Big Boy Pete

For the past 20 years, Peter Miller has been running a recording studio in San Francisco, but back in the early ’60s he made a name for himself during the original British Invasion as lead guitarist for the Jaywalkers, a band that often opened for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. In his solo incarnation he recorded as Big Boy Pete and penned a number of psychedelic-era tracks that never entered the popular consciousness but remain coveted in the ’60s collectors market. Over the past two years, a stash of unreleased Big Boy Pete recordings have been re-released in England and are only now making their way to North America. The two tracks here can be found on the British full-length Return To Catatonia on the Surrey label, Tenth Planet Records. Both songs display a classic songwriting style reminiscent of Syd Barrett with more of a rock edge, somewhat akin the road Robyn Hitchcock travelled down many years later.