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Bio:
Sixties mod/soul group with jazz leanings, formed by Ian McGarry after
Bluesville split in 1966.
Like their London counterparts, The Action were the top mod group in the city in the
mid-to-late 1960s.
Peter Adler, Brian Lynch and band leader Ian McGarry were all ex-Bluesville.
The Action famously featured the pre-fame Colm C.T.Wilkinson (vocals & guitar), now best
known for his West End and Broadway performances in Les Miserables (and, to Irish
people of a certain age, his deafening Squeeze Orange Juice advert).
Wilkinson and Adler shared lead
vocals duties, Wilkinson taking the bluesier material, Adler in Alex Harvey mold, building on his
experience standing in for Ian Whitcomb in Bluesville.
The Action undoubtedly
involved others at various times.
Despite offers from CBS, Tower and Immediate, there were no recordings apart from an RTE
studio performance which is now lost.
Peter Adler moved on to the Next In Line
in February 1966, his more commerical leanings at odds with Ian McGarry's
more serious approach. The Action split later the same year.
Bio:
Son of Larry Adler, the US jazz harmonica player. Peter Adler was studying at Trinity
College Dublin when he became a member of Bluesville, playing
saxophone. He assumed the lead singer role while Ian Whitcomb was on the promo circuit
in America in 1965, much to the latters displeasure. He joined The Action
in 1966 but soon left them for The Next In Line, who backed him on
his second solo single.
His first solo single resulted from his friendship with Michael Chaplin,
son of Charlie Chaplin, who recorded a solo single "I Am What I Am" b/w "Restless"
in 1965 which featured
Adler on harmonica, produced by Larry Page. Page soon spotted Adler's talent
and commissioned him to write a second single. Released in October 1965,
it consists of two heavily orchestrated 60s pop ballads and is not worth
tracking down.
Adler's second solo single is worth tracking down. The A-side "I'm Gonna Turn My Life Around"
was written by Adler himself and has been described as a "blue-eyed soul mod banger!"
The B-side is a decent cover of Oscar Brown's "But I Was Cool".
Bio:
The Next In Line were a London mod/soul band reputedly influenced by
The Who, the Small Faces and Motown. Peter Adler (ex Bluesville,
The Action)
joined the band in Feburary 1966 and the Next In Line backed him on his 1966
solo single "I'm Gonna Turn My Life Around". The band supported headlining acts
from the UK in Dublin such as The Hollies (National Stadium, 3 March 1966) and The Who (National
Stadium 7 May 1966). They split from Adler circa May 1966 and Bojang left the
band around the same time.
Their final Irish date was in Belfast in September 1966. They split soon afterwards
with Max Ker-Seymer going on to join A Wild Uncertainity.
Help!: We need your help to complete this entry. If you can tell us more about this band then please do! We welcome any corrections, missing details, connections to other bands, where are they now, etc. We also need photos, scans, copies of releases or live or demo recordings, and any other memorabilia gathering dust in the attic.
thanks to Max Ker-Seymer