"Refugee" by REFUGEE – April 1974 Debut and Only LP on Charisma Records featuring Bassist Lee Jackson and Drummer Brian Davison (both ex The Nice) with Keyboardist Patrick Moraz of Yes (30 August 2019 UK Esoteric Recordings 3CD Expanded Edition Box Set featuring Two Live CDs as Bonuses – A Previously Unreleased BBC Radio One "In Concert" Show from 9 May 1974 and a Live Show at Newcastle City Hall 16 June 1974 First Issued in 2007 – Jean Ristori and Patrick Moraz Remaster of The Album and Newcastle Show with a Ben Wiseman Remaster on the May 1974 BBC Radio One Concert) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Grand Canyon and The Future Relayer..."

In 2020, the three multi-instrumentals that made up England's REFUGEE are a footnote in Prog Rock's rich and illustrious history – a banks-of-keyboards band that could have become a force to be reckoned with, but were hit with bad luck and inopportune timing.

To set the scene - newcomer and then virtual unknown Swiss Keyboardist Patrick Moraz had joined forces with two other virtuoso players – Bassist Lee Jackson and Drummer Brian Davison – both of whom had done Prog and Classical Rock time with The Nice before Keith Emerson broke of to form ELP in 1970. Taking their name from a girlfriend's comment, Refugee made one album on Charisma Records in 1974 but then promptly imploded when Moraz was poached for YES (replacing Rick Wakeman).

This beautifully done 3CD Box Set from Esoteric Recordings of the UK (part of Cherry Red) remasters their solitary self-titled album and throws in two live shows on Discs 2 and 3 recorded in the same year (1974) – one Previously Unreleased BBC Concert, the other only issued in 2007 – with the whole lot newly remastered under the supervision of Moraz. Let's get to the Grand Canyon and the future Relayer…

UK released 30 August 2019 - "Refugee" by REFUGEE on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 32685 (Barcode 5013929478503) is a Expanded Edition 3CD Mini Clamshell Box Set of Remasters that plays out as follows:

CD1 "Refugee" (51:27 minutes):

1. Papillon [Side 1]

2. Someday

3. Grand Canyon

First Movement - The Source

Second Movement - Theme For The Canyon

Third Movement - The Journey

Fourth Movement - Rapids

Fifth Movement - The Mighty Colorado

4. Gate Crasher

5. Ritt Mickley [Side 2]

6. Credo

First Movement - Prelude

Second Movement - I Believe

Third Movement - Theme

Fourth Movement - Lost Cause

Fifth Movement - Agitato

Sixth Movement - I Believe (Part II)

Seventh Movement - Variation

Eighth Movement - Main Theme Finale

Tracks 1 to 6 are their debut and sole album "Refugee" - release 19 April 1974 in the UK on Charisma CAS 1087 and July 1974 in the USA on Charisma FC 6066. The one-minute track "Gatecrasher" appeared on the US LP (in the position its placed on this CD) but was not credited on the UK vinyl variant.

CD2 "BBC Radio One In Concert 9 May 1974" (33:13 minutes):

1. Ritt Mickley

2. Someday

3. The Grand Canyon Suite

First Movement - The Source

Second Movement - Theme For The Canyon

Third Movement - The Journey

Fourth Movement - Rapids

Fifth Movement - The Mighty Colorado

Produced by JEFF GRIFFIN and Engineered by JOHN ETCHELS (introduction from Mike Harding) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

CD3 "Live At The Newcastle City Hall 16 June 1974" (64:22 minutes):

1. Outro - Ritt Mickley

2. One Left Handed Peter Pan

3. The Diamond Hard Blue Apples Of The Moon

4. Someday

5. Papillon

6. She Belongs To Me

7. The Grand Canyon Suite

First Movement - The Source

Second Movement - Theme For The Canyon

Third Movement - The Journey

Fourth Movement - Rapids

Fifth Movement - The Mighty Colorado

8. Refugee Jam

First issued 2007 as the CD "Live In Concert (Newcastle City Hall 1974)" on Voiceprint VP421CD. Tracks 3 and 6 are cover versions - 3 originally by The Nice and 6 by Bob Dylan.

 

These mini Clamshell Box Sets always lend a release a whiff of class and the Remastered and Extended "Refugee" is no different. You get three card sleeves - the two live sets featuring new artwork, a 16-page booklet with new liner notes from MARTYN HANSON author of "Hang On To A Dream: The Story Of The Nice", period photos of the three-piece in live mode and trade adverts. More importantly, the whole shebang is touched up with top-notch Remasters by JEFF RISTORI at MTX Mastering (CD 1 and CD3) - whilst long-time association audio engineer to Esoteric BEN WISEMAN handled the new BBC In Concert recordings on CD2 - all supervised by Moraz. The Audio is massive and full on - multi-instrumental passages coming at you like Todd Rundgren's Utopia on too many Vitamin C shots. To the music...

The second the wild piano-playing of "Papillon" hits your speakers, you know you're in the presence of a beast - a full-on ELP outburst in all but different name. Brian Davison plays Drums, Timpani, Gongs, Tibetan Temple Bells, African Drums, Kabassa and even a bit of Broken Glass - and you can hear the lot. "Someday" features Lee Jackson on Lead Vocals shouting about going on a trip to far flung places - locking up the house and the Bass Guitar - and while his vocals haven't dated that well - the sheer Greenslade exuberance of that keyboard break has. The first of the album's centerpieces is a seventeen-minute five-moment called after an appropriately majestic thing - "Grand Canyon". The keyboard flourishes and clear-as-a-bell Bass notes are so Yes and remind me of passages in Jon Anderson's 1976 masterpiece "Olias Of Sunhillow". 

The keyboard throwaway moment (complete with cough and voices) that is "Gatecrasher" is huge - one minute of Moraz getting funky with his synth before it crashes into Side 2 proper and the very ELP "Ritt Mickley" - fantastic muscle in the audio. We piano-slide into the album's second centerpiece - eighteen minutes of the eight-part "Credo" - Moraz really getting to shine as he races up and down that grand piano. Those huge organ notes and vocals around about seven minutes are now bigger than I remember it. Audio-wise I’d admit the BBC session is good without ever being great - huge chunky notes and the rhythm section of Bass and Drums rattling across your speakers with intent - even if it feels as if the keyboards are too far back on occasion. But when Moraz is soloing – it’s damn impressive. The 2007 set are simply more of the same.

When Refugee imploded, Swiss Keyboardist Patrick Moraz joined the ranks of Yes replacing Rick Wakeman who was pursuing a successful solo career over on A&M Records with "The Six Wives Of Henry The VIII" (1973) and "Journey To The Centre Of The Earth" (1974). Filling very big boots, Moraz would be successfully launched by Yes in November 1974 with the brilliant "Relayer" album on Atlantic Records and then get his own solo LP in 1976 on Charisma with "The Story Of 'I'". Brian Davison did a short stint in Steve Hillage’s Gong in 1975 - another band getting noticed over on Virgin Records while Bassist Lee Jackson would stay out of the limelight until the 2010s when he joined a reformation of his old Charisma Label Prog Rock muckers The Nice for live shows.

Despite original refusals to join Yes, Moraz was too good to stick around with Refugee and ultimately made the right choice (a perfect fit for the English supergroup). Still – Refugee had had their moment and left behind a rich one. And as a remembrance with both stylistic presentation and top Audio - this is as good as any almost-supergroup could have hoped for…

"Ashes Are Burning" by RENAISSANCE – October 1973 UK Fourth Studio Album on Sovereign Records (September 1973 in the USA) – featuring Annie Haslam (Lead Vocals), Michael Dunford (Guitars), John Tout (Keyboards and Vocals), Jon Camp (Bass and Vocals) and Terry Sullivan (Drummer) with Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash as Guest Guitarist on the Title Track, Strings by Richard Hewson on Two Tracks and Lyrics by Betty Thatcher on All Songs (22 February 2019 UK Esoteric Recordings Expanded Edition CD Reissue with Three Bonus Tracks – Ben Wiseman Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Seeds Of Yesterday..."

There can't be too many Renaissance fans that don't worship at the Hipgnosis-artwork feet of their fourth and most accomplished platter "Ashes Are Burning" – originally issued in Blighty October 1973 on Sovereign Records. It was also the first album that really got them noticed in the USA where Sovereign via Capitol Records managed to chart the LP in late September 1973 for four weeks peaking at No. 171 (Renaissance would enjoy a further eight albums charting in America). But which issue to buy on CD?

Some history as to why you should choose the door marked 2019. Germany's Repertoire was for ages the only go-to place for a digital-version with their June 1995 CD Reissue on Repertoire REP 4575-WY (Barcode 4009910457528) – itself re-launched several times including right up to May 2011. Repertoire also did a separate 2006 variant on REP 5078 (Barcode 4009910507827). All of these versions simply transferred the 6-track LP and threw in a 12-page booklet. Next came Earthwest Recordings EW0093CD (Barcode 803341355194) in 2012 – again another straightforward transfer with bugger all mastering credits. None of these issues offered a new remaster or anything else either...

That all ends with this spectacular February 2019 Esoteric Recordings UK CD Remaster (Esoteric are part of Cherry Red) which not only ups the Audio game immeasurably for the album (Ben Wiseman transfer from original master tapes) but has unearthed three BBC "In Concert" recordings done in January 1974 (back from a US tour and tight as a gnat's chuff) once thought to have been lost forever – now found and sounding utterly superb – shockingly good Previously Unreleased material from their primo period.

Renaissance fans and lovers of Yes and Genesis music (circa 1973) will be lapping it the whole beautifully arranged and melodious Symphonic Rock of it all. There is even a guitar solo from Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash. Seeds of yesterday are indeed breaking through - let’s get to the details…

UK released 22 February 2019 - "Ashes Are Burning" by RENAISSANCE on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 2646 (Barcode 5013929474642) is an Expanded Edition CD Reissue with Three Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (69:51 minutes):

1. Can You Understand [Side 1]

2. Let It Grow

3. On The Frontier

4. Carpet Of The Sun [Side 2]

5. At The Harbour

6. Ashes Are Burning

Tracks 1 to 6 are their fourth studio album "Ashes Are Burning" - released September 1973 in the USA on Sovereign/Capitol Records ST-11216 and October 1973 in the UK on Sovereign Records SVNA 7261. Produced and Arranged by RENAISSANCE - it peaked at No. 171 in the USA (didn't chart UK).

BONUS TRACKS (Previously Unreleased):

7. Can You Understand

8. Let it Grow

9. Ashes Are Burning

Tracks 7 to 9 are BBC Radio 1 "In Concert" Recordings from 3 January 1974, Compared by Alan Black 

RENAISSANCE was:

Annie Haslam (Lead Vocals)

Michael Dunford (Guitars)

John Tout (Keyboards and Vocals)

Jon Camp (Bass and Vocals)

Terry Sullivan (Drummer)

All Lyrics by Betty Thatcher, Music by Michael Dunford - except "On The Frontier" by Jim McCarty and Betty Thatcher

Guests:

Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash - Guitar on "Ashes Are Burning"

Strings by Richard Hewson on "Can You Understand" and "Carpet Of The Sun"

The gatefold card digipak repro's the UK artwork (the US variant used different photos) and a 16-page booklet with new Annie Haslam and Terry Sullivan interviews. The inner sleeve with the lyrics is here too and superb new MALCOLM DOME liner notes. Clearly both Haslam and Sullivan are aware that LP4 struck the right chord at last - the Richard Hewson string arrangements framing their sound - pretty melodies - good lyrics - and now gorgeous Audio care of a BEN WISEMAN Remaster from original tapes. When the Acoustic Guitar/Haslam Vocal break comes in at about 1:55 in "At The Harbour" - the Audio is just beautiful. It's like that throughout and shockingly the three BBC sessions are amongst the best I've ever heard come out of the Beeb.

Fans will love the Prog Rock and Symphonic Rock of Side 1's "Can You Understand" - very similar to the best parts of "Selling England By The Pound" - also issued late 1973. "Let It Grow" feels like a lovelorn love song that has stayed so sweet.

The Acoustic/Vocals opening of "On The Frontier" feels like the 5th Dimension meets Mellow Candle - that piano underpinning the combo voices. It's the same for "Carpet Of The Sun" but I'm blown away by the BBC renditions - near perfect and you can clearly hear the audience sharp intake of breath as Renaissance sounds like a super-slick Greenslade or Supertramp - up to the point that there are several shouts for 'more' after the epic "Ashes Are Burning".

Mark and Vicky Powell's Esoteric Recordings have done some humdingers in the last five years, but this little sweetie is a very real Audio jewel in their heavily laden reissue crown. Well done to all involved...

"Two Weeks Last Summer" by DAVE COUSINS of Strawbs – Debut UK Solo Album from September 1972 on A&M Records – Featuring Guests Dave lambert of Strawbs, Miller Anderson of The Keef Hartley Band, Dog Soldier, Hemlock and Savoy Brown, Rick Wakeman of Yes, Jon Hiseman of Colosseum, Roger Glover of Deep Purple with Arrangers Tom Newman and Richard Kirby (November 2019 Esoteric 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue In A Card Digipak with Five Bonus Tracks and New DC Liner Notes – Paschal Byrne Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Float Away..."

By the time Dave Cousins' first solo album hit UK record emporiums in September 1972 (it had no US equivalent) - the band he was an instrumental part of (STRAWBS) had already released four studio LPs and one live - the last of which "Grave New World" had made their biggest splash to date - hitting a very respectable No. 11 position on the UK album charts after its February 1972 release with over 100,000 units shifted.

The four previous slabs of Folk-Rock/Prog-Rock entertainment from our London heroes - "Strawbs" (May 1969), "Dragonfly" (February 1970), "Just A Collection Of ANTIQUES and CURIOS" (a live set issued Nov 1970) and "From The Witchwood" (November 1971) had all built up a loyal fan following and garnished relatively healthy units for their parent company - A&M Records. 

So it’s a bit odd that this genuine little gem from late 1972 seemed to slither away into obscurity like a wounded dog – especially given some of the serious heavy-hitter Prog Rock names gracing its innards – Rick Wakeman of Yes, Jon Hiseman of Colosseum and Miller Anderson of The Keef Hartley Band, Dog Soldier and Hemlock [later also with Savoy Brown]. It even had arranger heroes like TOM NEWMAN (working on his downtime at night on a little project for Mike Oldfield called "Tubular Bells"), ROBERT KIRBY who had sorted for great artists like Nick Drake, Audience, John Cale, Vashti Bunyan, Andy Roberts and Sandy Denny to name but a few, and his fellow Guitarist mucker from the Strawbs – DAVE LAMBERT. 

Yet when I worked for Reckless Records as a Rarities buyer and all-round original records brainy-type in its busy Berwick Street shop for nearly 20 years of microgroove servitude - "Two Weeks Last Summer" was always a shocker when it turned up in the collection of some poor husband under the wife's 'they go or I go' kosh. This was an album you rarely ever saw – a sure indication that it achieved Zippity doo-dah in sales first time round.

So what a blast in late November 2019 to see Cherry Red's 'Esoteric Recordings' finally give DC’s Folk-Rock nugget the sonic upgrade it’s always deserved, five very cool and usable Bonus Tracks and a wee bit of a tasty digipak presentation into the bargain. Let's mark our festive calendars with the Pye Recording Studio details...

UK released Friday, 29 November 2019 - "Two Weeks Last Summer" by DAVE COUSINS (of The Strawbs) on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 2701 (Barcode 5013929480186) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster with Five Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (55:58 minutes):

1. Two Weeks Last Summer [Side 1]
2. October To May
3. Blue Angel (a) Divided (b) Half Worlds Apart (c) At Rest
4. That's The Way It Ends (including "The World")
5. The Actor [Side 2]
6. When You Were A Child
7. Ways And Means
8. We'll Meet Again Sometime
9. Going Home
Tracks 1 to 9 are his debut solo album "Two Weeks Last Summer" - released September 1972 in the UK on A&M Records AMLS 68118 (no US equivalent, but was released in Canada on A&M SP-9008). Produced by DAVE COUSINS and TOM ALLOM - it didn't chart. All songs written by DC except "See How They Run" by DC and Dave Lambert

BONUS TRACKS:
10. The Actor (Alternate Mix)
11. Ways And Means (Alternate Take)
12. I've Been My Own Worst Friend
13. See How They Run (1972 Demo with Dave Lambert)
14. The Rip Off Blues (1972 demo)

Band featured:
DAVE COUSINS [of Strawbs] - Lead Vocals, Guitar and Piano
MILLER ANDERSON [of The Keef Hartley Band, Hemlock, Dog Soldier and Savoy Brown] - Lead Guitar on Tracks 3, 5, 7 and 8
DAVE LAMBERT [of Strawbs] - Guitar on Track 5, Guitar and Harmony Vocals on Track 7
ROGER GLOVER [of Deep Purple] - Bass on Tracks 1, 3, 5 and 7
RICK WAKEMAN [of Yes] - Piano & Organ on Track 3 and Piano on Track 7
JON HISEMAN [of Colosseum] - Drums on Tracks 3, 5 and 7
TOM ALLOM – Producer, Audio Engineer, Organ and Backing Vocals on Track 1
TOM NEWMAN – Backing Vocals on Track 1
ROBERT KIRBY – Arranger on Track 4
THE KIDLINGTON KOSSACKS – Dave Cousins, Tom Newman and Dave Lambert as a ‘Russian Male Voice Choir’ on Track 2

As you can see from the photos I've provided, the inner CD label and gatefold card digipak match the artwork and the 12-page Dave Cousins liner notes (dated September 2019) give a superb recollection of musicians and their contributions. For instance the outtake "The Rip Off Blues" turns out to be about management fees while "Going Home" was an unused Strawbs song that became the one and only 45 from the album ("Going Home" b/w "Ways And Means", September 1972 UK 7" single on A&M Records AMS 7032). You get a Pye Recording Studios tape box and all the relevant (even expanded) album credits. But the big news is a new 2019 Remaster by Audio Engineer PASCHAL BYRNE from original tapes and it sounds stonking. I recall Witchwood Media put out a CD variant in 2004 but I've never had it so can't comment on the Audio - but what we do have here rocks - the usual kind of quality product we've come to expect from Esoteric. And more important to me is that I can sequence out some of the tracks I really hate or can't listen to anymore ("The Actor") and replace them with alternates/outtakes from the five bonus tracks - that for me - makes up the perfect album. To the music...

As you play the opening title track "Two Weeks Last Summer" with its trippy tinkling bells, treated guitars and hazy-lazy blissed out Summer vibe (Roger Glover of Deep Purple fame plays a Fretless Bass through a Wah Wah pedal the new liner notes inform us), it's like you stumbled on the best album The Incredible String Band forgot to make. "Two Weeks Last Summer" is fantastic stuff and many Folk-Rockers will know that on hearing it, none other than Sandy Denny brought it to her new band Fotheringay (having just left Fairport Convention) who covered it for the aborted second album on Island Records that never made its way into the public domain. It would take decades before a truly gorgeous version of it turned up on "Fotheringay 2" with Sandy on Lead Vocals - completed for that project in 2008. Well here's the original in all its 'tinklie' glory.

That's maybe even trumped by the 2:57 minutes of "October To May" that follows, crediting Dave Cousins with The Kidlington Kossacks as the only musicians on the rear sleeve. But his new liner notes of 2019 now tell us that it was the trio of himself, Dave Lambert and Tom Newman who made us the beautiful harmonising 'Russian' male voices (a perfect song follow after the Side 1 opener). You're then hit with the album's big piece - the near ten-minutes of a three-part "Blue Angel". Our DC is standing on the sidelines trying to make out that he wasn't there (in the lyrics) while Miller Anderson's electric lead guitar is given full reign. Colosseum's Jon Hiseman and Purple's Roger Glover bring up the rhythm rear with 'drummer and bassist of the year' aplomb. But its ex Strawbs keyboardist Rick Wakeman's accomplished piano and the half-time pace of the fantastic final section that lift the long piece up into the album's only real moment of Proggy Heaven. A near perfect A-side goes out with the lovely and very English ballad of "That's The Way It Ends including 'The World'" – arranger Robert Kirby giving it that sad but pretty madrigal-feel as the woodwind instruments Morris-float around your speakers.

The horrible Donovan warbling vocals and cod Rock and Roll riffing guitar of "The Actor" (Side 2's opener) has Cousins unwisely sounding like a dejected Peter Gabriel working on a sub-standard Nursery Cryme outtake. Even though it pares down some of the excesses, not even the DC-preferred 'Alternate Mix' in the Bonus Tracks of the awful "Actor" does it for me. I replaced it immediately with the quiet Acoustic prettiness of the LP outtake "I've Been My Own Worst Friend" (the third of the five bonuses) where our hero has no more dreams to weave – a heartbreak divorce ballad that feels like an open wound its so damn stark (in my mind, it would have opened Side 2 with a much more honest statement). With only Cousins on Piano/Vocals accompanied by Miller Anderson on Slide Guitar – they both deftly fill up the "...haven't seen you in a long time" song "We'll Meet Again Sometime" with a musical longing that makes you think of childhood and innocence lost – a very Cat Stevens piano-ballad moment on an album you wouldn't associate such a thing with.

More phased-vocals for the excellent 'river flowing' Progtastic feel to "Ways And Means" - Miller giving it some clever guitar fils while Rick Wakeman plays classy and complimentary on those grand piano keys. We sleeketh home wee timorous beasty with the lovely acoustic vibe of "We'll Meet Again Sometime" - fabulous acoustic slide from Miller while Cousins puts in his best vocal on the album. "...We'll meet again sometime...though the road is very steep and hard to climb..." - the song almost feels like a great long-lost Folk gem that John Martyn wrote circa "Solid Air" and along with the bopping rocker "Going Home" brings a very good LP to a satisfactory end.  For sure the audio to the two 'demo' tracks is hardly audiophile but for Strawbs fans, the harmonising vocals of Cousins and Lambert will be enough to induce flutterings of long-ago warmth while the 30% fee lyrics in "Rip Off Blues" shows DC's seldom seen angry and acidic side.

I've an e-Book I'm unceremoniously proud of called "OVERLOOKED ALBUMS 1955 to 1979" (over 400 entries) and come the latest update baby, Dave Cousins' criminally frozen-out "Two Weeks Last Summer" is in with a bullet. Can it get any better than that peopleoids of Great Britain – I doubt it I says to myself. 

One to check out and well done to all involved...

"Reaffirmation: An Anthology 1971-1973" by HELP YOURSELF Including the Albums "Help Yourself" (1971), "Strange Affair" and "Beware The Shadow" (both 1972) with "The Return Of Ken Whaley" and "Happy Daze" from 1973 and more - featuring Malcolm Morley and Ken Whaley (July 2014 Esoteric Recordings 2CD Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"…Running Down Deep…"

Having not sold in quantity at the time - HELP YOURSELF albums have become pricey suckers on the auction circuit over the last few years and this superlatively presented 2CD set on Esoteric Recordings of the UK (part of Cherry Red) is a great way of accessing their British Country Rock/Prog leanings for a reasonable cost. It has fab presentation and quality remastering too. Here are the Electric Fur Trappers and Strange Affairs…

Released July 2014 – "Reaffirmation: An Anthology 1971-1973" by HELP YOURSELF on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 22459 (Barcode 5013929455948) is a 2CD retrospective and breaks down as follows:

Disc 1 (77:30 minutes):

1. Running Down Deep

2. I Must See Jesus For Myself

3. Paper Leaves

4. Old Man

5. Deborah

6. Street Songs

Tracks 1 to 6 are from their debut album "Help Yourself" released April 1971 in the UK on Liberty Records LBS 83484

7. Strange Affair

8. Brown Lady

9. Heaven Row

10. The All Electric Fur Trapper

11. Many Ways Of Meeting

12. Deanna Call And Scotty

Tracks 7 to 12 are from their 2nd studio album "Strange Affair" released April 1972 in the UK on United Artists UAS 29287

13. Alabama Lady

14. Reaffirmation

15. Passing Through

Tracks 13 to 15 are from their 3rd studio LP "Beware The Shadow" released November 1972 in the UK on United Artists UAS 29413

Disc 2 (69:14 minutes):

1. She's My Girl

2. American Mother

Tracks 1 and 2 are from their 3rd studio LP "Beware The Shadow" released November 1972 in the UK on United Artists UAS 29413

3. Mommy Won't Be Home For Christmas

4. Johnny B. Goode

Tracks 3 and 4 are the A&B-sides of a UK 7" single released December 1972 on United Artists UP 35466 – both tracks non-album

5. Candy Kane

6. Who Killed Paradise?

7. It Has To Be

8. Man, We're Glad We Know You

9. Blown Away

Tracks 5 to 9 are from their 4th studio album "The Return Of Ken Whaley" released July 1973 in the UK on United Artists UDG 4001. It was paired at the time of release with a free album called "Happy Daze" on United Artists FREE 1. See Tracks 10 and 11

10. Virginia

11. I've Got Beautiful You

Tracks 10 and 11 are from "Happy Daze" – see 5 to 9 above

12. Eddie Waring (Live)

Track 12 appeared on the MAN and FRIENDS (Various Artists) 2 x 10" live album "Christmas At The Patti" released in the UK July 1973 on United Artists UDX 205/6

Tastefully housed in a card slipcase – the compilation has been put together with obvious affection by MARK POWELL and TIM FRASER-HARDING (Powell has been involved in hundreds of quality reissues). The 16-page booklet has superb liner notes by MICHAEL HEATLEY featuring reminiscences on Malcolm Morley's songwriting and the band’s struggles sided with trade adverts, band photos and publicity shots, ticket stubs, Posters of 1971 Festival appearances and a rare advert for the first album on Liberty Records. But the great news for fans is a BEN WISEMAN remaster from original master tapes at Audio Archiving in London. I’ve had an old CD of their stuff from years back and the improvement here is immense – clear instruments, vocals upfront, power and subtlety on every track – top notch job done.

Although associated with guitar workouts – in the beginning HELP YOURSELF were often more British Country Rock via the USA than stoner boogie. Tunes like the lovely piano-soft “Deborah” on their debut and “Brown Lady” on their second LP come on like America circa “A Horse With No Name” in 1972. Then they get a bit boogie with excellent “Running Down Deep” and “Old Man” which sounds like Matthews Southern Comfort meets Neil Young – a languid chugger that lasts just under seven minutes – at times feeling like “Southern Man” off “After The Gold Rush” – very cool. Ken Whaley’s bass and the swirling fuzz-guitars on “The All Electric Fur Trapper” are so clear – beautiful job done with the transfer (bit of a tune too). The band had a genius in MALCOLM MORLEY who penned the bulk of these across-the-board songs flitting from Country to Funky to Boogie in a heartbeat. Ex British hard rockers SAM APPLE PIE and later a member of MAN – Morley’s guitar and moods dominates the albums. Light and rocking one moment (“Blown Away”) then acidic and lyrically heavy the next (“Who Killed Paradise?”) – he could be both soft (“She’s My Girl”) and creepy at one and the same time (“Candy Kane”).

The Yuletide single “Mommy Won’t Be Home For Christmas” is a broken-home slice of festive reality with kids who saw mommy “went away in October…Christmas sure is looking black…”) while its great B-side sees them get all Foghat on Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” – it’s a rarity on 7” and its inclusion here is a smart move. Things go all 12-minute Prog with the brilliant “It Had To Be You” – Morley’s Keyboard work layering synths and piano and trippy Man/Hawkwind moments. The same feeling comes with the compilation’s driving title track “Reaffirmation” – another near 13-minute slowy that builds into a sort of Deke Leonard funky guitar groove and just keeps going (bit of a discovery this one). In fact the live fourteen-minute “Eddie Waring” is just that – a Deke Leonard composition that wouldn’t have been out of place on say Man’s superb live set “Maximum Darkness” from 1975.

Ken Whaley went on to be with pub-rockers DUCKS DELUXE and sadly passed away in 2013 – Richard Treece and Malcolm Morley still gig occasionally to this day.

A stormingly good reissue for a band that deserves one – HELP YOURSELF to a slice of these forgotten English heroes…