Wishbone Ash - Fully Tested (1979)

Fans of Wishbone Ash must have felt that all their Christmasses had come at once last year, with the appearance of a 30 CD box set of just about everything the band had ever recorded. Among the remastered albums were rare b-sides, out-takes and live rarities, and while all this was a surfeit of riches for the fans, finding the rare stuff to listen to meant trawling through literally hours of music that you were already familiar with. Looking through the track-listing I found that most of the good quality studio out-takes were from between 1977 and 1979, more specifically during sessions for the 'No Smoke Without Fire' and 'Just Testing' albums, so I've extracted those songs and put together a couple of great companion albums to those two official releases. This one comprises the out-takes from the 'Just Testing' album, plus a contemporary one-off single of 'Come On'/Fast Johnny', and a couple of live takes from the same period, which makes up an album that holds together surprisingly well for songs that weren't considered good enough to be released at the time.  

Track listing

01 Is Justice Done  
02 The Bells Chime  
03 Out On A Limb 
04 Where You Been  
05 Helpless (single 1980)
06 Halfway House  
07 Football and Boxing 
08 Fast Johnny (b-side of 'Come On')
09 Come On (single 1979)
10 Bad Weather Blues (b-side of 'You See Red' 12" single 1978)