"Third World War" by THIRD WORLD WAR [featuring Terry Stamp and Jim Avery] (2015 Esoteric Recordings Expanded CD Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Tired Of Licking The Government's Ass..."

Every now and then you hear the first track of an album and you stare back at its entirely unrepresentative cover in disbelief. Who is this? And why haven’t I heard their ahead-of-its-time musical genius before?

The band name sucks for a start - and that negative-tinted photo of some snotty five-year old kid on some inner city estate somewhere screaming his downtrodden proletariat head off don’t help either. There’s a woman being caned in a cartoon on the rear – no doubt some snot-nose upper-class male chauvinist type giving a serving wench a damn good trashing because she put the soup spoons out in the wrong order. You then glance back at the band name again (Third World War for God's Sake) and imagine some dreadful Prog diatribe on 'the kids man' buggering off to Narnia before the Russians drop the bomb. But instead what you're getting is a razor-sharp Proto Punk album about 'real life in working class England issued in early 1971 on Fly Records (home of T. Rex and John Kongos) - all spitting and snarling when most people had never heard of the word 'punk'.

Third World War's self-titled debut album (sometimes known as "Ascension Day" after its opening track) is a brilliant album – a sort of hard-hitting musical hybrid between The Stooges, Television and even The MC5 (it's like 1976 and 1977 but five full years before the event). The lyrics paint no hippy dreams of where they live and what their future prospects are either – it’s all 'power to the workers' and echoes of Wormwood Scrubs and ripped up phonebooths (as another English poet would say some years later).

Then there's the voice of principal songwriter TERRY STAMP grinding out venom like "...Let's free the working class...we're tired of licking the Government's ass..." His larynx is not pretty either – course and gravely and yet amazingly right for the band's sound and politics – a sort of Captain Beefheart meets Eddie & The Hot Rods - growling at angry unemployed teenagers on the roofs of buildings where he urges them to "...pull your grenade pin and I'll pull mine..." (how thoughtful). There are delightful song titles like "Get Out Of Bed You Dirty Red" and "M.I.5's Alive" (any wonder the BBC wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole). Then there's Stamp's 'guitar' sound that he refers to in the liner notes of the LP as 'chopper guitar' because it zips along - sounding like a more 'choppy' version of Dr. Feelgood's Wilko Johnson circa "Down By The Jetty". There's also a hint of a snotty dangerous Bowie riff when he rocked it out in 1971 and 1972. Even American hardcore rocker Steve Albini from Big Black and Rapeman has name-checked the album as a seminal influence. Impressive eh? It bloody is and all...here are the poverty lines...

UK released August 2015 – "Third World War" by THIRD WORLD WAR on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 2512 (Barcode 5013929461246) is a an Expanded CD Remaster with two bonus tracks and pans out as follows (48:13 minutes):

1. Ascension Day

2. M.I.5's Alive

3. Teddy Teeth Goes Sailing

4. Working Class Man

5. Shepherds Bush Cowboy [Side 2]

6. Stardom Road-Part I

7. Stardom Road-Part II

8. Get Out Of Bed You Dirty Red

9. Preaching Violence

Tracks 1 to 9 are the album "Third World War" – released February 1971 in the UK on Fly Records FLY 4

BONUS TRACKS:

10. Ascension Day (Single Version) – non-album version issued as the A-side to a UK 7" single in 1971 on Fly Records BUG 7 (B-side was the album cut "Teddy Teeth Go Sailing"). Rare copies came in a 'lyrics' picture sleeve.

11. A Little Bit Of Urban Rock – non-album version different to the one on the 1972 "Third World War II" LP. It has altered 'toned down' lyrics and is a different band to the LP cut. It was released October 1971 as a stand-alone UK 7" single on Fly Records BUG 11 with the album cut "Working Class Man" as its flipside.

It's a damn shame Esoteric didn't repro the rare UK 7" single picture sleeve for "Ascension Day" with its 'lyrics' cover - but they have reproduced all the words to the album which came on a rare insert with original vinyl LPs (and the non-album single). The 16-page booklet features illuminating liner notes by veteran writer MALCOLM DOME who has conducted frank interviews with Terry Stamp about the fate of the band, their European tours (they were big in Germany and Finland) and the album's influence that stretched all the way to the USA even though it wasn't released there.

All songs were Terry Stamp and Jim Avery compositions except "Stardom Road Part II" (Avery alone) and "Get Out of Bed You Dirty Red" (Stamp alone). Jim Avery came from the Sixties Mod act The Attack and later joined Thunderclap Newman - while Terry Stamp put out a solo LP after Third World War's demise in 1975 on A&M Records called "Fatsticks". The remasters from original analogue master tapes by ROB KEYLOCH and BEN WISEMAN (at Church Walk Studios and Audio Archiving respectively) are fantastically good – full of piss and vinegar – as suits the music. And with the album being a listed rarity at £60 or more (if you can find one) – this genuinely cool 2015 CD reissue by Cherry Red's Esoteric Recordings is a very tasty reminder of what was missed first time around.

The album opens with the incendiary "Ascension Day" where lyrics like "...load your magazine clip...I'll load mine..." thrilled open-minded radio programmers at the BBC (well maybe not). Immediately your struck by the gritty voice that predates Punk by six years (it was recorded between September and November 1970) and that treated 'choppy' guitar sound Stamp gets that lends the whole wallop a sort of New Wave feel. But it's the amazing "M.I.5's Alive" that really takes you by the scuff – 8:05 minutes of guitar-chugging harmonica-driven 60ts Garage meets Television doing "Marquee Moon". Even at that length it doesn't overstay itself and lyrics like "...bawling down the Royalty...is a breach of faith and national disloyalty..." reminds you of another angry band in 1977 who didn't spare the bollocks either. As TWW let the guitars rip and the harmonica gives the song a Them-on-speed vibe - it's hard not to throw embarrassing shapes in your living room (fabulous stuff). "And there's people out of work here...there could be a riot here..." Stamp warns on the weirdly jaunty "Teddy Teeth Goes Sailing" where it sounds like Kevin Ayers doing a vicious whimsical ditty. Back to the hard-hitting 'chopper' guitar of another winner "Working Class Man" which features Bobby Keys (of Rolling Stones fame) on Saxophone as the song freaks out towards the end.

Side 2 opens with "Shepherds Bush Cowboy" – a song about untoward propositions in a pub on your third pint of Guinness and a fight with a skinhead in a betting shop (delightful). The uncharacteristically gentle acoustics of "Stardom Road Part 1" comes as a genuine shock after all that thrashing - a sad and hurting song with lyrics about the music business's attitude towards gay men. It's "Part II" picks up the pace drastically - suddenly sounding like a band on a mission and at 3:47 minutes (and perhaps a different title) – could have been a revolutionary single from back in the day. Back to belching and burping whimsy with "Get Out Of Bed You Dirty Red" where "...the Communist Party shakes your hand...and you can play in our red band..." It ends on the heaviest Stooges moment of the album – huge distorted guitars introduce the anti-religion song "Preaching Violence" where the words take no prisoners – "...the bog-wall shines...anti-Government signs...go let your Molotov off...God Loves you..." Wow!

The singles are a weird one – "Ascension Day" is fabulous and sounds years ahead of its time - but the cod Pub Rock 'n' Roll of "A Little Bit Of Urban Rock" sounds derivative and terribly dated. Apparently it's a re-recorded 'clean' version for 45 – different to the more hard-hitting cut on their 2nd and last album "Third World War II" which appeared on Track Records in 1972. Fly hated the 2nd record and refused to release it - but Pete Townshend of The Who liked the band and got it released on Track. Terry Stamp went on to put out two further albums on CD - "Bootlace Johnny And The Ninety Nines" in 2004 and "Howling For The Highway Home" in 2007 on his own label, Burning Shed.

Interviewed for this release Terry Stamp admits that perhaps if the band had 'glammed' it up a bit then maybe more in the UK would have 'gotten it'. So I’ve Marc Bolan'd up this review because this is a band and an album that deserves rediscovery (even if it means putting a red in your bed)...

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"Shine On Brightly: 3CD Deluxe Edition" by PROCOL HARUM (2015 Esoteric Recordings Reissue/Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Tea Time At The Circus..." 

I diligently picked up the reissues of Procol Harum's 60s and 70s catalogue when they were reissued in sequence in 2009 by Salvo Records of the UK - and dug their natty gatefold card sleeves and half-decent remasters. But just as soon as they had arrived - they seemed to be quickly deleted and almost instantly started to attract unhealthy price hikes right across the board. So along comes England's Esoteric Recordings (part of Cherry Red) in 2015 to rescue the British band's legacy and fan's wallets with a full on reissue campaign that practically doubles the preceding issues in size and scope (and in real style too). There is a lot on this chunky sucker so let’s to those glimpses of Nirvana (if you know what I mean)...

UK released 29 June 2015 (July 2015 in the USA) – "Shine On Brightly: 3CD Deluxe Edition" by PROCOL HARUM on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 32500 (Barcode 5013929460041) is a 3-Disc Remaster in a 5" Clamshell Mini Box Set of their classic 2nd album from 1968 on Regal Zonophone Records (A&M in the USA).

Newly Remastered on all counts (BEN WISEMAN and ROB KEYLOCH did the expert transfers) – Disc 1 is the Stereo Mix of the 11-track album plus three extras - Disc 2 features the 11-track 'MONO' Mix on CD for the first time - while Disc 3 gives us 20 more Bonus Tracks – 7 of which are Previously Unreleased 1968 BBC Sessions from John Peel's "Top Gear" Radio One Series. Inside the Clamshell Box are three postcards repro'ing American Concert Posters – one for the San Francisco International Pop Festival 1968 and two for the "Grand Ballroom" shows in Detroit in May and October 1968. A fold-out double-sided colour poster features the album’s UK artwork on one side (a George Underwood painting) and the different USA A&M Records artwork on the other (a Guy Webster photograph that was deemed more 'appropriate') - as well as the lyrics and the Gary Brooker/Keith Reid blurb that accompanied the original UK trade advert.

On top of all that there’s a beautifully laid out 24-page colour booklet with liner note by HENRY SCOTT-IRVINE who authored the book "Procol Harum: The Ghosts Of The Whiter Shade Of Pale". The card sleeve for CD1 has the UK album artwork (Stereo), CD2 has the US LP artwork (Mono) and CD3 features a (unseen) variant of the US album artwork. A nice touch and real attention to detail is that the label for CD1 is Purple in colour and CD2 is Red – both reflecting the original Stereo and Mono label colours of the original 1968 LP issues - while Disc 3 is in Black. Page 19 of the booklet gives a good indication of the classiness on offer here – a 9-picture collage of rare European and Japanese 7" single sleeves for "Quite Rightly So". There is discussion on the impact of the album (Pete Townshend name-checks it as an influence on "Tommy"), concert photos, concert posters and publicity shots, paragraphs on the 'outtakes' etc. It’s very tastily done. Here is a detailed break down of each CD:

Disc 1 – STEREO MIX (49:36 minutes):
1. Quite Rightly So
2. Shine On Brightly
3. Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)
4. Wish Me Well
5. Rambling On
6. Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)
7. Glimpses Of Nirvana
8. Twas Tea Time At The Circus
9. In The Autumn Of My Madness
10. Look To Your Soul
11. Grand Finale
Tracks 1 to 11 are their 2nd studio album "Shine On Brightly" – released September 1968 in the USA in Stereo Only on A&M Records SP 4151 and December 1968 in the UK on Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1004 (Stereo)

BONUS TRACKS:
12. Il Tuo Diamante ("Shine On Brightly" Italian Version In Mono, Recorded September 1967) – a small chart hit in Italy in January 1968 on Nil Records 45NIL 9005
13. Quite Rightly So
14. In The Wee Small Hours Of Sixpence – Tracks 13 and 14 are the non-album A&B-sides of a March 1968 UK 7" single on Regal Zonophone RZ 3007

Disc 2 – MONO MIX (38:39 minutes):
1 to 11 as per Disc 1 - their 2nd studio album "Shine On Brightly" – released December 1968 in the UK on Regal Zonophone LRZ 1004 in Mono (No USA variant) - Previously Unreleased on CD

Disc 3 (53:06 minutes):
1. Monsieur Armand (Mono) – a 1967 recording that first appeared on the may 1976 UK LP "Rock Roots" by Procol Harum on Fly/Cube Records ROOTS 4. It was re-worked and re-recorded as "Monsieur R. Monde" for the 1974 LP "Exotic Birds & Fruit" on Chrysalis Records
2. Seem To Have The Blues (Most Of The Time) (Mono) - a 1967 recording that first appeared on the may 1976 UK LP "Rock Roots" by Procol Harum on Fly/Cube Records ROOTS 4
3. Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone) (1967 Version in Mono)
4. Shine On Brightly (1967 Version in Mono) – recorded October 1967
5. In The Wee Small Hours Of Sixpence (Stereo Mix) – recorded 6 December 1967. A mono version is on Disc 1 as the B-side to "Quite Rightly So"
6. Monsieur Armand (Stereo Backing Track) – recorded 11 October 1967
7. A Robe Of Silk (Stereo Backing Track) – recorded 12 January 1968
8. McGreggor – first appeared on the 1997 "30th Anniversary" CD Edition of "A Salty Dog" on Westside
9. The Gospel According To...[Wish Me Well] – recorded 19 March 1968
10. Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)
11. Quite Rightly So
12. Ramblin’ On
13. Shine On Brightly (tracks 10 to 13 are from "Top Gear" BBC Radio One Session, 14 February 1968) – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
14. Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)
15. Wish Me Well
16. Long Gone Geek (tracks 14 to 16 are from "Top Gear" BBC Radio One Session, 19 August 1968) – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEADED
17. In Held 'Twas In I (Look To Your Soul/Grande Finale) (track 17 is from "Top Gear" BBC Radio One Session, 6 October 1968) – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

Released in the run up to Christmas 1968 on both sides of the pond, Procol Harum’s 2nd album "Shine On Brightly" was produced by DENNY CORDELL and an uncredited GLYN JOHNS and featured the same line-up as their January 1968 self-titled debut album:

Piano and Lead Vocals – GARY BROOKER
Lead Guitar – ROBIN TROWER
Hammond Organ and Keyboards – MATTHEW FISHER
Bass – DAVID KNIGHT
Drums and Percussion – B.J. WILSON
(Lyrics) – KEITH REID

As the Matthew Fisher organ sails in for the album opener "Quite Rightly So" - the new Stereo remaster on Disc 1 is immediate and powerful (the tambourine and Brooker's vocals have more clarity too). A huge fan favorite – the title track "Shine On Brightly" is also incredibly clean on that wailing Trower guitar and Fisher's Hammond. And even though the channel separation is harsh and that cross fading is gimmicky – the remaster still feels better than what was on the 2009 reissue. "Slip Softly (My Moonbeam)" has Trower's guitar and those treated keyboard sounds married well – and when it goes into that floating piano passage in the middle of the song and Trower comes in with that wicked solo – it's the best I’ve ever heard this track. Probably my personal crave and a groove I've loved for years – "Wish Me Well" is Funk for Procol Harum and feels like a great Joe Cocker track with The Grease Band. It has real power now and renewed clarity.

Side 2's "Glimpses Of Nirvana" is a talking-tale of hippy lore too far for me ("...life is like a beanstalk..." - yikes) – but what's not in dispute is that this remaster adds a huge power to the instruments as they build. The 1:19 minutes of "Twas Tea Time At The Circus" feels like a Small Faces madrigal – and again the remaster is amazing. Much was made in initial reviews of the threesome that finishes the album (like a suite of serious songs) – "In The Autumn Of The Madness", "Look To Your Soul" and "Grand Finale". You can hear elements of Gabriel's Genesis circa "Nursery Cryme" in all that melodrama – those heavy themes and sound affects while the heavy Prog guitars feel like Vertigo Spiral territory. A tiny bit hissy – still the opening Bass and Cymbal to "Grand Finale" is beautifully clear as Fisher's piano fades in and then those church-like vocals – superb.

I must admit the Mono Mix does little for me and actually makes tracks like "Rambling On" sound ever so slightly weird and less powerful somehow. The extras on Disc 3 are a motley crew of different mix rarities and genuine finds. "Monsieur Armand" opens proceedings strongly – the Mono mix on this song having a huge punch with Trower’s solo shining half way in. The very Jethro Tull "Seem To Have The Blues (Most All The Time)" thunders through your speakers with Trower's heavy grungy guitar offset by R 'n' B keyboards from Fisher as Gary Brooker bemoans his fate ("...whole lotta people treat me unkind..."). The vocal on the Mono "Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)" is way back in the mix and gives it a more melancholy feel. But a genuine blast comes in the shape of the Stereo Mix of that beloved B-side "In The Wee Small Hours Of Sixpence" which puts Fisher's keyboard runs more to the fore (loving this).

Next we get a duo of fan-pleasers in the (vocal-less) Stereo Backing Tracks to "Monsieur Armand" and "A Robe Of Silk" where Procol sound like The Spencer Davis Group or even the Small Faces in their Immediate period on both cuts (very cool additions). The lament "McGreggor" is good but far better is the Bluesy and Funky groove of "The Gospel According To...(Wish Me Well)" where they sound almost like "Tons Of Sobs" Free with keyboards added – Trower trucking away on that guitar as the slow beat drives the song on (it ends abruptly at 3:35 minutes and you wish there was more). The BBC stuff is professionally recorded and packs an impressive punch – the soft piano and wild guitar soloing of Trower on the opening "Skip Softly" doing anything but skipping softly. The band sounds fresh and pleased with itself on "Quite Rightly So" – the drums well recorded too. "...Our local picture house is showing the Batman movie..." Brooker sings plaintively on "Ramblin' On" where a copper warns him that his newly purchased Batwings may not work if he jumps off a building like Adam West. The cheesy spoken intro of "...mind expanding sound...burn into your brain baby..." at the beginning of "Shine On Brightly" is 'so' Radio 1 DJ-speak (what a hoot!). The 2nd "Top Gear" set seems better recorded with superior Stereo imaging. The soft piano intro to "Wish Me Well" followed by Trower’s chugging guitar and the doubled vocals is wicked stuff and a real discovery. The 2:34 minutes of "Long Gone Geek" is the sound of a band finding its feet and thoroughly enjoying it – very cool little tune. And on it goes...

There are four x 2015 titles in Esoteric's 'Deluxe Edition' PROCOL HARUM reissue campaign so far and at this rate – all will be mandatory purchases for lovers of the band. “Shine On Brightly” is a superlative reissue and one that will please both fans and whet the appetite of the curious. Well done to all involved...

2015 PROCOL HARUM CD Reissues/Remasters by Esoteric Recordings:

1. Procol Harum – January 1968 UK Debut Album - 2CD Deluxe Edition UK released 17 July 2015 on Esoteric ECLEC 22497 (Barcode 5013929459748)

2. Shine On Brightly – December 1968 2nd Studio Album – 3CD Deluxe Edition UK released 29 June 2015 on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 32500 (Barcode 5013929460041)

3. A Salty Dog – June 1969 3rd Studio Album – 2CD Deluxe Edition UK released 31 July 2015 on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 22503 (Barcode 501392946348)

4. Home – June 1970 4th Studio Album – 2CD Deluxe Edition released 31 July 2015 on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 22505 (Barcode 5013929460546)

This review is part of my SOUNDS GOOD Music Books Series

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