U2 - Songs Of Ascent (2010)

In 2006 U2 began work on a new album with record producer Rick Rubin, but shelved most of the material from those sessions before beginning work with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois in May 2007 in Fez, Morocco. The exotic musical influences that the group were exposed to in Fez inspired them to pursue a more experimental sound, but as the sessions unfolded, the band decided to scale back the extent of those pursuits. Having grown tired of writing in the first-person, Bono wrote his lyrics from the perspective of different characters, and recording continued at several studios in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland throughout December 2008. 'No Line On The Horizon' had been intended to be released in November, but after composing 50 to 60 songs, they delayed it to continue writing. Prior to the album's release, U2 claimed that their time in Fez, as well as Eno's and Lanois' involvement, had resulted in a more experimental record than their previous two albums, and when it appeared in February 2009 it received generally favourable reviews, although many critics noted that it was not as experimental as previously suggested. The album debuted at number one in 30 countries, but did not sell as well as anticipated, and after expressing disappointment over the relatively low sales of five million copies (!), the band discussed plans to release a meditative follow-up album, 'Songs Of Ascent', which would be a sister release to 'No Line On The Horizon', similar to 'Zooropa''s relationship to 'Achtung Baby'. 

In June 2009, Bono said that although nine tracks had been completed, the album would only be released if its quality surpassed that of 'No Line On The Horizon', with 'Every Breaking Wave' being mooted as the first single. Over time, the album continued to be delayed, and in April 2010 U2's manager confirmed that the album would not be finished by June, but indicated that a release "before the end of the year was increasingly likely". In October 2010, Bono stated that their new album would be produced by Danger Mouse, and that twelve songs had been completed, with the album having a tentative release date of May 2011, although he noted that 'Songs Of Ascent' was no longer the likely title. In the end the 'Songs Of Ascent' project was ultimately abandoned, and after numerous delays, U2 digitally released their thirteenth album, 'Songs Of Innocence', on 9 September 2014 in a surprise release. The band appeared the same day at an Apple Inc. product launch event to announce the album, and reveal it was being released to all iTunes Store customers at no cost, for which they were universally ridiculed. There are several tracks on 'Songs Of Innocence' that were originally slated to be part of 'Songs Of Ascent', such as the original version of 'Every Breaking Wave', which they also performed as a piano ballad. 'Mercy' was originally played live as 'Luckiest Man In The World', while 'Glastonbury' was a punchy rocker that was relatively stripped down, but later became reduced to just a bridge section on 'Volcano', and we also had the instrumental song 'Return Of The Stingray Guitar', which later morphed into the b-side 'Lucifer's Hands'. With these tracks as a starting point, and adding in some rare b-sides, film soundtracks and live recordings of songs that never made it into the studio, we can piece together a credible track-listing for what the album might have sounded like, and so here is U2's follow-up to 'No Line On The Horizon', which should have appeared in 2010.   

Track listing

01 Soon

02 North Star

03 Boy Falls From The Sky

04 Mercy

05 Return Of The Stingray Guitar

06 Are You Gonna Wait Forever

07 Glastonbury

08 Smile

09 Levitate

10 Every Breaking Wave

11 Winter

Screaming Lord Sutch - Jack The Ripper (1966)

David Edward Sutch was born in Kilburn, London, in 1940, losing his policeman father in the Blitz when he was only 10 months old. Being brought up by a devoted and resourceful mother, he left school at 15, running a window-cleaning business for several years before being bitten by the rock'n'roll bug in the late Fifties. Influenced by Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard at the Two I's coffee bar in Soho, but wanting to go even further, he formed the Raving Savages in 1960, and adopted the name Screaming Lord Sutch. In fact, most of his hollering-horror act was stolen lock, stock and barrel from Screamin' Jay Hawkins, the American creator of 'I Put A Spell On You', right down to the entrance out of a coffin, though he replaced the voodoo mumbo-jumbo of Hawkins with very British Jack-the-Ripper references. Plagiarism notwithstanding, the Savages act, complete with axes and skulls, cage and loincloth, caused a storm on the London circuit, and came to the attention of the producer Joe Meek, who hooked up with Sutch and, the following year, produced ''Til The Following Night', which was released on the HMV label in 1961, backed with a rollocking version of Little Richard's 'Good Golly Miss Molly'. As their peak, The Savages included Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Nick Simper on bass, and Nicky Hopkins or Freddie "Fingers" Lee on piano, alongside founding member Carlo Little on drums, but even though the Savages toured extensively in Britain and continental Europe, the music was always secondary to Sutch's stunts. During 'Jack the Ripper', the singer would stab the hapless pianists Hopkins or Lee (dressed as a prostitute) before flinging heart and liver (bought from the butchers) into the audience. 

Frustrated at the lack of airplay for novelty titles such as 'She's Fallen In Love With The Monster Man', 'Monster In Black Tights' and 'Dracula's Daughter', Sutch decided to launch another attack on the media, and in 1963, taking advantage of John Profumo's resignation, he stood for the National Teenage Party in the subsequent by- election in Stratford-upon-Avon. He only won 209 votes and lost the first of many deposits, but a pattern was set for the next 35 years as Sutch and the Monster Raving Loony Party became a feature of every British election. On one US trip, Sutch had claimed to be "the sixth Earl of Harrow", and he eventually added the "Lord" to his name by deed poll in 1977. In 1969 he gathered together an impressive line-up to record his debut album, including Jimmy Page (who also produced the album) and John Bonham, guitarist Jeff Beck, session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, guitarist Deniel Edwards and Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding. Rick Brown and Carlo Little from The Savages also appeared, and 'Lord Sutch And Heavy Friends' was released in 1970, winning the accolade in a 1998 BBC poll as the worst album of all time. What he should have done is release his debut album some four years earlier, and made sure it included a selection of his novelty rockers and well-chosen covers, showing what The Savages could do when given free rein. Over the years, Screaming Lord Sutch has claimed to have influenced shock-rockers such as Arthur Brown, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, the Tubes and Marilyn Manson, as well as the psychobilly sound of the Meteors, with whom he recorded in 1981, and his legacy will always be the horror-themed act that he put on in the 60's, so as a reminder of that, here is the album that he should have released in 1966. 

Track listing

01 Jack The Ripper
02 Come Back Baby
03 Dracula's Daughter
04 I'm A Hog For You 
05 Bye Bye Baby
06 The Cheat
07 Monster In Black Tights
08 'Til The Following Night
09 Good Golly Miss Molly
10 She's Fallen In Love With The Monster Man
11 Don't You Just Know It
12 All Black And Hairy
13 You Don't Care
14 The Train Kept A' Rollin'

Diana Ross & The Supremes - Some Things You Never Get Used To (1968)

In May 1968 Diana Ross & The Supremes released the single 'Some Things You Never Get Used To' on the Motown label, but it stalled for three weeks at number 30 on the U.S. Billboard pop chart in July, and it became the lowest-charting Supremes single since 1963. This lack of success became the catalyst for Berry Gordy to revamp song-writing for The Supremes, since the loss of Motown's premier production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, which Gordy had assigned as the group's sole producers after the success of 'When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes'. Motown originally created an album to capitalize on the success of the single, but when it failed to hit the top of the charts the album was scrapped, and the single, plus a few other tracks, were included on the group's next official album, 'Love Child', in November 1968. The majority of the remaining songs remained unreleased until box sets and expanded re-issues began appearing some 20 years after they were recorded, and now here they are on the album which would have appeared if the title track had been more successful. Although 'You've Been So Wonderful To Me' appeared on the 'Love Child' album, I thought the strings were a bit obtrusive at the start so I've toned them down a bit, and because it was quite a short album I've added a couple of contemporary unreleased recordings to the end. 

Track listing

01 Some Things You Never Get Used To 
02 Heaven Must Have Sent You 
03 He's My Sunny Boy 
04 Come On And See Me 
05 Can I Get A Witness 
06 You've Been So Wonderful To Me 
07 My Guy 
08 It's Not Unusual 
09 Just A Little Misunderstanding
10 Uptight (Everything's Alright)
11 What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted
12 Blowin' In The Wind 
13 Treat Me Nice John Henry
14 The Beginning Of The End Of Love

Rosie Ribbons - Misbehaving (2002)

Rosemary "Rosie" Ribbons was born on 22 July 1983 in Australia, with the family moving to Pontardawe near Swansea in 1987. Ribbons reportedly wanted to be a pop singer since she was eight years old, and was a big fan of Mariah Carey, who she learned to mimic in her singing, and she also started to write her own songs. During her final school year she lost interest, however, and ended up working in a supermarket, and it was when she was bored with that career that she auditioned for ITV1's talent show Pop Idol. She initially performed her own composition called 'Colours' to judges Simon Cowell, Nicki Chapman, Neil Fox and record producer Pete Waterman, and although impressed with her vocal, Cowell suggested that she pick a more familiar song. Taking his advice, Ribbons then wowed the panel with a rendition of 'Hero' by Mariah Carey, a performance that moved Waterman to tears. Ribbons progressed through the competition and made the top 50, winning her heat by a landslide, but although she was named amongst the favourites to win, she was voted out by viewers a few weeks before Will Young was crowned winner on 9 February 2002, ultimately finishing in 6th place. Although Ribbons did not win Pop Idol, Telstar Records signed her to a five-album deal, reportedly worth £1million, and after supporting Liberty X on tour, her first two singles 'Blink' and her cover of Jessica Simpson's 'A Little Bit' were both UK top 20 hits. 

However, as 'A Little Bit' only reached number 19, Telstar considered this a disappointing chart position, and so they went to work on getting ready to release the third single only a few weeks later. Initially they had chosen 'Good Thing' before deciding on a double A Side, featuring 'Good Thing' and 'Heaven', but after Ribbons had supported Blue on their 'One Love' Tour Telstar decided that a totally fresh, new track had to be released, and they wanted something that was guaranteed to succeed. They therefore put Ribbons back in the studio to record a modern-day remake of the Deee-Lite hit 'Groove Is In The Heart', at one point considering making it a double A-side with 'Naked'. Before any of this could happen, Telstar experienced financial problems and her contract was subsequently terminated before the third single or her album could be released. Originally to be called 'Levitate', promo copies titled 'Misbehaving' did surface under the title 'Misbehaving'. In 2007, now living in Dubbo, Australia, Ribbons auditioned for Australian Idol with another original song, 'Butterfly Wings', but this time the judges did not ask for a second, more familiar song, and she was accepted into the Top 100, and then went on to make the Top 24. In the fourth semi-finals on 29 August 2007 Ribbons sang R.E.M.'s 'Everybody Hurts', but she didn't make the final 12, and so was eliminated from the competition. Ribbons returned to the UK after Australian Idol to perform and record new music, and in March 2012 she was the featured vocalist on the title track of the Alonestar EP 'Warrior', a release which also featured Ed Sheeran, who accompanies Ribbons on the track 'All Falls Down'. Telstar's back catalogue was eventually acquired by Phoenix Music International in 2018, and the album acquired a digital release, but no physical copies followed, and so here is that original 2002 debut by the Pop Idol finalist.   

Track listing

01 Good Thing
02 A Little Bit
03 Blink
04 Deadly Sin 
05 Heaven
06 Coming Up for Air
07 Trusted
08 No Space to Rent
09 Even Angels
10 Ain't That the Way
11 Colours

Dolby's Cube - May The Cube Be With You (1986)

Thomas Dolby (born Thomas Morgan Robertson on 14 October 1958), came to prominence in the 1980's, releasing hit singles including 'She Blinded Me with Science' in 1982 and 'Hyperactive!' in 1984. He started his music career in the late 1970's, forming the Camera Club with Bruce Woolley, and after leaving them he joined Lene Lovich's band as keyboardist, and wrote her hit song 'New Toy'. In 1983, Dolby started collaborating with a number of artists in an occasional studio-based project called Dolby's Cube, which had no set line-up, and was essentially a forum for him to release material that was more dance-oriented. The first single released by Dolby's Cube was 1983's 'Get Out Of My Mix', followed by 'May The Cube Be With You', featuring George Clinton, in 1985, and work on the soundtrack to the film 'Howard The Duck' in 1986. For the soundtrack, Dolby wrote the film's songs, and chose the members of the on-screen rock band Cherry Bomb, with actress Lea Thompson performing her own vocals for the role of lead singer in the group, although she states that the filmmakers were unsure as to whether they would keep her vocals in the final film. Thompson was required to learn choreography with the band and record the songs so they could be synchronized during filming, and the final sequence, in which Cherry Bomb perform the film's title song, was shot in front of a live audience at The Warfield in San Francisco. Collaborators in Dolby's Cube at various junctures included former band-mate Lene Lovich, George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic, Francois Kevorkian, and Lea Thompson, with Joe Walsh, Stevie Wonder and The Brecker Brothers also making an appearance on some of the recordings. 

Track listing

01 Get Out Of My Mix>
02 Get On Out Of My Mix
03 Hunger City
04 May The Cube Be With You (3D Mix)
05 Howard The Duck
06 Googooplexus - Club Creature Caviar
07 Don't Turn Away
08 It Don't Come Cheap
09 I'm On My Way

Featuring:
03 Lea Thompson
04 George Clinton, Lene Lovich, The Brecker Brothers
05 Lea Thompson, Joe Walsh
06 George Clinton, Lene Lovich, The Brecker Brothers
07 Stevie Wonder
08 Lea Thompson, Joe Walsh
09 Tata Vega

The Ivy League - Tomorrow Is Another Day (1967)

John "Carter" Shakespeare and Kenneth "Lewis" Hawker were both from Birmingham, and came down to London to make a name for themselves in the music industry. They were offered a deal by manager Terry Kennedy, and moved with him to Southern music at 5 Denmark Street. He re-christened them Carter & Lewis, and produced the seven singles they cut for Piccadilly, Ember and Oriole between 1961 and 1964 under the name Carter-Lewis And The Southerners. They had developed a close harmony style similar to the Everly Brothers, and were soon established as a popular radio team, appearing on BBC Light Programme shows 'Saturday Club' and 'Easy Beat'. The group became a vehicle for publishing the songs that stemmed from the Carter-Lewis partnership, and in summer 1964 Carter and Lewis disbanded The Southerners in order to concentrate on writing and doing sessions. By July 1964, they expanded to a trio, by teaming up with another session singer and songwriter, Brian Pugh aka "Perry Ford". Pugh was also a songwriter, penning hits for Adam Faith with 'Someone Else's Baby', and The Fortunes' 'Caroline', and was running a studio for Reg Calvert in Denmark Street when Carter and Lewis approached him. The trio developed a clear liking for high-falsetto vocals, being influenced by The Four Freshmen and The Beach Boys, and they christened themselves The Ivy League. They started out providing backing vocals on other artists' sessions, such as Sandy Shaw's 'Always Something There To Remind Me', Tom Jones' 'It’s Not Unusual', and The Who's 'Can't Explain', but after deciding to record their own music they signed to Pye's Piccadilly subsidiary. 

Their debut single failed to chart, but the follow-up 'Funny How Love Can Be' crashed into the UK Top 10, prompting the need to form a backing group and go out on tour. Micky Keene and Dave Wintour left The Tony Colton’s Crawdaddies to become The Ivy League backing band, and were joined by keyboardist Mike O'Neill and drummer Clem Cattini. The original trio released a few more singles, but only managed to release one full-length album, 'This Is The Ivy League', as because they preferring writing and producing to touring, Carter and Lewis pulled out of the band, being replaced by Tony Burrows (ex-Kestrels) and Neil Landon (ex-Burnetts). At this time, the band cut the best record 'My World Fell Down', a John Carter/Geoff Stephens composition which Gary Usher and LA group Sagittarius turn into a masterpiece in 1967. The Ivy League toured the UK and Europe unflaggingly throughout 1966 with new backing band The Jaybirds, who later found success as Ten Years After. In the summer of 1967 Carter and Lewis recorded a song they wrote to articulate the sentiments of the flower-power movement, releasing 'Let's Go To San Francisco' under the name The Flowerpot Men', and as there was no real group of this name, they rented out the band name to Tony Burrows, who put together a tour ensemble to satisfy the popular demand generated by the single, which made number4 in the UK charts in September 1967. Although The Ivy League was basically a different group from 1966 onwards, Carter, Lewis and Ford continued to write all their songs, and by the end of 1967 they had released enough material to make up a second album, but as they broke up before that could happen, here is what their sophomore record could have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 Running Round In Circles
02 One Day
03 When You're Young
04 Suddenly Things
05 Our Love Is Slipping Away
06 Rain Rain Go Away
07 My World Fell Down
08 Four And Twenty Hours
09 Arrivederci Baby
10 Tomorrow Is Another Day
11 Willow Tree
12 I Could Make You Fall In Love
13 Tossing And Turning
14 Thank You For Loving Me
15 In The Not Too Distant Future

The Dodos - Yesterday's Coming Fast (1964)

The Dodos third album was also their motion picture debut, with the title track being mainly written by Joseph Lemmon, with great vocal performances by both Joseph and Samuel, and a solid backbeat by Bippo. It was their best single up to this point and went straight to number one both in the UK and the US, as well as other countries around the world. The title was taken from something Bippo had said during a press conference when asked how much longer the band thought they'd have success, to which Bippo said, "Well, alls I know is yesterday's comin' fast, so who knows what today will bring." The b-side, 'This Guy', was also written mainly by Joseph, and is one of his most straight forward love songs to this point, and features a great sax solo by Benji Jones of the Skipping Stones (squashing some of the rumours that the two bands saw each other as enemies, spread by the media). 'I Can Buy Nice Things' was the next single from the album, mainly written by Samuel, with help from Joseph with some of the lyrics and the melody of the chorus. It's all about how the boys might be getting some monetary gains but they realize that it can't buy them love. The song speaks directly to a young woman, asking her if she she'd like to share in the wealth, but her not being impressed. 'Mister Presenter' was a song written by Joseph Lemmon specifically to give Bippo a lead vocal performance on the album, but it ended up becoming a b-side instead. The song is actually quite ground-breaking for the group in many ways. First of all, sonically it is quite bold and inventive, with a mix of instrumentation and musical styles, and some pretty interesting effects and studio tricks. Secondly, lyrically the song is among the first of the more autobiographical that had nothing to do with teenage love. The song is about Lemmon's feelings about how the band were perceived and treated by the established old guard in show business, from television presenters and hosts to radio DJs, all the way to the business men that held their careers in their hands. His frustration is evident, and yet it produced a great piece of art and a real look at the future of where Dodos music would go. The third single from the album was 'Words We Said Today', which was a co-written song by Joseph & Samuel. In later years Joseph would point out that the idea and the majority of the song was Samuel's doing, but that he came up with the bridge and the idea to speed the song up at the end. The rest of the tracks from 'Yesterday's Coming Fast' were made up of early b-sides that were featured in the film, with the disc being their first soundtrack album. 

Track listing

01 Yesterdays Coming Fast 
02 Like The Stars Above 
03 Keep It Comin'
04 Mister Presenter
05 Over The Moon
06 I Can Buy Nice Things
07 Hand In Hand
08 If I Knew 
09 Words We Said Today 
10 Look At Her 
11 Cry Cry Cry
12 Maybe You'll Win
13 This Guy
14 Out Of The Way

Les Baroques - I'll Send You To The Moon (1968)

Les Baroques had been playing around Baarn in the Netherlands since 1959, under various name such as The Modern Teenage Quartet and Hurricane Combo, but they remained unknown until 1965, when the core of guitarist Frank Muyser, organist Rene Krijnen, bassist Robin Muyser, guitarist Hans Van Embden, drummer Raymond Geytenbeek, and vocalist Gerard Schoenmakers (aka Gary O'Shannon) secured a record deal with Europhon Records and released their debut single 'Silky' in June 1965. The group stood out because unlike all other Dutch bands of that time, they sang in good English, which was partly due to Frank Muyser's English mother. Another thing that set them apart was their use of bassoon, which featured on their December 1965 single 'Such A Cad' . They also experimented with other musical instruments, such as the banjo, balalaika and harpsichord, and 1966 saw them release three singles on their new label Whamm Records, as well as appearing at the Grand Gala du Disque. In 1967, Ferdy Karmelk temporarily joined the group, playing guitar, while  Michel van Dijk replaced O'Shannon, who started his own Gary O'Shannon Group. In 1969, after a considerable period of inactivity, the group was in imminent danger of breaking up, although they struggled on with new recruits Ferdy Karmelk, Bart Terlaak Jan Dankmeyer joining the three original members. When the group finally folded, remaining members Jan, Ferdy and Bart changed their name to Island. The career of the group can be neatly split into the O'Shannon-led period, and the post-O'Shannon years, with the difference in the vocals making them sound like two different bands. Their early work is generally regarded as their best, although tracks like 'Working On A Tsjing-Tsjang' and 'Bottle Party' do have their charm. By 1968 they had an impressive body of work behind them, and so they could have released an album had they managed to find a record company to fund it, but it never happened, and so this is what it might have sounded like if it had come to fruition. 

Track listing

01 I'll Send You To The Moon
02 Such A Cad
03 I Know
04 Summerbeach
05 Working On A Tsjing-Tsjang
06 She's Mine
07 Indication
08 Dreammaker
09 Bottle Party
10 When You're Feeling Good
11 Pardon Me I Think I'm Falling
12 Bread
13 My Lost Love
14 Without Feeling Without Mind

Going forward.....

I've been thinking about the blog recently, and the fact that I've posted five or six albums every week for getting on for seven years, which means that I'm now coming up to 2,000 posts. This does mean that I'm finding fewer and fewer actual unreleased albums to post, and those that I do stumble across tend to be from the lesser known artists. I have had a few other concepts running through the years which I was quite pleased with, like ...and on guitar, The Hitmakers Sing, the on-going collection of 60's girl singers who have never had an official compilation, and the b-sides collections of recent indie bands, but I'm also running out of ideas for those as well. The series of albums where I removed extraneous instruments was fun, but was over too quickly, and the series of re-imagined 60's psyche albums is also drawing to a close. As there has only been one comment on the actual music posted for the last fifteen days (thanks LonChes) then I don't know if what I'm posting is of interest any more, and so to give me a bit more free time I'm going to scale back on the posts, to one or two a time, a couple of times a week. I have enough in draft to tide me over for a while, but they do tend to be the more obscure artists who people might not have heard of, so do let me know if these are worth posting, and if anyone has any suggestions for b-sides collections, rarities albums or anything else that they'd like to hear then do leave a comment.

pj  

Chaka Khan - Dare You To Love Me (1996)

In 1992 Chaka Khan released her first studio album in four years, with 'The Woman I Am' being a chart success due to the hit singles 'Love You All My Lifetime' and 'You Can Make The Story Right'. Around this time she also recorded a duet with Peter Cetera on the song 'Feels Like Heaven', which was a minor success, as well as contributing to film soundtracks, and so hopes were high for her next record. Between 1993 and 1995 she recorded a number of tracks for the follow-up album, to be called 'Dare You To Love Me', with a proposed release date of January 1996. However, when recording was complete and it was presented to Warner Bros., they rejected it, citing a lack of commercial viability. This was not the first time the Khan had clashed with her record company, as before 'Dare You To Love Me' was rejected, she had fallen out with them due to fact that the record company execs wanted her to do hip-hop soul tracks like what Mary J. Blige was doing at the time. She refused, saying that if they wanted someone to sing like Blige, then they should've gotten the real Blige. Despite their contention that the songs from 'Dare You To Love Me' were not commercial, they still included six of them on 1996's 'Epiphany: The Best of Chaka Khan, Vol. 1'. This was the last straw for Khan, who then left the label, stating that they had neglected her, and failed to release 'Dare You To Love Me'. Other songs from the sessions, like 'Miles Blowin'' and 'Pain', eventually ended up on the soundtrack albums of the 1993 film 'Sugar Hill', and the 1997 TV series 'Living Single' respectively, but the album itself has remained unheard. 

Track listing
 
01 Your Love Is All I Know 
02 Every Little Thing 
03 Everywhere  
04 Never Miss The Water (feat. Meshell Ndegéocello) 
05 Dare You To Love Me  
06 It Ain't Easy Lovin' Me 
07 Somethin' Deep  
08 Love Me Still 
09 Pain 
10 Miles Blowin'  
11 Don't Take Back (Your Love) 

Neon Pearl - Urban Ways (1967)

Neon Pearl was a short-lived 1960's British psychedelic band comprising Peter Dunton (vocals/guitar/keyboards/drums), Bernard Jinks (bass guitar/backing vocals), Nick Spenser (guitar/harmonium/keyboards), and also Rod Harrison. They were formed to play as a resident band in a club in Germany, but returned to England in late 1967 where they recorded a number of songs, but couldn't find a record label willing to release them. The tracks were demos of the band's live set and display an evocative line in psychedelic rock, with a slight garage psych/folk rock edge, and the drifting guitar work and melodic vocal harmonies make them an interesting collection of songs. They remained under wraps until they were excavated by Acme Records and re-issued as '1967 Recordings' in 2001, and normally I wouldn't post the album if you can still get hold of the CD, but this version is unique to the blog, as Youtuber Rock Fort Launderdale has taken the original tracks and split them out into their various components, and then put them back together using Ableton, bouncing the individual tracks to good old 1/4" tape, to give a remastered stereo version of the album. Although Neon Pearl themselves didn't have a great deal of success, they were a breeding ground for talent who went on to bigger things, with Dunton joining British psychedelic bands The Flies and Please, while Jinks later played in Bulldog Breed, and both went on to join T2, who made one of the most sought-after UK progressive rock albums with 1970's 'It'll All Work Out In Boomland'. 

Track listing

01 Dream Scream
02 Forever
03 Urban Ways
04 What You See
05 Going With The Flow
06 Dream
07 Just Another Day
08 Going Back
09 Out Of Sight

Cirdan - Beyond The Horizon (2015)

Great news for fans of the Dutch progressive rock band Cirdan, as I've managed to track down a copy of their 2015 demo CD 'Beyond The Horizon'. It's another great collection of neo-prog rock, seeing the band finding their feet in composing their own music, and so it includes a couple of lengthy instrumentals, and a rare co-song-writing effort with bassist Rico Janssen, who gets to provide a co-vocal on the title track. 

Track listing

01 Eternal Symphony   
02 Ascend To The Summit   
03 In The Heart Of The City   
04 Eternal Spiral 
05 The Last Hemisphere  
06 Journey Beneath The Waves
07 Beyond The Horizon 

Cliff Wade - Life Story (1969)

Cliff Wade came out of York, England, as part of the mid-60s British soul boom, playing with several early groups including the Misfits, before forming the Roll Movement in late 1965, where he was both the lead singer and lead guitarist. They were good enough to beat Soft Machine into the finals of a 1966 Melody Maker-sponsored competition, ultimately finishing second behind Eyes Of Blue, and this led to support slots for The Who and Cream. The Roll Movement never had a chance to show what they could have done on record, as their sole single, 'I'm Out On My Own', was released on the tiny Go label, and was lost amid the gathering psychedelic haze that spread across music in the second half of 1967. The band eventually split up in the wake of the record's failure, and after a short spell with Cucumber, Wade went to work for independent producer Monty Babson and his corporate operation, the Morgan empire, as a music copyist and jack-of-all-trades on the studio end of the operation, which eventually spawned its own label, Morgan Blue Town. In 1969 Wade began recording under his own name with the Mellotron-dominated psychedelic pop single 'You've Never Been To My House', released on the Morgan's label, and although it sank without trace, over the next couple of years he cut more sides, and also became a singer for an ensemble called Fickle Pickle, who scored a hit in Holland with a cover of Paul McCartney's 'Maybe I'm Amazed'. Wade subsequently bounced around the music business, occasionally performing and recording under his own name and in association with various groups, including the Beaver Brothers, and playing sessions with promising new performers. He also wrote songs with his Beaver Brothers partner Geoff Gill, and enjoyed a hit with 'Heartbreaker', which Pat Benatar took up the charts in 1979, at the outset of her career. Many of the tracks that he recorded at Morgan Studios in 1969 have now surfaced, and if we cherry-pick the best of them we can imagine what a Cliff Wade album could have sounded like in 1969. 

Track listing

01 You've Never Been To My House
02 I See I Am Free
03 Casting The First Stone
04 Life Story
05 Dagger Lane
06 Gonna Meet The Man
07 Shirley 
08 Fern Meadows
09 Sister
10 Rose Village
11 Yes I'm Finding Out
12 I Could Have Loved Her
13 You Should Have Seen Me