Obscure UK/US Pop-Psych Round Table Discussion

My mate interviewed him.. but I don't think anything came of it.
His Granny lived on the same estate...as did someone from Hot Chocolate!

 

My buddy Jeff (known as oldgoat here) just recently introduced me to this band. I really like both albums, but I agree with you--It's A Long Way Down is simply, as you say, stunning psych.

 

Very impressive, Chris! Congratulations on this achievement. Did you get to spend any time chatting with her? My favorite of her songs is "I Know You Love Me Not"--it's very unusual, and her singing style is so emotive, a very sincere delivery. There's bombast in the instrumentation, which really suits her voice. I have Open (dare I say it, their "Season of the Witch" tops Donovan's original!) and 1969; I'm hoping to get Streetnoise very soon. She's one of my favorite female vocalists.

 

My night of psych listening so far:

It's A Long Way Down--the Fallen Angels
Clear Light--s/t
and I felt the best way to follow those would be Spirit's s/t
And now for British psych, Back to the Story--the Idle Race (Gosh, I love this...)

Anyone familiar with Blond, which is Tages after Tommy Blom left the group? I have just about everything Tages did (Contrast and Studio are two great psych albums), but I only have one Blond song, "I Wake Up And Call"--it sounds almost exactly like the Move! Does anyone have Lilac Years, Blond's only album?

 

Cool, I've been after this album for ages!

I just bought this and I love it!!

My favorites would have to be "The Birthday" and "Morning Sunshine", I can't stop listening to them

 

I know--I feel the same way! I think The Birthday Party is my favorite album on the set.

Right now, I've been listening to Skip Bifferty. There's not a single bum track on the entire album; heck, not even on the two CD set that includes BBC tracks, etc. This set should be in every psych lovers collection. Another excellent Sanctuary/Castle music release!

 

Hi Alison,

Afraid that it was one of those long distance collaborations so, unfortunately no chatting time. Oh well, maybe the opportunity will arise to do something again in the future.... hopefully with some face-to-face time. In the meantime, I'm very pleased that I appear along side her on all four tracks that she's sings on this CD!

Cheers,
Chris

 

You should be very proud! I hope you get the opportunity to work with her again.

 

Me three. I really love Jeff Lynne's work through all his phases but Birthday Party stands above everything for me. The second IR album is nice but not nearly as inventive as BP or the singles. I think JL returned to the inventive side of things when he joined up with Roy Wood but that second IR album makes me think he was going through the paces. Of course JL going through the paces still means good catchy songs.

Funny, I just could not get into Skip Bifferty - well, I couldn't get into THAT much Bifferty. Their album is very very good but the Sanctuary set was one that killed things for me. I know that sounds crazy and I'm sure I'm dead wrong. Knowing me in 5 years I'll declare them the best geniuses in pop psych history.

 

That's quite alright, Mark--you don't have to be into them. They just may not be the style of psych you most enjoy.

 

At the risk of great personal danger, Allison...for your sake, I descended into the archives in search of this album, as I knew I had an original LP of it.

I finally found it...naturally, in the last place I looked. It is what I assume to be a U.S. release on the Fontana label (SRF-67607) -- oddly, there is no marking anywhere on the album cover or the disc that indicates its country of origin.

This release is self-titled, though it does have the song "The Lilac Years (De Salde Sina Hemman)" on it. It also has "I Wake Up and Call." Twelve tracks in all, most of them composed by one or more members of the group.

I haven't listened to it in over 35 years, but I seem to recall it being "heavy" more than psych. But my memory could be fuzzy on that. I'll try to give it a spin in the next few days and let you know.

 

Mike, thank you for plumbing the depths of your archives to retrieve this album; I hope you didn't put yourself in too much danger! (I imagine that you, rene and Mark have these amazing collections of rare desirable recordings... ) I am eager to read your assessment of the album when you get a chance to listen and report. I hope you enjoy it, considering the trouble you went to in order to find it. I appreciate it!

 

Yes, I hope that I get a chance to work with her again, too. She's one of my favorite vocalists of all time.

I was also pleased to be able to work with Chris Cutler (ex-Henry Cow) on this project, too. I was sent a bunch of short drum tracks to loop and manipulate and they also appeared as part of this recording.

Cheers,
Chris

 

Very cool!


I was just listening to Chocolate Soup for Diabetics vol. 1 (LP version), and I was reminded of how much I like the Fresh Windows' track "Fashion Conscious." I went to Marmalade Skies to see what info I could obtain about the band. Apparently they only released one single, and this was the B-side. It has not appeared on any other comp, save for the Chocolate Soup LP, not even the CD version. Strange. It's a great pop song, perhaps more of a mod or freakbeat song than a psych one. "She's a short-skirted, fashion conscious, long-haired girl."

 

I have Barkley James Harvest doing "Pools Of Blue" on The Mojo box set (Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers) and really like it. Have any of you heard anything else by them, and is it worth chasing down ?

 

I LOVE that song!

I bought a couple of their 70's albums on a cheap 2-fer pack and i'm not too keen on them.

Seeing as I already have "Pools Of Blue" on a Mojo comp I'm very tempted to get the remaster of their 1970 album which contains all of their 1968 recordings as bonus tracks (except for "Pools Of Blue", which is represented by a 1968 BBC session version instead).....

 

Now that I have to hear!

 

Someone on another message board just listed his copy of Billy Nicholls' Would You Believe. This is a record that is rarely offered for sale. Last time I heard of it being sold it was Frank whathisname from the Searchers and it sold for 1500 pounds. Anyone have some extra cash:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....MESE:IT&viewitem=&item=280132681185&rd=1&rd=1

 

I'll stick with my CD, I think. That'll probably go for a nice sum.
It's true, isn't it, that the released CD version is a needle drop because the master tapes were lost?

This is one album that I bought because of the Small Faces connection. I figured I'd play it once and file it, but it gets a surprising amount of spins and is almost always in my now-playing section.

 

I think that's right Tom.

Estimate prices for this album are around 3000 pounds right now. Since this is a private collector without a lot of connections and publicity outlets it will be curious to see what it sells for.

Personally I think Nicholls got better with time. The Anthology of his work on Sanctuary is very good. His voice can grate at times but he wrote some wonderful songs. My all-time favorite Nicholls songs is called "White Lightning" from one of his later albums.

 

Hmmm. Thanks for the info. You didn't like the 2-fer but that was 70's stuff, so we aren't sure if there are other late 60's songs as cool as "Pools Of Blue."
I'll have to investigate further.

 

As I predicted, the Real Life Permanent Dreams box has jumped from $60.99 to a whopping $73.99 on Amazon.ca in the space of a week. Don't these people understand I'm only a poor Obscure UK Popsike fan?

 

it's also here (volume 3):
http://www.marmalade-skies.co.uk/jaggedtimelapse.htm
great comps, btw!
doc

 

...and its sister comps Colour Me Pop (same guy did both) are are very cool as well. The production is quite professional.