Garden of your smile (The Rumour) (LP 4554 - 4558)

The Rumour  Garden of Smiles  (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1971) ****  

The Rumour  Land of New Vigour and Zeal (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1972) *** 

The Rumour  Holy Morning (Vinyl, Karussell Records, 1972) ***

The Rumour  An Evening at Home (Vinyl, Karussell Records, 1973) *** 

The Rumour  The Rumour Collection (CD, Ode Records, 2009) ***** 

Genre: NZ Music, pop 

Places I remember: Slowboat Records, Real Groovy Records, Tron Records (Hamilton), JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Garden of Your Smile (Garden of Smiles)

Gear costume: L'Amour Est L'Enfant De La Liberte (Garden of Smiles)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7

Active compensatory factors: The Rumour are to me what Split Ends/Split Enz are to amigo K Simms. That is - a New Zealand band (like Headband) that I instantly fell in love with and became a completist for over the years.

The Rumour grew out of another band - The Surfires. When they spluttered to an end, John (a.k.a. Shade) Smith and his twin brother Gerard Smith formed The Rumour with the following line-up: Shade Smith (Guitar / Piano) Gerard Smith (Vocals); Colleen Ralph (Vocals); Sjaaki Koolan (Guitar / Vocals).

They recorded their debut Garden of Smiles in 1971. Ross Hindman (from Surfires' days) had replaced Colleen by this stage. From the album came the single L'Amour Est L'Enfant De La Liberte which was my first exposure to their brilliance. I still have the copy I bought in 1971. 

The album is excellent - full of their unique harmonies and Shade Smith's superb songs (he wrote everything and produced the album. He's a very talented guy!

Second album - Land of New Vigour and Zeal had two hit singles from it - Holy Morning and No Money On Our Trees. Sadly, my copy is a bit warped and although it still plays I'll need to find a better copy at some stage. The album's theme was focused on the NZ cultural identity and was partially successful. Apart from the two singles, the songs overall, weren't as strong as those on the debut. The orchestrations by Bruce Lynch are nice but they give the album an odd vibe - not very NZ actually.

A third album Holy Morning was also released in 1972 on budget label Karussell. It contained songs from the first two albums, plus a few new songs - cover versions like Our House and Leaving on a Jetplane.

The next two albums on my list are also compilations. The first, An Evening at Home is another el cheapo one from Karussell which covers similar territory to Holy Morning. The Rumour weren't best served by their record company.

The Rumour Collection is a much better compilation. There's a nice booklet and some love and care associated with the selections. There are also some songs by The Surfires  and some later hits (Queen Of Paradise) to give some context to the band. 

Where do they all belong? A band with a formidable catalogue given their short history.

 

Man from Mars (Shade Smith) (LP 3830)

Shade Smith Our World (CD, Frenzy Music, 2022) ****  

Genre: NZ Music, pop 

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Man from Mars

Gear costume: Our World

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: Legends of NZ music don't come much more, erm, legendary, than John 'Shade' Smith. I think of him as NZ's Brian Wilson. For Shade, his Beach Boys was The Rumour (we'll get to them in the T's eventually).

Shade provided the enigmatic songs for this band of harmonic generators. But he also had a solo side, like Brian.

Our World is his latest solo album. A digital only album - Optimistic Sun, came out in 2019, and Our World continues the idea of covering one of his world famous in NZ songs. On Optimistic Sun it was Sunshine Through a Prism. Our World has a new take on L'Amour Est L'Enfant De La Liberte.

Although shortish, only ten songs, it's a beautiful album - full of his customary warm, pop hooks, fine singing and calmness.

Where do they all belong? I have all of The Rumour's albums but always on the lookout for Shade Smith items.

There once was a time (The Rumour) #334

The Rumour L'Amour Est L'Enfant De La Liberte/ Nobody Knows (Polydor, 2069011, 1971)

This was huge in 1971 on the New Zealand music charts, thanks to Television exposure on Studio One (a NZ's Got Talent of it's day). Deservedly, they won the competition.

On the back of that win, this single stayed at #1 in NZ for four weeks!!! 

Now, you know- I'm a harmony man and The Rumour were NZ's Beach Boys, Shade Smith our Brian Wilson.

I instantly fell for their charms.

Like The Beach Boys, The Rumour had some seriously talented brothers at its core: songs were written by lead guitarist John (Shade) Smith with Gerard Smith taking care of the vocals and rhythm guitar, with their schoolmates and neighbours Jacques Koolen- drums, and Ross Hindman on bass. 

Hidden gem: a genuine gem on the B side - Nobody knows has some great harmony vocals and nice pop feel. 

By the way: you'll note that the photo shows it cost me $1.00- bought from an electrical appliance store in Greenlane, Auckland.

The first video is a reunited Rumour playing a snippet to a backing track, I guess. The full version is below it. Sadly, there is no clip of the Studio One performance on youtube.