Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe

♬ Morning Train

Up until 1967, Israeli popular music was largely based on Russian Folk Music, French Chansons, Argentine Tango and more “Easy Listening” fare. But all of that changed after the Six Days War in June of 1967, when students, tourists and volunteers began to arrive in The Holy Land, bringing with them musical equipment, record collections and most importantly hippie culture. The result was an emergence of a number of Beat groups who had their first opportunity to perform in a small but lively discothèque scene.

The Styles were founded the following year in 1968 by Itzhak Klepter (who had played in The Churchills), Avi Karpel (from The Spiders – no relation to The Spiders from either Japan or Singapore) and Meir Israel (The Monks – and no, not The Monks as in “Black Monk Time“). Their first performance was at the 1968 Battle of the Bands, along with The Blue Stars, The Fat & The Thin, The Mosquitoes, The New Stars and Tel Aviv Express. The Styles were the only band to sing in Hebrew at the event, where they took third place. First prize went to The New Stars and their lead singer Uzi Fuchs (a.k.a. Uzi Fux). After leaving The New Stars, Fuchs sang for The Fat & The Thin briefly before joining The Styles in 1969 – thus becoming Uzi & The Styles.

That same year, a British group called Revolver (no relation to the current band by that name) came to Israel on tour. After which their keyboardist Abe Orchover and songwriter Tony Price decided to stay behind and join the band. The two Englishmen were the main influence over the band’s material and soon they recorded Manfred Man‘s “Daytime Nighttime” which became a big hit. They followed that with a three song EP with “Morning Train”, “Someday” and “Where Were You Last Night?” – all of which were hits. Due to the EP’s success, it was licensed as a single to record labels outside of Israel, in Belgium, England, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and the United States.

In 1970 they recorded their first and only album, “Friends“. The album was recorded and sung in entirely in English, and is still considered one of the greatest albums in Israeli music history. But, the band broke up soon after the album was released. In 1990, They played a single reunion show in Israel.

Catalog number 07.769 on Belter of Spain, released 1970.

the true story is that revolver broke up after an armed robbery went wrong and the lead guitarist David franks got shot and i was kidnapped but got away after the gunman got shot as we fought for the ak 47!!!!And then ave Orchover and i gave our music and arrangements to the styles!

Comment by tony price June 7, 2010 @ 2:35 pm

Hey, my first name is Ave – not Abe as above.
Apart from that – not bad!

Comment by Ave Orchover September 18, 2011 @ 4:18 pm

Great post. U can read the full story of revolver, as told by Ave Orchover, and listen to their 7″ here:
http://mistovev.haoneg.com/22

Comment by Eran Dinar September 18, 2011 @ 9:11 pm

i just realized i did say Ave not Abe, anyway you were in the Loo most of the time ,but you did save Davids life.
And you are a great musician!!

Tony price..

Comment by Anthony Price June 22, 2012 @ 10:37 am