L To R: Russ Johnson, Graeham Goble, Derek Pellicci, Beeb Birtles, John Mower and Colin Deluca.

The promotion surrounding the whole Bootleg release of three albums – Mississippi’s, Brian Cadd’s, and one by an Adelaide singer/songwriter Stephen Foster – was just the right launching pad for a find single like “Kings Of The World”.  It reached the national Top-10.  With a hit record on their hands, Mississippi realised they had to find some musicians to complete the group.  There was no use performing as just a trio.

Graeham Goble: “The only bass player I could think of was Beeb Birtles”, said Graeham.  He called the top booking agency and asked the voice answering the phone whether he knew how to find the former Zoot bass player.  It was Beeb himself on the other end.  After the breakup of the Frieze duo, he had decided to keep himself busy by working at the agency.

Beeb Birtles: “I had to tell Graeham that I didn’t play bass anymore.  I’d been playing guitar with Frieze, and I really didn’t want to go back to bass. But, I told him I’d like to have a listen to the album anyway. I loved the songs so much, I wanted to be part of that music. We had a sing and Graeham’s voice and mine sounded so good together.  Graeham made a stand with the others about having me in the group”.

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(Warner WBA-4010)
“Try Yourself” (Cotton) / “You and I” (Birtles)
Produced by Brian Cadd

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Beeb Birtles: “I don’t have very fond memories of those days (Frieze) at all. That sort of thing never really appealed to me and I hated the sort of gigs that we were doing. Playing in department stores isn’t my idea of a career in music. Even when we put the band together, we used to do a lot of shows in hotels, and that wasn’t really my scene either. I just have very bad memories of that whole year because of the type of gigs we used to do.” 

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A1 ‘Friend’ Written-By – G. Bertelkamp 4:16

A2 ‘Love Is A Feeling’ Written-By – G. Bertelkamp 3:03

A3 ‘Superman’ Written-By – D. Cotton 3:10

A4 ‘Jimmy & Jesse’ Written-By – D. Cotton 3:20

A5 ‘Why Do Little Kids Have To Die’ Written-By – D. Cotton 2:41

B1 ‘Try Yourself’ Written-By – D. Cotton 3:47

B2 ‘A Song’ Written-By – D. Cotton 2:50

B3 ‘You & I’ Written-By – G. Bertelkamp 5:18

B4 ‘All Because Of You’ Written-By – G. Bertelkamp 4:08

B5 ‘Jackie Girl’ Written-By – G. Bertelkamp 3:51

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Beeb Birtles: “Westbury Street, Balaclava 1972 when Barry Smith and I and two girls from Adelaide shared this house. This would have been during the time when Darryl and I were performing as “Frieze”. Photo courtesy of Maria Matthews.”

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Brisbane Telegraph – December 31st 1971

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