Lyn Paul website: Lyn Paul then ... 1968

The Nocturnes release an album and three UK singles in 1968, none of which make it into the charts. The album contains a number of cover versions, including two Simon and Garfunkel songs, Homeward Bound and The Sound Of Silence, the Mamas and the Papas' Dedicated To The One I Love - a song that Lyn Paul would record again with the New Seekers - and the Beatles' Here, There And Everywhere - a song that Lyn Paul would also record again with the New Seekers. In the UK none of these cover versions are released as 45s but in Germany the Nocturnes' cover of the Crystals' hit Da Doo Ron Ron is selected as a single with Carpet Man on the B-side (Columbia 1 C 006-04 976).

The Nocturnes make these recordings with a revised line-up featuring new member Pat O'Hearn on keyboards, alongside the more familiar faces of Tanzy (Lyn Paul) and Eve Graham (vocals), Ken Taylor (lead guitar), Nicky Walker (vocals and bass guitar) and group leader Ross Mitchell (vocals and drums).

The first of the Nocturnes' UK singles, A New Man, is noteworthy for it's B-side, Suddenly Free, which was written by Ross Mitchell in partnership with the group's record producer David Paramour and the as-yet-unknown Tim Rice (alias David Dapp and Gerrard Portslade). David and Tim had also written Wish You Would Show Me Your Mind as a B-side for the Nocturnes' 1967 single I Do, I Do.

The next two singles, Carpet Man and Montage, were Jimmy Webb compositions. Carpet Man had originally been recorded by the 5th Dimension, a male / female vocal harmony group from Los Angeles who had their first US Top 10 hit in 1967 with another Jimmy Webb song, Up, Up And Away. They make it into the UK charts for the first time in 1969 with Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In (a medley of songs from the hippie musical Hair).

The Nocturnes record their version of Carpet Man on 29th April and 6th May at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London. The track is released as a single in the UK on 19th July, just as Irish actor Richard Harris is scoring a big hit on both sides of the Atlantic with yet another Jimmy Webb song - the classic MacArthur Park.

Montage was first recorded by Love Generation, a 'flower power' vocal harmony group from the States, whose version of the song is used on the soundtrack of the James Garner / Debbie Reynolds movie How Sweet It Is. Love Generation emerged during 1967's 'Summer of Love', scoring a minor US hit with Groovy Summertime. In August Montage (Imperial 66310) provides the group with another minor hit. The single spends just three weeks on the Billboard Top 100 and peaks at number 86.

With the Nocturnes missing out on similar chart success in the UK, Lyn Paul leaves the group and goes solo in what she once described as "a very, very small way." (John Dunn Show, BBC Radio 2, 1983) Breaking free from the group was a brave decision. In 1968 the hit parade was dominated by groups and by male artists. Record companies were reluctant to sign new women singers, being content to rely upon the "big four" - Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw, Lulu and Dusty Springfield - as their token female artists. When they did take a chance on a new woman singer the record companies did not always give them the pick of the best songs, nor were they promoted with the sustained enthusiasm to give them a prolonged chart career.

Mary Hopkin is one of the few new women singers to make a breakthrough in 1968 and the only one who went on to have a string of hits. Her début single Those Were The Days (which Lyn Paul re-recorded in 1984) is the runaway success of the year and gives her the distinction of being the only woman to make it to the top of the charts.

Other newcomers are not so successful: Mama Cass and Jacky Lee have the first of just two hit singles, while Julie Driscoll and Jeannie C. Riley both turn out to be "one hit wonders". Meanwhile other young hopefuls like Lyn Paul and Kiki Dee have to wait until the 1970s to make their chart breakthrough.

Now nineteen, Lyn takes to the stage as Tanzy, a name which she later admitted to John Dunn was "pretty horrific!" Looking back on this period of her career, Lyn was quoted in a tour programme as saying:

As Tanzy, Lyn works at a lot of well-known cabaret venues, including the Batley Variety Club, where she appears on the supporting bill to Max Bygraves.


In the News - 1968
Jan	Cecil Day-Lewis becomes Poet Laureate on 1st January. Alexander Dubcek succeeds Antonin Novotny as first secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party on 5th January. John Gorton succeeds the late Harold Holt as the Prime Minister of Australia on 10th January. The UK Prime Minister announces cuts in public spending on 16th January. Among the economy measures proposed by the government are the introduction of charges for most medical prescriptions and the cancellation of free milk in secondary schools. A state of emergency is declared in Mauritius on 22nd January after 14 people are killed in race riots. On 23rd January North Korean patrol boats capture a United States Navy intelligence ship, the USS Pueblo. The Seekers are named 'Australians of the Year' for 1967 and are presented with bronze medallions on 26th January at a special Australia Day luncheon at Melbourne Town Hall.
Feb	Heavy fighting breaks out on 8th February in the demilitarised zone separating North and South Vietnam. A bomb explodes at the Soviet Embassy in Washington on 21st February. On 25th February thousands of people gather in London to demonstrate against the government's plans (contained in the Commonwealth Immigrants Bill) to restrict immigration to Britain. Twenty-one women patients die in fire at a mental hospital near Shrewsbury on 26th February. The Royal Navy test fires its first Polaris missile. Frankie Lymon, famous for his 1956 hit Why Do Fools Fall In Love, dies of a suspected drug overdose on 28th February, aged 25.
Mar	Sandie Shaw and fashion designer Jeff Banks get married at Greenwich Registry Office on 6th March. Three Africans are hanged in Rhodesia on 6th March in defiance of a reprieve granted by the Queen four days earlier. Mauritius becomes an independent state within the Commonwealth on 12th March. In Czechoslovakia the government of Alexander Dubcek puts an end to press censorship on 13th March. Police in London make more than 200 arrests on Sunday, 17th March when violence breaks out at an anti-Vietnam protest outside the US embassy. Yuri Gagarin, the first human to travel in Space, dies in a plane crash on 27th March.
Apr	Martin Luther King is murdered in Memphis on 4th April. His funeral is held in Atlanta on 9th April. On 10th April the TEV Wahine ferry capsizes in heavy seas as it enters Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. Fifty-one people perish. On Thursday, 18th April it is announced that London Bridge has been sold to McCulloch Properties, the developer of the Lake Havasu City resort and retirement community on the banks of Lake Havasu, Arizona. The bridge continues to operate while a new bridge is built around it. The old bridge finally closes to traffic in 1971, when it is broken up into numbered and indexed pieces and transported to the USA. Pierre Trudeau becomes Prime Minister of Canada on 20th April, following the resignation of Lester Pearson. Tory MP Enoch Powell attacks immigration policies in a speech given in Birmingham on 21st April. New 5-pence and 10-pence coins are put into circulation in the UK on 23rd April, in preparation for decimalisation in 1971. On 24th April the International Olympic Committee withdraws its invitation to South Africa to participate in the 1968 Olympics. African nations had threatened to boycott the Games if South Africa took part. The hippie musical Hair opens at the Baltimore Theatre, New York on 28th April.
May	On 3rd May a team of 18 doctors led by South African-born surgeon Donald Ross carry out the UK's first heart transplant at the National Heart Hospital in Marylebone, London. Mary Hopkin appears on Opportunity Knocks on 4th May. Delegations from the United States and North Vietnam begin peace talks in Paris on 10th May. On Thursday, 16th May a gas explosion demolishes a load-bearing wall of Ronan Point, a newly-built block of flats in Newham, East London. The explosion causes an entire corner of the building to collapse. Five people are killed. France is beset by student unrest and strikes. On 17th May students march from the Sorbonne to the Renault factory in Paris to show their support for striking car workers. By 22nd May nine million workers are estimated to be on strike. On 18th May Richard Burton buys Elizabeth Taylor the world's most expensive diamond ring. Nigerian troops capture Port Harcourt in the breakaway state of Biafra. Peace talks between Nigeria and Biafra begin in Kampala on 23rd May but come to an end on 31st when the Biafrans withdraw from the negotiations.
Jun	Senator Robert Kennedy, who had announced on 16th March that he would run for President, is shot in the head and neck on 5th June. He dies the next day. President Johnson declares 9th June a national day of mourning. Martin Luther King's assassin, James Earl Ray, is arrested at London's Heathrow Airport as he tries to board a plane on Saturday, 8th June. Tony Hancock commits suicide on 24th June. On 25th June the Liberal Party, led by Pierre Trudeau, wins the Canadian general election with an increased majority. In the French general election the Gaullists get the majority of seats in the National Assembly.
Jul	Britain and Tanzania resume diplomatic relations. The Seekers split up, performing in cabaret together for the last time at the Talk Of The Town on 8th July and recording Farewell The Seekers for BBC Television on 9th July. Aeroflot and Pan American World Airways begin the first direct flights between the USA and the Soviet Union on 15th July. On 19th July Nigeria and Biafra agree to resume peace talks in Addis Ababa.
Aug	As the Nigeria-Biafra peace talks begin in Addis Ababa, the Red Cross resumes the airlift of relief supplies to Biafra on 5th August. The flights are cancelled five days later after Nigerian armed forces open fire on the relief planes. Former US President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffers his sixth heart attack on 6th August. On 8th August Richard Nixon wins the Republican Party's nomination for the Presidential elections. The Beatles launch Apple Records on 11th August. Soviet troops invade Czechoslovakia on 20th August. The Czech Prime Minister Alexander Dubcek is placed under arrest. France explodes its first hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific on 24th August. More than 20,000 are killed by an earthquake in north-eastern Iran.
Sep	On 5th September hijackers kill 21 people aboard a Pan Am jet in Karachi, Pakistan. Swaziland gains independence from Britain on 6th September. The Post Office introduces a two-tier mail system on Monday, 16th September, promising overnight delivery of First-class letters. On 27th September, just one day after the abolition of theatre censorship laws, the controversial American hippie musical Hair opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London.
Oct	On Wednesday, 2nd October Sheila Thorns gives birth at Birmingham Maternity Hospital to Britain's first sextuplets (four boys and two girls). Three of the babies survived. On the same day a gun battle in Mexico City leaves 25 people dead, just ten days before the start of the Olympic Games. There is a military coup in Peru on 3rd October. President Fernando Belaúnde Terry is replaced as Head of State by General Juan Velasco Alvarado. The Queen opens London's new Euston Station on 14th October. On 16th October athletes Tommy Smith and John Carlos give the black power salute at the Mexico Olympics. They are expelled from the US team and sent home. Jacqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis get married on Sunday, 20th October on the Greek island of Skorpios.
Nov	On 5th November Richard Nixon is elected President of the USA. On 11th November the British Union Jack is replaced by a new flag in Rhodesia. Children's author Enid Blyton dies on 28th November. The Trade Descriptions Act comes into force in the UK on Saturday, 30th November, making traders and manufacturers liable to prosecution if they give misleading information.
Dec	John and Cynthia Lennon get divorced on 8th December. On the same day Graham Nash officially leaves the Hollies. On 17th December eleven-year-old Mary Bell is sentenced to life imprisonment for the manslaughter of two young boys. The crew of the USS Pueblo is released by North Korea on 22nd December, after the USA had signed a document admitting that the ship had violated North Korean waters. Apollo 8 becomes the first manned spacecraft to orbit the Moon. On 27th December, at the end of a successful six-day mission, the three-man crew splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

Those Were The Days

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