The Five Day Week Straw People – The Five Day Week Straw People

The story of two hairdressers from Swinging London who recorded their own simple musical concept of a five day working week in a schoolhouse in one or two days for a budget label who may have intended to get a hit record. After time passed along it never became a real hit but the true historical circumstances of its production which were cleared after decades make it somehow very obscure on the one hand but also very acceptable to addictives of late 60s british pop on the other.
A real nice record after all with a great sleeve.

This is a good sounding repro. Probably better than the SAGA original!

It’s easy to see Five Day Week Straw People as a victim of the times, wrapping themselves in a mile long moniker, keeping company with other like minded time travelers lost to the eons, fellow grandiose name-bands like The Experimental West Coast Pop Art Band, The Electric Chocolate Marshmallow Raincoats, or Strawberry Alarm Clock. However, this one time cultural icon and stuff of legend, like their counterpoint, The Chocolate Watch Band, who’s material is spotty at best, is much more memorable for the direction the individual members would later take, than the material presented here.

To their credit, they’ve created an adventurous concept album revolving around a the weekend of a typical working class British family ... instantly bringing to mind the song “Dear Diary” by The Moody Blues. Recored in something like four or five hours in a London classroom, it’s easy to hear a lack of cohesiveness, not to mention the fact that it’s rumored that Jack Collins had never heard any of the songs prior to the recording session. Never the less, this self titled album is highly prized by collectors as it reflects a moment in British flower power psychedelia that was here and gone like dandelion seeds on the wind. Five Day Week Straw People do have some stunning pop elements, though rather than embracing the Mod side of the times, they’ve jettisoned themselves toward the more heavier rock sound that would become known as early heavy metal, sparking memories of Cream, filling their songs with bantered lyrics, harmonies, and a sense of story telling that requires attention to detail if you wish to gain access to this psychedelic opus ... one filled with acid fuzzed guitars, a sustained bass, intoxicating effects driven vocals filled with reverb, and drumming that could have taken place at no other time in musical history.

For all it is or isn’t worth, the legend truly outweighs reality, but if you must drop down the rabbit hole, then you must ... just remember, a mellow dosage of lysergic acid diethylamide will certainly broaden your horizons, and created the desired effect Five Day Week Straw People were looking for.

Five Day Week Straw People are actually just four people, John Du Cann on vocals and guitar, Mick Hawksworth on Bass and vocals, with Jack Collins and Ian McLane on drums. John Cu Cann went on to do splendid work with Atomic Rooster and Andromeda while the rest of the band dabbled, never to be heard from again. As to the CD reissue, it includes an astounding nine bonus tracks, bring the total for that four hour set to nineteen ... that’s just over twelve and a half minutes per track for recording time alone, leaving one to wonder, “Just what were they thinking?”

Review by Jenell Kesler