"An Apple A Day" by APPLE – February 1969 UK Debut LP on Page One Records in Stereo - featuring Jeff Harrad, Robert Ingram, Denis Regan, Charlie Barber and Dave Brassington and Producer Caleb Quaye of Hookfoot and The Elton John Band (September 2020 UK Grapefruit Records Expanded Edition CD Reissue – Oli Hemingway Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Full Of Flavour..."

History is a double-edged sword when remembering, and I'd argue never more so than for the five-piece Welsh Psych-boys of APPLE. To understand the magnificence of this September 2020 Expanded Edition CD reissue from those hairy-men over at the much-loved Grapefruit Records, some musical backdrop is needed. 

In 2017, a Stereo (playable Mono) copy of the February 1969 LP "An Apple A Day" by Apple on Page One POLS 016 sold for a staggering four grand on a well-known auction site – the kind of Psych and Freakbeat rarity that makes fans of the genre sell small babies to unscrupulous piranha to acquire. And at that time little was known about the group in any discography anywhere – nearly half a century after the event. The band Apple and their fantastically grungy lone album were largely unknowns, which in some ways only added to the mystique. 

For this Grapefruit Records CD remaster and reissue, founder member and Bassist Jeff Harrad has finally come forth and upset the you-know-what cart by giving us a blow-by-blow account of the band's woes with Larry Page's Page One Records – a rushed signing to a London maverick they all came to bitterly regret. In fact the material is licensed from Harrad - remastered by OLI HEMINGWAY at The Wax Works and annotated by the much-lauded DAVID WELLS of Grapefruit Records (all good names amongst collectors). 

Page was a cheapskate on a gargantuan level. In a 20-page booklet, there are only three photographs of the band and they are in black and white because Page wouldn't pay for colour. The three 'demo' recordings they made with guitarist and future Hookfoot and Elton John Band member CALEB QUAYE as Producer at De Lane Lea Studios were only meant to be just that - demos. Then at another session in Page's Oxford Street studios, they recorded more demos only to find that instead of doing proper studio variants, Page slap-dashed the lot together and that became their February 1969 debut album. 

The front cover was a shot Page had borrowed from (wait for it) 'The Apple And Pair Development Council' of Great Britain and the album inexplicably contained a four-page insert of 'the juicy, full of flavour and crisp' nature of English Apples and Pears. It offered meringue recipes with further instructions on how to keep the fruits and ripen them - and even had a colour-coded calendar on their availability in English shops throughout the year (don't you just love it). Absolutely naught to do with the group or the wild music contained within the LP. The rear cover misspelled two of the band member names (Harrad as Harrod and Denis with two n’s) and the track list was arse-about face too. And worst of all of course, despite favourable press reviews, their debut barely made into any collection anywhere – hence its rarity value. In fact Harrad advises that keyboardist Charlie Barber was so appalled when he saw and heard the finished LP that he drew a nail across the tracks so they couldn't be played again. 

But here's the historical rub. The very kiss-me-quick nature of the demos where the fuzzed-up Psych guitar of Robert Ingram and Piano tinkles of Charlie Barber do battle with the barely audible drums of Dave Brassington, the vocals of Denis Regan and the bass of Jeff Harrad - gives the solos, passionate performances and sonic assault a wallop that polished studio variants would probably have lacked. This is a wee brute of a listen – so uncouth – and yet so bloody alive because of that. Page wouldn't have cared one way or the other at the time even if perfectionists in the band were appalled, but their mistakes then are a boon to us now – this being the kind of whig-out Syd Barrett Pink Floyd-esque sound subsequent collectors of the Psych genre worship at the feet of - and rightly so. 

Time to get Bramley Cake and Crumble on this sucker, here are the CD reissue details...

UK released Friday, 25 September 2020 - "An Apple A Day" by APPLE on Grapefruit records CRSEG079 (Barcode 5013929187924) is an Expanded Edition CD Reissue and Remaster in a Card Digipak that plays out as follows (52:30 minutes):

1. Let's Take A Trip Down The Rhine [Side 1]
2. Doctor Rock 
3. The Otherside
4. Mr. Jones 
5. The Mayville Line 
6. Pretty Girl I Love You 
7. Rock Me Baby [Side 2]
8. Buffalo Billycan
9. Photograph 
10. Psycho Daisies 
11. Sporting Life 
12. Queen Of Hearts Blues
Tracks 1 to 12 are their debut and only album "An Apple A Day" - released February 1969 in the UK on Page One Records POLS 016 in Stereo

BONUS TRACKS:
13. Let's Take A Trip Down The Rhine (Mono Single Version) 
14. Buffalo Billycan (Mono Single Version) 
Tracks 13 and 14 are the A&B-sides of their debut UK 45-single released October 1968 on Page One POF 101

15. Doctor Rock (Mono Single Version)
16. The Otherside (Mono Single Version)  
Tracks 15 and 16 are the A&B-sides of their 2nd and last UK 45-single released December 1968 on Page One POF 110

The card digipak has a promo photo of the five-piece on one inner flap whilst a Grapefruit Records advert for other product lies beneath the see-through CD tray. DAVID WELLS has done a typically excellent job on the 20-page booklet and presentation. The genesis of Apple goes back to 1963 and a thriving Cardiff band on the popular R&B scene called Vance & The Vauqeros that featured drummer David Brassington and singer Denis Regan. Bassist Jeff Harrad came up through the ranks of another popular five-piece combo called Brother John & The Witnesses – both suited-and-booted beat groups are pictured on Pages 4 and 5 of the booklet. There are foreign pictures sleeves for the two 1968 singles hat preceded the album, a full repro of the ludicrous Apples and Pears insert and a fascinating flyer repro on Page 8 for a 25 June 1969 gig at the Paget Rooms in Penarth showcasing The Apple and support act, The Budgie (now there’s a noisy rocking gig). 

Apple (nothing to do with The Beatles of their label) managed two UK 45-singles in their short duration as band, both of which are pictured on the last page of the booklet in stock and demo copy form alongside a rare two-track Emidisc Acetate dated 7 September 1968 for their debut 7" single - "Take A Trip Down The Rhine" and "Buffalo Billycan" (see photos provided). I always wondered why the poppier "Let's Take A Trip Down The Rhine" debut 45 is listed in the Record Collector Rare Records Price Guide at more than "Doctor Rock" b/w "The Otherside" - because in my mind both sides of the second are way better - a genuinely stunning piece of mad Psych guitar frenzy that still amazes. 

As for the LP, of the twelve songs, you got nine originals and three contemporary covers - "Rock Me Baby" by Muddy Waters, "Psycho Daisies" by The Yardbirds and "Sporting Life" by Brownie McGhee. I love the Syd Barrett Floyd-era feel to "Mr. Jones" and the great grunge-drive of "The Mayville Line" despite its less than stellar Production values. Robbo (as the LP called him) puts in some fantastic guitar in "The Otherside" and although Grapefruit's Wells argues that the three covers dilute the original material and overall impact, I personally couldn't disagree more. The Bluesy "Sporting Life" is excellent and guitar frenzy is everywhere on the Morgan Mackinleyfield (Muddy Waters) classic "Rock Me Baby". We never do find out who the Brass Section is on one of the album's highlights - "Queen Of Hearts Blues" - and the delightfully titled "Buffalo Billycan" is surely the masterpiece 45-single Syd's version of Sixties Pink Floyd never made. 

For sure this kind of Psych and Freakbeat will not be everyone's idea of a pleasant punt down the canals of Oxford sipping tea and dreaming of strawberry spongecake. It's a snarler and I'd argue all the more brill for it (there is a reason why some collector parted with four large ones for an album listed at less than half that price). 

"...This is where their progress lies..." wrote Producer Caleb Quaye on the final line of his original 1969 liner notes. Well 51 years on, this unfairly forgotten band and we once-clueless admirers of them and their lone LP have at last progressed some, and we have Grapefruit Records of the UK to thank for it. Well done to all involved and nose bleeds to the rest...

"Riley, Riley, Wood and Waggett" by SHAPE OF THE RAIN – July 1971 UK Debut Album on RCA Neon Records NE 7 featuring Keith Riley, Len Riley, Brian Wood, Iain 'Tag' Waggett and Pete Dolan with guests Eric Hine, Bob Skelland, Nip Healey and David Brookfield (22 May 2020 UK Grapefruit Records 3CD Deluxe Edition Reissue with an Unreleased Second Album, Demos and Rehearsals and Live Material – 61 Tracks with 17 Unreleased and Many Other Rarities – Oli Hemingway Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"…Rusty Road..."

Seen as Country Hick and terminally unhip by much of the buying public - RCA Victor's answer to the progressive rock craze that was sweeping music in the late Sixties and early Seventies was the ill fated RCA Neon label. With its beautiful Venus In A Shell logo, jet-black labels and inner bags - this home of the obscure and supposedly Avant Garde managed only 11 albums in 2 years (1971 to 1972) and the first was a reissue of an LP initially released in 1970 (Fair Weather's "The Beginning Of The End").

Complete with staggeringly dull please-don't-buy-me because I want to be obscure gatefold sleeves (obligatory for all these releases it seemed) - names such as Fair Weather (NE 1), Chris McGregor's Brotherhood Of Breath (NE 2), Indian Summer (NE 3), Tonton Macoute (NE 4), Dando Shaft (NE 5), Spring (NE 6), Raw Material (NE 8), Centipede (NE 9), Mike Westbrook Orchestra (NE 10) and The Running Man (NE 11) - don't exactly role off the tongue - even now. I have an October 1973 RCA Victor product catalogue and only NE 9 and NE 10 were listed as available for sale – all others were deleted. None of them sold jack and the one-album-then-we-died SHAPE OF THE RAIN effort on RCA Neon NE 7 was no different. They weren't even Prog. SOTR music was West Coast Country Rock via the Byrds meets British Folk Rock via Matthews Southern Comfort, Cochise and Brinsley Schwarz – not an Elf nor a Manticore nor a bank of noodley synths anywhere in sight.

Still - up steps our UK reissue heroes Grapefruit Records in 2020 and they think – screw those I woke up this morning with the post-pandemic woke-generational blues. 

What the hell – let's give these Northern mining-village reprobates and their Seventies Big Star-ish Americana music a whopping great 61-track 3CD anthology and damn the accounting torpedoes. We can even give the album a gatefold card repro sleeve (the public will just love that legal firm LP title that absolutely no one will remember), throw in an unreleased second album complete with homemade artwork of the period, demos, rehearsals and badly-recorded live material before they finally broke up in 1973 and Remaster the damn lot like the flashy gits we are. And who am I to disagree with wiser and hairier men than I. Let's get shapely...

UK released Friday, 22 May 2020 - "Riley Riley Wood and Waggett (Deluxe Edition)" by SHAPE OF THE RAIN on Grapefruit Records CRSEG067T (Barcode 5013929186705) is a DELUXE EDITION 3CD 61-Track Reissue and Anthology of Remasters that plays out as follows:

Disc One – The Album Plus Bonus Tracks (79:13 minutes):

1. Woman [Side 1]

2. Patterns

3. Castles

4. Wasting My Time

5. Rockfield Roll

6. Yes

7. Dusty Road [Side 2]

8. Willowing Trees

9. I'll Be There

10. Broken Man (a) Every One A Gem (b) After Collapsing At Kingsley's

Tracks 1 to 10 are their debut and only album "Riley, Riley, Wood and Waggett" - released July 1971 in the UK on RCA Neon NE 7 (no US release). Produced by ERIC HINE and TONY HALL - it didn't chart.

BONUS TRACKS:

11. My Friend John – 29 October 1971 UK Non-Album 45 Single A-side on RCA Victor RCA 2129 with an edit of the LP cut "Yes" on the B-side (last minute lopped off) and the group now credited as SHAPE

12. The Very First Clown *

13. What You Gonna Do Now? *

14. You're The One *

15. From Me And From You *

16. No Use Cryin' Again *

17. Watercolour Sunshine *

18. Nothin' You Could Do *

19. We Can Put It Right *

20. Lady Of My Dreams *

21. It All Depends On You *

22. Listen To Your Heart *

23. Now's The Time To Start *

24. Don't You Know *

25. Second Time Around *

Tracks 12 to 25 (*) are all PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

Disc Two – The CD "Shape Of The Rain" (aka "The Red Album" 1966-1973) (79:40 minutes):

1. Broken Man (Demo Version)

2. I Don't Need Anybody

3. I'll Be There (Demo Version)

4. We're Not The Boys

5. Hallelujah

6. Hello 503

7. I Doubt I Ever Will

8. Willowing Trees (Demo Version)

9. Canyons

10. Spring

11. Words

12. Look Around

13. Advertising Man

14. Go Around And See It

15. It's So Good Here

16. Big Black Bird

17. Everyone The Fool

18. You Just Call

19. It's My Life

Tracks 1 to 19 previously issued in 2001 as the CD "Shape Of The Rain" (aka "The Red Album") on Background HBG 123/14

BONUS TRACKS:

20. Dusty Road (Demo Version)

21. Too Many Lies

22. Yes (Demo Version)

Tracks 20 to 22 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

Disc Three – Previously Unreleased Live Recordings (1968-1973) (76:26 minutes):

1. Willowing Trees

2. Passing Of Time

3. Imagination

4. I've Been Wrong

5. Spring

6. Everyone The Fool

7. Vanishing Cottage

8. Calling

9. Big Black Bird

10. Go Around And See It

11. Say It's Goodbye

12. Woman

13. We're Not The Boys

14. Hello 503

Tracks 1 to 8 recorded live at Alfreton hall, in England, 2 May 1970

Tracks 9 to 13 recorded live at Manchester University circa 1973

Track 14 is a Live Acetate recorded at Velvet Underground/Down Broadway clubs in 1968

SHAPE OF THE RAIN was:

KEITH RILEY - Lead Guitar, 12-String Guitar and Vocals

LEN RILEY - Bass Guitar

BRIAN WOOD - Pedal Steel Guitar, Bass and Vocals

IAIN 'Tag' WAGGETT - Drums and Percussion

PETE DOLAN on Guitar and Bass from 1973

GUESTS included:

ERIC HINE - Electric Piano on Tracks 5, 7, 8 and 10 on Disc One

BOB SKELLAND - Bass on Track 5 on Disc Two

NIP HEALEY - Drums on Tracks 2, 4 and 11 on Disc Two

DAVID BROOKFIELD - Synths of some of the Keith Riley Home demos - Tracks 12 to 25 on Disc One

Once out of its shrink-wrap (I put the titled sticker on the booklet, difficult peeling it off) - the outer lightweight slipcase holds three card sleeves inside and a 24-page colour booklet. They give the LP the Keef artwork gatefold sleeve (apparently an outtake from the set of the Oliver! film) while the other two are singles with credit details on the rear of those cards instead of taking up pages in the booklet. DAVID WELLS of Cherry Red's Grapefruit Records (and Esoteric Recordings) gives us new January 2020 liner notes with contributions from band players and associates - Keith and Linda Riley, Tag Waggett and Pete Dolan. You get several black and white period photos, Melody Maker reviews, Acetates pictured, the labels for their two singles from May and October 1971 pictured, homemade artwork for the aborted second album and even a calling card for an early embryo of the group as 'The Gear' in a 1965 village hall. There is also a superb two-page collage of support tour press adverts with the likes of Love, Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull, Curved Air, Mighty Baby, Elton John and even Pink Floyd in March 1971 at Chesterfield's St. James Hall. It's a classy and in-depth display, as one would expect from Grapefruit. Wells also makes no bones about management mistakes that put the band on the Prog-obscure Neon label (thereby guaranteeing dismal sales figures for an album that deserved better) instead of the more commercially viable RCA Victor label with the likes of David Bowie, Sweet, The Kinks, Jefferson Airplane and Nilsson to name but a few. It’s an entertaining and informative read.

OLI HEMINGWAY has handled the Remastering of the album while Audio Engineers KEITH KNIVETON, KEITH RILEY (of the band) and JONATHAN KIRKPATRICK digitised and remastered the Acetate, Home Demos and Live stuff. It's a very mixed bag. The album sounds good but the sheer haphazard nature of the rest is ok to good only. To the music...

Neon tried to pre-empt interest in the band and the album by issuing Side 1's opener "Woman" as a 45 - but the 21 May 1971 UK 7" single on RCA Neon NE 1001 with "Wasting My Time" on the flipside did no business. Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs of St. Etienne featured the "Wasting My Time" B-side on their "Occasional Rain" CD and 2LP compilation for Ace Records just recently (May 2020) - thinking highly of the pleasant acoustic strummer. Maybe "Patterns" would have been a better choice - its Byrds-like jangling-guitars with Pedal Steel overtones hitting that Matthews Southern Comfort crowd with a lovely and catchy tune. "Castles" offers the first hint of Genesis-type acoustic-guitar Prog (only hints mind) - gorgeous 12-string strums rattling around your speakers - build your castles in the air - and yet another possible single.

Things start to clavinet boogie with the short and jolly instrumental "Rockfield Roll" - but soon return to something way more substantial with truly excellent "Yes". It's album-sized Big Star-sounding jangle-and-strut groove of 5:51 minutes was cut by one minute as an edit for the stand-alone single in October 1971 of "My Friend John" - the band momentarily returned to the orange RCA Victor label and now called just SHAPE. In fact when you play the Country-Funky Pedal Steel bopper that is "My Friend John" and you throw in the excellent "Yes" B-side, you can't help thinking the public missed a trick on this one. We go full on Country Rock with "Dusty Road" – a clavinet and distant vocal that could almost be Poco Americana in its delivery (Riley sounds like a young Matty Healy from The 1975 with his 'time' regional twang) – another sweet melody on an album packed with them. Despite some great ideas in the melody, "Willowing Trees" feels badly produced, all those clever guitar moments lost in a muddy mix. "I'll Be There" talks of giving a hand in another potential mid-tempo single. The album ends on the only real rocker on the record "Broken Man" - a good guitar chugger but again with a vocal that lacks muscle or definition. 

I hadn't expected much of the thirteen unreleased tracks that come as Bonuses on Disc One but shockingly Shape Of The Rain sound like another set of tune makers who didn't get the recognition they deserved - Unicorn - over on Transatlantic and Harvest Records. There isn’t anything Prog or Psych about these – all acoustic guitars and at times Pedal Steel. There is even traces of Duncan Browne in the lovely and hooky "The Very First Clown" and the brokenhearted "What You Gonna Do Now?" The well-recorded America-sounding "Now's The Time To Start" is a 'we can make it if we try' song.

The audio drops more than a tad on the looking for a hit "You're The One" and the peaceful (but hissy) "From Me And From You". Best of the others are the decidedly Matthews Southern Comfort vibe to the wash my soul of "Watercolour Sunshine", the how can we tell them "We Can Put It Right" and the McCartney strum/doubled vocals of "Lady Of My Dreams" - all good but needing full realisation in a studio. And you can't help thinking that "Second Time Around" would have been a melody pace setter for that Badfinger meets Brinsley Schwarz-sounding second album.

The first nineteen tracks of Disc Two covering recordings from 1966 through to 1973 was first issued as a stand-alone CD in 2001 as "The Shape Of Rain" on Background HBG 123/14 (Barcode 5032379231421) and typically it comes on as a good compilation with recording values fluctuating from great to poor. The four demos of album tracks "Broken Man", "I'll Be There", "Dusty Road" and "Yes" were recorded in 1970 at DJM Studios by Rodger Bain and Tony Hall - the last of the four being incredibly poor audio so not surprising its been left in the can all these years. "I Don't Need Nobody", "We're Not The Boys" and "Words" were recorded in 1973 at Phonogram Studios and show Shape Of The Rain still playing melodic Folk-Rock tunes with a West Coast influence. Beatles Engineer Geoff Emerick recorded the decidedly poppy "Hello 503" at Abbey Road with Tony Hall as co-producer.

Despite the muddy recordings, there were tunes going a begging in 1969 with "I Doubt I Ever Will", "Canyons" and "Spring" - its just a shame they never got the last especially into a real studio and onto the LP. Sixties Who leaps out at you with "Look Around" recorded in 1966 in Nottingham (Pete would either have been proud of them or ready to punch their copycat lights out). Better is a home recording made at Brian Wood's house in 1972 in the shape of "Go Around And See It" - a hit in the making had it been Badfinger.

The first eight songs from 1970 on the live disc are disappointingly little more than bootleg quality, distant vocals, not much fidelity and therefore not something you’re going to return to any time soon. By the time we reach 1973 the band recordings are marginally better and the playing much tighter and more accomplished. And while "Woman" rocks rather well, the whole of Disc Three is very disposable.

SHAPE OF THE RAIN devotees will love the all-guns-blazing splurge of new material while Seventies-curious Badfinger nee Big Star worshipers will probably find much to love here even if not all of it is essential. But whatever your musical poison, once again, Grapefruit Records of the UK has gone the full hog here and they are to be praised for it...

"Looking At The Pictures In The Sky: The British Psychedelic Sounds Of 1968" by VARIOUS ARTISTS – featuring Fleur De Lys, Eyes Of Blue, Mike Stuart Span, The Orange Seaweed, Skip Bifferty, Rupert’s People, The Factory, Junior’s Eyes, The Smoke, Episode Six, Honeybus, Status Quo, Jethro Toe (Tull), The Writing On The Wall, The Spectrum and many more (November 2017 UK Grapefruit Records 3CD Clamshell Box Set – Oli Morgan and Nick Watson Masters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Music Soothes The Savage Beast..."

Collectors (not surprisingly) have a bit of Felicity Kendal about Grapefruit Records. Every time we clap eyes on one of their squished-to-the-gunnels reissues covering all things 60ts, unwashed and eclectic (like this 3CD Box Set that deals with British stargazing in 1968) - we think of our lysergic/pale ale youth, reach for the enormo-pack Maalox antacid bottle and get a bit weepy and upset in the tum-tums. Hell, I might even propose to Richard Briers (if Felicity won't have me of course).

We love Grapefruit Box Sets and this 2017 brute is no different. 78 wildly varied tracks across 3CDs, a booklet crammed with more facts than a manual to building a large Hadron Collider and pictures of disturbed men with even more disturbing tastes in clobber and Day-Glo make-up. What's not to love...here we go...

UK released 10 November 2017 - "Looking At The Pictures In The Sky: The British Psychedelic Sounds Of 1968" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Grapefruit CRSEGBOX040 (Barcode 5013929184008) is a 3CD Clamshell Box Set of 78-Tracks (two Previously Unreleased) that plays out as follows:

Disc One (78:04 minutes):

1. Path Through The Forest - THE FACTORY (October 1968 UK 7" single on MGM Records MGM 1444, A-side)

2. Father's Name Is Dad - THE FIRE (March 1968 UK 7" single on Decca F 12753, A-side, Withdrawn)

3. Gong With The Luminous Nose - FLEUR DE LYS (May 1968 UK 7" single on Polydor 56251, A-side)

4. Mind's Eye - RAMASES and SELKET (September 1968 UK 7" single on CBS Records 3717, B-side of "Crazy One")

5. Spontaneous - THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN (from their June 1968 debut album "The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown" on Track 613 005)

6. Lullaby (Alternative Version) - GRAPEFRUIT (recorded January 1968, unissued at the time)

7. I Will Not Be Moved - CIRCLE PLANTAGENET (recorded late 1968, PREVIOUSLY UNISSUED)

8. Sunday Best - TURQUOISE (recorded August 1968, not originally issued)

9. My Son Jon - THE ONXY (November 1968 UK 7" single on Pye 7N 17622, A-side)

10. The Fantastic Story Of The Steam Driven Banana - LEGAY (February 1968 UK 7" single on Fontana TF 904, B-side of "No-One")

11. Mr. Partridge Passed Away Today - FORTES MENTUM (March 1968 UK 7" single on Parlophone R 5684, B-side of "Saga Of A Wrinkled Man")

12. Jabberwock - BOEING DUVEEN and THE BATIFUL SOUP (May 1968 UK 7" single on Parlophone R 5696, A-side)

13. Haze Woman - ANAN (June 1968 UK 7" single on Pye 7N 17571, A-side)

14. Talkin' About The Good Times - PRETTY THINGS (February 1968 UK 7" single on Columbia DB 8353, A-side)

15. Sunday Morning - GUY and DAVID - THE FIVE DAY WEEK STRAW PEOPLE (from the September 1968 UK LP "The Five Day Week Straw People" - Guy Mascolo and David Montague)

16. Animal Magic - THE GRADED GRAINS April 1968 recording, not originally issued)

17. She - TUESDAY'S CHILDREN (November 1968 UK 7" single on Mercury MF 1063, A-side)

18. Mr. Lion - THE MARMALADE (from the December 1968 UK LP "There's A Lot Of It About" on CBS Records 63414)

19. Upstairs Downstairs - GRAHAM GOULDMAN (February 1968 UK 7" single on RCA Victor RCA 1667, A-side)

20. Festival Of The Harvest Moon - JOKER (recorded mid-1968, not originally issued)

21. So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star - SUN DRAGON (from the November 1968 US LP "Green Tambourine" on MGM Records CS 8090 - a Byrds cover)

22. Never Care - EYES OF BLUE (from the December 1968 UK LP "Crossroads Of Time" on Mercury SMCL 20134)

23. Nightmare - THE GASS COMPANY (January 1968 UK 7" single on President PT 170, B-side to "Everybody Needs Love")

24. In The Wee Small Hours Of Sixpence - PROCOL HARUM (March 1968 UK 7" single on Regal Zonophone RZ 3007, B-side of "Quite Rightly So")

25. Did You Die Four Years Ago Tonight? - THE WEB (from the August 1968 UK LP "Fully Interlocking" on Deram SML 1025)

26. Frederick Jordan - THE GLASS MANAGERIE (September 1968 UK 7" single on Pye 7N 17615, B-side of "I Said Goodbye To Me")

Disc Two (79:05 minutes):

1. Children Of Tomorrow - MIKE STUART SPAN (February 1968 UK 7" single on Jewel JL 01, A-side)

2. Dawn Breaks Through - THE BARRIER (April 1968 UK 7" single on Eyemark EMS 1013, B-side of "Georgie Brown")

3. Mr. Pinnodmy's Dilemma - THE ATTACK (early 1968 recording, not originally issued)

4. Trying To Get A Glimpse Of You - THE FREEDOM (June 1968 UK 7"single on Mercury MF 1033, B-side of "Where Will You Be Tonight")

5. I Can Show You - RUPERT'S PEOPLE (March 1968 UK 7" single on Columbia DB 8362, A-side)

6. Locked In A Room - THE POETS (December 1968 UK 7" single on Pye 7N 17680, B-side of "Alone Am I")

7. Bluebell Wood - WIMPLE WINCH (recorded May 1968, not originally issued)

8. Technicolor Dreams - THE STATUS QUO (from their LP "Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo" on Pye NPL 18220)

9. Music Soothes The Savage Beast - THE SPECTRUM (November 1968 UK 7" single on RCA Victor RCA 1775,B-side to "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da")

10. Head For The Sun - THE MOVEMENT (August 1968 UK 7" single on Big T Records BIG 112, A)

11. Midnight Love Cycle - THE LUBS (recorded mid 1968, not originally issued)

12. Lovers From The Sky -CONTACT (early 1968 recording, not originally issued)

13. Jamie's Song - THE DEVIANTS (from the October 1968 UK LP "Disposable" on Stable SLP 7001)

14. Sydney Gill - THE SMOKE (May 1968 German 7" single Metronome B 1697, A-side)

15. Birthday - PETER and THE WOLVES (April 1968 UK 7" single on MGM Records 1397, B-side of "Julie") 

16. Love Is A toy - JON LEDINGHAM (March 1968 UK 7" single on Pye 7N 17488, A-side)

17. Yesterday Was Such A Lovely Day - SADIE'S EXPRESSION (recorded April 1968, not originally issued)

18. Omnibus - THE MOVE (recorded March 1968, not originally issued STEREO version)

19. I Get So Excited - REAL McCOY (September 1968 UK 7" single on Pye 7N 17618, A-side)

20. Mr. Golden Trumpet Player - JUNIOR'S EYES (June 1968 UK 7" single on Regal Zonophone RZ 3009, A-side)

21. Yellow Rainbow - THE PICADILLY LINE (July 1968 UK 7" single on CBS Records 3595, A-side)

22. Time Seller - THE SPENCER DAVIS GROUP (from the June 1968 UK LP "With Their New Face On" on United Artists SULP 1192)

23. Pantomime - TONY RIVERS and THE CASTAWAYS (April 1968 UK 7" single on Polydor 56245, B-side of " I Can Guarantee You Love")

24. Go And Say Goodbye - KATCH 22 (from the May 1968 UK LP "It's Soft Rock And All Sorts, It's Katch 22" on Saga EROS 8047)

25. Cornflake Zoo - ANDY ELLISON (May 1968 UK 7" single on SNB Records 55-3508, B-side of "You Can't Do That")

26. Penny For Your Thoughts - THE ALAN BOWN (from the November 1968 UK LP "Outward Bown" on Music factory CUBLM1)

Disc Three (78:56 minutes):

1. Hold On - JASON CREST (recorded November 1968, not originally issued)

2. Girl Of Independent Means - HONEYBUS (September 1968 UK 7" single on Deram DM 207, A-side)

3. Rainmaker - RHUBARB RHUBARB (December 1968 UK 7" single on President PT 229, A-side)

4. Hello Enid - THE MIRAGE (recorded March 1968, not originally issued)

5. Lucky Sunday - EPISODE SIX (October 1968 UK 7" single on Chapter One CH 103, A)

6. What's The Rush, Dillbury? - PARADOX (recorded early 1968, not originally issued)

7. Cave Of Clear Light - THE BYSTANDERS (February 1968 UK 7" single on Pye 7N 17476, B-side of "When Jezamin Goes")

8. Round And Round - SKIP BIFFERTY (recorded August 1968, not originally issued)

9. Come On Down - MOTIVATION (February 1968 UK 7" single on Direction 58-3248, A-side)

10. Country Life - BLONDE ON BLONDE (November 1968 UK 7" single n Pye 7N 17637, B-side of "All Day, All Night")

11. Virginia Water - CATS PYJAMAS (January 1968 UK 7" single on Direction 58-3235, B-side of "Baby I Love You")

12. Aeroplane - JETHRO TOE (TULL) (February 1968 UK 7" single on MGM Records MGM 1384, B-side of "Sunshine Day")

13. Rambling Boy - TIMON (January 1968 UK 7" single on Pye 7N 17451, B-side of "Bitter Thoughts Of Little Jane")

14. Ice Man - ICE (March 1968 UK 7" single on Decca F 12749, A-side)

15. Now And Again Rebecca - THE U (DON'T) NO WHO (recorded early 1968, not originally issued)

16. Felicity Jones - THE WRITING ON THE WALL (recorded early 1968, not originally issued)

17. Sycamore Sid - FOCAL POINT (May 1968 UK 7" single on Deram DM 186, B-side of "Love You Forever")

18. Do You Dream - CIRCUS (March 1968 UK 7" single on Parlophone R 5672, A-side)

19. Maxwell Ferguson - BRASS TACKS (November 1968 UK 7" single on Big T Records BIG 114, A-side)

20. Pawnbroker - BARBARA RUSKIN (recorded September 1968, PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED Demo Version)

21. Soft Winds - THE ORANGE BICYCLE (recorded 1968, not originally issued)

22. Without You - COCONUT MUSHROOM (recorded late 1968, not originally issued)

23. Haunted - PETER THOROGOOD (July 1968 UK 7" single on Pye 7N 17577, A-side)

24. Which Dreamed It - BOEING DUVEEN and THE BEAUTIFUL SOUP (May 1968 UK 7" single on Parlophone R 5696, B-side of "Jabberwock" - A-side is Track 12 on Disc 1)

25. Trot - TURNSTYLE (November 1968 UK 7" single on Pye 7N 17653, B-side)

26. Pictures In The Sky - THE ORANGE SEAWEED (April 1968 UK 7" single on Pye 7N 17515, B-side to "Stay Awhile")

I've raved about Grapefruit's booklets before but this is an out-and-out humdinger, 42 pages of wall-to-wall facts and photos so rare it boggles my already frazzled mind. DAVID WELLS has compiled and annotated the set with contributions from good name like JOHN REED while OLI MORGAN and NICK WATSON (at Fluid Mastering) have struggled with the tangled web of sources. Audio is the same with all these 3CD tomes - some tracks are shockingly good while the unissued recordings tend to show their hurried production values. Still, taking a look at those disc playing times (78:04, 79:05, 78:56 minutes) and the fact that they have somehow unearthed yet two more Previously Unreleased rarities and the words 'value for money' start rattling around my noggin. To the music of seaweed, beautiful soup, wimple winches glass menageries and orange bicycles... 

DISC ONE: Penned by none other than Clifford T. Ward before solo fame would make his Home Thoughts LP a fave in every bedsit in the land, The Factory smash open CD1 with "Path Through The Forest" - the kind of British Psych 45 that has had fans hiding the eBay receipt from the wife. Next up is The Fire, a trio featuring Dave Lambert later of The Strawbs, who saw their UK-45 withdrawn because Paul McCartney thought it needed punching up (they'd signed a publishing deal with Apple). So it was remixed with extra guitars and a different vocal and re-launched - but Macca's instincts were not matched with public interest and it tanked. It appears here in all its daft-as-a-House-of-Commons-loo-brush original form - a clever inclusion. Speaking of Edward Lear lunacy, future Island and A&M Records LP boy Bryn Haworth lends his fab way with a slide guitar to the rare and seriously desirable 45s of Fleur De Lys  - here their "Gong With A Luminous Nose" featuring a Gordon Haskell lead vocal also.

Other delights on Disc 1 include a central heating salesman and carnival queen masquerading as Ramases and his Goddess of Magic on their hokey CBS B-side, whilst Legay Rogers (trading as plain old Legay in the 60s but became part of Gypsy in the Seventies) also uses a flipside to inform us all of a steam-driven banana and its tale of mushy woe (yeah baby). And the cod-Cockney accent in Turquoise's unissued "Sunday Best" is surely the reason it was left in a can marked 'unfit jellied eels - do not eat no matter what'. Whilst collectors will lick their lips for rarities like Sam Hutt's wonderfully named Boeing Duveen and The Beautiful Soup - a 45 outing that featured Tony Visconti in an early Production role or the first incarnation of the Crimson-like Prog band Czar in the shape of the impossibly rare Tuesday's Children - a Mercury Records 45 that would hurt your bank balance a little too much.

DISC TWO opens with an uber-rare seven I'll admit I've never seen, "Children Of Tomorrow" by Mike Stuart Span - a mere 500 copies of this 60ts hymn to youthful disillusion. Rarities continue with a truly obscure B-side from Londoners The Barrier on the tiny Eyemark label - their "Dawn Breaks Through" roaring into your living room like the sunlight depicted in its title. Speaking of forgotten heroes, John Du Cann would leave The Attack eventually and be part of "The Five Day Week Straw People" LP and the band Andromeda. Ray Royer of Freedom provides the Traffic vs. Family B-side "Trying To Get A Glimpse Of You" (a superb rare picture sleeve of it is featured on Page 16 of the booklet), while Guitarist and Vocalist Rod Lynon and Drummer Steve Brendell of the wonderful Rupert's People would both show up in 1971 on John Lennon's "Imagine" album (Marriott's Small Faces would have been proud to call RP's 1968 slice of Itchycoo grooviness "I Can Show You" their own).

Just before they hunkered down to 12-bar nirvana in 1970 with "In My Chair" and "Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon", our very own Matchstickable Status Quo stumped up "Technicolor Dreams" which died as a single and indeed may have been withdrawn or export only, explaining its huge price tag to collectors (clever song choice though here, reminding us of their earlier side). Lizzy obsessives will note that Brush Shiels of Dublin's Skid Row (Gary Moore featuring) penned the fuzzed-up guitar barrage that is "Head For The Sun" for the obscure Irish band The Movement, a group that also contained Bassist Pat Quigley who would play for Lynott's pre Thin Lizzy outfit Orphanage. I've never seen this seven let alone heard it - hell Wells and Grapefruit have even managed (on Page 21 of the booklet) to find a 'New Spotlight' Irish Magazine article of the day reviewing it! WOW! Other goodies include the chipper B-side "Birthday" from Peter and The Wolves, Eddie Hardin doubling on vocals with The Spencer Davis Group for their excellent "Time Seller", Rick Wakeman later of Yes providing keyboards to the Tony Visconti produced Junior's Eyes single "Mr. Golden Trumpet Player" and The Alan Bown going all kick-ass Rock 'n' Rolla with their LP-cut "Penny For Your Thoughts" - ending Disc 2 in style.

DISC THREE opens with a hard-hitting geetar cover by Jason Crest of Rupert People's "Hold On" while Honeybus continues the Jean Genie-type riffage on Ray Cane's off-imitated "Girl Of Independent Means". Deep Purple fans will recognise Ian Gillan and Roger Glover in Episode Six's "Lucky Sunday" (the Ian Gillan sung B-side "Mr. Universe" can be found on Disc 3 of RPM's May 2017 mini 3CD box set "Night Comes Down: 60s British Mod, R&B, Freakbeat and Swinging London Nuggets"). Lead Vocalist Bob Catley of Paradox would later be in the hard and heavy Magnum while songwriter Clive John of the much-regarded Welsh band The Bystanders penned their Strawberry Alarm Clock-influenced "Cave Of Clear Light". Clever cover version choices come in the shapely bum-wiggler of "Come On Down" as done by Motivation, a sizeable hit for Every Mother's Son in the States. They weren't the first to hear UK potential in its US groove - Motivation's stab at the catchy tune following on from another British underground darling band The Gods (featuring Mick Taylor and Ken Hensley) who had a go on Polydor Records in June 1967. As if to hammer home Motivation's song and personnel pedigree, the band also featured Bassist Steve York who would later pluck strings for Deram's East Of Eden, Vertigo's Manfred Mann's Chapter and Island's Vinegar Joe).

Tull fans will probably already have the debut 45 with Mick Abraham's "Sunshine Day" on the February 1968 MGM Records A-side, but here's a chance to cop the Len Barnard and Ian Anderson penned flipside "Aeroplane" by Jethro Toe (long-standing Tull member Glenn Cornick says it wasn't a misprint, but a deliberate spite by the Producer who didn't think the band's agricultural character name was 'cool enough'). Speaking of weird flips, Clash fans will recognise Tymon Dogg associations with the band, but here Stephen Murray is (his real name) as Timon for his own "Rambling Boy" - a single on Pye that reputedly sold less than 130 copies. Keeping with cool future associations, Ice and their wicked "Ice Man" song would see members of the band blend into Linda Hoyle's much-vaulted Affinity on the newly minted Prog Rock label Vertigo. Singer-songwriter Philip Goodhand-Tait penned both Circus songs (produced by Manfred Man's Mike d'Abo) - a rare venture into Psychedelia for him who would share labels with Elton John on DJM. And on it goes to the delightfully titled Orange Seaweed and their "Pictures In The Sky" that give the box set its name…

Without doubt there will be even the most liberal-minded dude or dudette who will cop ears on any of these discs and go yuck – the 60ts may have been innovative – but it can stay 50 years behind. But I suspect they will be few and far between, because in my book, this is yet another reason why collectors and fans love reissue companies like Grapefruit with their passion, knowledge and need for us to explore deeper into an astonishing time in musical history.

Even if the hip 60ts men and women featured here can't shoot anymore and their guns are maybe in the ground (as Bob would later say in "Knocking On Heaven's Door") – for me it's never too dark, too dark too see. A fab reminder of a fab time -check this out and big time awards-city to all involved…