Thinking of buying the Wooden Hill 2 disc set 'Old songs New Songs' that includes their recordings after the departure of Don Fardon, I read a review ages ago in SFA which gave the thumbs up...anyone here have any opinions good or bad before I part with the hard earned?...It's £16, a bargain if it's good,
but a lot if it's not....Ta!

Painterman,i have the 2 cd Wooden Hill collection and i love it,the first cd contains the Italian only album "OLd Songs New Songs"which has a few covers on it but done in a way to make them different to the originals,you have Traffics Mr Fantasy and Heaven is in Your Mind,Familys Mr Policeman and OLd Songs New Songs amongst others,,as for the rest of the stuff on cd1 and on the album,i think most it is pretty good psych,tracks i like are Mary J,Hey Hey,THe Makers which is tremendous,Per Una Donna...no(Listen To Me),Same old Road and the Small Faces Rollin Over.As for the extras on cd1,decent extras with Ypotron being a highlightrcorded in 66,but a couple of soundtrack songs that are good too from 66,i must say why did they have to include Shark Fishing Blues which IMO is the worst thing on this 2 cd set!!Anyway onto cd 2,this includes a pre Old Songs New Songs demo album,which again is very good but i have to add the sound quality aint as good as cd1 of course as they are only demos and are from an old acetate,but some fab stuff like Answer My Questions,a fab verrsion of the Gibb Brothers New York Mining Disaster 1941,Dogs and Cats,and another damn fine version of The Makers,i must say the song THe Makers is the band at their psych best,cracking gear!!!But this demo album is 9 tracks long and is good in its own right.As for the second half of cd2,you get 11 tracks recorded live in 1980,which to be honest i have NOT listened to in all the time ive had this collection!!In my opinion Painterman,im sure you'll enjoy most of this stuff,to me its essential in any UK psych enthusiasts collection and the booklet is excellent telling the story post Don Fardon of how they ended up in Italy and got the chance to record an album,ok there's quite a few cover versions on the album which may put some folk off,but The Sorrows own songs are excellent to my ears and are worth hearing!!So this double cd is worth getting just to hear those!!I hope this was helpful mate!!

HA!!...knew it!
Said to my girlfriend earlier on today, give it a little while and if I don't get a really good detailed reply to this post from Stuart, I promise you the princely sum of ten shillings!....just had a feeling....

Very helpful as always matey and sounds really good to me, I love their earlier Pye records stuff..will def be ordering this at the end of the week.

Hi Painterman,did you ever get this double cd?Be interested in what you think of it!!

Hi Stuart, ordered it just this weekend from Nick at Heyday, probably come sometime this week, I'll be sure to let you know my thoughts on here...
I did get Mr Umbrella Man this week tho, I've only listened to it once as I've been absorbed in the comps, the opener, Amanda Jane, is a stunner and is followed by a lot of really nice songs, it's such a shame the arrangements are so sparse on most of them...great songwriting and harmonies tho and a nice impression for first listen....I'll get back about the Sorrows when it arrives.

Ok mate,i can get a little too enthusiastic when it comes to some things,i bummed up Consortium and The Sorrows,so hopefully you enjoy and dig both of those cds.i agree Consortium is pretty sparsely arranged,imagine how great a lot of those songs would've turned out in a big studio and with some cash behind them,but the good sonwriting shines thrrugh fortunately.

for me SORROWS are a great beat group shame they didnt expand into the psyche scene

But they did. That's what this thread is about!

I promised Stuart I'd share my thoughts on 'Old songs, new songs' when my copy arrived, so I'd just like to say it's right up my street and right up my favorite lamp post...From the opener, Same old Road, it's apparant that this album is quite different from their previous stuff..the Traffic covers are both really good a little different from the originals but great..Hey Hey is a good un too..Mary J surprises nicely by being a little folky...The Makers..now here's a monster of a psych tune! Superb tune with great backing vocals reminiscent of the Pretty Things Sorrow era, a nice feature of this album that pops up a lot, theres also great crunchy guitars and great drums throughout too and flashes of flute and sitar.the version of old songs new songs is superb.Per una donna..a lovely pop psych tune with harmonies that is rather softer than the rest of the album but quite delicious.Also well worth a mention is the aborted '68 single 'Which Way' which reminds me of The Creation a bit which obviously delights me no end and 'Ypotron', another slice of pop art shenanigans.
As you say Stuart, most of disc 2 is alternates & demos from rough acetate but there are some goodies on there too....Disc 1 however is absolute killer stuff..
very happy with this indeed. I'd unreservedly recommend this to anyone into UK
Freakbeat/Psych....Brilliant!!

On another note Stuart you were asking me about Fat Mattress and yeah, I do like the 1st album a lot, Petrol pump assistant is a top notch poppsych classic imo... what I've heard of the 2nd doesn't sound so much to my tastes as it's not so pop psychy...

So glad you enjoyed The Sorrows Painterman,i had visions of you getting this and thinking what the f---was Stuart going on about,this is shit.But alas enjoyed it you did!!!!
As for Fat Mattress,i enjoy most of their stuff ,as you say the first album has some real delights,Petrol Pump Assistant is of course one,but another few tracks that gets me are "Magic Forest","Walking THrough A Garden"and"Mr Moonshine",as for Fat Mattress 2,again theres some tidy music to be had"The Storm","Anyway You Want","Naturally"the blooming marvelous"Childhood Dream",maybe this album aint to some ears as lysergicically enhanced as the debut(but it is),but to my ears this album may tickle a few psych buffs fancies,tho some of the tracks are heading towards a folky direction,but still are fab songs,i enjoy this album as much as the debut.I must recommend the double cd collection"Magic Forest-The Anthology"released on Castle in 2006,this also contains recordings for a planned third album,there was an cd anthology before this again released by Castle Titled "Black Sheep of the Family",this does NOT feature the BBC sessions that were included on "Magic Forest",but apart from that i dont think theres much difference,but the liners are more in-depth for the"Magic Forest anthology".I dont know how easily available either collection is as Castle went down with Sanctuary Records,but if you see either at a decent price grab it!!!!!Or the alternative is the Esoteric cd reissues of both albums with bonus tracks.But those anthologys are expansive and catch all sorts of out-takes etc.F----- love Fat Mattress,just listening to cd2 as i write this,all i can say Painterman is give it another listen with a joint in your brain,sounds fab to me!!Some fabulous tracks!!!Am i just waffling away here in my stoned state.......lol!!!!!!!

No worries Stuart, The Sorrows hit the spot - bullseye.

I've got the esoteric Fat mattress 1, there are some bits from 2 on you tube that I'll have a listen to again and if I see any of the anthologies for a reasonable ticket I'll have a pop, I looked at em before I bought FM 1 but they were expensive...