The Outer Limits - The Dream (1968)

Around 1958 Jeff Christie and good mate Rod Brooks formed a band called Goliath And The Barbarians, along with Gerry Layton on rhythm guitar, Stan Drogie on drums and with Brooks on sax. Christie wasn't keen on the saxophone sound, so persuaded Brooks to get a bass guitar, and the group learned to play Shadows and Ventures instrumentals one after another. They later changed their name to The Tremmers, and began to make a name for themselves on the local circuit, even being considered innovators of the northern UK rock sound. Finding that they needed to expand beyond playing just instrumentals, the band decided Rod should become a singing guitar player, and eventually Paul Cardus replaced Rod on bass, leaving him free to be the vocalist. Following another name change to The Outer Limits, the band released a split single with 5 Man Cargo, with 'When The Work Is Thru' being a charity record for Leeds University, which was only released in Leeds for RAG (Raise-and-Give) Week. Thanks to help from Christie's father, The Outer Limits secured a recording contract with Deram, and 'Just One More Chance' was the first single, released in 1967, and bubbling under the Top 50 of the UK charts. The second single promised much more, as 'The Great Train Robbery' had a lavish musical arrangement and production, and such was the melody that it had a more instantaneous appeal than 'Just One More Chance'. Things were also looking rosy when the group was signed onto the Immediate label owned by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, and the song was chosen to launch Immediate's progressive rock label, Instant. However, luck was against them, as because there had recently been a real great train robbery in the UK, the BBC were very sensitive about playing anything that might be seen as glorifying the event, and so airplay was scarce. After this Layton left before the group accompanied Jimi Hendrix on a pop package tour in November 1967, and was replaced by Steve Isherwood, while Rod Palmer took over from Drogie, and this new line-up soldiered on until early 1969, gigging and recording demos of Christie's songs, until they finally broke up. The Outer Limits experience served as a good launching pad for Christie's song-writing and singing career, as he was a prolific composer, and after the group's break-up he vigorously pursued his song-writing ambitions, culminating in his biggest hit single 'Yellow River', with his own band Christie. Although The Outer Limits only released two and a half singles, they recorded so much material that they could easily have released an album in 1968, and so by taking the best of their demos and adding them to their professional recordings, here is what that album could have sounded like, named after a Procol Harum-inspired piece written by Christie and his father Michael.  

Track listing

01 The Dream
02 Days Of Spring
03 Stop
04 Sweet Freedom
05 Great Train Robbery
06 Epitaph For A Nonentity
07 Man In The Middle Of Nowhere
08 Just One More Chance
09 Dancing Water
10 Look At Me
11 It's Your Turn Now
12 Anyday Now

Public Nuisance - Backwoods Men (1968)

Public Nuisance formed in Sacramento in 1964 as an instrumental surf rock band called the Jaguars. After the British Invasion and folk rock movements of the mid-1960's they added vocals and changed their name to Moss & the Rocks, and at that time their line-up consisted of David Houston, their principal songwriter, on guitar, keyboards, harmonica, and vocals, Jim Mathews on guitar, Pat Minter on bass and vocals, and Ron McMaster on drums and vocals. Even while known as the Jaguars, the group were known for their stage antics, with Houston sometimes smashing his guitar on stage, and the group wore hairstyles that were considered long for 1964. The group's manager was Gary Schiro, who had connections in Los Angeles and managed two other local bands, the New Breed and the Oxford Circle, and when Moss & the Rocks won a battle of the bands contest they were able to gain free recording time at Ikon Studios, a small label in Sacramento, which hosted numerous garage bands in the area. They recorded the folk rock-influenced single, 'There She Goes' b/w 'Please Come Back', which was released on Ikon on 1965, and later that year they re-recorded both tunes for a single released on Chattahoochee Records. In 1967 the band changed their name to Public Nuisance, and in early 1968 they recorded a series of demos which for years remained unreleased. These recordings saw the group augment their raw garage rock sound with experimental psychedelic elements, and their lyrics saw the band engaging in social commentary that addressed topical concerns of the era. 

They became a popular live act throughout much of California during this period and opened for The Doors, Buffalo Springfield, and Sonny & Cher, as well as for The Grateful Dead. Later in 1968, they taped several demos at Fantasy Records in San Francisco, but were not signed to the label, but eventually Schiro arranged a contract with Equinox records, a label run by producer Terry Melcher, who was noted for his work with The Byrds and Paul Revere & the Raiders. At the end of 1968 and the beginning of 1969, they commuted to-and-from Los Angeles, where they recorded an album's worth of songs, but like their previous outings, none of the recordings saw release. This was because producer Terry Melcher, who had sub-let houses to director Roman Polanski and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, became emotionally distraught after Polanski's wife Sharon Tate was murdered by Charles Manson. Melcher chose to terminate recording commitments he had made with Wilson because he had socialized with the Manson family, and the result was that Melcher closed down the label, and all upcoming releases were cancelled. Public Nuisance soldiered on, playing several shows at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, but they disbanded in 1970. In 2012 Third Man Records finally released the shelved album as 'Gotta Survive', a decade after Frantic Records had compiled all the band's recordings and released them solely in Germany and the U.S. This album consists of the 1968 demos, and so could be considered their debut release, with 'Gotta Survive' being the follow-up album, which would have been released in 1969.   

Track listing

01 America
02 Time Can't Wait
03 Darlin'
04 Now I Think
05 Daddy's Comin' Home
06 Pencraft Transcender
07 Katie Shiner
08 Man From The Backwoods
09 One Man's Story
10 I'm Only Sleeping
11 Hold On
12 Going Nowhere