Alan Price Set - Starting Price (1969)

In 1965 Alan Price left The Animals, a band he'd formed and played with for three years, in order to embark on a new career with an outfit under his own name, the Alan Price Set. Joining Price in this new group were Clive Burrows on baritone saxophone, Steve Gregory on tenor saxophone, John Walters on trumpet, Peter Kirtley on guitar, Rod 'Boots' Slade on bass, and 'Little' Roy Mills on drums. Their first single didn't make much impact, but the follow-up, a great reworking of the classic 'I Put A Spell On You' cracked the UK top ten, and was the start of a very successful period for the band. Two further singles in 1967 made the top five in the UK singles chart, and they also released a couple of fine albums, which oddly enough didn't feature many of their singles on them. 'Don't Stop The Carnival' was their last big hit, scraping into the top 20, but their next two singles were very disappointing, with 'When I Was A Cowboy', and its embarrassing b-side 'Tappy Turquoise' being particularly bad. Price disbanded the group after that last single and started a solo career with a couple of releases under his own name, and 'The Trimdon Grange Explosion' was surprisingly good, so I've added it as a post-script to this album. It was a shame that the band fizzled out in such an unremarkable manner, as in the beginning they were a superb jazz/pop group. After a couple more 45's Price teamed up with Georgie Fame, and had a massive hit with 'Rosetta', and they followed that with more singles and an album as Fame & Price. In 1973 Price wrote the soundtrack to the Lindsay Anderson film 'O Lucky Man', and the success of the single extracted from it, 'Poor People', kick-started a long and critically-acclaimed solo career. But for now, enjoy some great jazzy pop from the late 60's, on this collection of non-album singles and b-sides from the Alan Price Set, which just concentrates on the good stuff, making for a really enjoyable overview of the band's career from 1965 to 1969. 

Track listing

01 Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird) (single 1965)
02 Never Be Sick On Sunday (b-side of 'Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird)')
03 I Put Spell On You (single 1966)
04 Iechyd-Da (b-side of 'I Put A Spell On You')
05 Willow Weep For Me (single 1966)
06 Yours Until Tomorrow (b-side of 'Willow Weep For Me')
07 Take Me Home (b-side of 'Hi-Lili Hi-Lo' 1966)
08 Simon Smith And The Amazing Dancing Bear (single 1967)
09 Who Cares (b-side of 'The House That Jack Built' 1967)
10 Shame (single 1967)
11 Don't Stop The Carnival (single 1968)
12 The Time Has Come (b-side of 'Don't Stop The Carnival')
13 Love Story (single 1968)
14 The Trimdon Grange Explosion (single as Alan Price 1969)