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The Young Society
Games / Flyin' Away - 7"
Arrex - 1968
Michael Panontin
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The Young Society were a short-lived concern, lasting just a couple of years towards the end of the sixties. But thankfully the BC band managed to bequeath a rather nifty seven-inch on the tiny Arrex label that definitely warrants a spin or two.
"I was the drummer for the Young Society, which was around for 1968 and 1969 in Abbotsford, BC," Randy Mathers wrote on the Pacific Northwest Bands site. "We played a busy schedule of dances, clubs, coffee houses, community events and battle of the bands and appeared on Club Six, the Victoria-based teen dance show." Mathers also recalls the occasional gig in Vancouver at Adam's Rib Cabaret on Granville Street as well as at The White House (a.k.a. "Vancouver's heaviest coffee house").
It was sometime in 1968 that the five - Mathers along with singer Jim McWilliams, guitarists Art Panchishin and Mel Dalgleish, and bassist Bill Laurie - walked into Aragon Studios to record this single. (Aragon was located at 1234 West 6th Avenue and was eventually rebuilt to become Mushroom Studios, which by the time it finally closed its doors in 2013 had seen the likes of the Supremes, BTO, Terry Jacks, Heart, Ringo Starr, 54-40 and Skinny Puppy pass through its studios.) Of the two sides here - the group's only two originals by the way - the vaguely psychedelic 'Flyin' Away' is clearly the better of the two. McWilliams' vocal is certainly a thing to behold as it soars high above the rhythmic, almost hypnotic, guitar groove. This must have been awesome to hear live back in the day.
Strangely, given the disc's hallowed provenance and its limited availability (allegedly just 200 were pressed up), VG+ copies of 'Flyin' Away' are going for barely a hundred bucks out there. Go figure.
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