The truth about Cirdan

Hopefully anyone into classic progressive rock has listened to the recent post from Cirdan, so it's now time to come clean about this band. The idea for this album came to me a few months ago, while I was trawling Youtube and I found that a number of people were posting songs created entirely by AI. I searched for progressive rock songs made by AI and found a number of tracks which were quite impressive - apart from some unconvincing lyrics, some of them could have passed for an actual 70's prog rock band. I downloaded my favourites, and visited Youtube regularly for new posts, and before long I had 40 minutes worth of music, so putting it together as an album was a no-brainer. With a bit of editing and tweaking of the running order, I had quite a nice-sounding album, and I named it after the best of the tracks that I'd found online. All I needed now was a name for the band, and so where do a lot of prog rock bands look for their names, but 'Lord Of The Rings'. A quick search of names mentioned in the books found that Cirdan the Shipbuilder had never been picked for a rock band, and so all my album needed now was some cover art. I searched online for AI-generated prog rock album covers, and one Reddit post had a dozen to choose from, so I picked one I liked the look of, and my album was now complete. After playing it for a few weeks, I sent a copy to a mate in the US, longtime fan of the blog Fredrick Beondo, and between us we knocked it into shape, until we had a really convincing prog rock album. Eventually, I thought that it was too good to keep to myself, so I decided to post it on the site, possibly on 1st of April, as that seemed the perfect date for it, but for that I would need a biography of the band. Logging onto ChatGPT, I asked for a biography of the fictitious prog rock band Cirdan, and in less than 10 seconds it had produced a history of a band that never existed. With just the slightest of editing, I was able to post my album of progressive rock, where no human was involved in either the making of the music, the artwork, or the history of the group, other than a few prompts to the AI that made them, and my choosing of the band name. As an example of just what AI can do, this is an extremely interesting experiment, and while I am still in two minds about whether AI is going to be a boon for mankind, or eventually rise up and take us over, the musical side of it is progressing in leaps and bounds, as it stores more and more information from the entire history of music. The worrying thing is, will there soon be a time when a song is released with no human involvement, and no-one will actually be able to tell the difference?

Track listing

01 Nautilus
02 Eternal Wanderings
03 Age Of Wonders
04 For The World Outside
05 Eclipse Of The Mind
06 Where Dreams And Hope Once Danced
07 Just Hold On

Music posted by:
01 NeonCube's Song Factory
02 AI Generated Mega Hits
03 Quadrivo
04 VFOLD
05 Satoritei
06 A-Eye Musix
07 NeonCube's Song Factory

Album cover from Reddit

Biography by ChatGPT

Band name from J. R. R. Tolkien

The Modern Lovers - Dignified And Old (1973)

Jonathan Richman was born in Boston on 16 May 1951, and after he dropped out of school, he whiled away some time in Andy Warhol's formative Factory as a messenger, before returning to his beloved Boston. After seeing The Velvet Underground more times than any of its members, he decided that his future lay in rock 'n' roll, and in 1970 he formed The Modern Lovers. In early 1971, the band's membership was settled as Richman, Jerry Harrison (keyboards), Ernie Brooks (bass) and David Robinson (drums), with Richman's next-door-neighbour and original band member John Felice joining them occasionally as his school commitments allowed. By the autumn of 1971, through their live performances in Boston and New York, they had begun to attract the attention of several record company A&R men, including Stuart Love at Warner Brothers and Alan Mason and Matthew Kaufman at A&M. The band made their first recordings for Warner Brothers at the Intermedia studios in Boston in late 1971. and the following April they travelled to Los Angeles where they held two demo sessions. The first was produced by The Velvet Underground's John Cale for Warner Brothers, while the second was produced by Alan Mason and Robert Appere for A&M. The band were initially undecided over which record company to sign with, so returned to Boston and did some recordings organised by Kim Fowley and produced by Stuart "Dinky" Dawson. Eventually, in early 1973, they signed with Warner Brothers and agreed that John Cale should produce their debut album. 

Returning to California in the summer to work with Cale, it became apparent that there were personality clashes between some of the band members, and that Richman now wanted to take a different approach to his songs, making them much more mellow and easy-paced rather than the earlier aggressive hard rock. The sessions with Cale were terminated before any new recordings were completed, and Warner Brothers then engaged Kim Fowley to work with the band, but by this time Richman refused to perform some of his most popular earlier songs live, and the sessions with Fowley were aborted. Warner Brothers withdrew support from the band, and in early 1974 the original Modern Lovers split up, with Jerry Harrison moving on to Talking Heads. After the split, Richman continued recording on his own, eventually moving to California in 1975 to work with Beserkley Records, but he never returned to the Velvets-inspired sound of the original Modern Lovers. In 1976 Beserkley Records compiled a posthumous LP from the first two demo two sessions, and issued it on their Home Of The Hits subsidiary. The album was simply titled 'The Modern Lovers' and included celebrated tracks such as 'Roadrunner', 'She Cracked' and 'Pablo Picasso'. Richman did not recognise this compilation as his "first album", preferring to consider 1976's 'Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers' as his debut, as it pursued the lighter, softer direction he had in mind with a completely different band. The Modern Lovers have always been considered as an integral part of the start of the US punk scene, alongside Talking Heads, Ramones, Blondie and Television, and so I was astounded to find out that The Modern Lovers pre-dated that scene by a good half decade, and even more amazed that many of those early demos had survived, and so here are the best of them that didn't make that 1976 album, along with a couple of 1971 live recordings, and alternative versions of two that did. 

Track listing

01 Ride Down On The Highway
02 Such Loneliness
03 Womanhood
04 A Plea For Tenderness
05 A Song Of Remembrance For Old Girlfriends
06 Modern World
07 Fly Into The Mystery
08 Hospital

09 Dignified and Old
10 Cambridge Clown
11 I'm Straight
12 Government Centre

Merrell And The Exiles - Let The Time Go By (1964)

Merrell Wayne Fankhauser was born on 23 December 1943 in Louisville, Kentucky, and after his family moved to San Luis Obispo, California while he was in his teens, he began playing guitar, and got his first break playing in movie theaters and talent shows. In 1960, after one of these shows, he joined local band The Impacts as lead guitarist, and their Ventures-influenced sound developed a strong following at the start of the surfing scene. In 1962 he met Norman Knowles, who was the saxophone player from The Revels, and he convinced The Impacts to record a session with Tony Hilder at a backyard studio in the Hollywood area. As much as this seemed like a notable event for the band, it was more of a lure than a lucky break, as after recording twelve tracks, including Fankhauser's own 'Wipe Out', as well as 'Blue Surf', 'Impact', and 'Sea Horse', Knowles and Hilder took the tapes to to Del-Fi Records, where owner Bob Keene signed the album for immediate release as the 'Wipe Out!' album. Knowles and Hilder never revealed to the band how much money they made by doing this, and they also tricked the young band into signing a contract for one dollar, meaning that the band was unable to collect royalties on this music for 36 years, as Hilder and Knowles claimed both artist and publishing royalties with Del-Fi Records. In late 1963 Fankhauser left the band and moved to Lancaster, California, where he met Jeff Cotton (later of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band), and in 1964 they formed The Exiles. 

With the addition of Greg Hampton on drums and Jim Ferguson on bass, they started paying local gigs, and record label owner Glen MacArthur heard them and offered to record them in his Palmdale studio. Their first single under their new name was 'Too Many Heartbreaks', a song that Fankhauser had written in 1961, backed by a new song called 'Please Be Mine', and it was released on Glenn Records in March 1964, reaching number 9 on the local KUTY radio chart. This coincided with The Beatles' invasion of America, and Merrell And The Exiles were the Antelope Valley's answer to them, going on to record five singles for Glenn Records. Later in 1967 Fankhauser moved back to the California central coast, and formed another band with his old guitar playing friend Bill Dodd, who had taken over from him in The Impacts when he left. After playing with several drummers and bass players as Merrell And The Boys, they decided one night that they needed a new name for the band, and as this was the beginning of the psychedelic era, they felt they needed a more far out moniker, so he took the two letters from each band members last name and put them together FA (for Fankhauser), PAR (for Parrish, bass player at the time), DO (for Dodd)  and KLY (for Dick Lee, the drummer), and Fapardokly was the result. He was contacted again by Glen MacArthur who wanted to release an album with some singles and unreleased Merrell And The Exiles songs that he had on the shelf, and so the band drove the two hundred miles from the coast over to the desert and recorded enough songs to complete the album. 

The 'Fapardokly' album was released on UIP Records in 1968, and has since gone on to become one of the most highly sought after and valuable albums from the late 1960's, with a sealed copy going for over $1,000. At the time, however, it was not a success, and so Fankhauser and Dodd then formed another, more overtly psychedelic, band with Jack Jordan on bass and Larry Meyers on drums, naming it HMS Bounty. They won a recording contract with Uni Records, and their self-titled album was released in 1968, followed by the single 'Tampa Run', a remake of another old Exiles song. However, success was again thwarted by personal and record company problems, and the band split up. Reuniting with Jeff Cotton in 1970, Fankhauser then formed Mu, and in 1971 their first album was released and became a radio hit. Increasingly fascinated by legends of the lost continent of Mu, Fankhauser then relocated to the Hawaiian island of Maui in February 1973, where he has continued to record, releasing over two dozen albums as Mu and under his own name. This post collects together some of the recordings that they had made for Glen MacArthur which were not then released as singles on the Glenn Records label, showing that Fankhauser was a prolific writer from the start of his musical career, and they had enough material to be able to release an album as early as 1964 had they wanted.  

Track listing

01 Ready To Roll
02 Run Baby Run
03 She's Gone
04 Long Time Gone
05 Exiles Blues
06 Don't Let Go
07 Remember Me
08 The War
09 Yes I Love You
10 Be A Good Neighbour Week
11 Pain In My Heart
12 Let The Time Go By
13 Let Me Go
14 Shake my Hand
15 Please Be Mine
16 Don't Call On Me
17 Send Me Your Love

Jazmine Sullivan - Break My Little Heart (2004)

Jazmine Marie Sullivan was born on 9 April 1987 in Philadelphia, and her mother was a former backup singer for Philadelphia International Records. She began singing as a contralto in the children's choir, and later in the adult choir, and so her exposure to secular music was initially limited, but despite this she signed a record deal with Jive Records at aged 15, and while there she provided vocals for Kindred The Family Soul's song, 'I Am', as well as background vocals on the song 'Party's Over', and the title track to their 2003 debut 'Surrender To Love'. During these sessions she first met rapper Missy Elliott, who went on to produce the majority of the songs on Sullivan's debut album, which was recorded for Jive, although she did work with producers Cool & Dre on a song titled 'Say I', which was later given to Dre's then-girlfriend Christina Milian for her third album, 'So Amazin''. As well as being produced by Missy Elliott, Sullivan's debut album, 'Break My Little Heart', was to have included vocal arrangements and beat-making credits from the likes of Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, Kev Brown, Cool & Dre, Tweet and Marsha Ambrosius of Floetry, and would be heralded by the Missy Elliott-produced title track serving as the lead single. However, due to lack of promotion and the single falling silent via radio, the album was ultimately shelved, with some of the content intended to be retooled and considered for her official first album 'Fearless', which was released on J Records in 2008. However, in the end only one track survived, with just 'In Love With Another Man' appearing on 'Fearless', meaning that there was a full album of recordings which were scrapped, and have since remained unheard. Sullivan's breakthrough song was 'Need U Bad', which was released in May 2008, and which topped the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs for 34 weeks, leading to the release of the 'Fearless' album in September 2008, and the start of a relatively successful career over the following 15 years. However, the music from that shelved album has remained unheard for many years, and so now is the time to bring it out and to hear what could have been Jazmine Sullivan's debut album in 2004.

Track listing

01 Music, Part 1 (feat. Floetry) 
02 Say I (feat. Dre of Cool & Dre) 
03 Break My Little Heart (feat. Missy Elliott) 
04 Season 2 Love 
05 Where Did He Go? (feat. Missy Elliott & Tweet) 
06 Feel Nice (feat. Missy Elliott)
07 Lovin' You 
08 Backstabbers (Brush Ur Shoulders Off) (feat. Missy Elliott) 
09 Don’t Let Me Get Started (feat. Missy Elliott) 
10 Braid Your Hair
11 The Club
12 Who Said (feat. Cassidy) 
13 Always Have Jazmine 
14 Music, Part 2 (My First Love Mix) 

Cirdan - Age Of Wonders (2018)

Cirdan is a progressive rock band formed in 2013 in the vibrant city of Amsterdam, Netherlands, which draws influences from classic prog acts like Yes, Genesis, and King Crimson, while infusing modern, experimental elements. The band was formed by guitarist Lucas van der Meulen, keyboardist Emma van Dijk, bassist Rico Janssen, drummer Timo Nissen, and vocalist Sanne de Vries. The band name, inspired by a character in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium (Cirdan the Shipwright), reflected the band’s love for fantastical and philosophical themes. Initially, Cirdan started playing in local clubs, refining their sound by blending traditional symphonic prog with elements of jazz fusion and post-rock. The band’s first release, 'Beyond The Horizon', was a self-produced demo in 2015, which gained them a dedicated underground following due to their high-energy live shows and sophisticated musical arrangements. In 2018, Cirdan recorded their debut full-length album, 'Age Of Wonders', which was met with critical acclaim. The album’s centrepiece was the 15-minute title track, which took listeners on a journey through the depths of space, both metaphorically and musically. The album's success led them to tour across Europe, performing at major progressive rock festivals like the ProgPower Europe Festival and the Meltdown Festival in the UK. The band continues to tour internationally, keeping their fans engaged with both new material and old classics, and plans are in force for a follow-up album to' Age Of Wonders'. The line-up remains largely unchanged, with Lucas van der Meulen and Emma van Dijk still the core songwriters, while Sanne de Vries's haunting vocals continue to be a central aspect of the band's identity.

Track listing

01 Nautilus
02 Eternal Wanderings
03 Age Of Wonders

04 For The World Outside
05 Eclipse Of The Mind
06 Where Dreams And Hope Once Danced
07 Just Hold On

Carol Connors - Big, Big Love (1967)

Carol Connors was born Annette Kleinbard on 13 November 1941 in New Brunswick, and after leaving Fairfax High School, Los Angeles in 1958 she formed a pop vocal trio with her friend Phil Spector, who wrote a song specifically to showcase Kleinbard's singing voice. 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' became The Teddy Bears' best-known and most successful recording, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1958, and granting Kleinbard the honour of being the first woman to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. After their initial hit, the trio disbanded because of the failure of their follow-up singles 'Don't Go Away' and Oh Why', a car accident that injured Kleinbard, and the fact that Spector preferred working behind the scenes to performing. In January 1960 she released the 'Alibi' single on Imperial Records, before legally changed her name to Carol Connors, apparently because she did not want her first name to be associated with Mousketeer Annette Funicello, and she signed to Columbia Records. 'My Diary' was released in March 1961, followed by 'Listen To The Beat' in September, but after one more single she left the label and signed to Era Records. 1962 saw two singles released on the label, with 'Big, Big Love' appearing in July and 'Tommy Go Away' following in November, before another label change to Capitol. Around this time she began writing songs, and in 1964 she wrote 'Hey Little Cobra' about the Shelby Cobra car, which was recorded by The Rip Chords, who were made up of Terry Melcher and Bruce Johnston. 

Buoyed by the success of a car song, in 1964 she released a single promoting the Yamaha motorcycle, with 'Yum Yum Yamaha' being credited to Carol Connors And The Cycles, before returning to her solo career with her only Capitol single 'Angel, My Angel'. In February 1965 she was picked up by Colpix Records for the 'Go Go G.T.O.' single with her sister Cheryl, before releasing her final 7" in 1966, with 'My Baby Looks, But He Don't Touch' appearing on Mira Records. Connors wrote many of her later singles, and so when she stopped recording as a solo artist she wrote and performed songs for several films, including the 1967 beach-party film 'Catalina Caper', performing her 'The Book Of Love' in the movie backed by the Cascades. Later song-writing successes include her co-write with Ayn Robbins and Bill Conti on 'Gonna Fly Now', the theme song from the film 'Rocky', which earned her an Academy Award nomination. She also sang the theme to the film 'Orca', 'We Are One', and co-composed three songs with Ayn Robbins for the soundtrack of the 1977 Disney film, 'The Rescuers'. In 1983 she was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for the 'Worst Original Song' for 'It's Wrong For Me To Love You', from 'Butterfly', which she co-composed with Ennio Morricone, but for this post let's concentrate on her best work, which is this great collection of 60's pop. 

Track listing

01 Alibi (single as Annette Bard 1960)
02 My Diary (single 1961)
03 You Are My Answer (b-side of 'My Diary')
04 Listen To The Beat (single 1961)
05 My Special Boy (b-side of 'Listen To The Beat')
06 What Do You See In Him (single with Hank Levine & His Orchestra 1962)
07 That's All It Takes (b-side of 'What Do You See In Him')
08 Big, Big Love (single 1962)
09 Two Rivers (b-side of 'Big, Big Love')
10 Tommy Go Away (single 1962)
11 I Wanna Know (b-side of 'Tommy Go Away')
12 Yum Yum Yamaha (single as Carol Connors And The Cycles 1964)
13 Angel, My Angel (single 1964)
14 Never (b-side of 'Angel, My Angel')
15 Go Go G. T. O. (single as Carol And Cheryl 1965)
16 Sunny Winter (b-side of 'Go Go G.T.O.')
17 My Baby Looks, But He Don't Touch (single 1966)
18 Lonely Little Beach Girl (b-side of 'My Baby Looks, But He Don't Touch')

19 The Book Of Love (from the film 'The Catalina Caper' 1967)

Chicane - Easy To Assemble (2003)

On 27 March 2000, Nocholas Bracegirdle, a.k.a. Chicane, released his second studio album 'Behind The Sun', which was a commercial success, reaching the Top 10 in the UK Albums Chart, and would go on to be certified Gold by BPI, selling over 100,000 copies. This would be the final studio released through his record label Xtravaganza, as over the next two years Bracegirdle became engaged in a lawsuit with Xtravaganza, which resulted in his departure from the label and his signing with WEA for the release of a third album, 'Easy To Assemble'. As a result of the lawsuit, Chicane lost the rights to the sound recordings from the 'Behind The Sun' album, including its singles. Originally scheduled for 2003, the 'Easy To Assemble' album's release was preceded by the lead single 'Love On The Run', followed by a promotional single, 'Locking Down'. However, after promotional copies of the album were distributed, the release was cancelled. In 2002, Bracegirdle had signed to WEA and had finished his third album, but as review copies were being sent out, the record label WEA was bought out by Edgar Bronfman Jr of Warner Music Group, resulting in the A&R manager and music director who signed Bracegirdle leaving the company, and its release was put on hold while he negotiated an exit from his contract. As soon as he extracted himself from his contract, he prepared to release the record independently, but the entire album had been leaked online from the promo copies, and it was pirated to such an extent that it was felt that it was not worth releasing it officially, which resulted in the commercial release of the album being cancelled. Eventually, under the new management of John Cavanagh, April 2006 saw the release of a new single on Globe Records, 'Stoned In Love', featuring singer Tom Jones on vocals. His next album, 'Somersault', was released on 23 July 2007, with two of the tracks from the unreleased album, 'Arizona' and 'Spirit', being re-recorded for inclusion, but here is the full 'Easy To Assemble' album, with the original recordings of those two tracks. 

 
Track listing

01 Love On The Run (feat. Peter Cunnah) 

02 Daylight (feat. Tracy Ackerman) 
03 East Side Story (feat. Bryan Adams) 
04 In Praise Of The Sun (feat. Vanessa St James) 
05 Locking Down (feat. Melissa Baten) 
06 Spirit (feat. Jewel) 
07 Arizona (Part 2) 
08 Some Might Say (feat. Joel Edwards) 
09 Kilometre 
10 Something Wrong (feat. Nadia Jordan)  
11 Empires

Various Artists - Where Have All The Horns Gone?! (1981)

After performing major surgery on a number of albums to remove the excess flab, and cosmetic surgery on a few others to give them a nip and tuck here and there, my attention turned to some of my favourite horn-led songs, and I wondered what they would sound like without their brass sections. Pretty good, as it turns out, as most of them remain great tracks even without the horns, and with some you don't even miss them despite hearing them hundreds of times already in their familiar versions. So purely as a bit of fun, and as an experiment to see what these programmes can do, here is a collection of songs which are famous for their inclusion of a horn section, presented in all their naked glory.  

Track listing

01 25 Or 6 To 4 - Chicago
02 Bitch - The Rolling Stones
03 And When I Die - Blood Sweat & Tears
04 Keep The Customer Satisfied - Simon & Garfunkel
05 No Reply At All - Genesis
06 Spinning Wheel - Blood Sweat & Tears
07 Reward - The Teardrop Explodes
08 Wake Up Boo - The Boo Radleys

09 Questions 67 & 68 - Chicago

10 You've Made Me So Very Happy - Blood Sweat & Tears
11 5:15 - The Who
12 Deacon Blues - Steely Dan

After some back and forth discussions and a bit of re-thinking, I've decided to remove the Moody Blues track, as despite a Reddit post citing it as one of the best rock songs with horns, I now realise that it doesn't actually have any on there, so it shouldn't really be here. 

Neil Christian And The Crusaders - Get A Load Of This (1967)

Neil Christian And The Crusaders might be a relatively obscure UK pop group of the early 60's, but they were as good a breeding ground for guitarists as John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, including in their ranks at various times such luminaries as Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore, Albert Lee, Mick Abrahams and Paul Brett, as well as pianist Micky Hopkins, and bassist Alex Dmchowski, who later went on to join Aynsley Dunbar's Retaliation. Christopher Tidmarsh started his career in music by managing a North London-based outfit called The Red-E-Lewis And The Red Cats, who underwent a line-up shift when the original members joined Johnny Kidd as The Pirates from July 1961 to early 1962. Recruiting guitarist Bobby Oats and drummer Jim Evans, they played a few gigs at the Ebisham Hall in Epsom, and Tidmarsh first spotted Jimmy Page paying there. In early 1959, John Spicer joined the band on rhythm guitar, and when Oates announced that he was leaving the band, Tidmarsh contacted Page and invited him down to Shoreditch to audition for the vacancy. He became their new lead guitarist and Spicer switched to bass, and in Spring 1960 Tidmarsh replaced Lewis on vocals, and they reinvented themselves as Neil Christian And The Crusaders. Tidmarsh changed the names of his musicians, with Page being known as 'Nelson Storm', John Spicer was 'Jumbo' and drummer Evans was nicknamed 'Tornado'. 

Page toured with them for two years until he was forced to quit due to illness, suffering from glandular fever, although he would later still record with the band in the studio until 1964. Page's replacement was Paul Brett from the Impacs, who was himself briefly replaced by Albert Lee, while bassist Jumbo Spicer left to be replaced by Arvid Andersen. The Crusaders were augmented by pianist Tony Marsh, who had previously been in a Wembley-based combo called the Escort alongside drummer Keith Moon, and is was Marsh who introduced guitarist Ritchie Blackmore to Neil Christian, who teamed up with Andersen and Evans for a brief spell in early 1965. In March 1965, Blackmore and the rest of the group defected Screaming Lord Sutch to become The Savages, and so Christian pulled in an entirely new line-up, taking over a Luton group called The Hustlers, who featured Mick Abrahams on guitar. By June 1965 the new line-up was cemented by the addition of drummer Carlo Little, keyboardist Graham Waller and bassist Alex Dmchowski. While he was guitarist with the Crusaders, Abrahams stood in for Screaming Lord Sutch, who did exactly the same set as The Crusaders, before eventually leaving in late 1965. 

Christian disbanded the Crusaders soon after and decided to pursue a solo career, and his fortunes went on the upswing after he hooked up with songwriter and producer Miki Dallon, and landed a number 14 hit single with Dallon's 'That's Nice. To promote 'That’s Nice', Christian reassembled The Crusaders with Richie Blackmore, Tornado Evans, Avid Andersen and Tony Mash, and they toured the UK and Europe, particularly Germany, where they had a residency in Munich. While there he also recorded some tracks for the Metronome label, with 'Two At A Time' being a big hit for him in Germany in 1966. Christian went back to England and recruited new musicians who formed the final incarnation of the Crusaders, with pianist Matt Smith joining three members of Lord Caesar Sutch & The Roman Empire, Richie Blackmore, Carlo Little and bassist Tony Dangerfield. After The Crusaders split up following an argument in a restaurant, Christian released his final UK 45 'You're All Things Bright And Beautiful' for Pye in 1967, although when he moved to the Vogue label he recorded 'My Baby's Left Me' with his old Crusaders mates Blackmore and Little, with Nicky Hopkins on piano and Rick Brown on bass. Christian continued to release singles under his own name and as Neil Christian And The Crusaders well into the mid 70's, but he is best remembered for employing a string of guitarists who later went on to greater things, and an album around 1967 could have included tracks featuring most of them. As that never came about, then here is the best of the band's output, leaving aside some of the more 'pop' moments, and concentrating on the R&B that let those guitarists shine. 

Track listing

01 She's Got The Action
02 Get A Load Of This
03 One For The Money
04 Yakity Yak
05 That's Nice
06 Honey Hush
07 Bad Girl
08 Crusading
09 Oops
10 Countdown
11 My Baby's Left Me
12 Let Me In
13 I Like It

Featuring on guitar:
01, 02, 08, 12, 13 Jimmy Page
04, 07, 09, 10, 11 Richie Blackmore
01, 05 Mick Abrahams 
03, 06 Phil McPill 

Sunday - Whitney Houston Presents Sunday (2000)

Sunday were a R&B quintet from New Jersey, comprised of five girls aged between 18 and 22. Three sisters, Tawanda, Notasha, and Tiffany, were joined by their two cousins, Shakira and Stacey to form a group very much in the style of Destiny's or En Vogue, but with their gospel roots setting them apart. The quintet started singing together at the New Life Deliverance Church in Newark where their maternal grandmother was a pastor for 23 years, and they caught the eye of Robyn Crawford, a long-time associate of Whitney Houston, who signed them to a record deal. They recorded their self-titled debut album in 2000, which was executive-produced by Houston and Crawford, and it was led by the single 'I Know', which underperformed on the Billboard Hot 100, barely cracking at #98, but managed to fare better on the R&B/Hip-Hop aspect, peaking at number 32. However, this was not enough to prevent the album from getting canned by Capitol Records and Houston's label Better Place Records, and so it remains unreleased to this day. Like so many of these shelved albums, there is much to enjoy on here, and so here is what could have been the start of a promising career for these Whitney Houston protégées. 

Track listing

01 I'm Takin' Your Man 
02 Me For Me
03 Somebody Else
04 Fed Up 
05 Make It Hot
06 All Of A Sudden
07 I Know 
08 What Am I Gonna Do?
09 Alone
10 Everything's Alright
11 Believe In Love (feat. Whitney Houston)

The Dodos - Up The Block (1966)

In 1966, The Dodos released their highly influential and ground-breaking album, 'Up The Block'. A true innovation in sound, the Dodos left their more simplistic and singles based song-writing for more expansive and fresh sounding songs. With a harder edge than previous output, this record really shook the music scene and influenced many of their contemporaries to follow suit. The title, Up The Block evokes a sense of community which the Dodos both fostered and bristled against. This sentiment is explored within the songs of the album as well, on tracks like 'Marvelman' and 'Best Friends' which both take a combative look at their fan's expectations of them. Meanwhile songs like 'At the Pub', 'The Drums' and 'Honk That Horn' feel more like celebrations of their fans. There are a few classic Dodos boy meets girl songs, such as 'She Smiled At Me', 'Five Ways Till Love', 'Sun In My Eyes', and 'Blue Green Red', which all evoke the nostalgia of previous works, while also moving forward sonically. Two songs which were previously released as singles in late 1965 ('Magazine Blues' and 'One Day You Won't Need Us') were drastically reworked for the album, with completely different structure/sound and lyrical changes. The album had many sessions and there are drastically different alternate versions that were not used for the album which may be released at a later date as part of a rarities album. One such song is the side A closer, 'Dance It Away'. Written by Joseph Lemmon, the songs is a lumbering almost hypnotic song about watching your best girl give herself to the moment while dancing. 

The album version is also sung by Joseph, but there was a version sung by Samuel, who gave a wonderful vocal performance and raced through the song making it significantly shorter and punchier. The label wanted to release the Samuel version as a single, but the band and specifically Joseph fought to make the sixth single from the album 'Marvelman' instead, as Joseph felt more connected to the lyrical content of that song, and so the Samuel version while, breathtaking ,has yet to make the light of day. The Dodos were very staunch on the idea of providing value to their listeners, and so they always tried to make singles and album tracks different enough that no one felt cheated buying both. And this means that a wide selection of unreleased session tracks are in the Dodos vaults, all as good as the released version, but different. Of note is also Johnny's stepping up as far as song-writing goes on this album, having written 'At The Pub', 'Magazine Blues', 'Over Your Head', and 'One Day You Won't Need Us'. This was the first time in their career that Johnny had so many songs on an album. One of the album standouts has to be Bippo's 'The Drums'. A real joy of a track with not only a great vocal & percussion performance by the Dodos' drummer extraordinaire, but the rest of the band goes all in making it one of the most colourful and exciting tracks on the album. This is a rollicking good rock and roll album with something for everyone.  

Track listing

01 At The Pub
02 She Smiled At Me
03 Sun In My Eyes
04 Magazine Blues
05 Five Ways Till Love
06 Honk That Horn
07 Dance It Away
08 Blue Green Red
09 Over Your Head
10 Best Friends
11 The Drums
12 One Day You Won't Need Us
13 Marvelman

The Micky Finn - The Sporting Life (1967)

In the summer of 1961 lead guitarist Micky Waller, rhythm guitarist Bevis Belmour, bassist Mick Stannard, and drummer Richard Brand put together a Shadows-like instrumental band called The Strangers, and gigged around Bethnal Green in East London. The following year, they became a much more R&B-oriented group and enlisted vocalist Harry Bates, although by 1963 Waller and Brand had left to form a more 'mod' sounding band, while the remainder of the group carried on as The Mates, with new drummer Albert Smith. Having been  bitten by the Jamaican Blue Beat bug whilst hanging out at the Crypt Club, Aldgate, they decided to concentrate on this music, and so formed a new band, recruiting John Cooke aka "Fluff" on keyboards, John Burkitt on bass and Alan Marks on vocals. After having heard that Cyril Davis & His R&B All Stars featured a drummer called Micky Waller, he changed his surname to Finn, and the band became Mickey Finn & The Blue Men. Their agent, Don White, secured them a recording contract with Blue Beat Records, and in 1964 they released their debut single, a rendition of Elias & The Zig-Zag Jive Flutes 'Tom Hark', coupled with 'Please Love Me', composed by Alan Hawkshaw of Emile Ford & the Checkmates. After a couple of months, they switched to Oriole, and began recording with Jimmy Page on harmonica, after meeting him at Hackney Club 59. 

The follow up single, covering Bo Diddley's 'Pills' and Jimmy Reed's 'Hush Hush', was released in March 1964, and was banned after the police had discovered some purple hearts stashed in Mickey Waller's amp during a raid on The Scene Club. By mid 1964, ex-Stranger Mick Stannard had replaced Burkitt on bass, and they became known as simply The Mickey Finn. Their final 45 for Oriole was a Chuck Berry number 'Reelin' And Rockin'', but it failed to chart, even though it was tipped as a hit on 'Juke Box Jury'. Through their new manager, Chris Radmall, they got a deal with Columbia, and began recording with producer Shel Talmy in 1965, and their cover of Ian Whicomb's smash hit 'The Sporting Life' is now one of their most notable releases. They followed this with 'I Do Love You'/'If I Had You Baby' in July 1966 on Polydor, and then spent the summer of 1967 in Southern France, where they had a residency at the Voom Voom Club, St-Tropez. 'Garden Of My Mind' appeared on Direction Records in 1967, but after a few more years on the circuit, they decided to call it a day in 1971, with Micky Waller and John Cooke going on to The Heavy Metal Kids. Waller relocated in France and became a sought-after session musician, recording with Nino Ferrer, among others, and he eventually returned to the UK and joined Steve Marriott’s All Stars in 1976, and then the group formed by ex-Pretty Things singer, Phil May & the Fallen Angels, in 1977. The Micky Finn made a couple of excellent singles in their hey-day, and this has kept them at the top of any list of obscure UK beat groups of the 60's, and by 1967 they had recorded enough material for an album, although this would have had to include both their R&B and psychedelic songs on the same record, so this could be why it never happened. However, let's enjoy all of their best music on this imaginary album from 1967.  

Track listing

01 Night Comes Down
02 Ain't Necessarily So
03 Poverty
04 Reelin' And A'Rockin'
05 Garden Of My Mind
06 Hush Your Mouth
07 If I Had You Baby
08 The Sporting Life
09 Miss Jane

10 Because I Love You
11 I Still Want You
12 God Bless The Child

13 Please Love Me
14 Time To Start Loving You

Kenny - Old Songs Never Die (1979)

Kenny was one of the myriad bands thrust onto the British glam scene as it approached its end in the mid-70's, and they were generally regarded, alongside the Bay City Rollers and Slik, as simply another in a long line of acts created by master songwriters Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. In fact, although the five-piece group's best-known material was indeed the work of that pair, Kenny's Rick Driscoll and Yan Stile were also very competent songwriters in their own right, as the group's final few releases proved. Kenny had actually already existed for some three years before Martin and Coulter first encountered them, as under the name Chufff the quartet were regulars on the free festival progressive rock circuit, playing alongside such stalwarts as Hawkwind and the Edgar Broughton Band. They were discovered by Martin and Coulter in late 1974, apparently rehearsing in a banana warehouse in the north London suburb of Enfield, and their initial response to the songwriters' overtures were disdainful. Martin and Coulter would not take no for an answer, and as they had recently recorded a new version of a song previously cut with the Bay City Rollers, a dance number called 'The Bump', they were anxious to find a ready-made band to promote it on television. Indeed, the record had already been released and seemed destined for a chart entry, and so as they seemed assured of stardom, Chufff agreed to become Kenny. 

In the event, that stardom was to prove extremely fleeting, as while the group certainly garnered some publicity from the Kellogg's cereal company's objections to the band's "K" logo, and 'The Bump' made number three in early 1975, the group enjoyed just three further British hits, all penned by Martin-Coulter, including the number four smash 'Fancy Pants', plus 'Baby I Love You OK', and 'Julie Ann'. Driscoll and Stile only managed to get a couple their own songs onto vinyl, with 'Dancin' Feet' on the flip of 'Julie Anne', and 'Happiness Melissa' appearing on the b-side to the late-1975 flop 'Nice To Have You Home'. The under-performance of Kenny's debut album furthered the band's desire to extricate themselves from their predicament and, in late 1976, they went to court to free themselves from Martin-Coulter, after which they signed to Polydor and recorded a new, all original, album, 'Ricochet', and released the single 'Hot Lips'. Neither drew any attention whatsoever and when a serious road accident put Stile out of action, Kenny folded. For a manufactured pop band of the period they managed to get quite a few non-album songs on the b-sides of their singles, and so if you have fond memories of 'The Bump' then check out this collection of their harder to find tracks.  

Track listing

01 Forget The Janes, The Jeans And The Might Have Beens (b-side of 'The Bump' 1974)
02 Bring Back The Good Old Melodies (b-side of 'The Bump' 1974)
03 I'm A Winner (b-side of 'Fancy Pants' 1975)
04 The Sound Of Super K (b-side of 'Baby I Love You, OK!' 1975)
05 Dancin' Feet (b-side of 'Julie Anne' 1975)
06 Happiness Melissa (b-side of 'Nice To Have You Home' 1975)
07 Bangin' My Head Against A Brick Wall (b-side of 'Hot Lips' 1976)
08 Crying (out-take 1976)
09 Abe's Lament (out-take 1976)
10 Old Songs Never Die (single 1977)
11 Don't Hold On (b-side of 'Old Songs Never Die')
12 Reach Out (I'll Be There) (single 1979)
13 Time Is The Healer (b-side of 'Reach Out (I'll Be There')