The Pretty Things
Rough, raw, and restless — the other face of 1960s British rock.
While they were never a formal side project, spin-off, or official collaboration of The Who, they occupy a beloved parallel space in the broader 1960s British rock ecosystem that fans of The Who frequently explore. Their raw, blues-soaked energy and restless reinvention make them a natural companion act for anyone tracing the DNA of that era's sound. In this fan-encyclopedia entry, The Pretty Things are profiled as a contemporary parallel act — a band that shared the same clubs, the same cultural moment, and the same restless desire to push rock and roll past its early boundaries, even as their path diverged from The Who's more theatrical, power-driven direction.
Quick Facts
- Alias
- Electric Banana
- Origin
- London, England
- Genre
- Blues rock
- R&B
- beat
- garage rock
- progressive rock
- psychedelia
- freakbeat
- Years active
- 1963–1976, 1978–2018, 2020
- Discography
- The Pretty Things discography
- Past members
- see 'Personnel'
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Where The Who were building toward their thunderous, theatrical power, The Pretty Things were digging into the roots — the grit, the swing, the raw vocal delivery. Their early lineup, anchored by guitarist Dick Taylor and keyboardist Gary Wright, produced a string of singles that captured the manic optimism of British rock and roll at its very peak. Songs like "Roughly Roughly" and their cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" became touchstones of the era, played in the same clubs and on the same bill circuits that The Who were conquering. What made The Pretty Things particularly fascinating to fans tracing the 1960s British scene was their constant state of flux. The band cycled through numerous lineup changes over the decades, absorbing new voices and instruments while retaining a core identity rooted in that original rough-hewn energy. This restlessness — the refusal to settle, to calcify, to become a museum piece — echoed the same restless spirit that drove The Who through their own transformations, from mod-era precision to album-rock experimentation. In the broader mythology of 1960s British rock, The Pretty Things represent the other branch of the same tree: the branch that leaned harder into blues, into raw vocal performance, into a kind of joyful chaos. They are the band you discover when you finish a Who album and think, "What else was happening in those clubs in '64?" They are the answer, and the answer is thrilling.
Reader's Guide
The Pretty Things were not a side project of The Who but a separate, contemporaneous band that fans of The Who often encounter when exploring the full landscape of 1960s British rock. Their sound was rooted in raw rock and roll and blues, with a vocal delivery that was more ragged and joyful than The Who's more structured, power-chord-driven approach. Over the years, the band went through an extraordinary number of lineup changes, absorbing new members and shifting stylistic emphases while retaining a core identity of energetic, unpolished rock. They recorded a series of singles and albums in the mid-1960s that captured the manic spirit of the British Invasion, and they continued to perform and record in various configurations for decades afterward. Their relationship to The Who's orbit is one of parallel rather than direct connection: same scene, same era, same restless cultural energy, but a distinct artistic path. For fans, discovering The Pretty Things is like finding a sibling album to a Who record — not the same song, but the same family. They remind listeners that the 1960s British rock explosion was not a single narrative but a whole ecosystem of bands pushing in different directions at the same time.
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