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Clem Clempson played in many very well known and much loved bands such as Bakerloo, Neil Ardley's New Jazz Orchestra, Colosseum, Greenslade, Humble Pie, Jack Bruce and Friends, Rough Diamond, Hamburg Blues Band, and lately JCM, a band he formed with Jon Hiseman (R.I.P. Jon) and Mark Clarke. If you are a guitar geek then you opened the right door. Every song on this album is graced with some great guitar playing from Clem. You can even more enjoy his playing in two instrumental tracks.
Further more ... a cover version of Humble Pie's 'I don't need no doctor' is an excellent track where Maggie Bell and Chris Farlowe share lead vocals. Both vocalists also have another song each to sing some fabulous lead vocals on.
All in all: This is a great record. You get what you expected from these experienced musicians. Buy it.

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
For me this has to one of the greatest Prog Rock albums from the 70's. Released in 1971 this was the follow up to their first album Piggy Go Getter. The first album was a complete non runner and then this almighty beast came along and changed my perceptions on heavy rock forever. I remember buying this and taking it home on the bus. I was 17 at the time and thought I'd heard it all but I can hand on heart say this album just blew my head off. Looking at it in the shop I remember puzzling over it because it was on Regal Zonophone, the label for pop music, The Move, Joe Cocker, Blue Mink and the Boppin' Elves themselves Tyrannosaurus Rex. In my mind I associated the label as being kind of experimental and thought that it might be worth giving a go. When I got home I got it on the turntable and whacked up the volume, not really recommended for this album as the Bass is so mighty it nearly blew the cones out of my speakers along with the windows. I was surprised to read on the liner notes that Zal Cleminson never had a strong singer and that's what Tear Gas lacked, If you're reading this Zal, I'd have to completely disagree with you, the vocals on this album are amazing. I played in a rock band in Belfast (Lead Singer, Harmonica, Acoustic 12 String) and our band learned 4 tracks from this album and they always went down a storm. Needless to say when people asked who the original band was, nobody had ever heard of them and by that time the album had been deleted and was extremely hard to come by. They were like a cross between Sabbath, Purple and Zeppelin.
If you've never heard this album I would give your ears a treat and go buy it, £9.99 on Amazon Prime at the moment.

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Langstaff is credited only as artistic director on this album, but he can be heard clearly singing in his clear baritone voice on several tracks. A large number of individual singers, instrumentalists, bellringers and conductors are credited in the notes, including those in the Revels Chorus, Youth Pro Musica, and Cambridge Symphonic Brass Ensemble.

Carols and Christmas songs from Britain and France predominate, but there are examples from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Russia and Israel. Here is a lovely example from France, the pavane by dance collector and music publisher, Thoinot Arbeau

[YouTube Video]

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Heard Can't Hold Me on the radio, ordered it pre-release, and when it came I thought "Remind Me, why did I buy this, it's twee and inconsequential", but by the time I'd listened through the album I had an understanding of what King is doing here. All the tracks are on YT and are in the same style. Can't Hold Me has the strongest hook line, and does everything I want in pop music, and Caliche is another strong track.

[YouTube Video]

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Australian guitarist / keyboardist / composer / vocalist Ben Craven continues on a mission to bring his music to the ears of progressive rock audiences far and wide. Progressive rock fans who might have missed Ben’s last opus, Last Chance To Hear, will be pleasantly surprised by the concise nature of his 2018 album entitled THE SINGLE EDITS.

THE SINGLE EDITS showcases Ben’s finest moments from his solo output, both rock vocals and rock instrumentals, compiled and re-imagined as single edits. A good bet for radio as Ben takes his greatest moments and edits them timewise into bite-sized chunks of sonic majesty. Although a 24-bit, 96kHz lossless download was released in late 2017, in early 2018 a special edition of THE SINGLE EDITS is available on compact disc, complete with folder artwork and multi-page booklet.

KEY POINTS:
- Clocking in at 41 minutes, the eleven track CD of THE SINGLE EDITS features a cross-section from Ben Craven’s album releases and is brimming with fascinating musical ideas.
- THE SINGLE EDITS includes several remixed, edited prog-pop tracks from Ben’s first solo album Two False Idols.
- On the track “Spy In The Sky Pt. 3” Ben enlists the help of spoken work recording artist and Star Trek legend William Shatner and YES member Billy Sherwood on a track finished in L.A.
- All the music on THE SINGLE EDITS was superbly played and written by Ben Craven. Essential for Ben’s growing fan base, THE SINGLE EDITS is the most compelling musical statement yet from prog-rock sensation Ben Craven.

- Robert Steven Silverstein
credits
released March 10, 2018

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Why try to compete with "Hey Jude" and "Let It Be"? Just do something low key. A brilliant decision by Paul in retrospect. If you're looking for Paul's finest work you won't find it here but the record is still a great listen. He plays all the instruments including some blazing guitar work but you'll have to excuse the drumming. "Maybe I'm Amazed" got a lot of airplay from this record but was never issued as a single. Big mistake there. As with "Ram", the bonus tracks are interesting but hardly essential.

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Jack Jones had eighteen songs on the Kapp label reach the Billboard Top 100 yet only nine of those are on this "Greatest Hits" CD. I have no issue with the tracks they've included but it hardly represents his best "hits". Missing are "Toys In The Attic", "The First Night Of The Full Moon","Where Love Has Gone", "Seeing The Right Love Go Wrong", "Just Yesterday", "Love Bug", "I'm Indestructible", "Now I Know" and "Our Song". Please check to see the songs you want are included. It might save you some money.

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
I bought this on a whim as I'd loved some of ELPs music, especially in the 70s. Keith Emerson's keyboard sound was recognisable anywhere.

This seemed good value for money to me, CD and DVD with the DVD having many more tracks than the audio CD and as a tribute to the recently (when recorded) death of Emerson.

So, I sat down to watch and listen. Decent sound quality but as for the rest. No.

For some reason Carl Palmer has decided to change the lineup to a 3 piece centring on the guitar, not keyboards, well technically I guess it centres on the drums, which is no real surprise as that's Carl's role in the band.

So, to me, disappointing but it did encourage me to put on my copy of the original ELP album and have an evening of some classics.

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
First time on CD for this hard to find album, originally issued by Trojan Records on their High Note subsidiary in early 1969. The album comprised twelve classic slices of late Rock Steady / early Reggae. The album is supplemented by thirteen tracks that were originally issued on High Note singles around the same time period. In total we have 25 classic and scarce tracks, all produced by female pioneer producer, the late Sonia Pottinger.

You'd need a pretty fat wallet to buy original copies of these on vinyl. Excellent sound quality throughout. Great cover, and extensive notes in the inlay, but I can't really comment on them.

This is the fourth release on the reactivated Doctor Bird label, and this set certainly doesn't let the side down.

Superb.

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
This album which was originally released in 1970 contains (arguably) the best "Beatles" cover ever. This issue also has an alternative single version which is nowhere near as good as the album version. The album was greatly underrated at the time and did not sell very well at a time when "Progressive Rock" albums were starting to figure highly in the album charts. All of the other tracks help to make this a very good album that sounds just as good today.

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Being a big Skynyrd fan, I bought this on vivyl as soon as I could lay my hands on it. Lynyrd Skynyrd had a lot of tragedy, - the plane crash, the just before the Rossington Collins Band were to go on tour, Allen Collins' wife suddenly died. There were some British dates earmarked and I was looking forward to seeing them. This album is as good as any of the Lynyrd Skynyrd albums in my opiinion. Every track is excellent and Dale Krantz was in fine voice. I bought this CD in Florida in 1990 and the guy who worked in the record store was a huge Skynyrd fan and I spoke to him about this album and where Dale Krantz had come from as I'd never heard of her. He said that she had been a backing singer only as far as he knew, before joining the Rossington Collins band. A lot of Skynyrd fans were not happy about a woman fronting a band with the remains of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Dale proved them wrong and her vocals on this are excellent. Brilliant Album - In my top ten favourite ablums !!!!

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
This little curio is definitely one for Goldmine Soul Supply Completists and/or Motown/NS fanatics and I think completes the full set of Goldmine CDs here at 45Worlds (I could still be proven wrong of course).

As stated in the notes section, this was released to coincide with the publication of Kev Roberts' "Northern Soul Top 500" book in 2000 and tracks 1 and 3 have Frank Wilson being interviewed about his early career and the events surrounding the withdrawal of his proposed single release of "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" on Motown's "Soul" label back in '65.

Track one has instrumental versions of "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" and "My Sugar Baby" playing in the background whilst Frank Wilson is being interviewed by Kev Roberts, Track three is entirely spoken word.

Track two is Frank singing a version of his song "My Sugar Baby" (a tune that became an NS anthem when the version by Connie Clarke started to get plays in the mid '70s). It should be noted that it is NOT the same version of the song that came out on the "Cellarful Of Motown" CD in July 2002 but one that uses the same backing arrangement as the Connie Clarke version. Maybe it was specially recorded for this release using the original backing-track?

[YouTube Video]

Unsurprisingly, the booklet notes by Frank E Wilson are essentially the same essay that appeared as the foreword at the start of the "Northern Soul Top 500" book.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Although owning the 2012 Record Collector re-issue of this album I have never been able to play it because my equipment is in storage. It was great to stumble across this _very_ limited release on CD and finally get around to hear what it was like. The music overall is quite good but I wouldn't rave about it as it all sounds very amateurish and this is no doubt down to how it was recorded in the first place. The band though, with a proper producer and more time to record these songs might well have been a very different matter. It has the makings of some great sounds and in particular the guitar player who sounds like he had the talent to take it even further. His playing on this album has the sound and feel of Kim Simmonds on the Savoy Brown album Looking In which is one of my personal favourites. So all-in-all a worthy effort and one defintely for the Savoy Brown fans out there. I would give it 7/10 for the effort and it's just a pity they couldn't have taken it further.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
This is my all-favourite studio album from Carly Simon, and originally released in 1975 on vinyl and cassette for Elektra. My favourite tracks are After The Storm, More and More [the only track featured Ringo Starr on drums],Slave Attitude Dancing [also a cover version by Fred Astaire, which became an album title on the United Artists label],Waterfall, and of course Playing Possum, the name of the album title]. Overall, it`s a great album for me and I was 8 years old, when the original album released, and it still brings me back memories for me.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
This is one of Goldmine's more unusual compilations and doesn't use the label's normal numbering sequence.

The lack of any barcode or songwriter credits and the note on the cover that it is "A special limited edition pressing for RightTrack Merchandising" all point to it being something pressed up privately for Northampton based Promoter/D.J. Paddy Grady. Does anyone out there know the full details?

For those who are wondering "The Shades" was a nightclub that operated in Northampton between 1969 and 1974 and was "The Birthplace of Underground Soul" if the cover of the CD is to be believed.

In his notes Paddy Grady describes "The Shades" as having been "one of the South's top soul clubs", which I find to be a bit strange as I always thought that Northampton was in The East Midlands!! The BBC website has a brief article detailing the history of the place which can be read here.

Musically the CD is fairly representative of what was considered to be "Rare Soul" around 1970/71 (later to be rebranded as "Northern Soul") and maybe Paddy Grady's description of the club as being in the south is a reminder to us all that appreciation of "Rare/Northern" Soul was by no means confined to Lancashire and surrounding counties back in the early '70s and that many "Rare Soul" venues existed throughout The Midlands and The Home Counties at the time.

All the tracks on this CD had previously been included on commercially available Goldmine CDs, presumably to prevent any unwanted licensing issues from delaying its production. It is all very Motownesque and a half of the tracks are from the Mirwood group of labels (Los Angeles' own mini-Motown) and most of the remainder are from Motown's competitor labels in Detroit.

Musical highlights for me include J.J. Barnes "Please Let Me In", The Olympics "Secret Agents" (a tongue in cheek look at mid '60s TV shows) and The Parliaments "Don't Be Sore At Me", but there really isn't one dud track on here.

[YouTube Video]

[YouTube Video]

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The CD is certainly an interesting compilation and the notes chronicle an often overlooked chapter in British musical history.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
About 1963 -64 I used to go on organised bus trips to Liverpool on Saturdays, every six weeks or so. We would leave Caernarfon about 930am and depart Liverpool about 10pm. Three of us used to go to the Cavern Club, The Iron Door Club and other similar venues, depending who was playing and if we could get in. We got to know some of the regular “Cave Dwellers” and “The Big 3” had the reputation of being among the very best playing there and packed them in. When they were on, we just couldn’t get in. They were recorded live at the Cavern and released an E/P which was very good. It appears on this CD. They also made a few singles that were minor hits. Their drummer, Johnny “Hutch” Hutchinson sat in with the Beatles a few times before Ringo joined. It was rumoured that he was offered a permanent place with them. This CD has all of their known recordings from this era. Most are cover versions as they did not write very much of their own stuff. It is very much of it’s time and is well worth a listen if you’re into “Merseybeat”

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
You think you're coming home with a Byrds cd? Wrong! It sounds a bit like the Byrds though and a closer inspection learns that these recordings were licensed by a certain Pat Robinson. After listening four tracks it was clear to me: One For The Bin.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
I have bought this set as a big Queen fan. I already have all the albums on CD but wanted the completeness (if that's a word) of the 40 Anniversary edition and plan on getting the other 2 boxes in the set.

No surprises on the actual CDs themselves, I'm not an audiophile so can't really hear the difference in the digitally remastered versions from the original 'pressings'.

Even more interesting (to me) is that I bought the 40th Anniversary edition of 'News of the World' which has the same pressing of that album - so I guess that means I now have 3 CD versions of this album.

The Bonus CDs are where this scores for me as there are tracks and versions on there which I have never heard or have never previously been released including a couple of B sides from the original 45s.

So, if you're a Queen fan or just someone who wants to get the entire Queen library at cut down prices then at roughly 36 quid for 5 CDs (and don't forget that they have bonus EPs also) it's good value for money.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Remarkable Western-Swing from 1955/56! This Cd shows Johnston's nice versatile steel along with Don Decker on fiddle/viola at his best and talented singer Ruth Dalton. You hear two versions of "Milk Cow Blues" and "No one for me". Very interesting to compare these. Good
mixture of uptempo-tunes and slow bluesy numbers. A must for Western Swing fans.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Fortunately, the music here has not aged as badly as the fashions or cover art here :)

This is a pretty timeless slice of ambient electro dance noodling, and even the Doors / Presley "covers", which might otherwise have been ill advised, are rendered to fit nicely here.

Should be regarded as a classic of it's type, great for late night Moomin moments and something to drift away to.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Fantastic CD! The great rocking tracks recorded in Jerry McCain's living room in 1955 sound like they were recorded YEARS later- despite the primitive production the excitement is palpable. The Excello tracks are great stuff, too.

Likely unofficial, but by far the best retrospective of his work available.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
All Joy... No division.

As I am only a casual R.E.M. fan, I'd never really given this much thought before...

R.E.M. are one of those groups / artists who everyone can say they like, and are familiar with at least something they have done, but barring the lead song here: Radio Free Europe, I'm not sure if other casuals will know much about the rest of this album either, but it's an absolute winner from start to finish, and has a more even feel and consistency for me than the later mega hits: Out of Time, and Automatic For The People etc.

I think this is perhaps because those ones are too well known now, and there's one or two on those that are a little saccharine and populist as well as overplayed.

I only bought this from the charity shop because it was 25p, and thought... "Why not?"

...Further to this, I only played it through from top to bottom because I was testing my newly fixed Sony Discman (The batteries blew last year in the heat)...

And what an album I discovered!

The thing that struck me, is how like Joy Division / early New Order the tone, or overall sound they created was... but with the as yet unrealised inner R.E.M. of later years trying to get out... and occasionally doing so with the now familiar harmony vocals, strong tunes and melodies... but all to a noise that Ian Curtis could quite happily throw some shapes to...

...as indeed I have done in the privacy of my own cave! :)

This is getting repeated plays right now, and needs an upgrade in my collection to a vinyl copy sometime soon!

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Originally scheduled for release on 24th April 2020, but postponed due to the Covid19 Pandemic, the innocuous title "Soul Voices" understates what this compilation really is, which as a collection of the type of recordings from the early and mid '60s that are commonly described as "Beat Ballads", "Big City Ballads" or, in "Northern Soul" circles, "Enders" (due to the fact that they are commonly played at "Northern Soul" venues to wind-down at the end of a session).

For those who don't know "Beat Ballads" were a variety of Soul Music, usually sung by men with "big" voices, that featured pounding (just below mid-tempo) beats, impassioned vocals, girlie-choruses and heart-rending lyrics. The height of the genre was during the 1962-66 period with well known, and commercially successful, examples including such records as "Any Day Now" by Chuck Jackson, "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King and "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted" by Jimmy Ruffin. Sometimes the girls and/or pop singers also got in on the act with songs such as "Walk On By" by Dionne Warwick or "I'm Gonna Be Strong" by Gene Pitney fitting the description nicely.

Needless to say none of the previously mentioned tunes are included and all of the "Beat Ballads" on here are sung by, usually "big-voiced", males. Some names are well known to '60s Soul fans (Ben E. King, Walter Jackson, Jimmy Radcliffe, Chuck Jackson for example), some are more obscure (Gene Burks, Clarence Pinckney), most tracks were originally released as singles in The US in the '60s, though 8 of them have only recently emerged from the vaults, including a rather splendid version of Dionne Warwick's "Don't Make Me Over" by Tommy Hunt.

Here is a selection of what you can expect on this CD ….

[YouTube Video]

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6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
I'm not so much into acoustic blues. But as a completist of Bob Margolin I bought this one lately at one of his shows over here in Germany. The first eight Margolin originals are wonderful blues songs. But track 9 is extraordinary: Mr. Margolin tells us in his own style the story of being in Muddy's band, some thoughts about ex-presidents of the USA ..... and the new one. This 8 minutes plus track made me respecting Bob Margolin even higher. Thank you for having the balls.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Silky-smooth harmonies enlivened with restrained beat-boxing on this, the 6th album. No shortage of composer credits here! Havana is the best-known track of the album but my favourite is the relatively open sound of Stay
[YouTube Video]

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
After having played Cat Stevens records from the mid 1960's through to the late 1970's., I thought I would give this a spin and bought it second hand. His output in the early 1970's was excellent - quite a different direction from his 1960's pop records which were very good at the time. The quality started to take a bit of a nose dive after his 1973 album "Foreigner". It was evident that he was disillusioned with the "Rock Star" process, and his output reflected this.

This album has no redeeming features as far as I'm concerned, even the reworking of "I think I see the light" from the excellent 1970 "Mona Bone Jakon" album is very poor by comparison. Perhaps he should have stayed in retirement

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Captain Marryat were from Glasgow, Scotland and recorded this demo album in 1974, released in a tiny pressing on the Thor label, hopefully to get an EMI or Chrysalis deal. They intended to record only a single but came up with a complete album of self-composed tracks. Since it was not that easy for a Scottish band to get attention down in London, this album was the only pressing ever done and sold at band gigs only. Five musicians, great organ, vocals, extra heavy fuzz-guitar, drums and bass; amazing underground songs, influenced by Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Beggars Opera, a true lost classic.
I remember a sale on Popsike.com, in 2008 at 2,900 pounds.



6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Only just discovered Nils Frahm recently via YouTube, after seeing his "All Melody" video which persuaded me to order this album.
A combination of voice, conventional instrumentation and electronics produce an ambient work that also knows when to use silence to good effect.
With hypnotic melodies and a sense of space, lending to an ethereal quality. Add to this the fact that it was recorded in an historic studio in Berlin (Durton Studio now Saal 3), which Nils himself spent two years refurbishing and so, used top recording equipment to give a fine sound quality, and you have a very relaxing album, great on phones, 8.5/10

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Committed Christian rock, but not too in your face or Evangelistic, and so it should be acceptable also to confirmed agnostics, much in the style of Hooters

Spring Harvest was set up as a charity, but from the Charity Commission website, they transferred all of its activities, including the running of the Spring Harvest Christian teaching event, to a new charity called Essential Christian on 31 December 2008 following the merger with International Christian Communications.

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?
I have most of UFO's albums and think this one is about the best of the bunch. There are two outstanding tracks - Only You Can Rock Me & Cherry. There is also a nice little Michael Schenker Intsrumental to boot. I saw them a few times back in the day and saw them on this tour. I was really impressed with Michael Schenker's guitar work and now have all of his albums. I did see him a few years back when he was a bit of a drunk and couldn't play properly. Very disappointing but I hear he's now got himself sorted

6 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

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