"Rainbow Chaser: The 60s Recordings (The Island Years)" by NIRVANA (May 2018 UK Universal/Island 2CD Anthology - Patrick Bird Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Tiny Goddess..."

Fans of the British 60ts hippy band NIRVANA will probably have bought their first two albums "The Story Of Simon Simopath" (1967) and "All Of Us" (1968) when they were reissued as Expanded Edition 'Island Remasters' back in October 2003. Here in May 2018 we’re now given an even bigger musical haul – so let’s compare then with now...

The Universal/Island 2003 CD Remaster of their debut "The Story Of Simon Simopath" (Island IMCD 301 - Barcode 602498000106) gave you 'both' the STEREO and MONO mixes of the 10-Track 1967 album along with 4 Bonus Tracks - 3 Non-Album B-sides to UK 7" singles and 1 Previously Unreleased Take 3 Alternate Version of a Nirvana rarity - "Life Ain't Easy".

The "All Of Us" CD Remaster on Island IMCD 302 (Barcode 0602498000113) gave you the 12-Track 1968 second album in STEREO with 4 Bonus Tracks - all Non-Album A&B-sides to UK 7" singles. Both CDs came with detailed/illustrated liner notes and cracking Paschal Byrne Remasters. So what's new here in 2018 and why should you buy it?

Dropping the mono mix of "The Story Of Simon Simopath" – Disc 1 of "Rainbow Chaser..." keeps the 10-Track Stereo mix of the LP as well as the four bonus tracks of the 2003 CD - and adds on a further 13 Tracks – 11 of which are Previous Unreleased (2 of those feature another island Records act – Spooky Tooth - Tracks 22 and 23 - see details below). Disc 2 of "Rainbow Chaser..." offers the Stereo mix of the 12-Track 1968 second album but drops two of the singles sides on the 2003 CD reissue (they’re now over on Disc 1) and also adds on Previously Unreleased material – 11 tracks in all.

So with 52 songs in total – a whopping 22 of which are Previously Unreleased – new MALCOM DOME liner notes and new mastering from PATRICK BIRD – and of course an affordable price tag with generous playing times on both CDs – there really is a lot on offer here for old hands and newcomers alike. Let’s get to the tiny goddesses...

UK released 18 May 2018 - "Rainbow Chaser: The 60s Recordings (The Island Years)" by NIRVANA on Universal/Island 671 145-2 (Barcode 602567114529) is a 52-Track 2CD Anthology (22 are Previously Unreleased) that plays out as follows:

Disc 1 (78:56 minutes):

1. Wings Of Love [Side 1]

2. Lonely Boy

3. We Can Help You

4. Satellite Jockey

5. In The Courtyard Of The Stars

6. You Are Just The One [Side 2]

7. Pentecost Hotel

8. I Never Had A Love Like This Before

9. Take This Hand

10. 1999

Tracks 1 to 10 are their debut album "The Story Of Simon Simopath" - released October 1967 in the UK in Mono (Island ILP 9059) and November 1967 in Stereo (Island ILPS 9059) and March 1968 in the USA in Mono and Stereo on Bell Records (6015 and 6015-S). Produced by CHRIS BLACKWELL, Arranged by Sid Dale and written by the band's two key players - Guitarist and Vocalist Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Keyboardist Alex Spyropoulos - their debut concept album was also subtitled on the rear sleeve as 'A Science Fiction Pantomime' with Sides 1 and 2 called 'Act I' and Act II'.

11. I Believe In Magic (non-album B-side to the July 1967 UK 7" single "Tiny Goddess" on Island WIP 6016)

12. Feelin' Shattered (non-album B-side to the October 1967 UK 7" single "Pentecost Hotel" on Island WIP 6020)

13. Flashbulb (non-album B-side to the March 1968 UK 7" single "Rainbow Chaser" on Island WIP 6029)

14. C Side In Ocho Rios (non-album B-side to the August 1968 UK 7" single "Girl In The Park" on Island WIP 6038 - as The Nirvana Orchestra)

15. Requiem To John Coltrane (non-album B-side to the January 1969 UK 7" single "Wings Of Love" on Island WIP 6052)

16. Lonely Boy (Instrumental, Take 8) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

17. I Never Had A Love Like This Before (Instrumental) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

18. Tiny Goddess (Recorded 21 June 1967 at Olympic Studios with Jimmy Miller on Drums) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

19. Life Ain't Easy (Unfinished Track, Take 3) – first available in 2003

20. Goodbye Baby Bunting (Finished Version) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

21. Omnibus (Olympic Studios Original Version with Different Lyrics) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

22. Oscar (Oh! What A Performance) (Long Version No. 1 featuring Spooky Tooth) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

23. Oscar (Oh! What A Performance) (Long Version No. 2 featuring Spooky Tooth) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

24. Goodbye Baby Bunting (Demo) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

25. City Of The South (Instrumental) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

26. Trapeze (Demo) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

27. Darling Darlane (Long Version, Take 3) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

Tracks 16, 17, 18 and 20 to 27 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

Disc 2 (79:03 minutes):

1. Rainbow Chaser [Side 1]

2. Tiny Goddess

3. The Touchables (All Of Us)

4. Melanie Blue

5. Trapeze

6. The Show Must Go On

7. Girl In The Park

8. Miami Masquerade

9. Frankie The Great

10. You Can Try It

11. Everybody Loves The Clown

12. St. John's Wood Affair

Tracks 1 to 12 are their second studio album "All Of Us" - released August 1968 in the UK in Stereo only on Island ILPS 9087 and 1969 in the USA on Bell Records 6024.

13. Oh! What A Performance

14. Darling Darlane (Tracks 13 and 14 are the A&B-sides of a May 1969 UK 7"single on Island WIP 6057)

15. Rainbow Chaser (Original Track without Phasing Effect) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

16. The Touchables (All Of Us) (Instrumental, Take 23) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

17. The Show Must Go On ((Vocal and Bouzouki Version) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

18. Frankie The Great (Alternate Version, Take 6)

19. You Can Try It (Alternate Version, Take 7) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

20. Everybody Loves The Clown (Alternate Take with Girl Singers and No Lead Vocal) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

21. The Touchables (All Of Us) (Features vocals from actresses in the film "The Touchables" - Esther Anderson, Judy Huxtable, Marilyn Rickard and Kathy Simmonds) - - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

22. Excerpt from "The Blind & The Beautiful" (Alternate Take, Trident Studios, 2 April 1969) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

23. Black Flower (Alternate Take, Trident Studios, 31 March 1969) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

24. Love Suite (Instrumental, Take 1, Trident Studios, 19 May 1969) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

25. Melanie Blue (New July 2017 Recording by Patrick Campbell-Lyons (Vocals) and Aggelos Karapetros (Guitars and Bass) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

Tracks 15 to 25 are all PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

Given room to spread out - the 24-page booklet is a gorgeous affair to look at and properly in-depth when it comes to detail and history – a typically top-notch job done by liner-notes regular MALCOLM DOME. Not only do you get rare foreign picture sleeves of the big singles "Tiny Goddess" and "Rainbow Chaser" as well as EPs by Francois Hardy (who covered their TG in three languages including her own French)  - the photos go back as far as Patrick Campbell-Lyons' first band 'The Second Thoughts' in 1964 and an uber-rare Sound Studios acetate of their unreleased 45. There are photos of the Irishman Lyons (originally from Waterford) in 1966 in a Denmark Street cafe - already hooked up with the Athens born Greek keyboardist Alex Spyropoulos. The UK's Nirvana was originally a 6-piece and several pictures of the five boys and one girl are featured around the text (with Patrick-Campbell Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos as the core - the others are Pete Kesler, Brian Henderson, Ray Singer and Sylvia Schuster). Ace Arranger and all round genius Sid Dale rightly gets a photo on Page 14 - whilst tie-in artists like backing singers Sue and Sunny (Yvonne and Heather Wheatman) are there by virtue of covering Nirvana’s "The Show Must Go On". There is even a bizarre blurred photo of Salvador Dali with Nirvana on French TV in July 1968 as he wanders around the Psychedelic props looking suitably off his red jacket rocker (them was the days). Movie fans will love the photos of the hip-and-happening actress gals lounging about provocatively on a bed in a still advert for the movie "The Touchables" (their four vocals feature on an unreleased outtake – Track 21 on Disc 2).

The new Audio comes courtesy of PATRICK BIRD and quality is superb. The "Rainbow Chaser" track itself famously claims to have had the first use of phasing and is presented here in both forms - the released 'with' version that opens album No. 2 and the 'without' phasing version - the 'without' being Previously Unreleased. Whichever is your poison - they sound huge - as does much everything else. To the music...

The debut opens with longing and drama - a little swallow in the sky is enticed down to the ground by bags of sweets so our boys can harness his 'wings'. As late as January 1969 Island Records tried Side 1's "Wings Of Love" as a 7" single A-side in the UK (WIP 6052) with the non-album "Requiem To John Coltrane" as the flip (Track 15 on Disc 1) - but it was more of a soppy 1967 tune so did little business. The keyboard ping-pong of "Lonely Boy" (all I want to do is cry) and the whimsical jaunt of "We Can Help You" feel like Donovan meets The Move. Flute, fuzzed guitar and treated vocals make "In The Courtyard Of The Stars" another potential 45. There's amazing Stereo in "You Are Just The One" - another happy ditty that could easily be mistaken for The Association over on Warner Brothers. Their second UK 45 "Pentecost Hotel" from October 1967 feels like eavesdropping on happier times - a lingering Summer of Love vignette that evokes the optimism of the age completely. And the bride wore blue for "Take This Hand" while the album ends on a knees up - "1999" sounding like 'have a drink and be merry' Small Faces.

"All Of Us" opens with a genuine slice of period razzmatazz - the phasing of "Rainbow Chaser" - a fantastic slice of 60ts Pop with Strings and Swirling Brass and Voices that the Small Faces would have coveted. Winner number two on "All Of Us" is "Tiny Goddess" - a song that shows how much their songwriting prowess had moved on from the rather twee pop of the "Simon Simopath" concept LP. The wind from somewhere East will take us back home Nirvana sing on "The Touchables..." (a groovy movie dalliance) - whilst "Melanie Blue" is pretty too if not a little overdone in the strings department. Fifty years after the event the circus song "Trapeze" feels awkward now but the deceptively beautiful "The Show Must Go On" could be instrumental Nick Drake. The Smoke would cover the excellent "Girl In The Park" but the irritatingly upbeat CIA-spy crap of "Miami Masquerade" is dreadfully dated now. Sounding like a young Colin Blunstone on "You Could Try It" - Nirvana use Sue and Sunny as backing girly vocals to perfect effect. "Everybody Loves The Clown" is another hard-to-take listen now - but the album ends on the better "St. John's Wood" – clever arrangements all the way to that brass fade out ending. A genuine find amongst the outtakes is the lovely Take 3 of "Life Ain't Easy" - a bit of wonder and something Burt Bacharach would have looked upon with pride had he written it. The Vocal & Bouzouki Version of "The Show Must Go On" is a great outtake too.

For sure all this relentless 60ts-hippy happy-wappy will not be for everyone - but there's enough here to please old and new. And with great audio, decent presentation and all those more than interesting outtakes - it's a job well done...