Portobello Road - THE GATHERING (1968) - Pop Archives - Sources of Australian Pop Records from the 50s, 60s and 70s

THE GATHERING
Portobello Road
(John Marsh - Andrew Veal)
Australia 1968
#38 Melbourne

Single on Astor. The label's writer credit to 'Harsh' is an error.

The Gathering, formed in 1968, were a covers band from Melbourne. They had three singles on the Melbourne charts: Portobello Road
(1968, #38), Lovely Loretta (1969, #22) and Rosetta (1972, #21).

The Gathering's drummer Hank Wallis had been in The Flies with future pop star Ronnie Burns.

Not to be confused with...
Gathering lead singer in 1968 Trevor Gordon was not the UK-born Sydney singer of the same name who was in UK duo The Marbles.

Trevor Gordon of The Marbles: I was never part of a Melbourne band, The Gathering (email, April 2011).

Thanks to Trevor Gordon and Peter Foldy for clarification. Thanks to Mike Robbins.

Reference: Chris Spencer, Zbig Nowara, Paul McHenry (compilers), Who's Who of Australian Rock (2002 and earlier editions).

THE SPECTRUM
Portobello Road
(John Marsh - Andrew Veal)
UK 1967
Original version

Single on RCA (UK), arranged and produced by Harry Roberts. Also on the 1970 album The Light Is Dark Enough: see Paul Cross's review at Sweet Floral Albion.

(This is UK band The Spectrum, not to be confused with progressive 1970s Australian band Spectrum.)

The Spectrum played the theme on Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons, an animated TV series by Gerry Anderson in which the Spectrum Agents were the good guys (see, for example, the fan site Spectrum Headquarters).

The band's biggest chart success was in Spain, and Portobello Road failed to chart in spite of extensive airplay on pirate station Radio London.

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There are contrasting views of The Spectrum's origins. According to RadioLondon.co.uk the band was originally formed for Captain Scarlet, but as Paul Cross at Sweet Floral Albion tells it the band was already formed and was appropriated for the TV series. On the other hand, Bruce Eder at All Music Guide sees The Spectrum as a manufactured group, reportedly put together by British RCA to see if they couldn't come up with a U.K. equivalent of the Monkees.

The final word may go to Scott Swanson in a detailed post to Spectropop Group: while it is true that Anderson signed The Spectrum to record a version of the Captain Scarlet Theme Song, I suspect that the name duplication was mere coincidence -- and Anderson only hired the band to avoid a lawsuit! Swanson also points out that The Spectrum pre-dated The Monkees, even though RCA may have signed them "with the Monkees in mind". (Spectropop message #47047, 24 June 2010, recommended reading.)