"Fireball: 25th Anniversary Edition" by DEEP PURPLE from 1971 (October 1996 EMI 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue – Peter Mew/Roger Glover Remaster/Remix) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"…Everything's Good…Everything's Fine…"

There can’t be many men of a certain age who look at the cover of this album with our five hairy reprobates fireballing it upwards into some kind of galactic Hard Rock nirvana beyond – and feel a warm glow of riffage coming over their pacemakers. Deep Purple’s “Fireball” – even the name makes me tingle. And this rather cool and cheap little CD reissue featuring the classic Mark II line-up of the band will only make that itch to annoy the neighbours even more tempting. Let’s detail the stubborn mule, the judge’s daughter and the demon’s eye…

UK released October 1996 - "Fireball: 25th Anniversary Edition" by DEEP PURPLE on EMI CDDEEPP 2 (Barcode 724385371127) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster that plays out as follows (78:46 minutes): 

1. Fireball [Side 1]

2. No No No

3. Demon's Eye

4. Anyone's Daughter

5. The Mule [Side 2]

6. Fools

7. No One Came

Tracks 1 to 7 make up the studio album "Fireball" - originally released September 1971 in the UK on Harvest SHVL 793 and August 1971 in the USA on Warner Brothers BS 2564 with a different track list on Side 1. Replacing "Demon's Eye" as track 3 is "Strange Kind Of Woman" – a song that was issued only as a 7" single in the UK on Harvest HAR 5033 in February 1971 (see also 9 for its non-album B-side).

BONUS TRACKS: 

8. Strange Kind Of Woman - A-Side Remix 96

9. I'm Alone – the non-album B-side of "Strange Kind Of Woman" released as a 7" single in the UK 12 February 1971 on Harvest HAR 5033

10. Freedom – an Album outtake

11. Slow Train – an Album outtake

12. Demon's Eye (Remix 96)

13. "The Noise Abatement Society Tapes – Midnight In Moscow, Robin Hood, William Tell"

14. Fireball Take 1 (Instrumental)

15. Backwards Piano

16. No One Came (Remix 96)

With a total playing time of 78:46 minutes – you certainly get value for money and the outer stippled-effect card slipcase mimics the feel of the original gatefold album cover (a nice touch). The 28-page booklet is jam-packed with insider info and track-by-track reminiscences from vocalist Ian Gillan, Jon Lord, Roger Glover and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. There are superb foreign picture sleeves, in the studio photos and even Glover’s hand-drawn original artwork ideas. All of it is held together with enthusiastic liners notes from SIMON ROBINSON with involvement from the DPAS (Deep Purple Appreciation Society). Rather oddly though for such a thorough release – UK and American copies of the original vinyl LP came with a gatefold lyric insert which isn’t reproduced here…

But that niggle aside - the big news here is a fantastic new remaster done by tape supremo PETER MEW (with care) at Abbey Road that thrashes the horrible Eighties CD fans have had to live with for years now. This disc rocks with real muscle and clarity. And the extras are actually worthy of the moniker ‘bonus’.

With only seven tracks and some of them soft in the centre (“Fools”) – the press reaction wasn’t all favourable despite the album’s rapid assent to Number 1 on the UK charts in September 1971 and a healthy Number 30 placing in the USA. No matter what the critics thought – fans of Mark II Deep Purple have always loved it – sandwiched between the barnstorming “In Rock” from 1970 and the accomplished “Machine Head” in 1972.

It opens with a total barnstormer – the title track “Fireball” – hitting you with the rampant Hard Rock impact of “Immigrant Song” on Side 1 of 1970’s “Led Zeppelin III”. Not surprising then that their seventh UK single saw ”Fireball” released 25 October 1971 on Harvest HAR 5045 with the album’s “Demon’s Eye” on its B-side. I love “Demon’s Eye” – a great Purple song with that funky Rock swagger they had. “No No No” has that same sexy feel while the naughty lyrics to “Anyone’s Daughter” has always brought a smile to my face (“hairy bums”). 

Side 2 opens with the trademark slashing of Blackmore on “The Mule” before it settles down into a keyboard/guitar duo groove. And although it divided people on release – I like the way “Fools” slows down into an almost operatic centrepiece before returning to the opening riff. The album ends with “No One Came” – a thudding Purple tune with Gillian letting it rip vocally. The two album outtakes “Freedom” and “Slow Train” are shockingly good and why they weren’t used as a B-side to say “Fireball” is anyone’s guess. The “Noise Abatement Tapes” is an instrumental amble with witty inclusions of Robin Hood and William Tell. The ’96 remixes of “Strange Kind Of Woman” and “No One Came” don’t do too much altering damage – just giving extra muscle to the overall sonic impact. Nice…

The Purps – don’t you just love ‘em. “Man you’re music is really hot!” Gillan jokes on “No One Came”. Yet it was – and now it’s even better… 

"X In Search Of Space" [aka "In Search Of Space'] by HAWKWIND (August 2001 Parlophone 'Expanded Edition' CD with a 1996 Peter Mew/Paul Cobbold Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...The Immaculate Void..." 

Mind-expanding riffage - altered states of consciousness – temptress dancing ample bosom overload (you go Stacia)... 

Oh yes folks - it can only be Hawkwind's second album "X In Search Of Space" - or as Pete Townshend and I know it nowadays - "In Search Of My Eardrums".

It's March 2017 - and as the sun beats down on the beardy environs of my aspirational address (I live in Walthamstow - cue smug grin and unwarranted touching of private parts) - I can still remember the visual and aural impact of this LP in the autumn of 1971 – closing on an astonishing 46 years back (where has the time gone Bob).

Hawkwind's most famous platter featuring the classic Dave Brock, Nik Turner and Bob Calvert line up arrived early October 1971 and sat rather uncomfortably beside John Lennon's "Imagine" - released that same week in the UK. Talk about musical differences. The only thing that connected them was perhaps all that clever packaging...it worked...I bought both. But before I did - an earful first...

I remember folding out the beautiful interlocking cover of "X In Search Of Space" in Pat Egan's Sound Cellar (in Dublin) with its United Artists LP inside and a strange looking mini comic book sat on top. I remember wondering at all the squared colour photos of six very hairy men (one or two with painted faces) and the intergalactic lyrics and the dancing blurred woman on the back with quite possible not a lot on (so hard now to find a vinyl original with the doors sleeve still intact nowadays). I also remember looking at 'The Hawkwind Log' Book - trying to make sense of its cosmic gobbledygook and strange black and white images of cartoon rockets to Andromeda, a Summer Solstice Stonehenge in silhouette, elliptical galaxies in Leo, third-eye hippies dancing around fields and sitting on tree trunks with a flute in their hands and a suspicious smile on their faces.

And what was all this karmic-knob about 'stellar worlds and microcosms of the absolute'. But then I remember something else - the needle hitting the groove for the sixteen-minute "You Shouldn't Do That" – the build up followed by that wall of guitars – that sound – that fantastic drone – almost a new variant of Kraut Rock. It was undeniably hooky and mesmerising. Space Rock (British style) had arrived in everyone’s lives.

Which brings us via Nebula Minor, Zodiac Major and Druggy Loads to this rather brill little CD reissue. Here are the Masters of the Universe...

UK released August 2001 - "X In Search Of Space" [aka "In Search Of Space"] by HAWKWIND on Parlophone 530 0302 (Barcode 724353003029) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD with Three Bonus Tracks (using a 1996 Remaster) that breaks down as follows (57:42 minutes):

1. You Shouldn't Do That [Side 1]

2. You Know You're Only Dreaming

3. Master Of The Universe [Side 2]

4. We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago

5. Adjust Me

6. Children Of The Sun

Tracks 1 to 6 are their second studio album "X In Search Of Space" - released October 1971 in the UK on United Artists UAG 29202 and April 1972 in the USA on United Artists UAS 5567. Produced by Hawkwind and George Chkiantz - it peaked at No 18 in the UK (didn't chart USA).

BONUS TRACKS:

7. Seven By Seven (Original Single Version)

8. Silver Machine (Original Single Version)

9. Born To Go (Live Single version Edit)

Tracks 8 and 7 are the A&B-sides of a non-album UK 7" single released June 1972 on United Artists UP 35381. The A-side "Silver Machine" was recorded live 13 February 1972 at The Roundhouse in London - the studio track B-side "Seven By Seven" was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales. Track 9 "Born To Go" (Live) is from the Various Artists 2LP set "The Greasy Truckers Party" on United Artists that featured Hawkwind. This 7" single B-side was issued 1973 in Germany on United Artists UA 35 492 - the A-side being "Lord Of Light" from the "Doremi Fasol Latido" LP in 1972.

HAWKWIND was:

NIK TURNER – Alto Saxophone, Flute, Audio Generator and Lead Vocals

DAVE BROCK – Vocals, Electric, Acoustic 6 and 12-string Guitars and Audio Generator

DAVE ANDERSON Bass, Electric and Acoustic 6-String Guitars

DEL DETTMAR – Synthesiser

TERRY OLLIS – Drums and Percussion

DIK MIK – Audio Generator

The substantial 24-page booklet is actually both fab and a frustrating thing. Good stuff - it offers brill period photos of the five-piece, Fanzine addresses for this most cultish of bands, the rare picture sleeve to the June 1972 breakthrough 7" single "Silver Machine", flyers from 60p benefit gigs in Margate, posters of Hawkwind supporting Polydor's Arthur Brown and Kingdom Come, Blue Horizon's Duster Bennett, Harvest's Tea & Symphony, RCA's Brewer's Droop, Neon's Indian Summer and a band as yet unsigned to EMI - Queen. There are beautiful and incredibly rare gig posters from Dunstable Civic Hall, Aldermaston Peace Festival in colour and the whole of the rare logbook that came with British original copies in all its mad glory (black and white) even if the print is tiny and just about readable in places (mostly not). If it looks so great - why moan? Apart from reissue credits - there are no new liner notes and the lyrics aren't here. If ever an album deserved an essay and its words - it's this one. When you think of the huge influence "X In Search Of Space" has had on Stoner rock and even the Kraut sound of say Neu! – bit of a damn shame someone didn't throw a few lines of appreciation and context together. Discussion on the album title – is it "X In Search Of Space" as it says on the cover art - or "In Search Of Space" as it says on the label and is more commonly known? I go by the cover art...

The picture CD uses the black and silver Hawkwind image on the 1978 and 1982 reissues of "Silver Machine" - a nice touch – and there’s a suitably beautiful Universe photo beneath the see-through CD tray. But the big news is a PETER MEW and PAUL COBBOLD Remaster with Tape assistance from Nigel Reeves done at Abbey Road. This sucker rocks and of course if ever an album cried out for a bit of Audio muscle - then it's this one - a nice job done.

Side 1 is dominated by the sixteen-minute drone of "You Shouldn't Do That" which spends about one and half minutes launching - building and building until it hammers you with that Bass and Guitar wall of sound - Space Rock - all Alto Sax and 'Ssssh' chanting about hair and getting nowhere. Even now it gives me a kick in the unmentionables and I'm transported back to my bedroom with Rory Gallagher, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple on the wall and my trusty Garrard SP25 worrying my poor parents and their fragile post 60ts nerves. Side 1's other interplanetary occupant is the near seven-minute "You Know You're Only Dreaming" – no real tune – just more of the same endless guitar solos as spacey flute noises float in and out over random Bass plucking - wonderful.

A huge fan fave – the grungy riffage of "Masters Of The Universe" that opens Side 2 with an aural wallop may indeed define the band more so than "Silver Machine" – Brock singing about being the centre of the Universe and the world is just a figment of his mind (know what you mean man). But then - just as you think you have the Hawk Lords nailed – know their sound and they can’t surprise you – Dave & Co. clobber you with the beautiful and even moving ballad "We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago". Like an acoustic moment on a Zeppelin LP - the song sails it amidst gull cries, acoustic guitars and an aching lyric about warnings and scriptures in the sand that need heeding, Nature is trying to warn us of impending ecological doom (isn't it always) - but will we listen?

"Adjust Me" returns us to travels outside our solar system - electric guitars and treated saxophone notes fronted by a singer's voice that increases in speed and madness. "X In Search Of Space" ends on the suitably doom-laden "Children Of The Sun" which talks about our inheritance amidst cymbal crashes and building guitars - acoustic first then electric. Like "We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago" - I think it's one of the album's strongest tracks and one that's forgotten these days.

"Silver Machine" was recorded live in February 1972 at The Roundhouse in London and launched on the world in June with the non-album studio cut "Seven By Seven" on the flipside. Amazingly its droning wall of sound caught the public's imagination and was rewarded with a No. 3 placing on the British singles charts. In fact "Silver Machine" has had extraordinary legs ever since - reissued no less than three more times (1976, 1978 and 1982) where it charted again in both 1978 (No. 34) and in 1982 (no. 67). Actually I prefer the more musical "Seven By Seven" song - maybe not such an obvious hit - but a riff that would have fitted nicely onto the end of Side 1.

"X in Search Of Space" is very much of its 1971 time and some in 2017 will raise an eyebrow and check your pulse should you declare it a masterpiece. But despite all the Space Mystic mumbo-jumbo - I look at Hawkwind's seminal monster with huge affection. An album from a time when all things seemed possible and we were just that bit genuinely out there without being lost or damaged. All this and drifting two-dimensional spaceships on a CD for under a sky-diver (nice one boys)...

"Taking Some Time On – The Parlophone-Harvest Years (1968-73)" by BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST (2011 EMI/Harvest 5CD Box Set) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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Featuring the 1971 Album "Once Again" on Harvest Records

"…Come On Let's Get Together…"

UK released 18 July 2011 - "Taking Some Time On: The Parlophone-Harvest Years (1968-73)" by BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST features 69-tracks across 5CDs and is housed in a double jewel case (with fold-out flaps on the inside for some of the discs). Here's a detailed breakdown of EMI/Harvest 5099908378826 (SHTW 802)…

Disc 1 (60:56 minutes)

Tracks 1 & 2 are "Early Morning" and "Mr. Sunshine" – the non-album A&B-sides of the band’s debut UK 7” single released 26 April 1969 on Parlophone R 5693

3. So Tomorrow

4. Eden Unobtainable

5. Eden Unobtainable (May 1968 Version)

Tracks 3 to 5 are a 'BBC Top Gear Session' recorded live 23 April 1968

6. Night

7. Pools Of Blue

8. Need You Oh So Bad

9. Small Time Town

10. Dark Now My Sky

Tracks 6 to 10 are a 'BBC Top Gear Session' recorded live 30 July 1968

Tracks 11 and 12 are "Brother Thrush" and "Poor Wages" – the non-album A&B-sides of their 2nd UK single on Harvest HAR 5003 (released 20 June 1969)

Track 13 is "Mocking Bird" (May 1970 version at 6:17 minutes)

[Another version at 6:39 minutes is on the "Once Again" album on Disc 2]

14. Taking Some Time ON

15. Mother Dear

16. The Sun Will Never Shine

17. When The World Was Woken

Tracks 14 to 17 are Side 1 of their debut LP "Their First Album" released 5 June 1970 in the UK on Harvest SHVL 770

Disc 2 (62:42 minutes):

1. Good Love Child

2. The Iron Maiden

3. Dark Now My Sky

Tracks 1 to 3 are Side 2 of "Their First Album" (as per 14 to 17 on Disc 1)

Track 4 "I Can’t Go On Without You" was a 'Bonus Track' on the expanded 2002 CD of "Their First Album"

5. She Said

6. Happy Old World

7. Song For Dying

8. Galadriel

9. Mocking Bird

10. Vanessa Simmons

11. Ball And Chain

12. Lady Loves

Tracks 5 to 12 are their 2nd album "Once Again" released 5 February 1971 in the UK on Harvest SHVL 788

Disc 3 (66:39 minutes):

1. Introduction-White Sails (A Seascape)

2. Too Much On Your Plate

3. Galadriel (Non Orchestral Version)

4. Happy Old World (Take One)

5. Song For Dying (Full Un-edited Version)

6. Mocking Bird (Extended Non-Orchestral Version)

7. Dark Now My Sky (Live March 1971)

Tracks 1 to 7 are bonus tracks on the CD of "Once Again"

8. Galadriel

9. She Said

10. Someone There You Know

11. Ursula (The Swansea Song)

12. Medicine Man

Tracks 8 to 12 are a 'Bob Harris Session' recorded for the BBC on 29 June 1971

Disc 4 (67:06 minutes):

1. Medicine Man

2. Someone There You Know

3. Harry’s Song

4. Ursula (The Swansea Song)

5. Little Lapwing

6. Song With No Meaning

7. Blue John’s Blues

8. The Poet

9. After The Day

Tracks 1 to 9 are their 3rd album "And Other Short Stories" released 5 November 1971 in the UK on Harvest SHVL 794

Track 10 is "Brave New World (Demo Version)" – a bonus track on the "And Other Short Stories" CD of 2002

Track 11 is "Child Of Man" recorded for a 'Bob Harris Session' on 15 March 1972

Tracks 12 and 13 are "I'm Over You" and "Child Of Man" – the non-album A&B-sides of a UK 7” single released 28 April 1972 on Harvest HAR 5051

Tracks 14 and 15 are "Breathless" and "When The City Sleeps" (with the band credited as BOMBADIL) – the A&B-sides of a UK 7" single released 29 September 1971 on Harvest HAR 5056

Track 16 is "Medicine Man" – released 20 October 1972 as the non-album B-side of "Thank You" on Harvest HAR 5058

Disc 5 (60:41 minutes):

1. One Hundred Thousand Smiles Out

2. Delph Town Morn

3. Summer Soldier

Tracks 1 to 3 are a 'Bob Harris Session' for the BBC recorded 9 October 1972

4. Crazy Over (You)

5. Delph Town Morn

6. Summer Soldier

7. Thank You

8. One Hundred Thousand Smiles Out

9. Moonwater

Tracks 4 to 9 are their 4th LP "Baby James Harvest" released 10 November 1972 in the UK on Harvest SHSP 4023

Track 10 is "Thank You (Alternate Version)" is a bonus track on the 2002 expanded CD of "Baby James Harvest"

Track 11 and 12 are "Rock And Roll Woman" and "The Joker" – the A&B-sides of a UK 7" single released 4 May 1973 on Harvest HAR 5068

The discs themselves all have the distinctive 'Harvest' label logo and there are pictures of the band beneath the see-through trays (a nice touch). But its also one of those fiddly and easy to break double jewel-cases - so you need to be a tad careful handling it. The booklet has excellent liner notes by MALCOM DOME, but at 12-pages is a fairly slight affair. However it does picture concert tickets, flyers, badges, posters, small shots of the four album sleeves etc…and of course full discography info.

But the really great news is the superb new remastered sound. Done by PETER MEW at Abbey Road Studios, I've praised his exceptional transfer work before (see reviews for the Deluxe Editions of Dr. Feelgood's "Down By The Jetty", David Bowie's "David Bowie", Free's "Fire And Water" and Jethro Tull's "This Was") – here it's the same. The audio is very clear despite the denseness of the instrumentation, powerful without being over-trebled for effect and full of presence. (See the 'tag' marked "Peter Mew Remasters" above this review and it will give you a pictorial of 40 great reissues he’s been involved in).

The music as you can imagine is a mixed bag of the great and the merely good. Comparison-wise BJH were actually hard to pin down (constantly experimenting with their 'sound' as the liner notes explain). The Mellotron gives a song like the lovely "Mocking Bird" a sort Moody Blues feel with a faint hint of Nick Drake's melancholy – while the compilation’s title track "Taking Some Time On" (lyrics above) rocks it up with the best of them (albeit in a very Seventies Prog Rock kind of a way). The early BBC stuff (expertly engineered by the greatly missed BBC engineer and character BERNIE ANDREWS) is tight and impressive. It's all very inviting somehow. And you can feel them inching towards "Time Honoured Ghosts" and "Octoberon" (their popular 1975 and 1976 Polydor LPs) by the time you get to the strings and acoustic bedroom melodrama of "Medicine Man" and "Song With No Meaning" on Disc 4. 

To sum up - die-hard BJH fans will know that the 2002 remasters for the first four LPs - "Their First Album" [aka "Barclay James Harvest"], "Once Again", "And Other Short Stories" and "Baby James Harvest" - are all here along with their large number of bonus tracks (64 songs in total). So there are only 5 new additions. But for the casual buyer however - you get 4 whole albums worth, 5 rare non-album 45s (A&B-sides) and a slew of live BBC Sessions and other rarities. A huge haul in great sound and all at a very reasonable cost…

"The Harvest Years 1969-1973" by EDGAR BROUGHTON BAND (2011 Parlophone/Harvest 4CD Reissue Set with 2004 Peter Mew Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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Featuring the 1971 LP "Edgar Broughton Band" 

"...Out Demons Out..."

Re-listening to Warwick's EDGAR BROUGHTON BAND in 2017 and their five-strong haul of albums between 1969 and 1973 is like hearing two different bands – the first lot are a bunch of imps let loose in the studio with too many Smarties and funny cigarettes - the second is a more reflective trio of grown-up men with beards who’ve woken up to real music and its message to the masses.

The barking-mad and lippy debut "Wasa Wasa" and it’s 1970 follow-up "Sing Brother Sing" remind you of Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica" - both challenging listens with moments of brilliance amidst the lunacy - while the later albums like "Edgar Broughton Band" and especially "In Side Out" show serious songwriting maturity and real depth on top of the wit and snarl of old.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that all their records are hard work in some ways – and portions of the first two albums swerve dangerously close to period-dross that's tough to take no matter how fondly you may remember them. But there's much to love and admire here too - there really is...

This Parlophone/Harvest 4CD Anthology with five full albums, rare non-LP singles and Previously Unreleased live stuff on Disc 4 is seriously great value for money – sounds the aural business (Peter Mew Remasters from Abbey Road done in 2004) and makes available in one easy package incredibly rare British LPs on that darling label of all things Alternative and Prog Rock – England’s Harvest Records. Here are the Homes Fit For Heroes...

UK released January 2011 - "The Harvest Years 1969-1973" by EDGAR BROUGHTON BAND on Parlophone/Harvest 949 4882 (Barcode 5099994948820) is a 4CD Anthology with 2004 Peter Mew Remasters (Six Previously Unreleased Tracks) and plays out as follows:

Disc 1 (74:23 minutes):

1. Death Of An Electric Citizen

2. American Boy Soldier

3. Why Can't Somebody Love Me?

4. Neptune

5. Evil

6. Crying

7. Love In The Rain

8. Dawn Crept Away

Tracks 1 to 8 are their debut album "Wasa Wasa" - released July 1969 in the UK on Harvest SHVL 757.

9. Out Demons Out - Non-Album UK 7" single released April 1970 on Harvest HAR 5015, A-side

10. Up Yours! - Non-Album UK 7" single released May 1970 on Harvest HAR 5021, A-side [B-side is the album track "Officer Dan"]

11. Freedom - Non-Album UK 7" single released November 1970 on Harvest HAR 5032, B-side to "Apache Dropout" - Track 6 on Disc 2

12. There's No Vibrations But Wait!

13. The Moth (a) The Moth (b) People (c) Peter

14. Momma's Reward (Keep Them Freak's A Rollin')

15. Refugee

16. Officer Dan

Tracks 12 to 16 are Side 1 of their 2nd studio album "Sing Brother Sing" - released June 1970 in the UK on Harvest SHVL 772

Disc 2 (74:53 minutes):

1. Old Gopher

2. Aphrodite

3. Granma

4. Psychopath: (A) The Psychopath (B) Is For The Butterflies

5. It's Falling Away

Tracks 1 to 5 are Side 2 of their 2nd studio album "Sing Brother Sing" - released June 1970 in the UK on Harvest SHVL 772

6. Apache Drop Out - Non-Album UK 7" single released November 1970 on Harvest HAR 5032, A-side [B-side "Freedom" is Track 11 on Disc 1]

7. Evening Over Rooftops

8. The Birth

9. Piece Of My Own

10. Poppy

11. Don't Even Know Which Day It Is

12. House Of Turnabout

13. Madhatter

14. Getting Hard/What Is A Woman For?

15. Thinking of You

16. For Dr. Spock (Parts 1 &amp; 2)

17. Call Me A Liar

Tracks 7 to 18 are their 3rd studio album "Edgar Broughton Band" - released May 1971 in the UK on Harvest SHVL 791

Disc 3 (69:15 minutes):

1. Get Out Of Bed/There's Nobody There/Side By Side

2. Sister Angela

3. I Got Mad

4. They Took It Away

5. Homes Fit For Heroes

6. Gone Blue

7. Chilly Morning Mama

8. The Rake

9. Totin' This Guitar

10. Double Agent

11. It's Not You

12. Rock 'n' Roll

Tracks 1 to 12 are their 4th studio album "In Side Out" - released July 1972 in the UK on Harvest SHTC 252

13. Someone - Non-Album 1st B-side on the UK 7" single to "Gone Blue" released March 1972 on Harvest HAR 5049

14. Mr. Crosby - Non-Album 2nd B-side on the UK 7" single to "Gone Blue" released March 1972 on Harvest HAR 5049

15. Hurricane Man/Rock 'n' Roller

16. Roccococooler

17. Eviction

18. Oh You Crazy Boy!

19. Things On My Mind

Tracks 15 to 19 are Side 1 of their fifth studio album "Oora" - released May 1973 in the UK on Harvest SHVL 810.

Disc 4 (65:29 minutes):

1. Exhibits From A New Museum/Green Lights

2. Face From A Window/Pretty/Hi-Jack Boogie/Slow Down

3. Capers

Tracks 1 to 3 are Side 2 of their fifth studio album "Oora" - released May 1973 in the UK on Harvest SHVL 810.

Live At Hyde Park, London, 18 July 1970 (Previously Unreleased)

4. Love In The Rain

5. Silver Needle

6. Drop Out Boogie

7. Refugee

8. American Boy Soldier

9. Out Demons Out

Band: 

EDGAR BROUGHTON - Lead Guitar and Vocals

VICTOR UNITT - Guitars (on "Edgar Broughton Band", "In Side Out" and "Oora")

"In Side Out" and "Oora")

ARTHUR GRANT - Bass

STEVE BROUGHTON - Drums and Vocals

Guests:

Vocalists The Ladybirds are on the "Edgar Broughton Band" album  

Mike Oldfield (Mandolin) and David Bedford (Piano) on the "Edgar Broughton Album"

David Bedford Arranged Strings and Wind Instruments on the "Oora" album 

Vocalists Doris Troy, Lisa Strike and Madeline Bell are on the "Oora" album

The 8-page booklet feels miserly and the recording/discography on the leaves beneath the see-through CD trays at the front and rear of the double jewel case is more of a hassle to access than a joy to read (microscopic print). There are some photos of the boys and new interviews by HUGH GILMOUR with the brothers Edgar and Steve about the band's history as a power trio (later joined by Guitarist Victor Unitt) with anecdotes about Harvest Records - backing Blind Faith in front of a huge crowd in London's Hyde Park - praising Peter Mew's Abbey Road Remasters (the whole set sounds amazing). I can’t help thinking it could have been done much better...

Sounding not unlike Captain Beefheart with a rage at society - "Wasa Wasa" contains very dated material like "American Soldier Boy" where they stick in a few jabs at the mindless Vietnam War and the young minds being sent there but still end up sounding like their slagging of kids with no choice. The single "Out Demons Out" has become a signature for them. The very Psychedelic 2nd platter features the ad-nauseam repetition of the word 'negative' on "There's No Vibrations But Wait!" but the clever lyrics bludgeon rather than hammer home the point. "The Moth" though shows real growth - a brilliant acoustic beginning goes wild after a while only to return to the opening acoustic refrain. Beefheart and even The Stooges get channelled in the angry "Momma's Reward..." while "Refugee" is just crap to me. Edgar goes the full Trout Mask Beefheart on Side 2's "Psychopath" - weird sounds accompanying his strangulated 'my dream...you should have heard her scream...' lyrics against a discordant rhythm (oh dear).

But the 3rd self-titled album is an altogether different beast – a long way from 1968 to 1971. The "Edgar Broughton Band" album is accomplished ("Even Over Rooftops" which features The Ladybirds on Backing Vocals) – has hard-hitting social commentary in "The Birth" - acoustic Brinsley Schwarz whimsy in "Piece Of My Own" where they long for a house of wood in the hills as the American fiddles play and a big black eagle flies in the sky above. Both the acoustic "Poppy" and the Richard Thompson guitar chug of "Don't Even Know Which Day It Is" display world-weariness that feels real - lost in the 'new confusion' - fantastic guitars carrying the 'crying inside'. There's even prettiness in "Thinking Of You" (Mike Oldfield and David Bedford contribute Mandolin and Piano respectively) and clever guitar parts in the very Kevin Ayers "Getting Hard/What Is A Woman For?" that goes all Bluesy halfway through and grows to a huge string-ending (shame about that crappy title though). "Hotel Room" asks would you give me your assistance even though you don't know my name - the acoustic strums and toned back voice sounding not unlike David Gilmour and Pink Floyd circa "Obscured By Clouds" - ending on the T. Rex guitar-funk of "Call Me A Liar" - a great groover with a catchy chorus that would have made a potential chart single (in edited form) akin to say Blackfoot Sue or John Kongos.

"In Side Out" came in 1972 when few were listening - which is a shame – because it’s stab at Social Welfare Britain deserved ears. "Get Out Of Bed..." is a three-part song that finds our boys once again searching - down a tunnel without light - emerging into another morning hoping their guitars and harmonica will lift the mood. After an acoustic ditty about comrade "Sister Angela" – we get another angry Edgar vocal in "I Got Mad" – a no-more-war song to a backdrop of melodic guitars. There’s an almost Rock ‘n’ Roll sloppiness to the guitars of "They Took It Away" as everything from furniture to free speech gets taken away. "Homes Fit For Heroes" is the kind of fighting-for-their-rights acoustic ballad Ray Davies would have written for The Kinks – depressing in subject matter (shafted soldiers) – but poignant. Someone thought "Gone Blue" would make a single (Harvest HAR 5049 in March 1972) – but its ‘hole in the back of her head’ and needle references might have put the squids up the BBC. Far better is the lonely guitar and distant vocals of "Chilly Morning Mama" – the kind of song that stays with you even though it initially feels slight (brilliant little tune).

The elaborate plastic outer sleeve artwork to the final album "Oora" from 1973 is nowhere to be seen – but we audible progress in the group’s sound. David Bedford arranged the Strings and Woodwinds and the Soulful trio of lady backing singers add a lot of weight to the walls of acoustic guitars - Doris Troy, Lisa Strike and Madeline Bell. Highlights include "Hurricane Man/Rock ‘n’ Roller" and "Things On My Mind" where the music feels more Richard Thompson than the Beefheart of old. The near eleven-minute "Face From A Window..." suite that opens Side 2 is ambitious stuff – once again the ladies giving it a very Bowie feel as the guitars strum and funk.

Despite Prog and Alternative dominating these seminal years - the Edgar Broughton Band didn't chart anything in their own Blighty and it's easy to hear why. But it's also obvious too as to how they engendered such cult status – the EBB made a uniquely British Prog sound – angry like Terry Stamp and Jim Avery in 1971's Third World War over on Fly Records (see separate review) - adventurous like Kevin Ayers and socially-minded like Michael Chapman (other Harvest label artists).

"The Harvest Years 1969-1973" won't be for everyone – but those who loved England's EBB will relish the great new audio and those cool rarities all in one place. A job well done...