Suzi Quatro - Daytona Demon (1978)

Susan Kay Quatro was born on 3rd June 1950 in Detroit, and being the descendant of an Italian immigrant to the US, her family name of 'Quattrocchi' was shortened to Quatro. She has three sisters, a brother, and one older half sister, and her parents also fostered several other children while she was growing up. She was influenced at the age of six by seeing Elvis Presley perform on television, and received formal training in playing classical piano and percussion, but she taught herself how to play the bass and guitar. She played drums or percussion from an early age as part of her father's jazz band, the Art Quatro Trio, but in 1964, after seeing a television performance by the Beatles, Quatro's older sister Patti formed an all-female garage rock band called the Pleasure Seekers with two friends, and she invited her sister to join, singing and playing bass under the name of Suzi Soul. Later on another sister Arlene joined the band, and their performances were mainly in cabaret, where attention was initially focused more on their physical looks than their actual music, but eventually they became well-known fixtures in the burgeoning Detroit music community. The band recorded three singles and released two of them, 'Never Thought You'd Leave Me'/'What A Way To Die' in 1966 and 'Light Of Love'/'Good Kind Of Hurt' in 1968, although other recordings later turned up and were compiled on the 'What A Way To Die' album. Towards the end of their career their songs took on a more progressive element, of which 'Mr Power' is a good example, and in 1969 the band changed their name to Cradle and pursued a heavier style of music. Quatro moved to England in 1971, after being spotted by the record producer Mickie Most, who was at the time running his Rak Records label and was looking for new talent. Most had been persuaded to see Cradle by Suzi's bother Michael, as he was seeking a female rock singer who could fill the void that the death of Janis Joplin had created. Most had no interest in the other members of the band, and he also had no idea at that time of how he might market Quatro, so her first year in the UK was spent in a hotel, with Most nurturing her while she developed her skills. 
Her first single was released in 1972, with 'Rolling Stone' reaching number 1 in the Portuguese charts, but failing everywhere else. This was actually a solo single, with the backing coming from Duncan Browne, Peter Frampton and Alan White among others, but after the failure of the single Most allowed her to audition for a band to accompany her. At the same time he introduced her to the songwriting and production team of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who could write songs specifically to align with her image, which at the height of the glam rock period of the 1970's was leather clothes, a wild androgynous persona, and chugging hard rock music. In May 1973, her second single (and first Chinnichap composition) 'Can The Can' was a No. 1 hit in parts of Europe and Australia, and this was followed in quick succession by three further hits in '48 Crash', 'Daytona Demon' and 'Devil Gate Drive', all charting within an eight month period. By 1975 her chart success had started to falter, with 'Your Mamma Won't Like Me' only being a moderate success in the UK, while both 'I Bit Off More Than I Could Chew' and 'I May Be Too Young' failed to reach the UK Top 50. It would be 1978 before the more mellow 'If You Can't Give Me Love' returned her to the charts, and later that year a duet with Smokie's Chris Norman on 'Stumblin' In' gave her a No. 4 hit in the US. She has continued to record and release albums, right up to 'No Control' in 2019, but she also has parallel careers as a stage actress in shows like 'Annie Get Your Gun' and 'Tallulah Who?', and as a radio DJ with her own rock and roll radio show on BBC Radio 2. Like many artists for whom Chinnichap wrote hit singles, Quatro was allowed to write the songs for the b-sides of her singles (so as not to waste another potential Chinnichap hit), and these tended to be very different from the glam-rock A-sides, showing her own songwriting skills, either on her own or with her band. This overview of her career takes in tracks from The Pleasure Seekers and Cradle, a 1971 demo that she recorded for Mickie Most, both sides of that Portuguese Number 1, three big UK hits that never appeared on her albums, and numerous self-penned b-sides.   

Track listing

01 Mr Power (by The Pleasure Seekers 1968)
02 Living Machine (by The Cradle 1969)
03 Curly Hair For Sale (demo 1971)
04 Rolling Stone (single 1972)
05 Brain Confusion (For All The Lonely People) (b-side of 'Rolling Stone')
06 Ain't Got No Home (previously unreleased)
07 Can The Can (single 1973)
08 Ain't Ya Somethin' Honey (b-side of 'Can The Can')
09 Little Bitch Blue (b-side of '48 Crash' 1973)
10 Daytona Demon (single 1973)
11 Roman Fingers (b-side of 'Daytona Demon')
12 Devil Gate Drive (single 1974)
13 I Wanna Be Free (b-side of 'Too Big' 1974)
14 In The Morning (b-side of 'Devil Gate Drive')  

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Yello - Blue Nabou (1988)

Swiss electronic band Yello is led by Dieter Meier (born 4 March 1945 in Zurich, Switzerland), the son of a millionaire banker, sometime professional gambler, performance artist, and member of the Switzerland national golf team, and Boris Blank (born 15 January 1952, Switzerland) who writes the music to Meier's concepts. Previously Meier had been a member of the band Fresh Color and had released two solo singles, but teamed up with Blank and tape manipulator Carlos Peron to form Yello, and in 1979 they released the 'I.T. Splash' single on the Periphery Perfume label, before signing a recording contract with Ralph Records, home of The Residents. The following year they released their debut album 'Solid Pleasure', and in the UK they signed to the Do It label, releasing a couple of singles before moving to Stiff Records and having their first success with 'Bostich', a track which had already become an underground club classic in America. The trio proved popular with the Futurist and New Romantic crowds, but their most lasting influence would be on the nascent dance music scene. In 1983 they released their third album 'You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess', which was to be their last album to feature Peron, and after a brief spell with Elektra Records they moved to Mercury Records in the mid-80's, where they released their most popular albums 'Stella' and 'One Second', the latter featuring collaborations with Shirley Bassey and Billy MacKenzie of The Associates. 'Oh Yeah' provided the duo with their sole US chart entry, thanks to its inclusion on the soundtrack of the movies 'Ferris Bueller’s Day Off' and 'The Secret Of My Success', while in the UK their biggest hit was 'The Race', hitting the UK Top 10. Next came a move into film, and their soundtrack work includes 'Nuns On The Run', 'The Adventures Of Ford Fairlaine', 'Senseless', and the Polish-filmed 'Snowball', a fairytale whose creative impetus is entirely down to Yello. Although their releases became less frequent in the new century, the duo became even more successful in their homeland, and in 2016 they gave their first live show in front of an audience. The re-issues of their records have featured many bonus tracks, including club mixes of album tracks, but there were also some unique b-sides and some previously unreleased songs, which are all collected here, together with that debut single and a rare limited edition b-side from 1983.  

Track listing

01 I. T. Splash (12" single 1979)
02 Glue Head (b-side of 'I. T. Splash')
03 Thrill Wave (previously unreleased 1980)
04 Smirak's Train (previously unreleased 1980)
05 There Is No Reason (b-side of 'She's Got A Gun' 1981)
06 Tub Dub (previously unreleased 1981)
07 Desire For Desire (b-side of 'You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess' 1982)
08 Base For Alec (b-side of 'Lost Again' 1983)
09 Haunted House (b-side of 'Let Me Cry' limited edition single 1983)
10 Rubber West (b-side of 'I Love You' 1983)
11 Blue Nabou (b-side of 'Vicious Games' 1985)
12 L'Hotel (b-side of 'Call It Love' 1987)
13 Life Is A Snowball (from a Swiss promo CD 1987)
14 Tool In Rose (b-side of 'The Rhythm Divine' 1987)
15 Wall Street Bongo (b-side of 'Tied Up' 1988)

The 101ers - A Bit A Rockin' (1976)

A recent comment on a Clash post prompted me to investigate Joe Strummer's first band The 101ers, as even thought I'm a massive fan of The Clash, I'd never gone further back to see how Strummer started out, as I'm not really that keen on pub-rock, which I always thought was the 101ers forte. The group was named after the squat where they lived together at 101 Walterton Road, Maida Vale, and consisted of John 'Woody' Mellor (aka Joe Strummer) on guitar/vocals, Clive Timperley on guitar/vocals, Dan Kelleher on bass, guitar, and lead vocal on 'Surf City', and Richard Dudanski on drums. Their early gigs included several at the Windsor Castle pub, and a residency at the Elgin, which is why they were bundled together with other pub-rock bands of the period, but by the time their debut single 'Keys To Your Heart' was released in 1976, Strummer had joined The Clash and the 101ers were no more. During their short career they'd recorded a number of demos in 1975 and 1976, all of which were original songs, and these were collected together on the 'Elgin Avenue Breakdown' compilation in 1981, along with a number of live recordings of rock 'n' roll covers. By extracting just the demos and adding in a couple of live originals which didn't make the first issue of the compilation, plus an alternate, rawer take of 'Keys To Your Heart', we can approximate what an album could have sounded like had one been issued in 1976.   

 

Track listing

01 Letsagetabitarockin'  
02 Silent Telephone  
03 Steamgauge 99  
04 Rabies (From The Dogs Of Love)  
05 Keys To Your Heart   
06 Lonely Mother's Son  
07 Sweet Revenge  
08 Motor Boys Motor  
09 5 Star R 'n' R Petrol  
10 Keep Taking The Tablets  
11 Surf City 
12 Hideaway  
13 Sweety Of The St. Moritz  

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A1 and D:REAM sum up 2020

Happy New Year

Cliff Richard - Reflections (1970) What The L?

This post has been up for about a week now and downloaded over 100 times, and I've been waiting for a comment on it, but so far nothing has appeared, so I'm adding this extra post. I based the cover on the Yugoslavian picture sleeve of his 1968 single 'Marianne', and I had to do quite a bit of tidying up, removing the name of the two songs on it and replacing them with the title of the album, and then trying to clean up the creases and faded parts of the cover. This took a while, and I was really pleased with the result, as I liked the concept and the picture that was used. About a week later I readied the post, uploaded the cover, gave it one last check over, and only then thought to myself, why are there two 'L's in Cliff!!!! This wasn't me, as here is the cover on Discogs, so it was sold like this, and now I know it I just can't un-see it, but did anyone else spot it?

Luckily I noticed it in time to add a corrected version to the folder, but how did I work so closely on this for about an hour and not see such a massive typo?

Fleetwood Mac - Kiln House (1970)

By the time that Fleetwood Mac came to record their fourth studio album, major upheavals had occurred which would affect the group for the rest of their career. The main one was that Peter Green left the band in May 1970, following an LSD experience in March during a tour of Germany, which changed his outlook on life so much that he left the band that he'd formed. The rest of the group decided to carry on as a four-piece, and started recording sessions for their next album, titled 'Kiln House', after the name of a converted Oast house in Hampshire where the band and their families lived for a six-month period in 1970. Although Jeremy Spencer sat out for the previous album 'Then Play On', he played a much more active role during these sessions, with his retro 1950's homages and parodies dominating the album, and because these have always been my least favourite songs from their live concerts and BBC sessions, it makes 'Kiln House' the album that I return to less than any other. To help out with the recordings, Christine Perfect contributed backing vocals, keyboards and painted the cover art, although she was not a full member of the band until shortly after the album's completion. A comment by swboy prompted me to do something about this (although not exactly as their suggestion, but hopefully along the right lines), and make 'Kiln House' a more palatable album to my ears, so we have to make a few assumptions first. As Jeremy Spencer had contributed very little to 'Then Play On', and left immediately after 'Kiln House', let's assume that he'd already left by the time the sessions started, and as Christine Perfect joined the band immediately after 'Kiln House', her official joining can be brought forward to before recording started rather than after. Peter Green left in May 1970, but in April he'd recorded two songs which were issued as a single the following month, and as happened quite often at that time, both sides of 'The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown)' and the Green/Kirwan instrumental 'World In Harmony' could have been added to the next album. Also in May the band taped an otherwise un-recorded Green song 'Sandy Mary' for the BBC, with Danny Kirwan taking lead vocals, as well as recording one of his originals 'Only You'. As Christine Perfect was now a full member of the group, it's possible that she would have been granted a lead vocal to welcome her, and 'Down At The Crown' and 'Crazy About You (Can't Hold Out Much Longer)' were both recorded for the BBC in late 1970, with Kirwan and Perfect sharing the vocals on the former, so as they were never subsequently recorded in the studio they could be added to the tracklisting. If we then remove all of Jeremy Spencer's 50's pastiche songs and replace them with the BBC sessions and both sides of the May single we end up with a much more consistent album, which I think I will end up playing more than the original.   

Track listing

01 The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown)
02 Station Man
03 Crazy About You (Can't Hold Out Much Longer)
04 World In Harmony
05 Sandy Mary
06 Jewel Eyed Judy
07 Earl Gray
08 Down At The Crown
09 Tell Me All The Things You Do
10 Only You

Welcome back

As the previous blog has been deleted for providing links to the albums I compiled, I'm reinstating it, but this time without the links, and instead I'm storing the music on Soulseek. This may take some time so bear with me. In many cases these albums can be made up by searching out the songs on Youtube while you are waiting. Alternately your can access the cached site by searching 'albumsiwishexisted november 2020' (or whatever month you want) and dropping down the tab on the right for 'cached', and hopefully you can search from there, and links are still live

Posts have now been reinstated in roughly the same order as they were originally posted, and I'll start storing the music on Soulseek from the most recent post backwards. With over 700 posts this is going to take quite a while, but new posts will be available at the time of the post. 

Peter Frampton - ...and on guitar (1975)

Peter Kenneth Frampton was born on 22 April 1950, and first became interested in music when he was seven years old, having discovered his grandmother's banjolele in the attic, and teaching himself to play it, going on to later teach himself guitar and piano as well. His early influences were Cliff Richard & the Shadows, especially guitarist Hank Marvin, and American rockers Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran. By the age of 12 he was playing in The Little Ravens, while both he and David Bowie, who was three years older, were pupils at Bromley Technical School, where his father Owen Frampton was Bowie's art instructor. By the age of 14 he was playing with The Trubeats, followed by The Preachers, who were produced and managed by Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones. In 1966 he became a member of the Herd, where he was the lead guitarist and singer, and the band scored several British hit singles, at the same time as Frampton was named 'The Face of 1968' by teen magazine Rave. In 1969, while still only 18 years old, he joined with recently departed Small Faces guitarist Steve Marriott to form Humble Pie, going on to record one live and four studio albums with them, and while playing with Humble Pie he also did session recordings with other artists, including Harry Nilsson (and his alter ego Buck Earl for the 'I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City' single), John Entwistle, Andy Bown, Lon & Derrek Van Eaton and Suzi Quatro. Frampton left Humble Pie in 1971 and embarked on a solo career, with his debut album 'Wind Of Change' coming out in 1972, and featuring guest artists Ringo Starr and Billy Preston. This was followed by 'Frampton's Camel' in 1973, which featured Frampton working within a group project, then 'Something's Happening' in 1974, and 'Frampton' in 1975.

He had little commercial success with his early albums, but this all changed when he released his live album 'Frampton Comes Alive' in 1976, from which the hit singles 'Baby, I Love Your Way' and 'Show Me The Way' were extracted, and the album was on the Billboard 200 for 97 weeks, of which 55 were in the top 40, and 10 were at the top, becoming the best selling album of 1976. His following-up 'I'm In You' contained the hit title single and went platinum, but fell well short of expectations compared to its predecessor, with all subsequent releases being unfavourably compared to that high-point. Frampton suffered a near-fatal car accident in the Bahamas in 1978 which marked the end of this prolific period of his career, returning to the studio in 1979 to record the album 'Where I Should Be', and releasing records fairly regularly since then. Although his albums generally met with little commercial success, he achieved a brief, moderate comeback of sorts in 1986 with the release of his 'Premonition' album, and the single 'Lying' was a big hit on the mainstream rock charts. His heyday, though, was undoubtedly the early to mid 70's, not only with his own albums, but also with guest appearances on records by fellow artists. The Johnny Halliday track has an interesting story, as by the end of 1968 the original Small Faces were in the middle of breaking up, with Steve Marriott going on to form Humble Pie, and the rest of the band morphing into The Faces. In late December the group were asked to collaborate with French pop legend Johnny Halliday on an album that was to showcase his attempt at hard-rock, and Marriott dragged his chum Frampton along to the recording sessions. Marriott and Lane donated three songs to the project, two of which were later recorded by Humble Pie under different titles, so this track is something of a curiosity to start this showcase of Peter Frampton's guest appearances in the first half of the 1970's.

  

Track listing

01 Regarde Pour Moi (from 'Riviere Ouvre Ton Lit' by Johnny Halliday 1969)
02 Girl From Denver (from 'Don't Freak Me Out' by Jimmy Stevens 1972)
03 The Blues In England (from 'Feel Your Groove' by Ben Sidran 1971)
04 Open Your Eyes (from' Gone To My Head' by Andy Bown 1972)
05 Sweet Music (single by Lon & Derrek Van Eaton 1972)
06 Rolling Stone (single by Suzi Quatro 1972)
07 I Guess The Lord Must Be Tn New York City (single by Buck Earl 1972)
08 Perfection (from 'Painted Head' by Tim Hardin 1973)
09 Ten Little Friends (from 'Whistle Rymes' by John Entwistle 1972)
10 Life Goes On (from 'Essence To Essence' by Donovan 1973)
11 Celebration (from 'First Of The Big Bands' by Tony Ashton & Jon Lord 1974)
12 The Serf (from 'Everything Changes' by Leslie Duncan 1974)
13 Daybreak (from 'Son Of Dracula' by Harry Nilsson 1974)
14 Slow Down (from 'Get Off Of My Cloud' by Alexis Korner 1975)

Kaleidoscope - A Dream For Julie (1971)

Having performed since 1963 under the name The Sidekicks, the band changed their name to The Key in November 1965, before settling on the name Kaleidoscope when they signed a deal with Fontana Records in January 1967. The group originally consisted of Eddy Pumer on guitar, Steve Clark on bass and flute, and Danny Bridgman on drums, and vocalist Peter Daltrey, who also played organ, and joined the band in March 1964. Most of their songs were Pumer/Daltrey originals, with their first single 'Flight From Ashiya'/'Holidaymaker' being released in September 1967, quickly followed by the band's debut album 'Tangerine Dream' four months later. The single got quite a bit of radio airplay but failed to reach the charts, and so a new single was released in 1968, with neither side of 'Jenny Artichoke'/'Just How Much You Are' being taken from the album, but despite being a particularly catchy number, it also failed to chart. Their second album 'Faintly Blowing' was released  in 1969, and this time the band’s sound was heavier, although the tracks still included psychedelic elements with notably fairy-tale lyrics, but once again it failed to reach the charts. After the failure of 'Faintly Blowing', they released two more singles which were songs by other writers and, after a radio session in BBC Maida Vale Studios, the band never again appeared as Kaleidoscope. By the end of the decade, with the failure of their last single 'Balloon' still hanging over them, the band moved on with their new manager, DJ David Symonds, and re-emerged with the same lime-up as Fairfield Parlour. Despite the fact that they were now being called a progressive rock band, their music didn’t change much and still included fairy-tale lyrics with psychedelic harmony vocal. The band’s first single as Fairfield Parlour was 'Bordeaux Rose', which was released in April 1970 on the legendary Vertigo label, and despite the fact that it got a considerable amount of radio airplay, it fared no better chart-wise than their previous incarnation. After releasing a couple more singles, the band issued the 'From Home To Home' album in August 1970, and at the same time as they were heavily involved in this, they were asked to record the theme tune for the Isle of Wight Festival, 'Let the World Wash In', and so as not to detract from the album release they recorded and released two songs under the name of I Luv Wight, although they did open the festival as Fairfield Parlour. 

The band’s second album was 'White Faced Lady', which they financed independently and recorded in Morgan Studios in London, but attempts at finding a record company to issue it failed and the album was shelved until 1991, when it was released under the name Kaleidoscope on their own label. Despite their lack of commercial success at the time, Kaleidoscope's reputation has grown enormously over the intervening years, and they are now acknowledged as one of the finest UK psychedelic bands of all time, with original copies of their poorly-selling albums changing hands for huge sums. As both bands had the same line-up, I'm combining them for this post, and as they released so many non-album songs under both band names, there is easily enough rare material to put together a stunning album, which both celebrates and enhances the reputation of a group that it took half a lifetime to be appreciated for the ground-breaking band that they were. Some of these songs were only ever played on Top Of The Pops, and therefore suffered that bane of music-lovers everywhere, the DJ talking over the intro, so I've painstakingly patched them so that we now have complete versions of the songs, and hopefully you can't spot the joins.    

Track listing
                  
01 A Dream For Julie (single 1968) 
02 Jenny Artichoke (single 1968)
03 Just How Much You Are (b-side of 'Jenny Artichoke')
04 Balloon (single 1969)
05 Do It Again For Jeffrey (single 1969)
06 Jump In My Boat (from Top Of The Pops 1969)
07 Let The World Wash In (single as I Luv Wight 1970) 
08 Mediaeval Masquerade (b-side of 'Let The World Wash In')
09 Just Another Day (single as Fairfield Parlour 1970)
10 Caraminda (b-side of 'Just Another Day' single as Fairfield Parlour 1970)
11 Song For You (b-side of 'Just Another Day' single as Fairfield Parlour 1970)
12 I Am All The Animals (b-side of 'Just Another Day' single as Fairfield Parlour 1970)
13 Baby, Stay For Tonight (as Fairfield Parlour, previously unreleased)
14 Eye Witness (as Fairfield Parlour, from the soundtrack of the film 'Eyewitness' 1970) 
15 Long Way Down (as Fairfield Parlour, from Top Of The Pops 1971)
16 Diary Song (as Fairfield Parlour, from Top Of The Pops 1971)
17 The Matchseller (as Fairfield Parlour, from Top Of The Pops 1971)

Cliff Richard - Reflections (1970)

For the next collection of singles and b-sides we're looking at the years 1968 to 1970, and once again there are enough non-album tracks to put together a superb album. There were a few of the singles that I wasn't that familiar with, which was even better for me as it made it sound like an actual album rather than just a collection of random recordings. Nearly all of the songs made it this time, as there were only a couple that didn't really fit with the reflective mood of the album, hence the title.   

Track listing

01 Good Times (Better Times) (single 1969)
02 Occasional Rain (b-side of 'Good Times (Better Times)')
03 What's More (I Don't Need Her) (b-side of 'Don't Forget To Catch Me' 1968)
04 Mr. Nice (b-side of 'Marianne')
05 Marianne (single 1968)
06 Big Ship (single 1969)
07 She's Leaving You (b-side of 'Big Ship')
08 Throw Down A Line (single with Hank Marvin 1969) 
09 Reflections (b-side of 'Throw Down A Line')
10 With The Eyes Of A Child  (single 1969)
11 So Long (b-side of 'With The Eyes Of A Child')
12 The Joy Of Living (single with Hank Marvin 1970) 
13 I Ain't Got Time Anymore (single 1970) 
14 Monday Comes Too Soon (b-side of 'I Ain't Got Time Anymore')
15 Goodbye Sam, Hello Samantha (single 1970)

Have A Swinging Christmas 2020

We need some cheering up after one of the worst years we've ever lived through, so as an alternative to the usual Christmas songs that we're inundated with, here's a selection of Christmas tunes from my favourite jazz artists. I've tried to go for the less obvious song choices, so no 'Jingle Bells' or 'Silent Night', although I have topped and tailed it with two different approaches to 'White Christmas'. Even if you're not that much into jazz then do give it a try as you'll probably find a few tracks that will appeal, and you never know, it might turn you on to a new genre of music that you hadn't appreciated before. The artists that I've chosen are among my all-time favourite jazz musicians, and although I'd loved to have included something by Thelonious Monk, he never recorded a Christmas tune, although he did write a couple, so Benny Green's version of his 'Christmas Wonderland' is a fine replacement.

Merry Christmas  

Track listing

01 White Christmas - Charlie Parker Quintet 
02 Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Duke Pearson
03 The Christmas Song - Dexter Gordon Quartet
04 Winter Wonderland - Bobby Timmons
05 We Free Kings - Roland Kirk
06 Snowfall - Ahmad Jamal
07 Blue Christmas - Miles Davis
08 Christmas Blues - Ramsey Lewis Trio
09 Christmas Wonderland (Monk) - Benny Green
10 Winter Wonderland - Chet Baker
11 Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Bill Evans
12 Greensleeves - John Coltrane
13 Skating - Vince Guaraldi
14 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Jimmy Smith
15 White Christmas - Kenny Burrell

Curved Air - Thinking On The Floor (1976)

In 1969 violinist Darryl Way and keyboardists Francis Monkman formed Sisyphus, along with pianist Nick Simon, bassist Rob Martin and drummer Florian Pilkington-Miksa, and one early gig was to provide accompaniment for Galt McDermott's new play, 'Who The Murderer Was', at the Mercury Theatre in Notting Hill Gate. Mark Hanau, an aspiring band manager at the time, saw the show and decided he wanted to manage the group, installing aspiring folk singer Sonja Kristina as the vocalist, and changing their name to Curved Air, in a tribute to Terry Riley's classic album 'A Rainbow In Curved Air'. After a series of intensive rehearsals in Martin's family home in Gloucestershire, the band supported Black Sabbath on a well-received U.K. tour, and in 1970 they signed with Warner Bros., becoming the first British band on the company's roster. Their debut album 'Air Conditioning' was released in November, and was notable for being issued as the first commercially available picture disc LP in the UK, reaching number 8 in the UK Albums Chart. In 1971 the band released 'Back Street Luv' as a single, reaching number 4 in the UK Singles Chart, and becoming their most successful single. The imaginatively title 'The Second Album' peaked at number 11, but the non-album single 'Sarah's Concern' slipped by unnoticed. By the time of their third album 'Phantasmagoria' serious musical differences within the band had emerged, particularly between Way and Monkman, to the extent that the music on 'The Second Album' and 'Phantasmagoria' was split between Way on side A and Monkman on side B. Following the release of 'Phantasmagoria' the band split up, with Way forming Darryl Way's Wolf, Pilkington-Miksa joining Kiki Dee's band, and Monkman moving into session work, and later joining the supergroup Sky. Having retained a good working relationship, Sonja Kristina and Mike Wedgwood formed a new band with Kirby Gregory on electric guitar, Eddie Jobson on keyboards and violin, and Jim Russell on drums, and the second incarnation of Curved Air was born. While the band had much less friction than before, their sole album, 1973's 'Air Cut', failed to chart, and not long after its release Jobson was asked to replace Brian Eno in Roxy Music, and both Gregory and Russell also left to form Stretch, while Sonja Kristina recorded a demo tape for Warner Brothers, who ungratefully decided to terminate her contract. 

In 1974 Chrysalis sued the band, accusing them of breaking their contact, and that same year they had a huge unpaid VAT bill to pay, and so Kristina, Way, Monkman, and Pilkington-Miksa reunited for a three-week tour of the UK, adding Phil Kohn to provide bass duties, and the tour raised enough money to pay off the tax bill.  With their debts paid, Monkman and Pilkington-Miksa had no more reason to remain in the band, and so Curved Air broke up for the third time in as many years. However, Darryl Way wanted to continue Curved Air with Sonja Kristina, and so brought in two members of his previous band, guitarist Mick Jacques and drummer Stewart Copeland, and the new band employed the same classical and folk influences as the original incarnation, playing now classic Curved Air songs at their shows. Their studio efforts were another story, however, with the recording sessions for 1975's 'Midnight Wire' and 1976's 'Airborne' being expensive and highly stressful for everyone involved, and neither album had any chart success. Citing dissatisfaction with BTM Records' ability to support the band financially, Way left the group, and following one last single, a cover of 'Baby Please Don't Go', they broke up for the last time. Copeland went on to drum for The Police, and after maintaining the close personal relationship with Kristina that they'd formed while bandmates, they were married in 1982. Despite their tumultuous career, Curved Air produced some fantastic music, and 'Vivaldi' will always be one of my favourite progressive rock pieces, so this collection takes in non-album singles and b-sides, a couple of foreign language singles, and some BBC sessions, including an extremely rare John Peel session from 1970.   

Track listing

01 What Happens When You Blow Yourself Up (b-side of 'It Happened Today')
02 It Happened Today (single version 1970)
03 Thinking On The Floor (previously unreleased 1970)
04 Hide And Seek (John Peel session 1970)
05 Vivaldi (John Peel session 1970)
06 Screw (John Peel session 1970)
07 Maria Antoinette (French version 1972)
08 Sarah's Concern (single 1972)
09 Young Mother In Style (BBC session 1971)
10 Melinda (More Or Less) (Italian version 1972)
11 Baby Please Don't Go (single 1976)

Misty In Roots - Salvation (1981)

Misty In Roots began life as a Southall-based British roots reggae band in the early 1970's, with their first album 'Live At The Counter Eurovision' appearing in 1979 and being a record full of Biblical Rastafarian songs. It was championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, helping to bring roots reggae to a white audience, and is regarded as one of the best live reggae albums of all time. At this early stage, the band was a collective with five lead singers and various musicians, though by the time of the second album the band had slimmed down to just three members, and along with Steel Pulse and Aswad, Misty in Roots were one of the most popular English reggae bands of the late 70's. They started out as the backing band for the late Nicky Thomas, who was one of Jamaica's most famous artists, and who had UK chart success with his 'Living In The Love Of The Common People'. By 1978 the band began to develop their own orthodox roots reggae sound, and their powerful lyrics were inspired by spiraling economic decline, a growing awareness of their African culture, and a spiritual awakening, at a time where the political situation in the U.K. was at a breaking point. Unemployment was affecting both black and white youths, and through this depression a new musical alliance was born, with young white youths turning to playing punk music, whilst at the same time identifying strongly with British reggae acts such as Misty In Roots, Steel Pulse and Aswad. Following the critical success of the live album, the band released a string of limited edition singles on their own People Unite label, such as 'Oh Wicked Man', 'See Them Ah Come', and 'Rich Man', often featuring extended takes on the 12" versions. The band’s second album 'Wise And Foolish' was released in 1982 and took on a more mellow, soulful tone, and in their determination to remain independent the band spent the next nine months in Zimbabwe and Zambia, re-discovering their roots. This resulted in their next two albums, 1983's 'Earth' and 1985's 'Musi-O-Tunya', being directly inspired by their experiences in Africa. In 1989 they signed to Kaz Records, and released the 'Forward' album to some success, but despite continuing to tour to appreciative crowds, this was to be their last record. As mentioned earlier, many of the singles they released were limited edition, non-album tracks, but as they were always the equal of anything from their long-players they cannot be ignored, and so I've collected them here, sometimes in extended form, or segued with the dub version, to highlight just why Misty In Roots are considered one of the best UK reggae bands of all time. 

Track listing

01 Six One Penny (single 1978)
02 Oh Wicked Man (single 1978)
03 See Them Ah Come (single 1979)
04 How Long Jah (b-side of 'See Them Ah Come')
05 Rich Man (single 1979, plus dub)
06 Salvation (b-side of 'Rich Man')
07 Zapatta, Viva Zapatta (single 1980, plus b-side)
08 Wandering Wanderer (single 1981)
09 Cry Out For Peace (b-side of 'Wandering Wanderer')

As this post has proved to be quite popular, here's a little bonus