The Bread And Beer Band - The Bread And Beer Band (1969)

The Bread And Beer Band was a group of England's best studio musicians, formed by Tony King (a record producer and assistant at Apple Records), and the band included Tony King, Bernie Calvert of the Hollies, Roger Pope and Caleb Quaye of Hookfoot (and Elton John's late 70's band), Jamaican percussionists Lennox Jackson and Rolfo, and Reg Dwight (aka Elton John) on piano and harpsichord. King envisioned them as a studio band along the lines of the great Motown musicians of the past, but rather than a touring, full-time outfit, it was to be a recording group and studio back-up unit that could be revised and shifted to fit the needs of each individual project that was undertaken. This instrumental album was recorded during sessions in 1968 and 1969 and included Chris Thomas as a producer, but only two tracks from the sessions were ever released, with 'Dick Barton Theme (The Devil's Gallop)' / 'Breakdown Blues' appearing as a single in 1969, featuring an original group composition on the b-side. The single received quite positive reviews, and so the band were sufficiently motivated to try to get an album released, which would have comprised reworked arrangements of popular songs of the day, with a few standards tossed in. Among the songs tampered with were Sam The Sham's 'Wooly Bully', Donovan's 'Mellow Yellow', Tim Hardin's 'If I Were A Carpenter' featuring Elton on harpsichord, and even a humorous arrangement of the 'Zorba The Greek' movie theme. As so often happened, the album was shelved, with Tony King eventually giving the master tapes to Elton as a 1976 birthday gift.

Track listing

01 Woolly Bully  
02 Mellow Yellow  
03 If I Were A Carpenter  
04 Zorba The Greek  
05 The Letter  
06 Dick Barton Theme (The Devil's Gallop)
07 Quick Joey Small  
08 Needles And Pins  
09 Billy's Bang
10 Breakdown Blues
11 God Knows (A Bit Of Freedom)  
12 Last Night  

The Band:

Tony King - producer
Bernie Calvert - guitar
Roger Pope - drums
Caleb Quaye - guitar, bass
Lennox Jackson - percussion        
Rolfo - percussion
Reg Dwight (aka Elton John) - keyboards

She Trinity - Have We Sinned? (1970)

I though that I'd completed my series of under-recognised girl singers of the 60's, but an article in the current Record Collector alerted me to a band that I'd overlooked, but who deserve to be included. The original line-up of Lady Greensleeves was Shelly Gillespie, Sue Kirby and Robin Yorke, and they formed a group together in their native Canada in the early 60's. In late 1965 they all emigrated to England, and it was there they they enlisted the services of Pauline Moran as their bassist, and then signed a management deal with Peter Grant, who put them in touch with producer Mickie Most. It was Most who re-christened them She Trinity, and he took them into the studio to record their first single, a re-interpretation of The Bobby Fuller Four's 'I Fought The Law' entitled 'He Fought The Law'. The big difference between She Trinity and the plethora of other girl groups around at the time was that they played their own instruments, which in 1966 was something of a novelty. Their second single was a cover of Lou Christie's 'Have I Sinned', but it was their next one which attracted attention, with the unwieldy title of 'The Man Who Took The Valise Off The Floor Of Grand Central Station At Noon'. Sue Kirby had left the band quite early on, and the remaining members felt that they needed a keyboard-player, so Marion "Rusty" Hill joined them, and she was later replaced in 1967 by Eileen Woodman, who stayed until the very end. Their cover of 'Yellow Submarine' was recorded by the band themselves before Most arrived at the studio, and he played it to Brian Epstein to see if he would let them release it, but Epstein was so annoyed that he rush-released The Beatles version as a single, to squash any success that the band might have had with their version. In 1967 future jazz great Barbara Thompson joined the group on flute and saxophone, and singer Beryl Marsden was also a member for a while, although she didn't record with them. In 1968 the band released a single under the pseudonym of Gilded Cage, with Maxine Silverburg as the vocalist, and this was followed a year later by a reggae version of 'My Bonnie', which the group now say was recorded against their better judgement. One last single was released under the She Trinity name, which was a re-recording of 'Hair' - the b-side to one of their Gilded Cage singles - and on the flip was the outstanding 'Climb The Tree', which was a great piece of UK psyche, although the music was actually by a band called Onyx, with Eileen Woodman singing the lead vocal. The single didn't sell that well, and in 1970 the band quietly split up, with the various members going their own ways, but luckily they have left behind a great collection of UK pop and psyche which we can enjoy today. 

Track listing

01 He Fought The Law (single 1966)
02 The Union Station Blues (b-side of 'He Fought The Law')
03 Have I Sinned (single 1966)
04 Wild Flower (b-side of 'Have I Sinned')
05 The Man Who Took The Valise Off The Floor Of Grand Central Station At Noon (single 1966)
06 Yellow Submarine (single 1966)
07 Promise Me You'll Cry (b-side of 'Yellow Submarine')
08 Across The Street (single 1967)
09 Long Long Road (For The Broken Hearts) (single as Gilded Cage 1968)
10 Baby Grumbling (b-side of 'Long Long Road (For The Broken Hearts)')
11 My Bonnie (single as Gilded Cage 1969)
12 Hair (single 1970)
13 Climb That Tree (b-side of 'Hair')

Various Artists - An Alternative Hendrix (1990)

I was listening to my New Fast Automatic Daffodils 'Peel Sessions' album the other day, and was reminded at just how great their take on 'Purple Haze' was, which in turn prompted memories of another couple of Hendrix covers by new wave/alternative bands that I'd always loved - 'All Along The Watchtower' by XTC and 'Foxy Lady' by The Cure. I wondered if there were any more punky versions of Hendrix's songs out there, and found that although there have been two tribute albums released, with 'Stone Free' in 1993 and 'If Six Was Nine' in 1990, they seemed to concentrate on more mainstream groups to contribute to them, and so I only had to borrow four songs from the latter to flesh out this collection of re-imaginings of Hendrix classics by some of my favourite new wave/alternative bands. 

Track listing

01 Purple Haze - New Fast Automatic Daffodils
02 Can You See Me - Thee Hypnotics
03 Stone Free - Supergrass
04 Are You Experienced - The Mock Turtles
05 Who Knows - Bevis Frond
06 Foxy Lady - The Cure
07 Love Or Confusion - The Screaming Trees
08 Hey Joe - Patti Smith
09 All Along The Watchtower - XTC
10 Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) - The Membranes
11 Crosstown Traffic - Richard Hell & The Voidoids

The Bluetones - The Happy Lobotomy (2006)

The years after the release of 'Luxembourg' were quiet for The Bluetones, but eventually a three-album deal was signed in late 2005 with Cooking Vinyl Records, promptly followed by the limited release of the 'Serenity Now' EP and a full UK tour, and their first eponymous album for the label spawned the single 'My Neighbour's House' in September 2006. It would be four years before the next studio album, with 'A New Athens' appearing on CIA Recordings, but it failed to chart and the writing was on the wall for them, with the band announcing that they'd split after a farewell tour in the autumn of 2011. While they were active they released nearly two dozen singles and EP's, and nearly every one of them had exclusive songs on the b-sides, so this last volume collects the tracks from the final single from the 'Luxemboug' album, plus the flips from their Cooking Vinyl singles, and altogether these four volumes contain 55 non-album tracks released in just an eleven year career.   

Track listing

01 Suffer In Silence (b-side of 'Never Going Nowhere' 2003)
02 Pram Face (b-side of 'Never Going Nowhere' 2003)
03 Choogie Monbassa (b-side of 'Never Going Nowhere' 2003)
04 Serenity Now (single 2005)
05 Autumn Tones (b-side of 'Serenity Now' 2005)
06 Mine In The Morning (b-side of 'Serenity Now' 2005)
07 The Happy Lobotomy (b-side of 'Serenity Now' 2005)
08 Untitled #6 (b-side of 'Head On A Spike' 2006)
09 Surrendered In The Living Room (b-side of 'Head On A Spike' 2006)
10 Your Psychotic Friend (b-side of 'My Neighbour's House' 2006)
11 S. Thoresby (b-side of 'My Neighbour's House' 2006)
12 The Last Song But One (b-side of 'Surrendered' 2006)
13 Wasn't I Right About You (b-side of 'Surrendered' 2006)

Bob Dylan - Talkin' Woody Guthrie Blues (1961)

Woody Guthrie was a folk hero of Bob Dylan's, and five days after arriving in New York from Minnesota in 1961, Dylan tracked him down in East Orange, New Jersey, and meet him for the first time. Guthrie was 48 at the time, and lived at Greystone Park Psychiatric hospital in Morris Plains, New Jersey, but spent his Sundays at the apartment of Robert and Sidsel Gleason, 20 miles away in East Orange. He had been in psychiatric care since September 1954, when he checked himself into Brooklyn State Hospital, as he had trouble controlling his muscles and thought he had a mental disorder. When he checked out of the hospital in May 1956, he went to Morristown, New Jersey, where he wandered the streets, homeless, and was arrested, spending a night in Morris County Jail. At his own request he was then sent to Greystone, where staffers assumed he had paranoid schizophrenia - his claims that he had written thousands of songs and published a book seemed implausible. Months later, he was diagnosed as having Huntington's disease, a hereditary disorder that causes the victim to gradually lose control of his movements. Even though his mind was sound, Guthrie's family kept him at Greystone because it was the best option, and in 1959, when the Gleasons learned Guthrie was at Greystone, they arranged to take him every Sunday, making it much easier for Guthrie's family, who lived in Brooklyn, to visit. The Gleasons let visitors come by when Guthrie was with them, and some folk singers, including Pete Seeger, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Phil Ochs, often stopped by, and Dylan had found out where Guthrie was when he went to the family home in Brooklyn and talked to Guthrie's 13-year-old son, Arlo. He had read Guthrie's autobiography 'Bound For Glory', which detailed his travels across America, playing his songs for anyone who would listen, and as he was rarely recorded, it was up to Dylan and other folk-singers of his generation to secure his legacy and carry on his tradition. By the time Dylan visited Guthrie, he was in pretty bad shape, barely able to move or speak, let alone sing, but he loved hearing his own songs, and Dylan was happy to play them. After his visit, Dylan wrote 'Song To Woody', which he included on his first album in 1962, incorporating some of Guthrie's songs into the lyric, peppering in bits from '1913 Massacre', 'Joe Hillstrom' and 'Pastures Of Plenty', and he played the song to Guthrie at a later visit. In the Spring of 1961, Guthrie's family transferred him back to Brooklyn State Hospital, so the visits to the Gleasons' apartment ended, and in 1967 he died at age of just 55. In the early years of his career Dylan often played Guthrie's songs in concert, and some were also recorded at the Gleason's home and in his Minnesota hotel room, and through him a new generation discovered the work of the man and learned about his contributions to American  music. This album collects a dozen of these recordings from 1961, when Dylan was taking his first steps to becoming a spokesman for his generation, and was taking the lead from one of his heroes. Considering the age of the recordings they are not bad quality, although I have had to do some patching to 'I Want My Milk' to fix some bad drop-outs and volume fluctuations.  

Track listing

01 1913 Massacre  
02 Gypsy Davy 
03 (As I Go) Ramblin' Round  
04 I Want My Milk  
05 Talking Merchant Marine  
06 VD Blues 
07 Pasture Of Plenty  
08 Car Car  
09 Ain't Got No Home
10 Talking Fish Blues  
11 VD Gunner's Blues  

12 This Land Is Your Land  

All songs composed by Woody Guthrie.

Well, the experiment is over. Guitars101 have closed my account again and so none of the links will work.

OK, here's the plan. People who can use Soulseek then carry on doing that, as it's quick and easy for the people that it works for. The blog now has it's own email address, which is in the About Me section at top right, and for anyone who can't get Soulseek to work, and didn't like leaving their email in the comments, then you can now contact me directly. I'll save the posts in batches under the date of the post, and hopefully that will make them quick and easy to forward. Let's give it a try and see how it works. 

4 Non Blondes - New America (1994)

4 Non Blondes howled their way onto the charts in 1993 with 'What's Up?' and then vanished without a whisper. Formed in 1989 with Linda Perry (vocals), Shaunna Hall (guitar), Christa Hillhouse (bass), and Wanda Day (drums), 4 Non Blondes had no problems attracting major labels based on live shows and local radio support from KUSF, but the labels didn't know how to market them. After Day was replaced by Dawn Richardson, the group was eventually signed to Interscope Records and released 'Bigger, Better, Faster, More?' in 1992, but although Hall contributed guitar tracks and some songs, she left before the album was released. Dominated by Perry's high-pitched singing, 'What's Up?' was slowly added to modern rock stations and then crossed over into the mainstream, peaking at number 11 on the Billboard Top 200. The video for the song became a smash on MTV, propelling sales of the album to over six million copies worldwide. 'What's Up?' was selected as Best Song by the Bay Area Music Awards, and Perry was chosen as Best Female Vocalist, and 'Bigger, Better, Faster, More?' won for Best Album. The group toured with Neil Young, Pearl Jam, and Bob Dylan, and recorded tunes for the soundtracks to 'Wayne's World 2' and 'Airheads', however, Perry felt that the group had become too 'pop', and so she left the band, but not before they'd recorded almost enough songs for a second album, which was then shelved. Luckily the songs have leaked online, and so by adding in their soundtrack work and their contribution to a Led Zeppelin tribute album we can approximate what their second album could have sounded like if they hadn't broken up when Perry left.  

Track listing

01 Jesus
02 I'm The One
03 Knocking On My Head
04 Love Love Love / Whole Lotta Love
05 Mighty Lady
06 Mary's House
07 New America
08 Misty Mountain Hop

09 The Ladder
10 Sister Feelgood

Thanks to the stevehoffman site for the suggestion.

The Bluetones - Groovy Roussos (2003)

In 2002 the band released their fourth album 'Luxembourg', and it carried on in the style of their previous record 'Science & Nature'. 'After Hours' was released as a single, with a multitude of exclusive tracks on it's many formats, and they also recorded a number of songs for 'Luxembourg' which didn't make the final cut, and which have since surfaced on one of their singles collections. This penultimate volume includes the b-sides from the 'Mudslide' EP, the 'Luxembourg' singles, and those out-takes from the 2002 sessions. 

Track listing

01 Zero Tolerance (from the 'Mudslide EP' 2000)
02 Fock Da Brain-Hole (from the 'Mudslide EP' 2000)
03 After Hours (single 2002)
04 Reverse Cow Girl (b-side of 'After Hours' 2002)
05 Woman In Love (b-side of 'After Hours' 2002)
06 Groovy Roussos (b-side of 'After Hours' 2002)
07 Sail On Sailor (b-side of 'After Hours' 2002)
08 Ingimarsson (b-side of 'After Hours' 7" single 2002)
09 The Bluetones Big Score (previously unreleased 2002)
10 That's Life (previously unreleased 2002)
11 Freeze Dried Pop (Dumb It Up) (previously unreleased 2002)
12 Persuasion (previously unreleased 2002)
13 Move Closer (b-side of 'Fast Boy' 2003)
14 Beat On The Brat (b-side of 'Fast Boy' 2003)

Hey Bulldog - Al Lupo (2019)

Hey Bulldog are a three-piece garage rock band from Manchester, comprisong Rob Manton (guitar/vocals), Matt Parry (bass) and Ben Howarth-Lees (drums). Early single 'Al Lupo' was a garage-psych whirlwind of a song, with driving, interesting rhythms, and great guitars, and first alerted me to the band in 2018. More singles followed, all in the same garage-y vein, until the 7-minute 'No Future (Part II)' appeared in 2019, being a fabulous extended psychedelic (mostly) instrumental piece, introducing psych, blues, and rock to the mix. It is this genre blending that makes the band stand out against a sea of often repetitive bland indie that has saturated the Manchester scene in recent years, and their last single 'Death & Greed' from a year ago is their heaviest song to date. The band now have enough material for an album, and there were plans for one to be recorded last year, so while we wait for that, here's the album they could have released a year ago. 

Track listing

01 Al Lupo
02 Divide And Conquer
03 Under My Spell
04 Makin' Friends Not Millionaires
05 Numb
06 Stranger
07 No Future (Part II)
08 California
09 Death & Greed

Rick Price - The Price Is Right (1971)

Richard Price was born 10 June 1944 in Birmingham, and his first band were the Cimarrons, who were inspired by the Shadows, before moving on to the Sombreros, who later changed their name to Sight & Sound and moved in a more psychedelic direction. He began collaborating with Mike Sheridan as a songwriting partnership, and when Sheridan's Nightriders lost Roy Wood when he left them in 1966 to form The Move, Price followed him to provide bass, and stayed with the group for two years, including an unsuccessful tour of the United States. When Wood left The Move to Form Electric Light Orchestra with Jeff Lynne, Price contributed bass tracks to the early sessions for their debut album, but for reasons that are unclear none of his bass parts ended up in the final mix of the album when it was released in 1971. After leaving the Move he signed a contract with Gemini Records, and re-connecting with Mike Sheridan they recorded some songs together, which were compiled onto an album called 'This Is To Certify That', which was released in 1970. Price also recorded a solo album, 'Talking To The Flowers', in 1971, before joining former Move colleague Carl Wayne in Light Fantastic, and then forming Mongrel with future Wizzard drummers Charlie Grima and Keith Smart, leading to him re-uniting with Roy Wood when he followed Grima and Smart when they joined Wizzard. The sessions for Price's solo album produced a number of songs that weren't used, and so this collection consists of tracks that weren't considered good enough to make the final cut, and if you like these then you should check out both of the albums mentioned above, as they contain some fine late 60's pop. 

Track listing

01 Dream
02 Hey Little One
03 Take My Hand For A While
04 I Can Get Found
05 Mr Bojangles
06 Caroline
07 Turn Around
08 Love Is A Lonesome River
09 Give Me Peace
10 My Crying Time
11 Galveston
12 We Believe In Jesus
13 Top Ten Record

Well, that didn't last long. Posts still on Soulseek while I find out what's happened.

It seems that possibly I was posting so much material that the site thought it was spam, and so banned me from it. I now have my account back but they seems to have deleted all my posts, so I'm going to have to start all over again, unless they can reinstate them. Talk Talk is back for now, until I hear what they are going to do. Eventually the plan will be for all of the posts on here to be mirrored on Guitars101 with links, for the people who just can't get Soulseek to work. We'll have to see how it goes, as it will be an extremely long job transferring them all over, and it could be that I can take requests about which ones to do first.   

LATEST UPDATE

My account with Guitars101 had been approved (again) and I've managed to upload four recent posts, as that was the maximum allowed until approved. I'll get stuck in over the weekend and re-post all the ones they deleted, as it's unlikely that they will re-instate them.   

Talk Talk - A Chameleon Hour (1984)

Talk Talk began as a quartet consisting of Mark Hollis (vocals/guitar/piano), Lee Harris (drums), Paul Webb (bass guitar), and Simon Brenner (keyboards), and in their early years they were often linked to the New Romantic movement, more specifically with Duran Duran, as both bands sported a name which was a single word repeated, a Roxy Music-inspired musical direction, and shared the same record label (EMI) and producer (Colin Thurston). The band released their first single 'Mirror Man' in February 1982 to little public recognition, and this was followed by a re-recording of an old song by Hollis's previous band The Reaction, entitled 'Talk Talk', and this actally reached No.52 in the UK Charts. The band's first album 'The Party's Over' was released in July 1982, and they had their first UK Top 40 hits with the singles 'Today', and a re-release of 'Talk Talk'. Brenner left before the 1983 non-album single 'My Foolish Friend' was released in 1983, which was produced by frequent Roxy Music collaborator Rhett Davies, and this song was intended to be the first single from their second record, a concept album entitled 'A Chameleon Hour'. This would have been based on the book 'The Dice Man', but the record in its original conception was never released, although several songs, like 'Such A Shame' and 'Call In The Night Boy', did appear on their second album, and others ended up as b-sides. Hollis explained the concept of the album as being "inspired by the book 'The Dice Man', which is about decision making through dice throwing. Although they didn’t actually refer to it in the book, there's a scene when he's in a party for an hour undergoing about ten different personality changes and that idea seemed quite appropriate in terms of what we’re doing. It's a fabulous book, the idea is so appealing. I’ve just written ten times as many lyrics as I needed and thrown the dice on which ones go in. It’s ultimately wrong though, definitely immoral!". 

At this point Talk Talk was officially a trio, as Brenner was not replaced, although keyboard player Phil Ramocon, who had already played piano on the band's live shows beside Brenner, basically took up his role. However, Tim Friese-Greene was brought in to assist with the recording of 'It's My Life', and he soon became the band's producer and occasional keyboard player, as well as Hollis' frequent songwriting partner. After 'A Chameleon Hour' was abandoned, more songs were recorded and in 1984 'It's My Life' became their official second album, and with Fries-Greene on board their music became much more esoteric,with both 1986's 'The Colour Of Spring' and 1988's 'Spirit Of Eden' being rightly regarded as classic albums of the period. The band have even been credited with inventing "post-rock" in their last two albums, 'Spirit Of Eden' and 'Laughing Stock', and artists who've praised the band or cited them as an influence include Tears For Fears, Radiohead, Doves, Elbow, Shearwater, Cedric Bixler-Zavala of the Mars Volta, and Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree. Mark Hollis died on 25 February 2019, aged 64, and the obituaries from friends and fellow musicians showed the high regard in which he was held by everyone who knew or worked with him. Hopefully you'll enjoy this reconstruction of the 'A Chameleon Hour' album, as there's only a couple of songs from 'In My Life', so a lot of the material might be unfamiliar to all but the most avid fans. 

Track listing

01 Again A Game...Again

02 Call In The Night Boy

03 My Foolish Friend

04 Renée

05 Desire

06 Why Is It So Hard?

07 For What It's Worth

08 Without You

09 Such A Shame 

Thanks to the stevehoffman site for the suggestion, and to Jules for the revised opening trio of songs.  

You may notice that 'track listing' has changed colour. I'm saying no more........

Michael Jackson - Smile (1997)

In 1997 Michael Jackson recorded the Charlie Chaplin-penned classic 'Smile', for inclusion on the 'HIStory' compilation, with the intention of releasing it as a single to promote the album. The release was cancelled at the last minute, and all of the pressings of 'Smile' (both CD maxi-singles and 12" records) were withdrawn and destroyed just days before the release date, save a few that managed to escape, making this one of the rarest Jackson collectors items of all time. The Dutch 12" single (EPC 665130 6) is probably the most sought after record by Michael Jackson collectors, as a very limited number of these records briefly reached Dutch retail stores and were sold before the rest were withdrawn and destroyed by Sony. Original copies have been known to fetch up to £1,000.00 when they appear on eBay, although that is quite rarely these days. There was also a CD maxi-single, which included remixes of 'Is It Scary' which were not on the vinyl 12", and so in total there were nine tracks spread over the two releases, including a full length and short version of 'Smile', and a radio edit of 'Is It Scary', as well as five other mixes of that song. Seeking to capitalize on the rarity and incredible demand for this record, bootleggers began to reproduce counterfeit versions, flooding the marketplace with worthless (and cheap to manufacture) copies. In fact, the Smile 12" is easily the most bootlegged Michael Jackson record in the world, and the vast majority of the listings that have appeared on eBay are worthless fakes. To save you a bit of money, here are all the tracks from the two releases, with the exception of the short version of 'Smile', which just edits out the piano at the end, and with an added bonus of yet another mix of 'Is It Scary' by Deep Dish. Tracks 1 - 5 are from the 12" single and tracks 6 and 7 were exclusive to the CD maxi-single. Track 8 is the bonus remix.   

Track listing

01 Smile  
02 Is It Scary (Deep Dish Dark And Scary Remix)  
03 Is It Scary (Eddie Arroyo's Rub-A-Dub Mix) 
04 Is It Scary (Eddie Arroyo's Love Mix) 
05 Off The Wall (Junior Vasquez Remix)  
06 Is It Scary (Radio Edit)  
07 Is It Scary (Eddie Arroyo's Downtempo Groove Mix) 
08 Is It Scary (Deep Dish Double-O-Jazz Dub)  

The Bluetones - Vostok Of Love (2000)

Following the release of 'Expecting To Fly', many pundits predicted great things for the band, but their critics cited their lack of originality as a potential stumbling block, and so with the addition of Richard Payne on keyboards/guitar they attempted to make a clean break from the style of their debut. However, 'Return To The Last Chance Saloon' met with a limited success, and even more worryingly it received an indifferent commercial response. It did give the band two hit singles in 'If...' and 'Solomon Bites The Worm', and as usual the fans were treated to some new songs on the flips. Their next album 'Science & Nature' was released in 2000 and marked a more successful attempt to retool their sound, but by this point the band was playing for a small but devoted fanbase. Those fans, however, continued to be treated to previously unheard songs on the band's singles, and so this second volume collects those tracks that appeared from  1998 to 2000.  

Track listing

01 The Ballad Of Muldoon (b-side of 'Sleazy Bed Track' 1998)
02 Blue (b-side of 'Sleazy Bed Track' 1998)
03 Mr Soul (b-side of '4-Day Weekend' 1998)
04 Pretty Ballerina (b-side of '4-Day Weekend' 1998)
05 Blue Shadows (b-side of 'If...' 1998)
06 The Watchman (b-side of 'If...' 1998)
07 I Was A Teenage Jesus (b-side of 'Solomon Bites The Worm' 1998)
08 I Walked All Night (b-side of 'Solomon Bites The Worm' 1998)
09 Thought You'd Be Taller (b-side of 'Autophilia' 2000)
10 Soup Du Jour (b-side of 'Autophilia' 2000)
11 Vostok Of Love (b-side of 'Autophilia' 2000)
12 It's A Boy (b-side of 'Autophilia)
13 Armageddon (Outta Here) ft. Matt Lucas (b-side of 'Keep The Home Fires Burning' 2000)
14 Be Careful What You Dream (b-side of 'Keep The Home Fires Burning' 2000)
15 Please Stop Talking (b-side of 'Keep The Home Fires Burning' 2000)

16 The Favourite Son (b-side of 'Keep The Home Fires Burning' 2000)

Friday Brown - The Problem (1970)

For the final post in this series of forgotten girl singers of the 60's we go right back to one of the very first posts, from Friday Brown, in which I mentioned that Brown had written and recorded an unreleased concept albumin the early 70's. Although all of the songs and poems for it were written by Brown, with 'Gossip Song' having been originally created for two female voices, it was never completed or released. The album was put together by Ray at whitefiles.org, having been compiled from rough tracks and some studio quarter-inch tape masters, as well as other copies which had to be used because of damage to some of the master recordings. The concept documents the trials and tribulations that women faced in the late 60's in their personal lives and relationships, and is written completely from a female perspective, which in itself was pretty ground-breaking in 1970, so enjoy this lost album from an unjustly overlooked talent. 

Track listing

01 I Do Love You I
02 Today
03 Housework
04 Gossip Song
05 The Bathroom
06 Early Morning
07 Together
08 The Problem
09 Put Me Together
10 Simple Song - You And I
11 His Friends
12 Love Songs
13 Oh Woman
14 I Female
15 I'm Bored
16 The Anniversary
17 I Do Love You II

The Feltro Media - The Wonderful World Of The Feltro Media (1999)

I've mentioned before in both my blogs that I'm a great fan of Electric Soft Parade, and think that their 2001 album 'Holes In The Wall' is an indie classic. While researching my post of their 80's b-sides, I discovered something that I didn't know, which was that before ESP came into existence, Alex and Thomas White had formed the band The Feltro Media, and even released an album on the tiny Skye Wrecords label. Obviously I was desperate to hear it, so hunted around for a copy, and after 12 months I finally got my hands on this elusive CD. As it's so hard to find I'm posting it here so that other fans of ESP can hear what the brothers were up to before they morphed into ESP. You'll recognise early versions of some tracks from 'Holes In The Wall', but there's also a lot of otherwise great unheard material on here, so give it a try even if you're not that familiar with their later band.  

Track listing

01 There's A Silence
02 Fill The Space 

03 There's Nothing I Would Rather Do  

04 Three Sparkly Drumkits  

05 Echo In The Airport  

06 Drop The Pilot  

07 Zero Return  

08 5199  

09 Crushed  

10 It's Good To Belong  

11 Holes In The Wall  

12 The State We're In  

13 Music Box  

14 Biting The Soles Of My Feet

Levon And The Hawks - Flying High (1965)

The Hawks started out with Ronnie Hawkins as Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks, but also recorded in the studio on several occasions on their own, with Levon Helm taking the vocal duties. One of the earliest sessions took place during September 1961 with Rick Danko on bass, Levon Helm on drums and vocals, Robbie Robertson on guitar, Ronnie Hawkins on vocals and Jerry Penfound on saxophone. The sessions were produced by Henry Glover at Bell Sound Studio in New York City, and resulted in tracks like Jimmy Reed’s 'You Know I Love You', 'Further On Up the Road' and Muddy Waters' 'Nineteen Years Old', which featured Roy Buchanan on rhythm guitar. After leaving Hawkins in 1964, the group was briefly known as the Levon Helm Sextet, with sixth member sax player Jerry Penfound, and then as Levon and the Hawks after Penfound's departure. The band toured extensively, with personnel changing periodically, but by the time they next went into the studio all the members of the group that would go on to become the Band were in place. Hawkins' producer at Roulette, the legendary Henry Glover, brought them into Bell Studios in New York to record two fine Robbie Robertson originals, 'Leave Me Alone' and 'Uh Uh Uh', in the spring of 1965, and Glover released these on the Ware label in the U.S., and on Apex in Canada under the name of The Canadian Squires. In 1964 some members of the band (Robertson, Hudson and Helm) joined bassist Jimmy Lewis, a young Michael Bloomfield on piano and Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica to record an electric blues session with John Hammond Jr., which would become his Vanguard album 'So Many Roads', released at the beginning of 1965. In late 1964 to early 1965, the band recorded in the studio on a few occasions with producers Duff Roman and Henry Glover respectively, with The Roman sessions, as they became known, resulting in fine examples of early Robertson compositions such as 'Bacon Fat' and 'Robbie’s Blues'. 

In September they recorded two further Robertson originals, the soulful 'He Don’t Love You' and 'The Stones I Throw', and these were released as the first single under the Levon And The Hawks banner on the Atco label, but all this was overshadowed by their meeting Dylan in late summer of 1965. The band were recommended to him by John Hammond Jnr., who remembered them helping him out on his album, and after hearing the band play and meeting with Robertson, Dylan invited Helm and Robertson to join his backing band. After two concerts backing Dylan, Helm and Robertson told Dylan of their loyalty to their bandmates and told him that they would continue with him only if he hired all of the Hawks. Dylan accepted and invited Levon and the Hawks to tour with him. With Dylan, the Hawks played a series of concerts from September 1965 through May 1966, billed as Bob Dylan and the Band. From this point on their lives became inextricably linked with Dylan's, and Levon And The Hawks essentially ceased to exist, although in late 1968, Atco dug up another song that was recorded at the September 1965 sessions, and released 'Go Go Liza Jane' in 1968 as a Levon And The Hawks single, recycling 'He Don’t Love You' for the flip. This album collects all of the studio recordings by the band, plus a couple of live tracks, one featuring Dylan, to show just why they were considered one of the hottest bar bands in North America and Canada in the early 60's. 

Track listing

01 What A Party (recorded at Bell Sound Studio 1961)
02 Farther Up The Road (recorded at Bell Sound Studio 1961)
03 She's Nineteen (recorded at Bell Sound Studio 1961)
04 You Don't Know Me (Texas 1964)
05 Leave Me Alone (single by The Canadian Squires 1964)
06 Uh Uh Uh (b-side of 'Leave Me Alone')
07 Bacon Fat (studio recording 1965)
08 The Stones I Throw (single 1965)
09 He Don't Love You (And He'll Break Your Heart) (b-side of 'The Stones I Throw')
10 Robbie's Blues (studio recording 1965)
11 Number One (studio out-take 1965, with Bob Dylan)
12 Honky Tonk (studio recording 1965)
13 Go Go Liza Jane (single, recorded 1965, released 1968)

Comments on the Trees album

I know that for some reason comments on the blog seem to have pretty much dried up since I reinstated it in December, but I'd love to hear from anyone who's downloaded Trees 'Tom Of Bedlam', and who also has either the original live album from 1989 or the bootleg 'demos' album, just to hear how they think they compare, and if my hours at the laptop were worthwhile. It would also be nice to hear from new visitors to the blog, who download thirty or so old albums in one go, but never let me know what they think of them. I'm always open to suggestions of albums that you'd like to hear, as 'Neu 4' would never have appeared were it not for a comment from martinf, and although the '...and on guitar' and 60's girls series have now ended, if you can think of anyone else that I can add to them then let me know. So thanks to everyone who has commented on the posts, as any feedback is always welcome. 

pj

    

Dana - All Kinds Of Dana (1971)

Rosemary Brown was born on 30 August 1951, and was one of seven children. Her father Robert Brown had moved to London to seek employment opportunities after World War II, but when Rosemary was five, the family moved back to Derry, where she grew up in the Creggan housing estate and Bogside, and at age six, she won her first talent contest. She attended Thornhill College, a girls' Catholic school in Derry, and other children in her community nicknamed her 'Dana' (Irish for bold or mischievous) because she would practice her judo moves. Shortly before turning 16, and with the help of teacher and music promoter Tony Johnston, Brown signed with the Decca Records subsidiary label Rex Records, and recording as Dana, she debuted with the single 'Sixteen', written by Tony Johnston, while the b-side 'Little Girl Blue' was her own composition. While still studying A-level music and English, she became popular in Dublin's cabaret and folk clubs at weekends, and was crowned Queen of Cabaret at Clontarf Castle in 1968. Rex Records' secretary Phil Mitton suggested she audition for the Irish National Song Contest, due to take place in February 1969, where the winner would represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest. With mixed feelings due to nerves she made it through to the final in Dublin where she sang 'Look Around' by Michael Reade, later released as her fourth single, but she ended up coming second to Muriel Day singing 'Wages Of Love', also written by Reade. 

In December 1969 Tom McGrath invited her to try again the next year, feeling that one of the entered songs, the ballad 'All Kinds of Everything', would suit her. Her second attempt to win the Irish contest was a success, and on Saturday 21 March 1970, the eighteen-year-old schoolgirl performed the song at the Eurovision finals held in the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre, before an estimated viewing audience of two hundred million. Perched on a stool while wearing an embroidered white mini-dress, she was the last of twelve contestants to perform that night, and after the voting had finished she was declared the winner with 32 points, beating the favourite, UK's Mary Hopkin. The winning song was released as a single on 14 March, and it shot to #1 in the Irish singles chart before the contest had even begun and stayed there for nine weeks. It also spent two weeks at the top of the UK singles chart, and was a success in Australia, Austria, Germany, Israel, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and Yugoslavia. Her debut album 'All Kinds Of Everything' was recorded at Decca Studios in West Hampstead, London, on the weekend of 25 April 1970, being released in June, and it included four tracks co-written by the singer, as well as a new recording of the album's title track. Her follow-up single was issued in September, but Jerry Lordan's 'I Will Follow You' failed to chart, and it took her next single to break the one-hit wonder tag which threatened to define her career, with a cover of Paul Ryan's 'Who Put The Lights Out', written for his brother Barry's third album, reaching number 5 in Ireland, and number 14 in the UK. It was, however, to be her last successful single for three years, broken only by the Irish chart showing of 'Sunday Monday Tuesday' in 1973. This lack of success caused her agent to recommend she join the former head of Bell Records Dick Leahy on his new label, GTO Records, and her first single for the label was 'Please Tell Him That I Said Hello'. Within a month of its release in October 1974 it was number 7 in Ireland, and after a slow start it eventually climbed to number 8 in the UK chart. Further singles for GTO followed, with mixed success, but 'It's Gonna Be A Cold Cold Christmas' did give her a Christmas number 4 in 1975. 

In September 1976, while promoting her new single 'Fairytale', she lost her voice, and her left vocal cord, which had been cauterized the year before, required urgent surgery to remove what turned out to be a non-malignant growth, as well as a small part of the cord itself. This caused some newspapers to report on the possibility that she might never sing again, but having failed to regain her singing voice after the operation, she contacted Florence Wiese Norberg, a respected singing teacher, and with her help she resumed live performances with a week-long engagement at Caesar's Palace in Luton in December 1977. Her career has taken many unusual turns along the way, playing the part of a tinker girl in the 1971 film 'Flight Of The Doves', a children's adventure film starring Ron Moody and Jack Wild, and presenting two shows on BBC Television: a series of 'A Day With Dana' in 1974 and four series of 'Wake Up Sunday' in 1979. In 1978 she married Damien Scallon, and in 1999, as Rosemary Scallon, she stood as an independent candidate in the European elections, winning a seat in the European Parliament, representing Connacht–Ulster. Considering that her career has encompassed singer/songwriter, actress, television presenter, cabaret star, and even member of Parliament, she will forever be remembered for singing one song, and so this collection will go some way to showing how she reached that point in her career, and then how it progressed after she'd achieved world-wide stardom in 1970.   

   
Track listing

01 Sixteen ‎(single 1967)
02 Little Girl Blue (b-side of 'Sixteen')
03 Come Along, Murphy (single 1968)
04 Patrick O'Donnell (b-side of 'Come Along, Murphy')
05 Heidschi Bumbeidschi (single 1968)
06 Ten Second Girl (b-side of 'Heidschi Bumbeidschi')
07 Look Around (single 1969)
08 No Road Back (b-side of 'Look Around')
09 All Kinds Of Everything (single 1970)
10 Channel Breeze (b-side of 'All Kinds Of Everything')
11 I Will Follow You (single 1970)
12 With A Little Love (b-side of 'I Will Follow You')
13 Who Put The Lights Out (single 1971)
14 Always A Few Things (b-side of 'Who Put The Lights Out')
15 The Far Away Place (Canadian single, from the film 'Flight Of The Doves' 1971)
16 Today (single 1971)
17 Don't Cry My Love (b-side of 'Today')
18 Isn't It A Pity (single 1971)
19 Swallow Fly Away (b-side of 'Isn't It A Pity')

Llovers - Feeling Sound (2020)

Llovers was formed in October 2016 by two friends who worked together in their local McDonalds. Jack Brooks had previously played with Violet Deep and Coquin Migale, and Joe had been part of KIDD, as was fourth member Marty, while David McNab was also in Violet Deep, and with Brighton band Capture. They spent the summer jamming, and decided to become Llovers, under which name they released their first single 'Borderlands' just one month after coming together, and the sumptuous, swooning four-minute mix of shoegaze, dreampop and jangly pop shimmer made them a band to watch in 2017. 'Feeling Sound' followed in that year, which felt like a shimmering b-side from French band Phoenix, and there are also more straight-forward pop moments, like on 'I Don’t Mind', which fidgets with jagged guitar riffs and twinkling electro-beeps. 'Just Lust' and 'Honestly' appeared over the next couple of years, with 'Just Lust' starting out like a more out-there version of Foals' epic 'Spanish Sahara', before exploding in a similarly volcanic fashion. 2020's 'I Don't Want To Be Alone' might sound like a plea against self-isolation in this year of the pandemic, but it was actually written in 2019 and is about the dependency we have on each other and how this can lead to anxieties about loneliness. The Teesside band have now posted enough examples of their infectious blend of alt-pop, smooth harmonies and dreamy guitar work on Soundcloud to release their debut album if they'd wanted to, so in preparation for the real thing, here's the first long-playing offering from the band.  

Track listing

01 Borderlands
02 A Second With You
03 Just Lust
04 I Don't Mind
05 Go Get Her, Go Getter
06 Without You
07 Coming Loose
08 Honestly
09 Change
10 Do You Know
11 Your Mind My Time
12 Feeling Sound
13 I Don't Want To Be Alone

Heart - Magazine (1977)

After the release of their debut album in 1975, Heart began recording new songs in Vancouver that were intended for their next studio album for Mushroom Records. However, the group had a falling out with Mushroom over an advertisement celebrating the sales of 'Dreamboat Annie', which was run as a full-page ad in the 30 December 1976 issue of Rolling Stone magazine. It was designed to resemble the cover of a salacious tabloid-style magazine (a satire of the National Enquirer), and showed the sisters bare-shouldered, with the suggestive caption "It Was Only Our First Time!". As well as that, as Heart had now proven themselves to be hit-makers, they expected Mushroom to raise their royalty rate, but to the surprise of the group and their producer Mike Flicker, the label refused to pay more. Recording sessions for the new album ceased after the band failed to re-negotiate their contract with the label, and so only five incomplete recordings were made during these 1976 sessions. Although the label kept the group under contract, they were apparently not interested in releasing a second album from them, and so Flicker then ended his relationship with the label. As their contract stipulated that Flicker would be the producer of all Heart recordings, the band took this to mean that since Mushroom was unable to provide the services of Flicker, they would be free to sign with another label, so they hired a lawyer to resolve the dispute, and they signed with Portrait Records. The change in labels resulted in a prolonged legal battle with Mushroom's creative director Shelly Siegel, with the label claiming they had the legal right to release a second Heart album, under their two-year contract. As the label were still in possession of the five unfinished studio recordings, as well as some unreleased live tracks recorded in 1975, Mushroom had them remixed by the band's recording engineer, adding another studio track, 'Here Song' (the b-side to the band's 1975 Canadian single 'How Deep It Goes'), and filled the rest of the album with two live songs recorded in 1975 at The Aquarius Tavern in Seattle. Mushroom released the collection as 'Magazine' in the spring of 1977, at the same time that the group was preparing their first album for Portrait titled 'Little Queen'. According to Flicker, about 50,000 copies of the original 'Magazine' album were pressed, with some of these copies being sold in stores in Los Angeles and Hollywood, where the records were manufactured, and  it was also briefly released in Europe through Arista Records, before copies were ordered off shelves by a second court action. 

Though the album was not officially released to radio stations in 1977, some stations such as KISW, a Seattle-based rock station, played songs from the unauthorized version, against the wishes of the group. The 1977 release carried a disclaimer on the back cover that read: "Mushroom Records regrets that a contractual dispute has made it necessary to complete this record without the cooperation or endorsement of the group Heart, who have expressly disclaimed artistic involvement in completing this record. We did not feel that a contractual dispute should prevent the public from hearing and enjoying these incredible tunes and recordings". Unhappy with the somewhat unpolished studio performances and the inclusion of the live recordings, the group took Mushroom to court with the aim of having the 1977 release of 'Magazine' withdrawn from the market, and the Seattle court ruled that Mushroom had to recall the album, but the terms of the settlement required that Heart provide a second album for Mushroom. Heart chose to fulfill this obligation by finishing the previously released songs to a quality of their satisfaction, and the whole record was re-recorded, remixed, edited and resequenced, with Ann Wilson adding new lead vocals to most of the existing studio tracks. One of the most obvious differences is that on the original recording of 'Heartless', Ann sings "The doc said come back again next week...", whereas on the re-recorded version she sings "doctor" instead. The new lead vocal on 'Heartless' is less controlled than the original, while the synthesizer solo on 'Just The Wine' was replaced by a flute solo, and the song is slightly edited. The ending of 'Magazine' fades about 30 seconds earlier, and the live 'Blues Medley' was edited to remove some of Roger Fisher's guitar solo sections and Ann's solo vocal parts, while there are also many other subtle differences between the two versions. The revised album was released by Mushroom Records in April 1978, with the disclaimer on the back removed. Although the band would profess to be much happier with the new recordings of these songs, it's still interesting to hear these early takes before they were polished in the studio, and so for fans of the band who might be unaware of the story behind this album, here they are for your enjoyment. 

Track listing

01 Heartless
02 Without You
03 Just The Wine
04 Magazine
05 Here Song
06 Devil Delight
07 Blues Medley: Mother Earth/You Shook Me Babe
08 I've Got The Music In Me

The Bluetones - Are You Blue Or Are You Blind? (1996)

The Bluetones formed in Hounslow in 1990 with an original line-up of Scott Morriss on bass, Eds Chesters on drums, Adam Devlin on guitar, and Scott's bother Mark James Morriss on vocals, and they spent the next four years practicing in garages and playing gigs, quickly establishing a strong fanbase - no less than three fanzines were dedicated to the band before they had released their third single. In 1994 they contributed 'No. 11' to the Fierce Panda compilation EP 'Return To Splendour', and that led to an appearance on Channel 4's The White Room TV series . The band then signed to Superior Quality Records, and their debut single 'Are You Blue Or Are You Blind? entered the UK Top 40 in June 1995. It was followed in October by 'Bluetonic', which was a re-recording of 'No' 11' from the Fierce Panda EP, and they ended the year by releasing the third single, and their biggest hit, 'Slight Return'. Their first album 'Expecting To Fly' (named after a classic Buffalo Springfield song) reached number 1 in the UK album charts in February 1996. Between their first single for Fierce Panda and the debut album in 1996 the band had already shown how prolific they were by including a dozen otherwise unreleased songs on the b-sides of their five singles, and this was to continue for the rest of their career, so the first of four posts collects all those songs that were issued between 1995 and 1996, plus their contribution to the 1994 Fierce Panda EP. 

Track listing

01 No. 11 (from the Fierce Panda EP 'Return To Splendour' 1994)
02 Colorado Beetle (b-side of 'Bluetonic' 1995)
03 Glad To See Y'Back Again (b-side of 'Bluetonic' 1995)
04 Are You Blue Or Are You Blind? (single 1995)
05 String Along (b-side of 'Are You Blue Or Are You Blind?' 1995)
06 Driftwood (b-side of 'Are You Blue Or Are You Blind?' 1995)
07 Marblehead Johnson (single 1996)
08 The Simple Things (b-side of 'Marblehead Johnson' 1996)
09 Nifkin's Bridge (b-side of 'Marblehead Johnson' 1996)
10 Castle Rock (b-side of 'Cut Some Rug' 1996) 
11 The Devil Behind My Smile (b-side of 'Cut Some Rug' 1996)
12 Nae Hair On't (b-side of 'Slight Return' 1996)
13 Don't Stand Me Down (b-side of 'Slight Return' 1996)

Trees - Tom Of Bedlam (1973)

Trees was a British folk rock band who formed in 1969, with the original line-up comprising Bias Boshell on bass and keyboards, Barry Clarke on guitar, David Costa on acoustic guitar, Unwin Brown on drums and singer Celia Humphris. David Costa was the son of British singer and radio presenter Sam Costa, and while reading Fine Arts at the University of East Anglia he met Barry Clarke through a mutual girlfriend, who had suggested that as they were both guitar players, that they should connect. Bias Boshell and Unwin Brown had both attended Bedales School in Petersfield, Hampshire, and within a short time all four were sharing their diverse musical experiences, exploring their different tastes and bringing together what they each enjoyed in common with each other. Lacking a singer, Costa suggested they audition the sister of an acquaintance of his, and introduced Celia Humphris into the mix, who had just left Arts Educational where she had studied dance, drama and singing. The five of them began rehearsing in the early spring of 1969, and played their first gigs and recorded early demo tracks throughout June and July of the same year. In 1969 the band signed to CBS, and released two studio albums in relatively quick succession, with 'The Garden Of Jane Delawney' coming out in 1970, and 'On The Shore' in 1971. Like their folk contemporaries, Trees was often compared with Fairport Convention, but they were regarded as delivering folk with a more psychedelic edge, and the group's material was divided between adaptations of traditional songs and original compositions. The original band disbanded in 1971 after recording the two albums, and a second incarnation formed in 1972, featuring Celia Humphris, Barry Clarke, Barry Lyons, Alun Eden, and violinist Chuck Fleming, but this line-up never released an official studio album, although recordings can be found on bootleg releases. Following the demise of the original lineup, Bias Boshell went on to work as a keyboard player and songwriter with The Kiki Dee Band, writing her hit song 'I've Got the Music In Me', before joining Barclay James Harvest and subsequently The Moody Blues, while Barry Clarke went on to join the Vigrass and Osborne band. David Costa became art director and designer for many notable artists such as Elton John, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, and Celia Humphris continued with Trees' second lineup, and subsequently went on to become a sought-after voice-over artist, providing the pre-recorded announcements for the Northern Line on the London Underground.

In 1973 the band had a couple of concerts recorded, possibly for the BBC, and an album was released in 1989 containing all the songs they played. The sound quality was fairly poor, but none of the songs had featured on their two albums, apart from the closer 'Polly On The Shore', and so it was definitely worth hearing. Some years later, an enterprising bootlegger took a tape of this live album and removed all the applause between the songs, releasing this edited version as purported demos for an unreleased third album by the band. Having heard both versions, the 'demos' one is much better quality, but the beginnings of some of the songs have been cut to remove the audience, and they are faded sharply at the end for the same reason. I've done quite a bit of work to this album, replacing the cut intros and smoothing the fades, fixing volume drop-outs, as well as boosting the bass on a couple of songs, so it now sounds more like the third album demos that it was pretending to be. In a way it was, as all the songs were previously unheard material, and if the band had been offered a new recording contract then these would probably have been the songs they would have recorded, possibly even under the title that I've given it. I've added one song from a BBC radio session from 1970 which they had not previously recorded, making a fine epitaph for a fondly remembered band, who were at the fore-front of the folk-rock movement, but who seem to have been unfairly over-looked when the history was written. 

Track listing

01 Prince Of Heathens 
02 Tom Of Bedlam
03 Cry Of Morning 
04 Burgen Polka
05 Friar Tuck Gets His
06 The Innocent Hare
07 Forest Fire
08 Van Dieman's Land

Fat Mattress - Hall Of Kings (1970)

Fat Mattress was formed in late 1968 by Noel Redding with vocalist Neil Landon, bass guitarist Jim Leverton and drummer Eric Dillon, and came together while Redding was a still member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with a view to enabling Redding to both play guitar and sing lead, as well as to record original material. While he had done all three things with the Experience, they were restricted to rare occasions, and having his own band would give him the freedom to build on this more fully. The first major public exposure of the band was as the opening act to the Jimi Hendrix Experience on a tour of the United States, during which Redding would perform with both bands, with Landon, Redding, and Leverton all singing lead, allowing the group to employ a great deal of vocal harmonies. They signed to Polydor Records and released the eponymous 'Fat Mattress' album in 1969, with the single 'Magic Forest' becoming a hit in the Netherlands, and the album itself achieving some success. It was a distinct departure from the sound of the Experience, with a late 60's psychedelic feel to some of the songs, and with an overall gentler feel to the music. In August 1969 the band made an appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival in front of a crowd of an estimated 120,000 people, and the following month they appeared on the popular German TV show Beat-Club, performing 'Naturally', 'Mr. Moonshine' and 'Magic Forest'. In February 1970 the band headlined over David Bowie's new band Hype at the Roundhouse, before moving on to tour the US, although this was cancelled after completing only five dates of an initially anticipated thirty appearances. In the midst of recording 'Fat Mattress II', Redding and Leverton had a falling out, resulting in Redding's departure from the band. He was replaced by Steve Hammond at roughly the same time as Mick Weaver was added to relieve Leverton on keyboard duties, allowing Leverton to focus on bass and vocals. 'Fat Mattress II' was released to slightly less acclaim than their debut, and although there were plans for a third album, the band split in the middle of recording sessions, with only a handful of songs being completed. Although they remain primarily known as Noel Redding's band, he was only a member for about 18 months, and had a hand in writing just three of the tracks on their second album, but they were still an under-rated outfit, and nothing like I expected them to sound bearing in mind Redding's previous 'experience'. They left behind a couple of out-takes from their second album, plus some non-album b-sides, and if we combine them with those abandoned sessions then we end up with an idea of what that third album could have sounded like.    

Track listing

01 Little Girl In White (out-take 1969)
02 Eric The Red (out-take 1969)
03 Iridescent Butterfly (b-side of 'Naturally')
04 Black Sheep Of The Family (b-side of 'Highway' 1970)
05 Hall Of Kings (out-take 1970)
06 Margarita (previously unreleased 3rd album track)
07 Cold Wall Of Stone (previously unreleased 3rd album track)
08 Long Red (previously unreleased 3rd album track)
09 Words (previously unreleased 3rd album track)
10 The River (previously unreleased 3rd album track)
11 Future Days (previously unreleased 3rd album track)

I had to severely edit 'The River', as it seemed to be a perfectly good rocker up the three minute mark, where an entirely unrelated 14-minute instrumental was crudely grafted onto the end, so I've removed that completely, which also makes for a nice 43-minute album. 

The Boo Radleys - Lazarus (Remixes) (1994)

As a bonus post to end the short series of Boo Radleys rarities, here is a collection of recordings of their song 'Lazarus', from the 'Giant Steps' album. The band released the track as a single in 1993, and also issued a two-CD set of remixes by artists such as Ultramarine, St. Etienne and Augustus Pablo, as well as an extended 12" version. As so often with remixes, some of these are hardly recognisable as the original song, which means that nine versions of the same piece isn't as repetitious as you might first think. I've added the album version as well, so that we have all the different takes of the song, and it holds up pretty well as an album in its own right, so to round off the series, enjoy a bit of experimentation from a band who were always up for trying something a little different.

Track listing

01 Lazarus (7" Version)  
02 Lazarus (Ultramarine Remix)  
03 Lazarus (Acoustic Version)
04 Lazarus (St. Etienne Remix)
05 Lazarus (12" Version) 
06 Lazarus (Secret Knowledge Remix)
07 Lazarus (Flood Remix)
08 Lazarus (Augustus Pablo Remix)
09 Lazarus (Album Version)

Sauce - Shards Of Sunshine (2019)

Sauce began when George’s old band split and he began writing with Henry, who then introduced Lewis on bass, and a year later Dean Molyneux arrived after original guitarist Sean left, and with this line-up they started rehearsing and recording, with songs starting to appear on Souncloud around 2017. They got their name from a poster outside Kraak Gallery in Manchester, as it had a 70's psychedelic ring to it, like Cream for instance, and it also had the potential for bad gags and puns. Their influences encompass Tame Impala, Stone Roses, Mac DeMarco, Arctic Monkeys and The Vryll Society, and they released two singles in 2017, 'Love Shocks' and 'What Feels Better (Than You and I)?', followed by 'The Liquid Love EP' in 2018, and two further singles in the last two years. They are still going strong, although gigs have dried up due to the pandemic, so they've spent their time writing, and promise some great new songs when they return to live performing. In the meantime, here are all the songs that they've posted to Soundcloud, which makes for a perfect album-length introduction to the band. 

 
Track listing

01 Forgiveness Is Underrated
02 Gas Pipes Blown
03 Love Shocks
04 What Feels Better (Than You And I)?
05 There's A Fool
06 Give Up Everything
07 Shards Of Sunshine
08 Magick Trick
09 All Of Us
10 Sister Brother

Clodagh Rodgers - Mister Heartache (1968)

Clodagh Rodgers was born on 5 March 1947 in Warrenpoint, County Down, in Northern Ireland, and was raised in a musical household, where her father Louis was a dancehall tour promoter. At age 12 she was appearing as warm-up for acts such as Jim Reeves and Michael Holliday, and at 14, thanks to her father’s connections, she toured Europe with Johnny Cash. By the time the tour was over, she'd been offered a recording contract with Decca Records, and so her family moved to Willesden, in north London, to allow her to seize this opportunity – only to find that Decca would leave her languishing for 18 months. The Shel Talmy-produced 'Believe Me I'm No Fool' became her first single, issued in November 1962 and credited to Cloda Rodgers, but it was ignoed by the British record-buying public. For the follow-up she was billed as Cloda Rogers, but 'Sometime Kind of Love' seemed a little dated by the time of its release in March 1963, and a third single 'To Give My Love To You' fared no better on its release three months later, although fans now tend to flip the disk for its b-side, the catchy Country 'n' Western-style 'I Only Live To Love You'. She impressed audiences as part of the UK team at Belgium's Knokke Cup that year, and also gained exposure through an appearance in the comic caper 'Just For Fun', alongside the likes of Dusty Springfield, The Breakaways and Louise Cordet, in which she sang 'Sweet Sweet Boy'. 1964's 'Mister Heartache' was her final single for Decca, and she signed a new management deal with Keith Prowse, who secured her a deal with Columbia Records, but the release of the sophisticated 'Every Day Is Just The Same', did little to engage the record-buying pubic. A third Columbia release, an updating of Ethel Waters' 1930's track 'Stormy Weather', fared no better in 1966, although on a happier note she did meet John Morris on a two-month package tour of the UK with The Walker Brothers, and they later married, with him becoming her manager. Under his professional guidance she joined RCA in 1968, issuing a couple of great singles, 'Play The Drama To The End' and 'Rhythm Of Love', both ignored by the public. On a TV appearance to promote the singles, she was spotted by US songwriter Kenny Young, a former Brill Building writer who was best known for penning 'Under The Boardwalk' for The Drifters, and he contacted RCA to offer her his latest composition 'Come Back And Shake Me', and this classic piece of late-60's pop swept up the UK charts, reaching number three in the spring of 1969. The success of the single saw Rodgers whisked into the studio to cut her first album, and as well as including the hit, Young also gave her a clutch of new songs to record for the album. From this point on she became a regular on TV variety shows, and released over half a dozen albums in the new decade, but is now probably best remembered for representing the UK in the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest with the bouncy 'Jack In The Box'. To get to that point, though, she had to pay her dues with a handful of commercially unsuccessful but artistically worthwhile singles, which are gathered here for you to judge for yourself.

Track listing

01 Believe Me I'm No Fool (single 1962)
02 End Of The Line (b-side of 'Believe Me I'm No Fool)
03 Sometime Kind Of Love (single 1963)
04 I See More Of Him (b-side of 'Sometime Kind Of Love')
05 Sweet Sweet Boy (from the film 'Just For Fun' 1964)
06 Mister Heartache (single 1964)
07 Time (b-side of 'Mister Heartache')
08 My Love Will Still Be There (from the film 'It's All Over Town' 1964) 
09 Every Day Is Just The Same (single 1966)
10 You'll Come A'Running (b-side of 'Every Day Is Just The Same')
11 Stormy Weather (single 1966)
12 Lonely Room (b-side of 'Stormy Weather')
13 Play The Drama To The End (single 1968)
14 Room Full Of Roses (b-side of 'Play The Drama to The End')
15 Rhythm Of Love (single 1968)
16 River Of Tears (b-side of Rhythm Of Love')