Like many another post-Beatles beat band, THE THROB, from Sydney, came and went without much extended fanfare. If lucky an advantageous young band enjoyed a small measure of fleeting fame. In 1965, The No Names revamped their Merseybeat sound, adopting a louder, more aggressive R&B style much like fellow Sydney outfit, The Missing Links. As a means to buck the system, the boys developed a mangy look and changed their moniker to complement their new direction. The newly christened THROB recorded some demos that caught the attention of Mike Vaughn, who was managing The Easybeats. Vaughn contacted Ted Albert at Albert Productions to swing a deal to put them on Parlophone, the same label as the Easys.
The label couldn't decide which song to release from a batch of originals the band had handed them. After a lengthy impasse, Albert approached them with "Fortune Teller", a song that the Rolling Stones had done but weren't releasing in Australia. Ted Albert and Tony Geary (Albert's A&R man) were encouraging THE THROB to mimic the Stones version. To the contrary, the band ignored their guidance and injected their take on it with a dose of punkish snarl. The single proved that Australian teens were hungry for something rougher than the processed beat they were being served on seven-inch platters, and the song soared to the top of the charts in early 1966. The original, "Believe In Me" on the B-side was a particularly tasty slice of Animalistic freakbeat.
Albeit, short-lived THE THROB left an indelible impression on the Australian beat scene. They left behind two remarkable singles, "Fortune Teller" and the slow burning rendition of a traditional English folk song, "Black (Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair)".
BORN OUTTA TIME
Info sourced from "The Throb: A Short, Sharp Shock Of Aussie Rock" by Paul Leuzzi and The Livin' End No. 3
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