As a follow-up to the recent Elvis Costello post, here's more from him from his very early days as part of the pub-rock band Flip City, alongside Mich Kent on bass, Steve Hazelhurst on guitar, keyboards, and sax, Malcolm Dennis and later Ian Powling on drums, and Dickie Faulkner on percussion. They were gigging from the early 70's to around 1975/1976, and during that time they visited a number of studios to lay down demos of some of Declan McManus's songs, as well as covers from artists such as Bob Dylan and Hank Williams. These were mostly at the Attic Studio in the Hope And Anchor pub, but they also scored a session at the BBC's Maida Vale studio, where they recorded three tracks. They sound quality is excellent throughout, and it's fun to hear early versions of songs that would later become staples of his repertoire. Steve Hazlehurst wrote 'On The Road', so he gets to sings that one, but the rest are in Costello's instantly recognisable vocal style, which was obviously well in place before he embarked on his solo career. There are a few Flip City bootlegs around featuring some of these tracks, and they often include a live set from The Red Cow if you want to search them out, but these demos are good enough quality to have been released as an album in 1975 if they'd found an interested record company. This particular complilation was edited down from an original post by hungrypirate to remove multiple versions of some of the songs, and I've also excised the Dylan and Williams covers to leave a concise 41 minute albums of mostly band originals, with just an obscure cover of a 1961 Chis Kenner song, and a version of The Amazing Rhythm Aces' 'Third Rate Romance'.
Track listing
01 Exiles Road 02 Baseball Heroes (very early version of 'Miracle Man')03 Third Rate Romance (Russell Smith)04 Living In Paradise (later appeared on 'This Year's Model')05 Radio Soul (early version of 'Radio Radio')06 Pay It Back (later appeared on 'My Aim Is True')07 Imagination Is A Powerful Deceiver (possible the inspiration for a rewritten 'Alison')08 I'm Packing Up (Chris Kenner) 09 (Please Mister) Don't Stop The Band10 Wreck On The Slide11 On The Road (Steve Hazlehurst)12 Sweet Revival
All songs by Declan McManus unless otherwise stated.
