The End - Cardboard Watch (from Introspection)
Produced by bassist Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones, with Nicky Hopkins & Charlie Watts as guests. This is one of the most important of all the great psychedelic albums of the late Sixties: great songs, lovely vibes, a psychedelic masterpiece of vibrant guitars and compositions.
Colin Giffin (guitar, lead vocals); Dave Brown (bass, vocals); Nicky Graham (keyboards, vocals); Terry Taylor (guitar) and Hugh Atwooll (drums). (Gordie Smith & John Horton - sax, incidently Horton designed the 'Introspection' album cover)
Over the years of their existance, The End enjoyed the active help of Rolling Stone, Bill Wyman. They had been previously introduced to Wyman by producer Glyn Johns who had spotted them backing Elkie Brooks and were amongst the support acts for the Stones September '65 tour following the release of 'Out of Our Heads' along with the Spencer Davis Group; Unit Four Plus Two and The Moody Blues. A debut single 'I Can't Get Any Joy' had duly flopped and any plans Wyman had regarding the band were then thwarted by lack of action on the part of the Stones manager Alan Klein's office. So it wasn't until nearly three years later on signing to Decca (ironically the Stones label) before any further releases kicked off again. In 1968 'Shades of Orange' / 'Loving, Sacred Loving' appeared, both songs were built up during the sessions for the Stones album 'The Satanic Majesties Request' and have appeared over the years on various Stones bootlegs which seems a little odd as apart from Wyman the only other connection is Charlie Watts who plays tabla. 'Shades' was a wonderful song with dreamy atmospheres whilst 'Loving' featured Nicky Hopkins on harpsichord. In the same year, the album 'Introspection' also appeared and is one of the highlights of the English psychedelic scene, no collection should be without it. 1969 gave the band the chance of an appearance in the Spanish underground movie, 'Al Escondite Ingle's' ('To The English Hiding Place') making a playback of 'Cardboard Watch' whilst walking in the street (see below for stills from this film).