got The Yardbirds to play the part of the rock group in the film. A fortunate decision for captured on celluloid forever was the legendary short lived line up featuring both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page on lead guitar performing a re-write of "The Train Kept A Rollin'" called "Stroll On".

Tomorrow were gigging on the same circuit as The Pink Floyd and like the Floyd and The Soft Machine, Tomorrow were regarded as being amongst the first of a new breed of bands playing psychedelia. They had a very visual show with members being dressed up and daubed in warpaint with light shows, indulging in lengthy freak outs which would give Steve Howe a big chance to play elongated solos.

Tomorrow somehow came to the attention of Mark Wirtz and he decided to sign them to EMI. An unusual move since Wirtz wasn't really known or regarded for producing rock, but in Tomorrow he saw a new challenge. He liked Keith West's songs and Steve Howe's guitar playing. He used Howe on various sessions he was working on for other projects.

Tomorrows' first Abbey Road session saw them cutting the classic "My White Bicycle" a song West had written about the current white bicycle craze in Holland where anyone could use a white bicycle. Wherever they left it, someone else could then use it. A memorable production and song, Wirtz pulled out all the stops with backward tapes, sound effects and a good punchy production. Though a classic, this was never a hit in the UK.

It was now early 1967 and Tomorrow set to work on their debut album with Wirtz at the helm. In "downtime" at Abbey Road, once all the sessions were over for the day, Wirtz often stayed behind using the studio for some ideas he was working on. Steve Howe played on some of these rhythm tracks which were clearly shaping up to be part of one large project. The recording of the Tomorrow album ended up being done sporadically since they were always out on the road gigging and unfortunately for them, Wirtz quickly lost interest in them as the idea of "A Teenage Opera" began to fall into shape.

Wirtz assembled a strange rhythm track and played it to Keith West. West wasn't overly fond of it but as a favour agreed to write some lyrics for it and came up with "Grocer Jack". West thought that Wirtz would produce it and record it with another singer, so he had no hesitation into going into Abbey Road to put down a demo vocal. Wirtz though decided to keep his vocal and went beserk trying to complete the track.

Unusually for this time, Wirtz was recording this song as a stereo production. He realised that stereo was the way forward and felt that it was time singles began to be released in that format. Besides, this song was growing ever more complex and dense as he dubbed on sound effects, orchestral and brass parts and finally, a childrens choir. The end result was truly extraordinary and Wirtz then nervously played it to his bosses at EMI. He was given a severe dressing down for misusing the studio for his own ends, but he somehow persuaded them that this was something different and it was then that he declared it was "An Excerpt From A Teenage Opera". He envisaged a double album concept album of “A Teenage Opera” that would in effect be a rock opera that youngsters could enjoy and relate to. EMI thought Wirtz was off his rocker, but did give the go ahead to release the single. Since Keith West was the vocalist, it was released under his name backed by an instrumental. EMI not wishing to be adventurous released it in mono only. The true stereo mix ended up being left in the vaults for over 25 years.

Keith West was both surprised and alarmed by the release of this “solo” single. Mark Wirtz told him that it was part of his plan for Tomorrow since he would record and release a solo single by each member of the band which would help gain more publicity. An acetate was cut of a purported Steve Howe solo single which was basically him playing along to a couple of Wirtzs' orchestral backing tracks but in the event, the solo singles idea went no further.

Tomorrow were by mid 1967 one of the hottest psych bands in London. They released a second single, "Revolution" which despite hitting a chord within the hippies of London, ended up becoming another flop. The band were getting a bit restless since their album was virtually completed but Wirtz and EMI didn't want it clash with the Keith West solo single.

"Excerpt From A Teenage Opera" took a few weeks to take off, but it suddenly became a massive top ten hit. Keith West was now in demand. Problem was, Tomorrow were not required and West was unhappy at having to be torn away from the band in order to promote his solo single when in reality he wanted to promote Tomorrow.

Excitement and speculation began to fill the music press about the “Teenage Opera.” One paper claimed it was going to be made into a film starring Cliff Richard! The reality was, Mark Wirtz was caught unawares by this success and now found himself having to literally make the Teenage Opera a feasible reality. It didn't even have a plot or storyline! Since West had become the face fronting the Opera, Wirtz asked West to collaborate with him on making the opera a reality. West wasn't too keen since he could now see that Tomorrow were being overshadowed by the single but he did agree to front a follow up single and then decide what to do next.

The follow up had to be more extravagant and outlandish and Wirtz really went over the top with "Sam". This tme the song focussed upon a train engine driver. Again in full stereo this featured dense sound effect collages, heavy orchestration and the obligatory return of the childrens choir. It was released and everyone held their breath. Instantly there was a problem when "Top Of The Pops" refused to feature the single as a new release because they felt it was too long. It was just over 5 minutes in length. In frustration, Wirtz prepared an shortened version, but by the time it was made available, it was too late. "Sam" ended up being a spectacular flop. It failed to capture the public imagination who felt it was too much like the first single.

This caused many new problems because Keith West had to take the blame for the failure. Worse, Tomorrow were having more problems getting gigs because promoters only wanted to book Keith West and would usually bill them as "Keith West featuring Tomorrow". Then came a disastrous tour of Ireland. The promoter refused to pay the band unless they actually performed the hit single. This was ridiculous since they were a four piece band and due to it's complexity it was impossible to play live. They ended up having to play a strange butchered version of the single which didn't go down well and the band were disgruntled by the experience.

As Autumn turned into Winter, Tomorrow were desperate to know what had happened to their album. Mark Wirtz had totally lost all interest in them. This wasn't helped either by Keith Wests' refusal to participate any further with the Teenage Opera. Tomorrow could see that the times were changing quickly and they began to feel their music was getting out of date. The whole Teenage Opera episode had effectively capsized the bands career.

Mark Wirtz, mightily annoyed with Wests' defection decided to continue with the project and worked on more new material for it. EMI were not at all pleased since "Sam" had proved to be a rather expensive flop and Wirtz was spending far too much time, money and resources on the project. They agreed to give Wirtz one last chance.

In February 1968, Tomorrow decided to split up. And at this point, their album finally appeared. To their horror it was housed in a tacky black and white sleeve and whats more, it was out of date and everyone wanted to move on to new avenues. It was then that Mark Wirtz released the third single from the Opera. "He's Our Dear Old Weatherman" was like the two preceding, a work of mad genius with an even more over the top elaborate production with every trick in the book thrown in. It's a great powerful record but like Tomorrow, the moment had passed and interest in the Teenage Opera had dwindled completely to the degree that next to nobody bought the record.

EMI therefore pulled the plug on the entire project. Wirtz was devastated by this but made certain he used up some of the leftovers from it over the next few singles he produced for a variety of artistes. He did produce Keith West's next solo single, the lovely jazzy and wistful "On A Saturday" backed by the brilliant paranoid "The Kid Was A Killer" - Steve Howe played on both sides. Then there was The Aquarian Age who were duo featuring Tomorrow bassist and drummer Junior and Twink. They released the psych gem, "10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box" as their sole single.

At the end of 1968, Mark Wirtz decided to resign from EMI. The settlement was harsh for Wirtz had to forfeit all future royalties from all his work for the company. Since then, he has never made a penny from that work.

The Teenage Opera became one of the great myths of 60s pop music, a hint of something that would have been truly unique. Sometime in the late 1990s' British reissue indie label RPM Records tracked down Mark Wirtz who was found working as a comedian in America! With his blessing and co-operation they assembled a single CD rounding up most of what got put out of the opera alongside bits of works in progress from the archive as well as debut stereo releases for "Grocer Jack" and "Sam" which sounded magnificent proving that Wirtz had a remarkable ear and vision.

Keith West meanwhile had a spotty solo career, unable to reach the charts again so he ended up moving into production. Twink went on to join The Pretty Things for a year or so before forming The Pink Fairies whilst Steve Howe played with 2 or 3 bands before joining Yes in 1970. As for Junior, very little is known what became of him. Howe and West are still good friends, and West even guested on vocals on one of Howe's solo tours a few years back.

Keith West and Mark Wirtz then, will forever be remembered for “Grocer Jack” a single that only could had come out in 1967 and remains a fond favourite amongst many to this day.