A Game For All Who Know THE H & F Recordings Box (5 CD Box Set)

Between 1968 and 1974, amateur songwriters, musicians and home taping enthusiasts Peter Howell and John Ferdinando – aka H & F Recordings – retreated to their makeshift home studio in East Sussex to mastermind a series of privately-issued albums that were attributed to semi-fictitious groups such as Ithaca and Agincourt.

Only pressed in double-digit quantities, those albums are now amongst the most valuable vinyl artefacts of the era, with copies selling for upwards of £2,000 on the extremely rare occasions that they surface.

A Game For All Who Know: The H & F Recordings Box gathers together all four albums and adds an unreleased-at-the-time fifth, the Friends LP Fragile, which was abandoned at acetate stage after Howell accepted an invitation in 1974 to join the BBC Radiophonic Workshop on a full-time basis.

The first four albums are presented in miniature card sleeve replicas of the original vinyl artwork, while the Friends album recreates the duo's original plans for the artwork had the LP reached pressing stage.

Taken from the original master tapes, and with a lavish booklet that features a new 7000-word essay on their activities, fresh interview quotes and previously unpublished photos, A Game For All Who Know constitutes the final, definitive word on a fascinating and hugely collectable body of work.


DISC ONE

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS:

PETER HOWELL / JOHN FERDINANDO

1. ALICE THEME

2. MARCH OF THE CHESSMAN

3. JABBERWOCKY

4. DANCE OF THE TALKING FLOWERS

5. ALICE’S TRAIN JOURNEY

6. THROUGH LOOKING GLASS WOOD

7. DUM AND DEE

8. THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER

9. ALICE MEETS THE KNIGHTS

10. A-SITTING ON A GATE

11. HER MAJESTY QUEEN ALICE

12. WHOSE DREAM?



DISC TWO

TOMORROW COME SOMEDAY

PETER HOWELL / JOHN FERDINANDO

1. TITLE THEME

2. SOMEONE LIKE YOU

3. MARCH OF THE CIVIL SERVANTS

4. BLUEBOTTLE STRIPE

5. SETTING SUN

6. ON LOCATION

7. EVERYTHING HAS ITS PLACE

8. FISHING

9. TOMORROW COME SOMEDAY

10. LOVE THEME

11. HONESTY

12. WINDFALL WOOD



DISC THREE

FLY AWAY: AGINCOURT

1. WHEN I AWOKE

2. THOUGH I MAY BE DREAMING

3. GET TOGETHER

4. JOY IN THE FINDING

5. GOING HOME

6. ALL MY LIFE

7. MIRABELLA

8. TAKE ME THERE

9. LISA

10. DAWN

11. BARN OWL BLUES

12. KIND SIR

13. THROUGH THE EYES OF A LIFETIME (PARTS I-III)



DISC FOUR

A GAME FOR ALL WHO KNOW: ITHACA

1. JOURNEY (DESTRUCTION - REBIRTH - PATTERNS OF LIFE)

2. QUESTIONS (DID YOU KNOW - WILL WE BE ALIVE)

3. TIMES (SEVEN SEASONS - THE PATH - GIVEN TIME)

4. FEELINGS (LOOK AROUND - I WANT TO FEEL YOU)

5. DREAMS (STORY OF OUR TIME - BENEATH THIS SKY)

6. JOURNEY II (A GAME FOR ALL WHO KNOW)



DISC FIVE

FRAGILE: FRIENDS

1. YOU NEED FRIENDS

2. A TALE OF YOUR LIFE

3. SUMMER SUNDAY BLUES

4. ONE SWEET DAY

5. MEMORIES

6. LONELY ROAD

7. MORNING

8. COME INSIDE

9. TAKE A WALK

10. RIVER SONG

11. ONCE IN A WINTER TOWN

12. TIME TO RUN

This release i am quite excited about,i have them all as singular cds released by Acme/Lion ,My fave album out of the five is the Ithaca one,by this time the production seemed to be more together and not as disjointed and may i say ramshackled as "Alice Through The Looking glass" album!!All 5 albums are on the whole a good listen,basic here and there production wise,but entertaining.If i remember all the singular cd have unreleased extra tracks included.I was just wondering if anyone knows,are those extra tracks included in this box set?I think this set is being released by those good chaps at Grapefruit....probably now the main UK purveyor when it comes to putting the clam box sets out there.

Agincourt is another wee gem of an album,i love this too,but i would recommend this 5 cd set to anyone interested in UK private pressed releases from the 60s through to 71,which incldues quite an eclectic vibe as you have a mix of folk, psych,pop and yes a bit prog in there too.
I would love to see a box set of the Holyground labels recordings as released by Kissing Spell on single cd a few years back.Some fab music made on that label recordings also.But thats just a snapshot of the progress of music through the years.It;s just a wish,who knows it could happen!!!

Well looking forward to its release!!!

Had this box set a few days. I quite like it but not as good as the hype made about it though.