NUMBERS, THE - Anthology '64-'67 LP

The Numbers: 1964–67. Recorded in the 80s. Reissued today. We promise nothing except that the dates are definitely wrong.

1983 was the year that The Numbers released their Anthology 64-67 LP on VOXX Records, a subsidiary of Greg Shaw's legendary Bomp Records. Sounds like a perfectly respectable garage-psych compilation from the golden age of the 60s, right? Well... not quite. There was just one tiny problem: The Numbers never existed in the 60s. The supposed members — twin brothers Larry and Terry Tutor (20) and Robert Dill (19) — were, in fact, very much products of their own time. The whole thing was an advertising ruse cooked up by the aforementioned Greg Shaw, designed to cash in on — and at the same time poke a little fun at — the rapidly growing 60s revival craze. By the early 80s, record collectors were already happily digging through the musical archaeological sites provided by the Nuggets and Pebbles compilations, discovering forgotten garage bands, obscure psychedelic weirdos and teenagers who had apparently recorded one brilliant single in 1966 before vanishing forever. The demand for mysterious, long-lost 60s records was high.
So why not simply invent one?
The look was right. The story was right. The sleeve looked right. All that was missing was about fifteen years of history.
Greg Shaw and Terry put together the appropriate liner notes, giving The Numbers a suitably mysterious backstory and making the whole package look like an authentic lost relic from 1964–67. The music itself was recorded by a modern collective who proudly wore their 60s influences on their sleeves — figuratively, and probably literally. And as luck would have it, the timing was perfect: the whole operation landed right in the middle of the Paisley Underground movement, when psychedelic guitars, jangly Rickenbackers and a healthy obsession with the 60s were suddenly very fashionable again.
Of course, trends come and trends go. The Paisley Underground eventually went underground again, MTV became unavoidable, Pac-Man ate approximately half the world's available quarters, and Sony Walkmans made it possible to carry your favourite records around in your pocket — well, sort of.
But The Numbers survived. And perhaps that's the funniest part of the whole story: an imaginary 60s band, created in the early 80s as a clever fake, now gets another life on vinyl decades later.
The liner notes on the original backsleeve have become notoriously difficult to read over the years, so for this reissue we decided not to make you squint at microscopic 80s typography. Instead, we've included the complete original liner notes as a two-sided insert, allowing you to enjoy the entire fictional history in all its glory.

And thanks to Suzy Shaw / Bomp Records, we were lucky enough to get our hands on the original tapes. But we didn't stop there: the entire album has also received a fresh new vinyl mastering, giving these supposedly ancient recordings a brand-new spin.
So dive with us into the wonderful fake sixties of the early 80s — a time when record collectors wanted obscure garage bands, Greg Shaw decided to give them one that didn't exist, and somehow the joke turned into a genuinely great record.

Tracklist:

Side A
Can't Sleep At Night
Close My Eyes
Love For Real
Here Comes My Baby (The Tremoloes)
Second Time
Take A Giant Step (The Monkees)
Sometime In The Afternoon
Side B
Miss Question Mark
Real Kids
 I Know You Too Well 
The Promise
You Said That (The Easybeats)
Test Of Time
Don't Doubt It