U.K. 1960s


SAM GOPAL Escalator Esoteric CD www.esotericrecordings.com


Before everybody’s favourite speedfreak went and formed Motörhead, Lemmy was in a number of bands, including most famously Hawkwind, of course, but


also this intriguing psychedelic outfit. Formed in 1967 by a young Malaysian percussionist, Sam Gopal, who specialised in the tabla, Lemmy joined the band in ’68, and by the time Escalator was released in early ’69 he had contributed to most of the songwriting as well as lead vocals and guitar. Certainly of its time, combining eastern infused


rhythms with psychedelic rock as it does, it’s sometimes pastoral – ‘Yesterlove’ for example – and at others more fuzz orientated. There are also glimpses of the future Motörhead – the title track is a prime example, and must also rate as one of the great British ’60s psych classics. The single ‘Horse’, which was coupled with the Willie Dixon penned blues standard ‘Back Door Man’, are both included here too, and with great sleeve notes to boot it’s an essential addition to your collection. Rich Deakin


THE LIVERBIRDS From Merseyside To Hamburg: The Complete Star-Club Recordings Big Beat CD


www.acerecords.co.uk If you’re a Scouse female band, you can’t really nail your colours more firmly to the mast than calling yourselves The Liverbirds. From their photos, it looks like this quartet – all heavy fringes and harder scowls – are tough. It’s reflected in the


hastily recorded R&B cover versions of the first


half of this well-put together CD.The Liverbirds’ sound is raw and exciting, even if some of the song choices might not be (do we really need another version of ‘Money’?). As the running time goes on, things become


more varied and interesting.There are the stunning group originals: the pensive ‘Leave All Your Old Loves In The Past’ and the get-lost sneer of ‘Why Do You Hang Around Me’. The covers also diversify, with The Liverbirds tackling the American girl group sound (‘It’s So Exciting’, ‘Oh No Not My Baby’) through their garage echo. No polish, just spit, and it suits them. Jeanette Leech


JACKIE LOMAX Lost Soul RPM 2-CD www.rpmrecords.co.uk


Disc one here contains Jackie Lomax’s solo recordings and those created by Lomax Alliance and One between 1966 and ’67. Disc two contains White


Lady, the sole Badger LP made for Epic in ’74. The group included The Creation’s Kim Gardner and ex- Yes man Tony Kaye. Lomax was one soulful cat that’s for sure.


Handling bass and vocals upon joining Mersey R&B contingent The Undertakers, he split from them


58


while in the USA, but not before playing on the great ‘(I Fell In Love) For The Very First Time’ US- only 45 – with horn and percussion assistance from Pete Best’s Group. George Harrison later took Lomax to Apple but the hoped-for breakthrough never came, despite a few singles and the ’68 LP Is This What You Want? Inspiring moments are plentiful on Lost Soul,


though personally it’s the psych-tinged demo’s of Lomax Alliance’s fuzzed-up ‘You Better Get Going Now’ and the solo ‘Honey Machine’ (a Circus Days fave credited to Lomax All Stars), plus the stomping exuberance of One’s US-only ‘Hey Taxi’ single that tips the balance into true greatness. The soul- heavy, effortlessly classy rock grooves of Badger’s ‘Listen To Me’, ‘The Lord Who Give Me Life’, and the title cut (with Jeff Beck on lead) work well too. He may once have been a lost soul, but with the arrival of this compendium of delights, Jackie Lomax has been well and truly found. Lenny Helsing


VARIOUS ARTISTS The Best Of Homegrown Music 1968- 1980 Angel Air CD www.angelair.co.uk


Homegrown Music was the moniker adopted by IBC studio whizz kids Brian Carroll and Damon Lyon-Shaw in 1968 after the pair hooked up engineering sessions for


the likes of the Stones, Who, Bee Gees and Small Faces. Wishing to branch out as producers, they grabbed teenage mod band The Factory and had them record the unfeasibly doomy Clifford T Ward anomaly ‘Path Through The Forest’, before teaming them up with another IBC staffer John Pantry who assisted them on his equally lysergic ‘Try A Little Sunshine’, thus establishing their impeccable psych credentials from the off. Next came Five Day Rain, a studio project headed by songwriter Graham Maitland that


Sharing precious moments with T2.


recorded one of the greatest psych-pop albums of all time, only to see it remain in the can for 20 odd years. By the mid-70s they’d hammered out a rather piecemeal selection of glam/psych odds and ends as One Way Ticket, followed by assorted opportunistic 45s in the reggae, hard-rock and Eurovision genres. These extraneous sides are probably of minimal


interest to most Shindig! readers but if you don’t have the Factory and Five Day Rain stuff already, go and grab this and don’t be put off by the cheapo artwork and typo-strewn liners by Carroll himself. Andy Morten


VARIOUS ARTISTS Look At The Sun: Precious Moments Thought Lost From The British Underground 1967-70 Top Sounds CD/LP + 7” www.topsoundsrecords.co.uk


Lots of great sounds, not enough review space! Louise’s ‘Look At The Sun’ / ‘Toy Maker’s Shop’ acetate would be an £800 “eBait”’ item if it had actually ever been a


45 – it’s the real psych deal! T2’s‘Highway’ and ‘Careful Sam’ are an immaculate document of the band’s true majesty. Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera’s ‘Reactions Of A Young Man’ is almost unplugged – just bass and sitar – whilst The Coconut Mushroom and Elastic Band tracks rock mightily. There’s a compressed sound to some (but not


all) of this stuff because it’s vintage acetate derived but that just lends it all a more intense sense of time and place, of moment. The usual near LP sized colour booklet gives the stories on how such treasures came to survive and be salvaged. This is, I think, the strongest of Top Sounds’


archive projects to date. Buy it, play it, treasure it – it’s all worthy. Paul Martin


Soul


LAMONT DOZIER Black Bach Righteous CD www.righteous23.com


All hail Black Bach (AKA Lamont Dozier, one third of the Motown songwriting team). If known for penning “the hits” – and yes, we are talking about the very


records of legend – Dozier undertook a solo career in the early/mid-70s, releasing a series of albums that evoked the politically and socially aware ethos of Curtis, Marvin and Issac. Black Bach was his second effort for ABC and


released in 1975; a lavish album with huge swathes of orchestration, backing vocalists, banjos, funky electricity all competing for attention. At this time the composer and singer was in his 30s and he had his eye on both the charts and how left- field his fellow black musicians had become. Black Bach is the perfect hybrid, with the country-tinged ‘All Cried Out’ evoking ’71-era Beach Boys, ‘Shine’ Issac Hayes and ‘Thank You For The Dream’ anticipating the anthemic ‘Going Back To My Roots’. Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills


VARIOUS ARTISTS Flyin’ High Southwest Musical Arts Foundation CD www.bobcorritore.com/flyinhigh.htm With the exception of ‘Funky Broadway’ and ‘Linda Lu’ by Dyke & The Blazers and Ray Sharpe respectively, most soul music fans would hardly realise that Phoenix,


Arizona had an active R&B scene throughout the ’50s and ’60s. But it was a regular stop for touring bands heading to or coming from the West Coast. This revelatory compilation, put together by the


enterprising Bob Corritore, collects 27 obscure but unfailingly groovy R&B, early soul, blues and gospel sides – culled from tiny labels like Felder, Stacy, Bamboo and Friendly. Selections by Jimmy Knight (whose two-part instrumental title tune bookends affairs), Reverend Overstreet, Big Pete Pearson and The Lone Wolf are particularly appealing, but every title excites and cumulatively they shed new light on the overlooked roots music legacy of the southwestern desert city. Gary von Tersch


VARIOUS ARTISTS Pulp Fusion Harmless 2-CD www.demonmusicgroup.co.uk With cover art that looks like a cruddy Tim Westwood house music compilation – all Grand Theft Auto-style hoes, cars and bruddas –this set is a game of two


halves. Dean Rudland can usually be trusted when it comes to ’70s soul, jazz and funk, and he unearths a few gems like Joe Quarterman & Free Soul’s‘So Much Trouble In My Mind’, with its hippie-tinged vocal and Funkadelic meets James Brown edge. When Gil Scott-Heron’s classic ‘The Bottle’ is


listed, annotated and then erroneously left off the CD, it becomes apparent what a slapdash job this is. By disc two, the funky grooves have all but gone as later ’70s smooth jazz sounds take over. Best just seek out the Joe Quarterman 45.


Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills


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