Stackridge Stackridge ECLEC 2834 Friendliness ECLEC22835 The Man in the Bowler Hat ECLEC22838 Extravaganza ECLEC2239 Mr. Mick ECLEC22844 The Forbidden City ECLEC32869 Esoteric/Cherry Red
Describing Stackridge is like nailing jelly to the wall or herding cats, an almost impossible task despite the fact that the band were so firmly rooted in the West Country soil from which they sprung. Now the impossibility of categorising them can be properly appreciated with Esoteric’s reissue of all the band’s 1970s albums, including bonus live tracks and expansive sleeve notes, and the reunion concert, complete with live DVD, from 2007.
Formed in 1969 in the musical melting pot that is Bristol, the original line-up consisted of Andrew Davis (guitars, vocals), James Warren (bass, vocals), Mutter Slatter (flutes), Michael Evans (violins), and Billy Bent on drums and triangle, and coalesced from two other bands. After honing their skills live, they opened and closed the first Glastonbury Festival in 1970. The band were proud of their unique blend of sounds, which covered all the bases: Zappa, Fairport Convention, early Fleetwood Mac, the Bonzos, and English music-hall whimsy. The audience never quite knew what they were going to get, which for the band was all part of the fun; they refused to sound the same twice.
In the early seventies record labels were constantly hunting for the next big (prog) thing, and so in 1971 the band went into De Lane Lea studios to record their debut self-titled album for MCA. Their eclecticism is evident throughout this sparkling debut, which contains some stunning (American) West Coast harmonies arranged by Warren and Davis, and a rocking interlude on The Three-Legged Table, which features more ideas in its seven minutes than some bands stretch over an entire album. It also includes the live favourite Dora the Female Explorer (which, according to the sleeve notes, did not inspire the similarly named Nickelodeon show) and the epic Slark, which tells of a motorist heading to Kenn (the first time that the small North Somerset village was mentioned in a song) who is then grabbed by the sinister monster of the title. This is the closest thing to full-on prog on the album, but it differs from most contemporary prog by featuring flute and violin solos. Stackridge's debut impressed John Peel enough that he invited the band onto his Top Gear show, and the recording is included here, with their raucous live favourite Let There Be Lids which merges The Hen’s March To the Midden with Orange Blossom Special and —naturally— features enthusiastic additional bin-lid percussion. This entertaining album signpointed their next direction, although, as always with Stackridge and their 'wait and see' West Country attitude, the journey there would be anything but predictable.
1972’s Friendliness, here expanded to a double set including a complete BBC Radio One In Concert from June 1972, saw original member Jim ‘Crun’ Walter rejoin them on bass. Recorded in August and released in November, the album starts with the music-hall sound of the barrelling instrumental Lummy Days, with some wonderful flute and violin interludes, the whole thing underpinned by Davis’s piano work. It sets the tone for the rest of this strong follow-up album, on which elements of the Bonzos are detectable in the nostalgic pastiches and slightly surreal lyrics. Indeed, if you played this record to somebody from abroad, they would probably instantly identify that Stackridge are from England (they couldn’t really be from anywhere else). A live favourite on this record, which hadn’t made the cut for the debut, was the brilliant Syracuse the Elephant, inspired by a forlorn resident of Bristol Zoo. It extends the band’s sound over eight minutes of sublime music and lyrical wistfulness from Walter, with more of the lush harmonies that pepper the albums. The band display their rocking side on Keep on Clucking, about chickens and battery farming, and the album closes with the nostalgic Teatime, featuring some wonderful lyrics from Walter again. The bonus tracks on this version include Slark cut down to fit a seven-inch single together with its B-side, the instrumental piece Purple Spaceships Over Yatton, another West Country village that had probably never featured in a song before. To add to the 'alien invasion' theme, the band included a reference to the SOS Morse code in the middle of the track. The live concert recording features cuts from the debut and new material from the not-yet-released Friendliness. This well-performed set shows just how tight Stackridge were live, and ends with the suitably riotous Four Poster Bed (Let There Be Lids).
Stackridge were always open about the Beatles’ influence on their work, and they eventually caught the attention of George Martin himself, who recorded and produced their 1974 album The Man In The Bowler Hat at his Air Studios. With a now stable line-up, a title taken from a Magritte painting, and Mutter Slatter joining in on vocals, Martin’s orchestral arrangements allowed the band to scale new heights. Pinafore Days, Slatter’s The Galloping Gaucho, and The Road to Venezuela all show them developing their powers, while building on what had made them distinctive. This is a leap forward for the Stackridge sound, a stand-out in the early Stackridge canon. The closing God Speed the Plough shows how much Slatter had come on as a writer, and showcases superb piano work from Andy Davis. This reissue is augmented by two BBC concerts, one a Radio 1 In Concert from January 1973 in which material including Do The Stanley and Purple Spaceships Over Yatton nestles alongside a cracking version of Twist and Shout, whilst the Bob Harris session from February 1973 sees the band introduce material from the new album into their live repertoire: three out of the four tracks are from The Man in the Bowler Hat.
After this the great run of albums from the original line-up came to an end; there were personnel and record label changes afoot for Extravaganza. As Stackridge had never gone higher than twenty-three in the album charts, MCA declined to renew their contact. Slatter, Evans, and Bent had already quit the band and the new management dismissed Warren and Walter. After some further changes, the band re-formed with Slatter and Davis and new members Keith Gemmell on sax, clarinet and flute, Paul Karas on vocals and bass, Rob Bowkett on keyboards, and Roy Morgan on drums. They signed with Elton John’s Rocket Records and released the Tony Ashton-produced Extravaganza in 1975. The album sees the new line-up stick closely to the idiosyncratic Stackridge sound. The piano-driven opener Spin Round the Room displays as many diverse influences as the original band’s work, and very soon the new members seem like an integral part of Stackridge, contributing a number of tracks which fit right in. There are a number of classic Stackridge tracks on here, including The Volunteer with a great vocal from Slatter, and two cover versions: the satirical Happy In the Lord with Tony Ashton cameoing as a deranged preacher, and No-One’s More Important Than the Earthworm by Gordon Haskell, a former member of King Crimson who had almost joined Stackridge himself. The band’s Englishness is evident throughout this excellent record, which is housed in a music-hall-style sleeve. The second disc on this remaster is another Radio 1 In Concert session, in which the band mix a large chunk of the new album with old favourites like God Speed the Plough and Dora the Female Explorer.
A line-up change prior to recording the new album saw Walter back on bass, whilst Peter Van Hooke and Dave Lawson took on drums and keyboards respectively, so that Stackridge were back to a majority of original members. They now had a new label and a renewed purpose, and embarked on recording what should have been their defining masterpiece —but it was not to be. Released in 1976, Mr Mick was watered down by the record label from the original story (as proposed by Steve Augarde, an author and illustrator who was renting a room in the rehearsal space that the band were using in Castle Cary). Clearly Rocket disliked the concept and the linking narration by Slatter —which appear in retrospect to be about a dementia sufferer— and instead the tracks were cut and rejigged so that the album opened with a cover of the Beatles’ Hold Me Tight. The remastered release includes the original album on the second disc to show how Mr Mick should have sounded, as a thematic whole, including Breakfast With Werner von Braun, Save a Red Face, Hazy Day Holiday, and Fish In A Glass. Stackridge were firing on all cylinders here, and it’s great to finally hear the album as they intended it.
After Mr Mick wasn’t the hit that it should have been, Stackridge split and the band (almost) went their separate ways (although Davis and Warren reconnected, became the Korgis and had chart hits in the late seventies, but that’s another story). However, the Stackridge story wasn’t over. The original members (Davis, Warren, Slatter, and Walter) reconvened, augmented by Glenn Tomney (keyboards/trombone), Nigel Newton (lead guitar), Rachel Hall (violin; Hall later joined English prog purveyors Big Big Train), Sarah Mitchell (second violin and vocals), and Andy Marsden (drums) for a series of live performances on the 1st of April 2007 at Bath’s Rondo Theatre, presented here across two CDs and one live DVD. These twenty-five tracks run the gamut of the Stackridge catalogue, including The Volunteer, Friendliness, Fish In A Glass, The Road to Venezuela, and Do The Stanley nestling alongside the big Korgis hits If I Had You and Everyone's Got to Learn Sometime, whilst the new song Something About The Beatles wears its heart on its sleeve. This expanded version of the band finds new depth in the various songs. With between-song banter and cracking performances (particularly on Happy In The Lord), it is clear that they had lost none of their musical dexterity and live panache. It’s great to see them in full swing on the DVD, enjoying themselves in front of an appreciative local crowd. Now if Esoteric can complete this superb collection with a reissue of the final Stackridge reunion album, I’ll be a very happy punter.
The Fierce & the Dead News From The Invisible World
Formed back in 2010, this band of four friends from Rushden have played RoSFest in the States, performed a series of gigs with Knifeworld and Trojan Horse, supported Hawkwind, and grown an audience by plying their own brand of progressive instrumental rock over their last three studio albums (If It Carries On Like This We Are Moving to Morecambe, Spooky Action, and The Euphoric) as well as on a slew of well received and highly regarded EPs. The twin guitar assault from Steve Cleaton and king of loops Matt Stevens, with Kevin Feazey’s bass and Stuart Marshall’s drums anchoring the sound, have won over new fans in the band’s taut live performances. Now they are back with their fourth album (supported by Thomas Hunt of Orange Clocks) on their own Spencer Park Music label, having previously worked with the boutique 'genre-fluid' label Bad Elephant music since 2013.
With a solid reputation as proponents of contemporary instrumental prog influenced by groups as diverse as King Crimson and Iron Maiden, this little band with the massive 'Rushdenbeat' sound have now evolved further to feature vocals from Feazey on their new release. What a revelation his voice is, evocative of Damon Albarn or Murray A. Lightburn from The Dears. The band’s hallmark instrumental builds are still here, and the instrumentation and arrangements are as dense and fascinating as ever, with Stevens’ looping complemented by Cleaton’s cleaner riffing; however, it’s the vocals that really stand out here.
The dictionary definition of 'progressive' is "moving onwards or forwards," and The Fierce & the Dead have certainly taken it seriously here. Other critics have called this release their OK Computer moment, and it’s hard to disagree with this assessment: the band have really gone all out to master the transition from purely instrumental to full vocals. The album begins with the slow burner The Start, which has a chant-like chorus and develops into a dramatic crescendo; if you aren’t singing along by the end, there’s no hope for you. This release is full of enjoyable tracks, including the riff-driven Shake The Jar and the singles Golden Thread and Photogenic Love (which has a great chorus and a superb arrangement), while Wonderful is a slab of their traditional dense instrumental music. Nostalgia Now is the perfect way to conclude an album that does not overstay its welcome. Someone once said that the ideal album length is about forty minutes, and this hearkens back to those classic eighties releases that made an instant impact, kept your attention and left on time, with no filler in which to get a cuppa.
By taking this bold step, The Fierce & the Dead haven’t sacrificed any element of their trademark sound but have instead enhanced and built upon it. On re-listening to their previous albums, it becomes clear that this was always going to be the next evolution. The album is available in various versions, including a limited-edition double CD featuring a bonus disc of the tracks in purely instrumental versions, and will hopefully expand their devoted fan base. This release is a strong candidate for album of the year, and represents a defining moment in the band’s career to date.--James R. Turner
