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was cancelled at the last minute, and all of the pressings of 'Smile' (both CD maxi-singles and 12" records) were withdrawn and destroyed just days before the release date, save a few that managed to escape, making this one of the rarest Jackson collectors items of all time.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as a very limited number of these records briefly reached Dutch retail stores and were sold before the rest were withdrawn and destroyed by Sony.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)