Their stage act was theatrical, including wearing full pirate costumes, echoing their rock 'n' roll contemporaries such as Screaming Lord Sutch & the Savages and Nero and the Gladiators.
The group disbanded after Kidd's sudden death in a 1966 automobile accident, but former members of the band reunited as The Pirates and continued performing until the late 2000s.
The song and the group's proto-power trio line-up both made a strong impression on the Who, who would cover it in their 1970 album Live at Leeds, whose CD liner notes proclaim the original to be the UK's best pre-Beatles rock single.
When the single failed to chart, the Pirates—Clem Cattini, Alan Caddy and Brian Gregg—jumped ship and joined Colin Hicks as his "Cabin Boys" on a six-week tour to Europe.
The explosive rise of the 'beat groups' in 1963 outshone the slow-burning R&B scene; without a single release, Kidd and his Pirates were losing valuable momentum on the chart front.
The follow-up, "Hungry For Love", was also written by Mills and broke into the top twenty during the autumn, fending off a competing EP version by The Searchers.
Both sides, "My Babe" and "Casting My Spell", featuring Spence on vocals, were recorded in one take each, a sign of this Pirates line-up's power, ability and confidence.
One step behind the Beatles and losing ground, Kidd abandoned dual-tracking his powerful voice and switched back to R&B, where his vocal strengths lay.
The Tornadoes were on the same bill in Blackpool, so their guitarist Stuart Taylor filled in until Kidd found John Weider, a fan of Green's, to come aboard.
Johnny Spence, Frank Farley and guitarist Jon Morshead (who replaced Weider) continued as The Pirates (keeping the name with Kidd's blessing) and recorded one single, "Shades of Blue", for Polydor before a lack of success calling it a day in mid-1966.
His penultimate single, "It's Got To Be You", and an unreleased version of Otis Redding's "I Can't Turn You Loose" showed that a mix of R&B and soul may have been where his future musical path lay.
Mick Stewart (lead guitar), Nick Simper (bass) and Roger Truth (drums) came together with Soper and presented themselves to Kidd as his new Pirates.
On returning from a cancelled gig at the Imperial in Nelson, he was killed in a car accident near Bury, Lancashire, on 7 October 1966, with companion Nick Simper being injured.
After 1983, The Pirates kept going on every now and then with various lines-up, always including Mick Green, in the 1980s and early 1990s with John Gustafson (The Big Three, Roxy Music) on bass and vocals with different drummers.
The album contains new versions of Pirates tracks—"Gibson Martin Fender", "Don't Munchen It" and "Going Back Home"—that Mick Green co-wrote with Wilko Johnson.
[10] Kaj Erik Ensio Takamäki plays harmonica on all the albums After the band's chart successes in 1963, a number of tracks were recorded in early 1964.