The Action

History

The Boys came together in August 1963 in Kentish Town, North West London. Reg King handled lead vocals, Alan "Bam" King played rhythm guitar and sang, Mike "Ace" Evans was on bass, and Roger Powell played drums. Reg King and Powell had been classmates and were early figures at the Scene Club in Soho, helping to shape mod culture and style. Alan King brought Evans into the lineup.

Mike Court from Juke Box Jury got in touch with the group, pointed them toward management, and encouraged them to start writing their own songs. The Boys first worked as a backing band for Sandra Barry, sometimes called Sandra Barry and the Boyfriends, and appeared on her single "Really Gonna Shake," which Reg King wrote and Decca released in March 1964. After that, Pete Watson joined on lead guitar, and the band spent a short time playing as a bar band in Brunswick, Germany.

Back in the UK, they performed at The Birdcage Club in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and manager Rikki Farr took them on. In November 1964, Pye put out their first single, "It Ain't Fair" backed with "I Want You." By early 1965, the group had renamed themselves The Action. On 31 May 1965, they auditioned for Decca with demos like "In My Lonely Room," "You'll Want Me Back," "Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue)," and "Fine Looking Girl," but didn't land a deal.

Later in 1965, they signed with Parlophone and worked with producer George Martin from AIR. Their single "Land of a Thousand Dances" backed with "In My Lonely Room" came out in October 1965 and got good reviews but sold poorly. The Action became known for their takes on American Tamla Motown songs, which they released as singles, but none of these charted in the UK. In late 1965, they started out as a supporting act for The Who at the Marquee Club.

The Who's manager, Kit Lambert, thought The Action were too strong for a support slot and that they hurt the Who's carefully built image, so they were let go. From December 1965 onward, The Action secured a regular spot at the Marquee and played there often through 1966, building a loyal mod audience. Phil Collins was a frequent visitor.

Legacy and reunion

In 1980, the compilation The Ultimate Action gathered the band’s Parlophone recordings, with liner notes from Paul Weller, who declared that the Action “had it in their soul.” Weller rated Reggie King among the finest white soul singers, suggesting his rich, smooth voice sounded more natural than Steve Marriott’s. King embodied the term “blue-eyed soul,” turning what could have been a label into a strength. The phrase was originally coined by Black DJs for the Righteous Brothers and later applied to any white performer of music then considered Black.

King himself noted the Action never covered songs by white artists. The demo collection Rolled Gold, released officially in 2002 after a 1990s reissue, was praised by critics as a lost classic. In 1998, the original lineup reunited for a concert on the Isle of Wight, headlining two shows at Ryde Theatre during the New Untouchables August Bank Holiday Mod Rally, and also played at London’s Tufnell Park Dome and Boston Arms that year. Phil Collins, a devoted fan, joined the reunited band onstage at the 100 Club in June 2000, later comparing the experience to playing with the Beatles.

Collins funded the documentary In the Lap of the Mods (2000), which included footage from both the 100 Club and Tufnell Park Dome shows, along with archival clips. A 2012 biography, The Action: In the Lap of the Mods by Ian Hebditch and Jane Shepard, featured a foreword by Sir George Martin. After their 1998 reunion, the Action performed semi-regularly for six years, with their final show at Modstock 2004 on May 30, 2004, a three-day event marking 40 years of mod subculture.

In a September 1986 interview, Steve Marriott called the Action a “legitimate band,” likening them to the Small Faces in terms of street-level mod authenticity. He said all mid-60s bands tried to capture the Motown sound, but the Action were the best at it, calling them an amazing band.