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This six-piece band came together after meeting in a car crash on the New Jersey Turnpike. The vocal group of Kenney Jeremiah, Charles and Richard Ingui were in one car and Chuck Trois (guitar), Paul Venturini (Organ) and the rather anonymous Joe (drums) were in another car going the other way on a foggy night back in 1966.

This new release on Vampi Soul, maintains the label’s reputation for finding rarities (also see ‘Sexteto Electronico Moderno - Sounds From The Elegant World’).

When The Whistle Blows Anything Goes is mostly a re-issue of a 1969 album with four Gamble-Huff produced tracks on the end.

The lead track, ‘Do You Feet It’ is introduced by the rousing pre-whistle rally cry, “When The Whistle Blows Anything Goes”. And ‘anything goes’ is so apt.

With a touch of The Doors and old R&B Rolling Stones spirit, you can see underground Mod fans going for that ‘authentic’ soul feel, particularly on ‘Too Many Fish In The Sea’.

The Sam Cooke cover of ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ is better than their version of ‘Please, Please, Please’ but you can see they must have been a great show band and the sleeve notes tell us there were road blocks (appropriately) when the Soul Survivors played gigs.

Even though ‘Expressway (To Your Heart)’ has been included on a couple of classic rock compilations, it is genuinely worth some respect and has that northern soul crossover feel. A sharp 2 minutes 19 seconds on disc that apparently “sounded more and more like Jimi Hendrix, doubled up on LSD” the more they played it live.

You can see how they got to the ‘free’ thinking Ashanti-indo-jam of ‘Taboo - India’; it’s like modal acid man. The Grateful Dead would have stretched this track to at least to one side of a triple album live set.

‘Expressway’ was a Gamble & Huff cover (as is ‘The Rydle’). These probably got the attention of Kenny and Leon and the ‘bonus’ tracks on the CD are produced by Gamble-Huff. They get the ‘big’ treatment including ‘Explosion In Your Soul’ (with naff sound EFX and ‘Hold On I’m Comin’ riff); ‘Impossible Mission’ and ‘Poor Man’s Dream’ are much better.

As an interesting aside, you’ve got to check Steve “Sandy Kay” Leigh’s character assassination of Richard Ingui (originally posted online 10 years ago!) after being a member of the Soul Survivors for 12 months with his Hammond organ and how the experience led to Leigh’s move to Stax Studios in Memphis. You can hear in this CD the conflict between the soul and the stoned (particular, ‘Hey Gyp’). Richard made his apologies (in 2003) to Steve for past youthful excesses. Just goes to show it’s never too late, see links below.

Hey, I’m beginning to feel it! A good retrospective but don’t listen to ‘The Rydle’ that is truly abysmal 60s pap.

Reviewed: Soul Survivors - When The Whistle Blows Anything Goes (Vampi Soul)`Cat. No. VAMPI CD 066 (CD) Release date: 2006.
Produced: Nat Segall & Soul Survivors (tracks: 1 to 10) Gamble & Huff (tracks: 11 to 14) ,

Tracklisting:
1. Do You Feel It (3:44)
2. Please, Please, Please (3:27)
3. Too Many Fish In The Sea / Shake (5:50)
4. Dathon’s Theme (2:44)
5. Taboo - India (3:41)
6. Expressway (To Your Heart) (2:19)
7. Respect (2:40)
8. A Change Is Gonna Come (3:46)
9. Hey Gyp (4:52)
10 The Rydle (2:59)
11 Explosion In Your Soul (2:34)
12 Impossible Mission (2:21)
13 Poor Man’s Dream (2:52)
14 Explosion In Your Soul (Extended Version) (2:56)

Links:
Vampi Soul www.vampisoul.com
Surviving the Soul Survivors - this is a true story, and it ain’t pretty