Vinyl Album - Mike And Lal Waterson - Bright Phoebus - Trailer

Vinyl Album

Artist:	Mike And Lal Waterson
Title:	Bright Phoebus
Label:	Trailer
Country:	UK
Catalogue:	LES 2076
Date:	1972
Format:	LP
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
Community:	5 Own, 2 Want
Price Guide:	Valuation Page
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Track	Artist	Title	Composer	Rating
A1	Mike And Lal Waterson	Rubber Band	Waterson	Rate
A2	Mike And Lal Waterson	The Scarecrow	Waterson, Waterson	10.0 Rate
A3	Mike And Lal Waterson	Fine Horseman	Waterson	10.0 Rate
A4	Mike And Lal Waterson	Winifer Odd	Waterson	Rate
A5	Mike And Lal Waterson	Danny Rose	Waterson, Waterson	Rate
A6	Mike And Lal Waterson	Child Among The Weeds	Waterson, Collins	Rate
B1	Mike And Lal Waterson	The Magical Man	Waterson, Waterson, Collins	Rate
B2	Mike And Lal Waterson	Never The Same	Waterson	Rate
B3	Mike And Lal Waterson	To Make You Stay	Waterson	Rate
B4	Mike And Lal Waterson	Shady Lady	Waterson	Rate
B5	Mike And Lal Waterson	Red Wine And Promises	Waterson	10.0 Rate
B6	Mike And Lal Waterson	Bright Phoebus	Waterson	10.0 Rate

Notes

Gatefold sleeve.

Trailer pressings with red or yellow labels.

Later pressings have black and white labels which also credit Highway. See linked issue.

All copies credit Mike And Lal Waterson on the labels.

Images

Comments and Reviews


Gian_paolo 12th May 2021		Discussing this elsewhere with @listentothelion, It looks there was another different "red label with silver lettering" (still not listed here I believe), probably AFTER the "red/black" and before "yellow", check here, it has that logo above Trailer writing



Fokeman 27th Aug 2019		I'm not sure if I've mentioned this elsewhere but it's relevant to this page anyway. "Red Wine & Promises" is wrong! The song was written as "Red Wine Promises" and this was corrected on the reissues of the record. The wonderful CD of Lal's work also has this error but the Domino reissue has it corrected.



Dr Doom SUBS 8th Aug 2017		I've included both 'Lal And Mike Waterson' and 'Mike And Lal Waterson' in the main Watersons discography with links back to 'The Watersons'. I think this is a good compromise.



Fokeman 8th Aug 2017		I can't help feeling that there is a mistake in the credits on this. The title of the LP is "BRIGHT PHOEBUS - Songs by Lal & Mike Waterson" but despite what it says on the label (and it doesn't say Lal & Mike Waterson like it does on the cover) I still feel this is not a Mike & Lal Waterson album. All members of the Watersons (the later version) are present on this LP and it is a VERY enlarged version of The Watersons which performs including all of the stellar folk cast mentioned in another comment. So I feel that what ended up showing as the artists' name should have been more like "The Watersons & Friends". After all it was neither Mike nor Lal who sang the only vocals on the B side of the only single from this LP "Red Wine And Promises", and according to the LP credits neither Mike nor Lal even appeared on the track. What is important is that ALL tracks were written by them. And this is important because The Watersons were a traditional singing group who performed almost exclusively traditional songs, so this was a clear diversion from the normal role of the group.



Fokeman 4th Aug 2017		IMHO It would be far better to give this issue with the black and white label on the Highway label a whole listing to itself. After all, it was on a different label and belongs in the Highway catalogue as it was issued by them. This has already been done with at least one of the Trailer albums issued on Highway.



Fokeman 4th Aug 2017		Listentothelion - this appears to be duplicating almost exactly what I have already said... The latest issue I have found with dark red / silver writing is 2088 (and this was after the move to Halifax). I also have some oddities with Trailer records on Leader labels. All of Mike Harding's LP issued in 1972 seem to be on the yellow label. Perhaps we should share notes...



listentothelion 14th May 2017		A belated note on label colours, based on more time researching than I should have spent and ownership of at least one copy of all of the releases: 1. Early Trailer and Leader releases had white labels with black lettering or buff labels with black lettering (pretty sure white came before buff). 2. Trailer labels (including represses) then went through a sequence of dark red with silver lettering, red with black lettering and yellow with black lettering. Yellow was definitely last, as I can only find the last 15 or so releases in the Trailer catalogue with yellow labels. 3. Leader labels (including represses) similarly went through a sequence of dark blue with silver lettering, cyan / aqua with black lettering and orange with black lettering. 4. These sequences are not wholly reliable and there were clearly aberrations, e.g. I have a Trailer release with a cyan label and Leader releases with yellow labels. I also have one Leader release with a seemingly unique light blue (not cyan) label. 5. All of this ignores later Trailer Highway pressings with the black and white picture labels, as shown on this thread along with the Yellow Trailer label. The latest Trailer release in the catalogue I have found with a dark red / silver lettering label is LER 2074. Based on that, I suspect the first Bright Phoebus would have had red with black lettering labels (I have one of these) and that yellow with black would have come next, with the later Trailer Highway pressings last.



Gian_paolo 13th May 2016		Kudos to fokeman for the explanation! (and glad to own the first issue of this one!)



Fokeman 11th May 2016		I've been buying these records for many years and I'm familiar with all the labels. At this stage the first issue would have been a yellow label. Later labels were red. There was an early red label which was very dark red with silver text. The red label would have come before this record so the later red label with black text would have come AFTER the yellow label. The red is a much brighter (almost orange) colour and was on a very shiny label. The yellow tended towards matt paper. You've provided a link to the Roy Bailey Trailer LP which is a perfect example of what I am saying - early label - dark red with silver text - later label - yellow label. We can also see on this Roy Bailey record the two addresses - first one based in London - North Villas - which was where Bill Leader was living when he launched the label, and Halifax, which is where Bill moved to much later on in the life of the label. At this stage he put the distribution in the hands of Transatlantic. The white label was only found on the first few Trailer records (very few) so doesn't really enter the debate on labels. Prosperous was on the early (dark) red label. I've discussed this with Bill Leader himself and he swears that there were so many different labels no one can tell in which order they came. I have found that with extensive empirical enquiry, I have developed a dependable theory on which colour came in which order. Bear in mind that we are only talking Trailer here, Leader has a completely different set of colours that begins with off-white and ends with bright orange, going through turquoise, pale blue and dark blue. Dr. Doom, you're absolutely right, when they did the printing run of sleeves they didn't necessarily match the sleeves to the number of records pressed so you could have the same sleeve on different pressings of the LP, especially if the LP was pressed in small batches. This explains different pairings when there are significant differences in the sleeve.



Gian_paolo 7th May 2016		@fokeman: as far as I know Trailer labels began white, than red and finally yellow. Bright Phoebus was also printed with red labels, that should be the very first issue Also there were various cover pressings with changing addresses and distributions, check here for example. I've seen a different Transatlantic distribution, through EMI and I own a yellow label Boys Of The Lough, Rochdale address, but stickered Highway... so God knows how many different presses of this album exist :)



Dr Doom SUBS 6th May 2016		Thanks chaps. I'll amend the notes. I did think it was weird that my sleeve seemed older than the 'Highway' vinyl. It was bought off Ebay (for about £30 just before the price went through the roof) so it may have been swapped round at some point or perhaps there were spare sleeves left for a while.



Fokeman 6th May 2016		I suspect the yellow label is the first pressing Gian Paolo.



Gian_paolo 4th May 2016		Second pressing labels added. Not true the covers were identical on all issues. My second pressing was distributed by Transatlantic and there also a Trailer logo instead of the Leader one. I find a bit strange this Highway repro here has the first pressing cover, as I see other Trailer/Highway albums clearly showing the Highway distribution on the back. Also wonder if the are differences on the lyrics publishers... (on my copy mostly Leading note also on the cover just below the lyrics)



Fokeman 3rd May 2016		To be fair, and against my better instincts, the CD issued in 2000 was never a bootleg. It was issued by the owner at the time. That being said it was lazy (on a cheap CDR), poorly produced with the cheapest possible work done on paper insert etc. and cynically targeted at making money out of a popular classic with no reference either to the artists or any sense of quality. With even less thought of ever reimbursing the artists for the sale of said goods. The owner believed he had paid money for stock and rights without any need to honour contracts (?) or honestly reimburse artists for their work. This is probably the case.



Fokeman 3rd May 2016		An update to this is that the owner of the material is now deceased but legal wranglings are likely to continue forever before this is ever properly reissued. Topic did their best and in the end reissued each song done by other folk artists. The songs themselves are worth having and if you can't wait for original version to be reissued I highly recommend the CD "Shining Light" TSCD519



nboldock 22nd Apr 2016		It is indeed a classic (see Dr Doom's review) and if you have a copy on vinyl you have valuable treasure. The sad tale of the legal wrangling behind this and many other Trailer recordings can be found online, just Google it if you want some sorry reading. Suffice to say the rights are owned by someone unrelated to the band who has hitherto shown no interest in reissuing this vital release. Bah. I only have a digital copy. "Red Wine And Promises" is absolutely stunning and is apparently based on a true story of a time Lal got pissed in Hull's Pearson Park (she would not be the last person to do that!).



Juke Jules SUBS 21st Apr 2016



Dr Doom SUBS 18th Apr 2016		Review An English Folk Rock classic which has gained almost mythical status party due to 'legal problems' which seem to be preventing its much needed reissue. It did appear on CD in 2000 but only as a CDR and with accusations that it was a bootleg. I bought my copy of this many years ago purely on reputation and on first hearing the opening track 'Rubber Band' I thought I'd wasted my money. As the album played on I soon realised I hadn't. The rest of the album is fantastic. For those who like their Folk 'dark' then there are plenty of bleak but beautiful songs here, none more so than 'Red Wine Promises' which amazingly was later released as a single! (It's the B-side but still...) Hopefully some day soon this brilliant album will be reissued properly. There have been rumours.... 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?

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Linked Releases

UK - Domino - 2017

UK - Highway