The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #145631   Message #3371246
Posted By: GUEST,Charles Macfarlane
03-Jul-12 - 09:31 AM
Thread Name: Nic Jones article in The Guardian
Subject: RE: Nic Jones article in The Guardian
> From: GUEST,henryp
>
> Charles - Hank Marvin and The Shadows played Quatermasster's Stores! It was the B-side of Apache.
>
> Quatermass was the popular BBC science fiction series of the time.

Originally the tune was called The Quatermaster's Stores - it's a pre-existing army number which they covered. A Quartermaster is an army rank whose responsibilities are housing (I think), logistics, and stores, as in a verse of the marching song If You Want To Find The Colonel ...

"If you want to find the Quartermaster
I know where he is (repeat twice);
If you want to find the Quartermaster
I know where he is;
He's drinking all the company's rum"

... Which actually has a similar-ish tune to The Quartermas(s)ter's Stores.

Apache

"B-side: "Quatermasster's Stores" (Trad: arr Bill Shepherd)"

&

"Record producer Norrie Paramor preferred the flip side, an instrumental of the army song "The Quartermaster's Stores", now called "The Quatermasster's Stores" after the TV series Quatermass."

(My Italics)

So yes, you are right, that's what The Shadows called it as a cheap pun, but I think you can understand that many, in fact probably most, people still think of the tune with its original spelling.