Taste - First Taste (1967)

The Taste was formed in Cork, Ireland, in August 1966 as a trio consisting of Rory Gallagher on guitars and vocals, Eric Kitteringham on bass, and Norman Damery on drums. In their early years they toured in Hamburg and Ireland before becoming regulars at The Maritime Hotel, an R&B club in Belfast. In 1968 Taste began performing in the UK where the original lineup split up, and with a new rhythm section of Richard McCracken on bass and John Wilson on drums joining Gallagher, they moved permanently to London where they signed with Polydor Records. In November 1968, the band opened for Cream at that band's farewell concerts, and later toured the US with Blind Faith. They released two studio albums, the eponymous 'Taste' in 1969 and 'On The Boards' in 1970, before splitting up and allowing Gallagher to go on to enormous solo success. Two posthumous live albums were released by Polydor, which showed what a first-rate live act they were, and in recent years tapes have surfaced of early studio recordings which they made before signing to the label. These are generally credited to the Gallagher/McCracken/Wilson line-up of the band, but they were actually recorded with Kitteringham and Damery, and so I've updated the artwork to reflect this (I'm not 100% sure who's in the picture so I've left that as it was), as well as adding in a rare live recording from this version of the band to fill out the album. Apart from two songs, none of this material made in onto their official studio records, but it's all good stuff, so is well worth hearing as a pointer to the great band that they were to become.

Track listing

01 Wee Wee Baby  
02 Take It Easy Baby 
03 How Many More Years
04 Pardon Me Mister
05 Blister On The Moon
06 You've Got To Pay  
07 Summertime
08 Born On The Wrong Side Of Time
09 Norman Invasion
10 I Got My Brand On You
11 Worried Man