Rare Bird - Virginia (1975)

Rare Bird are an under-rated band from the progressive rock era of the early 70's - always at the top of the second division but never quite making the big time. The history of Rare Bird began when Graham Field placed an advertisement for a pianist in a musical periodical, from which he got thirty replies and formed a group called Lunch. He met Dave Kaffinetti in November 1968, and together they formulated the basic ideas for Rare Bird, and when they finally found the ideal rhythm section in Steve Gould, Chris Randall and Mark Ashton, The band was complete. Field and Kaffinetti had originally envisaged that the band would be a four-piece and were looking for a singer/bass player. Steve and Chris, who had both previously been members of the Pop-Psych band Fruit Machine, applied to the ad as vocals/guitar and bass respectively and were taken on. It later turned out that the founders of the band were more interested in Steve and convinced him to play bass, resulting in Chris being kicked out of the band. Two weeks later, they had signed management and agency contracts, and three weeks after that were in the studio recording their debut album. Before joining Lunch, Randall and Gould had previously written a song called 'To the Memory of Two Brave Dogs', which Rare Bird included on their debut album, renaming it 'Iceberg', but removing Randall from the songwriting credit. Along with Van der Graaf Generator and The Nice, they were one of the very first bands that signed to Charisma Records, the record label that Tony Stratton-Smith had founded. In 1969 they released 'Sympathy' as a single, and it reached No. 1 in Italy and France, selling over one million globally. It became their only UK hit single, reaching No. 27 and staying on the chart for 8 weeks. The first album released by Lunch in 1969 was called 'Rare Bird', which now also became the band's new name. They released four more albums over the next four years - always critically well received but just never selling enough copies to propel them into the top league of prog-rock bands. Along the way they released a few singles, and added some unreleased songs on the b-sides, and also recorded a few tracks which got left behind when compiling track listings, so they are all gathered here for an album that will be a delight for fans of the group, and hopefully be a primer for anyone who hasn't heard this under-rated band and wants to investigate them further. 

Track listing

01 Devil's High Concern (b-side of 'Sympathy' 1970)
02 Red Man (previously unreleased version 1970)
03 Roadside Welcome (previously unreleased 1972)
04 Four Grey Walls (previously unreleased 1972)
05 You're Lost (previously unreleased 1972)
06 Virginia (single 1973)
07 Lonely Street (previously unreleased 1973)
08 Don't Be Afraid (single 1975)
09 Passin' Through (b-side of 'Don't Be Afraid')