Music: Sitting pretty after all these years

In a parallel universe, The Pretty Things are bigger than the Stones. But the (not quite so famous) band isn't bitter.

"IF YOU look at anybody's life story, it's littered with car crashes and disasters. People say: aren't you pissed off that you didn't get to number one? Truth is, if we'd got it all in the first five years, either we'd be dead from drugs or we wouldn't have anything left to prove," says Pretty Things vocalist Phil May.

We're backstage at the Philipshalle in Dusseldorf before the band record a Rockpalast Christmas Special for German TV. A capacity crowd will watch performances by Ezio, Heather Nova and Van Morrison, who is headlining and made sure his old pals The Pretty Things were on the bill.

"I see Van quite a bit," explains May. "Whenever he's in London, we go out for a drink. And he's helping us totally out of friendship and, I think, respect," he adds while strumming Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On". Catching my eye in the dressing room mirror, the singer flashes a smile. We both know The Rolling Stones recorded this song and that, but for the vagaries of fate, The Pretty Things may have been the ones trying to beat the British taxman this year.

"Tax problems or not, Keith Richards would be playing in a pub because that's what he is: a musician," says May in his defence. Dick Taylor walks in and gives us a quizzical look. In 1962, the guitarist nearly ended up joining the Stones ahead of Bill Wyman but opted to go to The Royal College of Art instead.

Busted by the drug-squad, beaten up by bouncers, banned by airlines before it became fashionable, The Pretty Things were definitive Sixties contenders, always in the right place, often at the right time but never quite making it.

Having scored a couple of hits with the sweaty, primal garage-sound of "Don't Bring Me Down" and "Honey I Need", they should then have joined the British invasion of the States. Instead, inept managers kept them going up and down the M1 and the autobahns.

In 1968, The Pretty Things found themselves "incarcerated at Abbey Road with 600 screaming kids outside. The Beatles were there of course and Pink Floyd were recording too. Everybody met in the canteen, shared spliffs. The Beatles listened to the playbacks and gave you a thumbs-up or a smile. It was quite a flashback actually to play there again," he says, reflecting on The Pretty Things' first complete performance of S.F. Sorrow at Abbey Road, 30 years on, last September.

With the help of a few heavy friends like Arthur Brown and Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour, the internet broadcast went swimmingly well and has just been released on a CD entitled Resurrection. "We're not claiming a place in history," says May. "S.F. Sorrow is a bit of a cult, the kind of album everybody said they bought at the time. If they had, it would have been number one."

Even in a truncated five-song version as in Dusseldorf - with the psychedelic sweep of "Balloon Burning" the centrepiece - the seminal work lives up to its reputation as missing link and mythical defining moment in popular music.

"It's an undisputed fact that S.F. Sorrow is the first rock opera," says May, "the first concept album. Unfortunately, EMI eventually released S.F. Sorrow in the States a year after the UK and six months after Tommy [The Who's epochal concept work]. We got slaughtered by the press!" Taylor and Waller quit in disgust but, with the backing of Led Zeppelin's Swansong label, the Pretty Things soldiered on and even managed their first US tour in 1973. David Bowie covered "Rosalyn" and "Don't Bring Me Down" on Pin-Ups while the boisterous rock of the Silk Torpedo and Savage Eye albums prefigured punk.

The classic S.F. Sorrow line-up eventually reunited three years ago. Through the dogged dedication of manager Mark St John, the group had regained control of its entire catalogue. "Polygram and EMI never paid us any royalties and gave us our masters back," says May. "The whole thing has been pretty well documented. We really set a precedent."

The band may swagger on stage like Reservoir Dogs heavies but they're not bitter. "Unrepentant sums it up pretty well. We've had some brilliant times. Rock and roll is significant but pales in comparison with real life. Musicians getting ripped off is minor compared with getting blown to pieces by car bombs," stresses May. "The great thing about being where The Pretty Things are, almost at the end of our career, is that any gig could be the last one. It gives us an edge!"

The new album, `Rage Before Beauty', is released in February