"...Breaking All The House Rules..."
Ah BUDGIE! Should have been
as big as Humble Pie or Sabbath or Purple - but criminally weren't. Yet today
they not only elicit as much affection as they did four decades ago but are
name-checked as hugely seminal influences on the likes of Metallica,
Soundgarden and even Van Halen all of whom have covered their tunes with pride
and glee.
Personally - Christmas 1972
and a 14-year old Markipoos has an LP pressy waiting for him beneath the
festooned tree - their second album "Squawk" in a Dolphin Discs
record bag! I've loved this Welsh power trio for over 45 years and this dinky
Remaster Box Set that features 3 of their 5 albums on MCA Records in the 70ts
has only sent me off on one. So much to love on here - but let's get to the
original grunge rockers first...
UK released Friday, 2 June
2016 (10 June 2016 in the USA) - "The MCA Years 1973-1975" by BUDGIE on MCA Records/Universal
UMC 5363393 (Barcode 600753633939) is a 3CD Hard Card Slipcase Mini Box Set
with new 2016 Remasters (with no Bonus Tracks) and plays out as follows:
Disc 1 "Never Turn Your
Back On A Friend" (41:50 minutes):
1. Breadfan
2. Baby Please Don't Go
3. You Know I'll Always Love
You
4. You're The Biggest Thing
Since Powdered Milk
5. In The Grip Of A
Tyrefitter's Hand [Side 2]
6. Hiding My Nightmare
7. Parents
Tracks 1 to 7 are their 3rd
studio album "Never Turn Your Back On A Friend" - released June 1973
in the UK on MCA Records MDKS 8010 (reissued MCA Records MCG 3513 in 1974)
Disc 2 "In For The
Kill" (41:12 minutes):
1. In For The Kill
2. Crash Course In Brain
Surgery
3. Wondering What Everyone
Knows
4. Zoom Club
5. Hammer And Tongs [Side 2]
6. Running From My Soul
7. Living On Your Own
Tracks 1 to 7 are their 4th
studio album "In For The Kill" - released June 1974 in the UK on MCA
Records MCF 2546 and in the USA on MCA Records MCA 429
Disc 3 "Bandolier"
(34:08 minutes):
1. Breaking All The House
Rules
2. Slipaway
3. Who Do You Want For Your
Love?
4. I Can't See My Feelings
5. I Ain't No Mountain
6. Napoleon Bona - Part 1
7. Napoleon Bona - Part 2
Tracks 1 to 7 are their 5th
and last studio album for MCA Records "Bandolier" - released
September 1975 in the UK on MCA Records MCF 2723 and in the USA on MCA Records
MCA 4618
The first thing fans will notice
is that the 2 or 3 Bonus Tracks that came with the 2004 singular Remasters of
each album are AWOL - which is a damn shame because (a) they were good and (b)
there's plenty of room (the non-album B-side "Honey" from the "I
Ain't No Mountain" UK and US 7" single would have been a perfect
addition for example). On the upside the "Never Turn Your Back On A
Friend" LP was always a gatefold with that Roger Dean artwork cover and
the live shots of the band (and lyrics) on the inner gatefold - that's been reproduced
in the rather tasty oversized card sleeve. But both "In For The Kill"
and "Bandolier" original LPs only came with single sleeves - here
they've been given gatefolds with promo photos of the band on the inside. Each
CD is also colour coded with the 'Budgie In A Spacesuit' Logo on each disc.
Noted writer and Music
Historian MALCOLM DOME has done the excellent liner notes inside the colourful
16-page booklet. There's references to Producer Roger Bain (had Sabbath
connections) who did so much to define their grungy hard rock sound on the July
1971 debut "Budgie" and its September 1972 follow-up
"Squawk" and a nod to British DJ 'Kid Jensen' getting behind the
first album on Pirate Radio thereby giving BUDGIE a career and following in
Europe. There are 7" picture sleeves for rare foreign issues of the
singles "Crash Course In Brain Surgery" and "Zoom Club" and
a trade advert for the "I Ain't No Mountain" 45 as well as comments
from key band members like Bourke Shelley and tributes from uberfans Dave Mustaine
from Megadeath and Lars Ulrich from Metallica.
But the really great news is
the AUDIO that absolutely rocks like the proverbial mother and her 'f' word.
ANDY PEARCE has revisited the original mastertapes (he did a great job on the
2012 Rory Gallagher reissues) and these CDs trounce the 1991 and 2004 versions
I've had for years. These transfers are loud and ballsy - but not loud for the
sake of it. As the tracks play you can really hear that guitar - that chunky
bass - those drum whacks. It's properly rocking and on stuff like the slide
genius of "Breadfan" or the sweet ballad "Wondering What
Everyone Knows" or the sheer riffage in the brilliant "Breaking All
The House Rules" - the sound is genuinely great and makes everything feel
new again.
With that Audio in mind -
these albums suddenly feel far better than I remember them. Every Budgie fan
loves "Never Turn Your Back..." with their blistering cover of Big
Joe Williams and his R&B hit "Baby Please Don't Go" and the
speaker-to-speaker hard rock of "In The Grip Of A Tyrefitter's Hand"
- but suddenly that swirling Acoustic Guitar in the pretty ballad "Riding
My Nightmare" seems huge - as does the doomy 10-minute-plus guitars of
"Parents". There's a part about a minute in when it slows to Acoustic
Guitar, Bass and echoed Lead - and the Remaster is fantastic.
I always felt "In For
The Kill" showed the band going slightly off the boil even though it was
their first to chart in Britain at No. 29. But again - there's real muscle in
the kick-ass chug of "In For The Kill" sounding down right dirty and
mean ("...when I was born I was given a will...") - nice. The 1971
non-album single "Crash Course In Brain Surgery" was supposedly given
a slight remix for the 1974 album version but I'm buggered if I can actually hear
any difference between this and the Roger Bain produced original (great tune
though). The drums of Ray Phillips were replaced by Phil Boot for "In For
The Kill" and you can hear it on the finisher "Living On Your
Own" - a deceptively complex tune where guitarist Tony Bourge stretches
out and Bourke Shelley gives it his best strangulated Geddy Lee vocals.
But the big winner here is
"Bandolier" - an album I'd completely forgotten about. The opening
"Breaking All The House Rules" is 7:22 minutes of fabulous Rock 'n'
Roll riffage where Budgie sounds like Scott Gorham/Brian Robertson Thin Lizzy
at their tightest and expressive best. And the Audio is just brilliant too. The
treated Acoustic ballad "Slipaway" is again gorgeously reproduced as
is the strangely Funky "Who Do You Want For Your Love?" They manage a
Hard Rock version of Andy Fairweather-Lowe's "I Ain't No Mountain"
(from his 1974 A&M album "Spider Jivin'") and is the nearest
Budgie get to being commercial sounding a little like Nazareth in search of a
Top Ten hit. The 2-parts of "Napoleon Bona" are close to 'Rush' Prog
Rock and again the Remaster just elevates everything - and you can 'so' hear
where Metallica got 'that' sound as the guitars riff like a goodun towards the
end of Part 1.
Perfection would have been
all five of the iconic MCA LPs including those first two masterpieces from 1971
and 1972. But what's on offer here (at just under eight-quid) is incredible
value for money and a great reminder as to why BUDGIE still engenders such
affection amongst ageing rockers like me whilst drawing in clued-up Metal newcomers
too. Christmas has come early...and in even better packaging this time...
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