THE ARTWOODS Art Gallery Repertoire CD www.repertoirerecords.com


Never achieving the success they deserved The Artwoods have been relegated to the footnotes of rock history (Ron Wood’s older brother, Keef


Hartley on drums and Jon Lord on Hammond.) If it wasn’t for the Stones, that famous drummer and Deep Purple we’d probably be even less aware. Truth be told, The Artwoods were far more than a starting block. They were a great band that should have ranked alongside The Animals and Spencer Davis Group. Stating this in Shindig! may be preaching to the converted, but the point needs to be made. For this writer, they even better their more successful peers by embracing the happening side of Swinging London alongside their blues, jazz and soul roots. ‘Keep Looking’ goes way beyond the original soul and is tailor made for the later era of the London mod club scene’s progression into psychedelia. You may forgot the brilliance of these sides from over familiarity, but I advise that you remind yourselves of the sheer energy and brilliance that The Artwoods could achieve. Fourteen single and EP sides


complete the package, including the amazingly monastic-tinged, Hammond driven psychedelia of ‘In The Deep End’. Essential, even if you have previous reissues. Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills


CLIFF BENNETT & THE REBEL ROUSERS Into Our Lives: The Joe Meek & EMI Years 1961-1969 EMI 4-CD box set Primarily remembered for their white-hot Top 10 version of The Beatles’ ‘Got To Get


VARIOUS ARTISTS The Upside Down World of John Pantry Wooden Hill CD www.tenthplanet-woodenhill.co.uk


Can there conceivably be a better name for a British ’60s pop/psych icon than John Pantry? The warm, homespun, busy and frankly tasty connotations of


the word “pantry” seem entirely apposite for this inexplicably overlooked one-man cottage industry of the genre. Tellingly, Vivian Stanshall nailed the essential difference between agit-prop American and quaint English psych archetypes with the memorable declaration “KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHER… And they had marmalade and kicked the pantry out into


60


You Into My Life’ in 1966, Cliff and his Rousers were by then seven years into a ten-year career. They honed their skills sweating out rock ’n’ roll covers in British


working venues with the odd trip to the Star Club in Hamburg, attracting the attention of Joe Meek who produced four singles for them with Parlophone before signing to EMI proper for a further dozen 45s and four albums. Bennett’s formidable showmanship and the enviable chops of the Rousers – who at various times included Nicky Hopkins, Howie Casey of King Size & The Dominoes and Chas Hodges of The Outlaws and, later, Heads Hands & Feet and Chas & Dave – gained them a cult, grass roots popularity that never translated into record sales. This latest instalment in EMI’s


impressive series of archival box sets tells the whole story over 117 tracks – many unreleased or on CD for the first time – and reminds us that the Rousers were a defiant, hard-working, no-bullshit R&B/soul act who must have given such routinely praised purveyors as Chris Farlowe and Zoot Money a run for their bucks. Andy Morten


JULIE DRISCOLL, BRIAN AUGER & THE TRINITY Open / Definitely What!... SPV Yellow Label www.spv.de


Originally released in 1968, Open documents the debut of the post- Steampacket partnership of the distinctive vocal talents of Julie Driscoll and the


famously fluid Hammond B-3 of Brian Auger. With the sound blending elements of jazz, rock and soul, Jools doesn’t actually make her entrance until halfway through the album on a cover of Lowell Fulsom’s ‘Tramp’. While the wandering exploration of Donovan’s ‘Season Of The Witch’ is worth the price of admission alone. Bonus tracks include the ’67 single ‘Save


the street, and lived happily ever after.” Prior to this, my knowledge of Pantry’s


work was pretty much limited to my prized demo copy of the ‘Little Girl Lost And Found’ single by Peter & The Wolves –one of a great many ensembles and artistes whose work bore the John Pantry imprimatur somewhere along the line. Now, however, I am fully up to speed thanks to this vastly expanded double-CD version of 1999’s limited edition vinyl-only compilation, and its characteristically fascinating and painstakingly thorough sleeve notes from David Wells. The first thing that strikes you is Pantry’s


bulletproof quality control when it came to songwriting. This pop polymath, who alternated hats as an IBC Studios engineer and the keyboardist/vocalist with hard-working Essex hopefuls Sounds Around, rapidly developed an all-too-rare ear for an unusual, heart- tugging melodic motif and a picturesque lyric. Between ’66 and ’71, Pantry simply haemorrhaged the good stuff, and The Upside Down World… collects


Me’ and the spectacular non-album singles ‘The Road To Cairo’ and ‘This Wheel’s On Fire’. Definitely What!... meanwhile is


Auger & The Trinity’s Jools-less debut from ’69 which besides the standout original ‘Far Horizon’comes complete with instrumental covers of The Beatles’ ‘A Day In The Life’, Booker T & The MGs’ ‘Red Beans And Rice’ and the original studio recording of Auger’s evergreen take on Wes Montgomery’s ‘Bumpin’ On Sunset’. Grahame Bent


THE INCREDIBLE STRINGBAND Tricks Of The Senses Hux CD www.huxrecords.com


Having been previously burnt, this writer was expecting another rehash of previously released rarities, but was pleasantly surprised to discover a wealth of


new Incredible Stringband artefacts spanning most of the bands career. In many ways this is an alternative history of the Incredibles; starting with a fascinating ‘Relax Your Mind’ from a 1966 rehearsal and continuing with much the same wonder and awe through outtakes from the albums 5,000 Spirits (an unreleased ‘Lover Man’ with Danny Thompson on string bass), Wee Tam (a great version of ‘Iron Stone’),U, I Looked Up and Earthspan plus a ’68 US radio session and other oddities. The inclusion of the rare and


lengthy ‘Queen Juanita’ makes this pretty much essential for any fan of the band and the attention to detail in the 28 page booklet packed with unseen photos, historical information and lyrics is astounding. Richard Allen


CHAD STUART & JEREMY CLYDE Of Cabbages And Kings Rev-Ola www.revola.co.uk Originally signed to John Barry’s fledgling Ember records, Chad and Jeremy’s fourth Columbia album starts with a quote from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland and then wanders off into a fog


together his entire output –near as dammit –from the period in question. Included among the 53 (!) tracks are


reams of Pantry’s own demos –generally banged out with immense conviction on piano and sung in his appealingly unadorned high tenor –and it is these which provide concrete proof of the innate quality of his songs from the ground up, whether it be the Bee Gees-style soft focus intensity of ‘Marigold’, the soulful, Todd Rundgren-prefiguring verticality of the title track or the tumbling Gilbert O’Sullivan phrasing of ‘Smokey Wood Air’. Elsewhere, you’ll find good-natured


proto-glam (‘Birthday’ by The Bunch), swooning superpop perfection (‘Jewel’ by Wolfe), fiercely compressed airborne psych (‘Try A Little Sunshine’ by The Factory) and, best of all, the sweetly affecting and suitably lambent ‘Lantern Light’ by Peter & The Wolves; one of the great lost singles of ’68. Marco Rossi


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