Regal Zonophone 2
Following on from the Psychedlia 1967,68,69 sets, Grapefruit are going prog psych for 1970. Out nd of July
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/new-moons-in-the-sky-the-british-progressive-pop-sounds-of-1970-various-artists-3cd-boxset/
PM
• Having documented the British psychedelic scene with anthologies devoted to the years 1967, 1968 and 1969, Grapefruit’s ongoing series fearlessly confronts the dawn of the Seventies with a slight rebrand.
• New Moon’s In The Sky: The British Progressive Pop Sounds Of 1970 features (appropriately enough) seventy tracks from the first year of the new decade as the British pop scene adjusted to life without The Beatles.
• The 3-CD set concentrates on the more song-based recordings to emanate from British studios during 1970, whether from a pure-pop-for-then-people perspective or the more concise, melodic end of the burgeoning progressive rock spectrum.
• We acknowledge the end of the road for some bands who’d achieved a modicum of late Sixties success (Honeybus, Love Sculpture, Plastic Penny) while also charting the arrival of various acts like Curved Air, Atomic Rooster (about to score two major hit singles in the space of six months), Stray, future heavy metal major leaguers UFO, Affinity and Cressida, all of whom were able to combine underground rock credibility with an appreciation of the three-minute pop song.
• We also feature a number of successful late Sixties acts attempting to stay relevant in the new decade and adapt to a changing musical landscape (The Hollies, The Move, Status Quo, Procol Harum, The Tremeloes etc).
• But as always, we also shed light on the lost and buried: the studio-only creations, the Beatles disciples, the psychedelic folk adventurers, the one-shot-and-you’re-out releases, the pseudonymous pranksters and the backroom duckers and divers that littered the industry at the turn of the decade. We include a couple of tracks from one of the greatest music library psych albums (and no, it isn’t The Electric Banana), a handful of recordings that unfathomably failed to gain a release at the time (including the mighty Five Day Rain) and even a couple of 1970 locally-recorded demos that have never previously seen the light of day.
• Housed in a clamshell box containing a 52-page booklet that’s crammed to bursting point with group bios and obscure photos/memorabilia, New Moon’s In The Sky is a fascinating document of a febrile period. It’s also yet another essential Grapefruit package.
TRACKLISTING
DISC ONE
1. PIGGY PIG PIG – Procol Harum
2. GOOD LOVE CHILD –
Barclay James Harvest
3. GOOD YEAR – Five Day Rain
4. HURRY ON SUNDOWN – Hawkwind
5. AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS – Stray
6. ALL THE BEST PEOPLE DO IT –
The Humblebums
7. GIVE ME NO GOODBYE – Magna Carta
8. WINTER IS COMING AGAIN – Cressida
9. TINY GODDESS – Tim Andrews
10. JENNIFER – Angel Pavement
11. I’VE SEEN TO DREAM – Harmony Grass
12. THE TWO OF US – Penny Arcade
13. CALIFORNIA HERE I COME – River
14. MY MIND’S EYE – Canticle
15. CELEBRITY BALL – Plastic Penny
16. TIME TO DIE – Patto
17. MR. McGALLAGHER – The Sweet
18. I WILL BE THERE – The Seychelles
19. CALL ME LIGHTNING –
The Good Vibrations
20. ME AND MY LIFE – The Tremeloes
21. SINGING A SONG IN THE MORNING – Kevin Ayers & The Whole Wide World
22. THE FLYING MACHINE –
The Flying Machine
23. IN THE LAND OF THE FEW (single edit) – Love Sculpture
24. CLIMB THAT TREE – She Trinity
DISC TWO
1. KALEIDOSCOPE – The Marmalade
2. UNDER THE SILENT TREE – Honeybus
3. WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT –
Putney Bridge
4. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE – Jawbone
5. DEVIL’S ANSWER (demo version) – Atomic Rooster
6. LOVELY DAY – The Fox
7. CASTLES IN THE SKY –
Blonde On Blonde
8. BLIND MAN – Curved Air
9. ROWENA – Meic Stevens
10. BRIDGE* – Lifeblud
11. GOODBYE – Rusty Harness
12. TIME TO DIE – Ancient Grease
13. TREACLE PEOPLE – U.F.O.
14. PLAYING WITH MAGIC –
The Smoke
15. MR. DIEINGLY SAD – The Others
16. IN THE CITY – David & David
17. LEVINIA – Steamhammer
18. SAM AND SADIE – Fickle Pickle
19. MR. AND MRS. FRANKLIN * –
The Regime
20. MAD PROFESSOR BLYTH –
The Hollies
21. ANNA LAURA LEE- Yellow Taxi
22. MOTHER, MOTHER, MOTHER – Paper Bubble
23. STEP THIS WAY – Andromeda
24. HAVE YOU HEARD THE WORD – The Fut
DISC THREE
1. ST. LOUIS – Warhorse
2. AN APPOINTMENT WITH THE MASTER – Bachdenkel
3. SHY FLY – Status Quo
4. TAROT – Andrew Bown
5. THIEF – Octopus
6. UNITED STATES OF MIND – Affinity
7. UMBOPO – Doctor Father
8. TOGETHER IN THE NIGHT –
This Side Up
9. HE’S GROWING – The Gods
10. THROUGH A WINDOW – Hard Meat
11. NED KELLY – The Iron Maiden
12. WHAT? – The Move
13. LIGHTNING NEVER STRIKES – Sheridan & Price
14. HARD SELLING WOMAN – Flashman
15. ALIAS OLIVER DREAM – Airbus
16. SOON THERE WILL BE EVERYTHING – Killing Floor
17. ROCK AND ROLL WOMAN –
Love Street
18. YOUR MOTHER THINKS I’M A HOODLUM –
Savwinkle & Turnerhopper
19. FLIES LIKE A BIRD – Fire
20. COLOUR OF THE SUNSET –
Danny McCulloch
21. INDIAN MAID – The Ghost
22. ON ILKLA’ MOOR BAHT’AT –
Bill Oddie
I realise that everyone's tastes differ and these type of box sets try to please everyone by having a foot in all sorts of musical camps and genres but imo by trying to do this they end up turning people off.
I think we here could assemble a better collection than this.
Hi Greg, I understand what you mean, but I get the feeling much of their choices are limited by what they can licence, hence on many of those 3cd sets, a lot of the same bands feature on them, sometimes playing different genres of music.im a sucker for those 3cd clamshell collections as they always feature fab booklets and they're very reasonably priced. Looking at this tracklist it looks a very enjoyable selection, but in all honesty I have the majority on this,but knowing me I'll plump for this when it's released!!
Hi Stuart, I too am usually a fan of this series. I have the 1967, '68 and '69 sets, but must admit to being put off by the 1969 one. Too much saccharine pop for my liking. It appears that this could be the same. I mean how do you have a title of Progressive Pop? Is there such a thing? To me in 1969/1970 you either had psych or prog or a crossover or you had a pop/harmony type thing. I personally don't think there is any such thing as progressive pop.
Saying that, I'll probably get sucked in and buy it just to check out if I've missed some unknown gem.
Put it this way Greg, I'd much rather listen to 'I Know What I Like' by Genesis on a 45 than 'Supper's Ready' over a whole side of an album. When prog bands looked to the 45 format for a song (usually just to trail the album it came from rather than an aim at chart hit glory) they knew they had to curtail their inclinations to noodle, so the result is often a much more well edited and succinct tune as a result. It's pop Jim, but not as we know it!
PM:slightly_smiling_face:
Greg I have a comp released over 25 years ago progressive pop released on the see for miles comp, so it's certainly a phrase for a genre of music I've come across before, but yes when I think of 69/70,I too certainly think of the psych/progressive crossover sound like czar or the more harder rocky juniors eyes, this comp seems to
catch things like poppy folk, and more pop coming from a psycy direction, but progressive pop it's like a progressive sound on single with a more accessible sound and hook, no time for over long solos on a 3 minute tune. There's so many labels for so many genres you can get caught up in it,but I suppose for a product like this the company need a label and selling point,and this time instead of psych sounds of...like the last 3,they've chose the label progressive pop to maybe show the direction psych went onto, but I would trully love to see a genuine 3cd set covering the psych/progressive crossover sound,I did one many years ago called treacle people it was called which was basically a cdr collection of that type of sound, not much pop on that from what I remember, as I genuinely feel there hasn't been a true 3cd set of this covered correctly, ya know I can barely remember what I included on that now,but I'm sure I had the likes of czar, stuff from salamanders ten commandments,manfred Mann chapter 3,the sorrows from old songs, new songs and grail...... Memories awful now!! Folk or pop I don't think was included at all. But I genuinely think psych/prog crossover is a real genre of music, whether progressive pop...... Hmmm I really don't know to be honest!!
Hi Stuart - Yep, very much enjoyed your 'Treacle People' at the time. My 'Living Life Backwards' comp also sought to map out a prog pop route through the early-mid 70s. Remember there was the Psychic Circle (Particles) series of comps which included titles like: 'A Visit To The Spaceship Factory: 20 gems from the early years of prog' that were a good attempt at the psych-prog crossover.I have that See For Miles compilation as well. It was the first one to us the term 'prog pop' I think.
PM:slightly_smiling_face:
Hiya Paul,thank you. You've done that many cdr collections mate, too many to say what I enjoyed,but I loved the comp where you got pre Beatles artistes who tried to move with the times, was it called dream weavers? That was fantastic mate,years later that exact concept was carried out by teensvile records with their marnalade skies comp,and many tracks included on that featured on your dream weavers comp from say 20 years ago?? I remember trying to help you with that, trying to track down tracks etc, remembering that Internet music sharing and social media was in its infancy. I've still got that mate, I'm sure it was inspired by an article in mojo magazine, containing psych cuts by del Shannon,Rick Nelson,bobby vee,Bran hyland etc. They were fabulous times, now everything's so easily accessible, took a lot of the fun out of it!! Even tracked down a couple of Andy wiilliams tracks from a couple of his later 60s albums,but don't think they were included!!
Anyway, yes psych/prog crossover comps,of course I forgot about those,I think there may have been 3 particles cd comps pretty much related to the psych/prog crossover sound,in fact I have them all!! How could I have forgot them as on the whole they where good,also the electric asylum comps had a fair amount of that crossover stuff along with other things of course. Particles released a lot of comps bsck in the day,under different labels like psychic circle. I still have all those comps archived away and in easy reach, all came with liners too,which for boots was pretty good indeed. Happy memories lapping up many new sounds, and cdr trading with folk all over the globe!! It's just all too easy now.
I still have the Treacle People, Living Life Backwards, and Dreamweavers comps as well! Some great stuff on those. I remember making a similar type of CD-R comp around that same time but I don't think it reached as big an audience. I posted it on my old and very short-lived blog on blogspot at the time. The comp was called The Darkness Through The Smoke and it consisted of a lot of minor-key prog pop. Here's the track list:
Bee Gees - Sweet Song Of Summer
Richard Twice - If I Knew You Were The One
Peter Sarstedt - As Though It Were A Movie
The Strawbs - Canon Dale
Focus - Why Dream
Argent - Sleep Won't Help Me
Smile - Earth
Nektar - Do You Believe In Magic?
Rats - Dragon Child
Tritons - Drifter
Kayak - Trust In The Machine
Savage Grace - Night Of The Hunter
Billy Nicholls - White Lightning
Dave Miller Set - Mr. Guy Fawkes
Tom Northcott - Blackberry Way
Morgan - Ill Wind
Keith West - Liet Motif
Gordon Haskell - Upside Down
Savage Grace - Turn Your Head
I'm listening to it now, it's got a pretty melancholy mood throughout. It's always fun to go back and listen to a comp you made, brings back so many memories.
I'd love to see more prog pop and psych prog crossover comps released. I've mentioned these before but I really like those Queen Victoria vinyl LP comps that came out a while back - Spacegirl and The Starman, Here Lies Ebeneezer Goode, and Victoria Phantasia. Good stuff!
Bill Oddie? Enough said, I'll be skipping this one.
Very Nice compilation you compiled there Richard thanks for that one
Yes, I appreciate what people have said, but still believe, even though I can understand why, they try to cram too many different types or genres of music on this comp. Some of the ones that people put out the themselves back in the day eg Treacle People are more in keeping with what I would prefer.
I know I'm in the minority here, but I pre-ordered this when first announced and the set arrived this past week. I'm midway through the first disc and I'm loving it so far.
Another lovely package by Grapefruit with a fantastic booklet brimming with notes and photos (a given I know), great sound and it's introducing me to several bands I've heard of but not really heard 'till now. Which will open the door to further exploration of course...
I may be alone, but I'm quite happy with it.
I concur with you Mark, I've listened to Disc 1 so far and it's very enjoyable. The art work on the disc sleeves is bang on as well I think.
PM
:slightly_smiling_face:
Yep I concur with Mark and Paul, I got this box set a couple of weeks ago and I have been thoroughly enjoying it, though I've got a fair amount of stuff on this it's a very well put together set with fabulous period looking artwork and a fab booklet. Grapefruit records have released some great cds, at one time they were issuing reissues on cd of psych albums but lately it's mainly box sets they seem to do now, obviously better sellers, but I'd love for them to start reissuing actual albums as off late there's not been a helluva lot cd reissues, vinyl reissues seem to be getting released more now than cd reissues!! It does seem to be the demise of the cd may be happening and the resurgence of vinyl is growing more and more. But the 4 cd sets by grapefruit of the psych years and this set are essential to my ears and very reasonably priced too with good sound and always come with copious liners, this is a very strong collection and one of my faves out of the 4.
Also, the booklet is the only time I have ever seen a photo of She Trinity, nice pic as well.
PM