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Exceptional CD Remasters
And Others Genres Thereabouts
Exceptional CD Remasters
Covering 1967 to 1977 - It Also Focuses On
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"...Ffollow Up..."
You have to love the sheer
hutzpah of England's Grapefruit Records – I had to do a spellcheck on
Spectromorphic Iridescence, let alone rack my brains on whether or not I
actually remember 'Rainbow Ffolly' in my advanced dotage (hard to remember
anything at 62). Turns out, these reissue madmen want me to hear a whole lotta
Rainbow, and in the best moments, I can now hear why...
Born out of the burgeoning
Psych musical explosion consuming 1967 and beyond - Buckinghamshire's Force
Four were in a studio recording song appetisers when they realised they needed
a hipper identity and so became RAINBOW FFOLLY. Slinging their demo album at
the behemoth that was all things Electrical and Musical Industries - EMI's
label imprint Parlophone (home of The Beatles) figured why not -
"Peppers" and "Magical Mystery Tour" had blown the world
open the year prior – so had the Floyd with "Pipers" and people raved
about the Pretties and their curate's egg "SF Sorrow" (even if it
didn't shift copies by the crate-load like the Fabs did).
And so in May 1968 (and the
whole LP apparently still in all but demo form), our heroes get their one Beach
Boys-sounding platter of the period "Sallies Fforth" to appear in
Blighty in Mono and Stereo – all sexy pants in its appropriately far out
sleeve. But despite favourable press reviews about original material and great
ideas ("Drive My Car" is their own and not a Beatles cover), the
public felt they had other things to do on the King's Road.
Flash-forward to 2016 and
remaining members of the 60ts band put together a 'belated' second LP cleverly
called "Ffollow Up" on their own Footprints Vinyl label (500 copies
only) that featured similar drawn artwork to their much prized and expensive
60ts original LP (at times in the last few years, "Sallies Fforth"
has reached four figures on auction sites). Always ones to do something wildly
un-commercial and naughtily over-the-top, Grapefruit Records of the UK (part of
Cherry Red) decided in 2019 to damn the lysergic mushrooms and clump the whole
shebang into one place along with a wad of rare and previously unreleased
accompaniments. So my pimply iridescent lava-lamp types - let's board the
p-p-p-purple bus and multi-coloured sailing ship to yesteryear...
UK released 1 February 2019
– "Spectromorphic Iridescence: The Complete Ffolly" by RAINBOW FFOLLY
on Grapefruit Records WCRSEGBOX052 (Barcode 5013929185203) is a 3CD Clamshell
Box Set of Remasters that plays out as follows:
CD1 "Sallies Fforth
(Stereo)" – May 1968 UK Debut LP on Parlophone PCS 7050 in STEREO (52:18
minutes):
1. She's Alright [Side 1]
2. I'm So Happy
3. Montgolfier '67
4. Drive My Car
5. Goodbye
6. Hey You
7. Sun Sing
8. Sun And Sand
9. Labour Exchange
10. They'm
11. No
12. Sighing Game
13. Come On Go
BONUS TRACKS:
14. Drive My Car (Single
Mix)
15. Go Girl
Tracks 14 and 15 are their
debut UK 45 from May 1968 on Parlophone R 5701
16. Sun Sing (Early Demo)
17. Come On Go (Early Demo)
18. The Continuing Story Of
Bungalow Bill (Studio Demo)
Tracks 16 and 17 are
PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED Studio Demos recorded May 1967 as FORCE FOUR
Track 18 is a PREVIOUSLY
UNRELEASED Studio Demo recorded circa December 1968 as RAINBOW FFOLLY
CD2 "Sallies Fforth
(Mono)" – May 1968 UK Debut LP on Parlophone PMC 7050 in MONO (75:23
minutes):
Tracks 1 to 13 as per the LP
on CD1
BONUS TRACKS:
14. Hospital Radio Jingle
No. 1
15. Sunshine Of Your Love
16. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 2
17. Lucy In The Sky With
Diamonds 18. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 3
19. Gimme Little Sign 20.
Hospital Radio Jingle No. 4
21. I Can't Let Maggie Go
22. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 5
23. Sabrosa 24. Hospital
Radio Jingle No. 6
25. The Bells Of Rhymney 26.
Hospital Radio Jingle No. 7
27. Bonita 28. Hospital
Radio Jingle No. 8
29. I Can Hear The Grass
Grow 30. Hospital Radio Jingle No. 9
31. Something Else 32.
Hospital Radio Jingle No. 10
33. Hold Me Tight 34.
Hospital Radio Jingle No. 11
35. I'm So Happy (Part) 36.
Hospital Radio Jingle No. 12
37. She's Alright 38.
Hospital Radio Jingle No. 13
Tracks 15, 17, 19, 21, 23,
25 and 27 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED Home Demos recorded 1968
Tracks 29, 31, 33, 35, and
37 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED BBC Radio Broadcasts recorded December 1968
Tracks 14, 16, 18, 20, 22,
24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36 and 38 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED Hospital Jingles
recorded late 1967 and early 1968
CD3: "Ffollow Up"
- July 2016 UK LP on Footprints Vinyl Records FV 16002 (58:34 minutes):
1. Single Cell Amoeba
2. Postcard
3. My Love Has Gone
4. White Swan
5. Cars
6. Sky Angels
7. Noah
8. Slow Down Zone
9. Countdown
10. Shoes
11. Is It Over?
12. Wot Do They Know?
13. Crazy Woman
14. All We Have Left
15. Parcel of Pigs
16. Nonesuch Sweetness
17. Tour De Fforce
18. Bathers Of The Lost Ark
Tracks 1 to 11 and 17 and 18
are the 2016 LP
Tracks 3, 6 and 10 were
Subsequently Remixed
Tracks 12 to 16 are Extras
and PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
RAINBOW FFOLLY was:
JOHN DUNSTERVILLE - Lead
Guitar and Vocals
RICHARD DUNSTERVILLE -
Rhythm Guitar and Vocals
ROGER NEWELL - Bass and
Vocals
STEWART OSBORN - Drums and
Percussion
The 20-page booklet inside
the clamshell box set features new liner notes from Grapefruit's DAVID WELLS,
period photos, London Evening News cuttings from October 1968, seven-inch
single demo and French picture sleeve for their "Drive My Car" 45,
live photos, gig posters from 1968 where they shared stages with artists as
diverse as The Skatalites, Keef Hartley and Edwin Starr and an uppercoming bunch
of Glam Rockers called The Sweet. It is informative and affectionate and the
mastering is care of long-time Audio Engineer associate SIMON MURPHY over at
Another Planet. The audio is a mixed bag - the STEREO variant superb (I prefer
it over the Mono) but those Dave Cash Show and seven Previously Unreleased home
demos on Disc 2 betray a lo-fi recording process. Then I dare say, if you're
buying a Box Set like this, you know to take the rough with the smooth when it
comes to 60ts fidelity...
Excepting three songs -
"Sun And Sand", "No" and "Sighing Game" which
were co-writes - the majority of the tunes were solely provided by the Lead
Guitarist part of the Dunsterville brothers - John. "She's Alright"
opens the English whimsical proceedings with a French voice lead-in followed by
Beach Boys harmonies that sound like an outtake from "Pet Sounds" - I
think that she's fine. Immediately followed by the dooby-dooby-do of "I'm
So Happy" where the Rainbows sound like The Beatles meets Buddy Holly
meets an embryonic 10cc - such is the fiendishly clever melodies cascading out
of your speakers. Two tunes in and already you're thinking 'forgotten and
overlooked masterpiece'. Yellow, blue and green - the finest colours ever seen
in "Montgolfier '67" is brilliant and you really wish they had been
given the benefit of a decent production by EMI (it's good but could have been
so much more). Other winners include the pretty acoustic ballad
"Goodbye" (your eyes betray the setting sun) while the fuzzed-up
geetar of "Hey You" is mad Psych that feels like Jeff Beck having a
stop-start whig-out on his Fender. By the time you get to "Labour
Exchange" where our boys bemoan the English dole system and the very
Byrds/Association vibe to "Sighing Game" - you're beginning to be
very impressed indeed by the musical breaks in each tune - not just copyist but
original and harmonious. I have to say I love the STEREO version of this, which
brings out those fab and groovy harmony vocals more.
Fans are going to go after
the cover-versions fest that is most of Disc 2 - very crude (but acceptable)
versions of Cream's "Sunshine Of My Love" and The Beatles "Lucy
In The Sky With Diamonds" (from "Peppers") and the White Album's
whimsical "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill". Better is their
60ts R&B cover of Brenton Wood's wonderful "Gimme Little Sign"
and The Move's "I Can Hear The Grass Grow". For sure most of the six
and seven-second jingles will test your patience and its arguable they should
have stayed in the can - but they can easily be forgotten when you hear their
frantic Freakbeat cover of Eddie Cochran's "Something Else".
Amongst collectors with deep
pockets and much love for the period and its genres - the core album of
"Sallies "Fforth" commands big money for a reason (its so bloody
good). So it’s cool to hear both variants of this unfairly forgotten LP (Mono
and Stereo) be given a tasty brushing-up on this exemplary box set. For sure,
the average listener will never need much of the rest, but I for one am a tad
chuffed to see such a missed opportunity in 1968 be given its proper due all
these decades later. 2019 followed up rather well really...
