SHAPES & SOUNDS

Orange & Red Beams From The BBC Archives 1967-1969

KALEIDOSCOPE- Jenny Artichoke

TIMEBOX- A Girl Like You

GENTLE INFLUENCE- You've Been Cheatin'

MONTANAS- You're Never Going To Get My Lovin'

MONTANAS- Hey Grandma

TOMORROW- Real Life Permanent Dream

TIMEBOX- Beggin'

KALEIDOSCOPE- Music

SPECTRUM- Headin' For A Heatwave

MONTANAS- Omaha

TOMORROW- Colonel Brown

SPECTRUM- I Take What I Want

TIMEBOX- Stay There

TIMEBOX- Yellow Van

MONTANAS- A Step In The Right Direction

GENTLE INFLUENCE- Always Be A Part Of My Living

TOMORROW- Blow Up

 

 

‘Shapes And Sounds’ offers seventeen performances taped in BBC studios for broadcast not only on the more familiar radio shows such as ‘Top Gear’ and Saturday Club’, but also some of the daytime weekly programmes such as ‘The Jimmy Young Show'.

For many pride of place will go to Kaleidoscope, as ‘Shapes And Sounds’ features two tracks that are missing from the BBC’s Transcription Service archive and consequently were not included on the ‘Please Listen To The Pictures’ BBC set. Top Sounds are privileged to complete the jigsaw and offer a choice version of the band’s most contagious single ‘Jenny Artichoke’, as well as a stupendous rendition of the ‘Faintly Blowing’ cut ‘Music’ which is guaranteed to have Kaleidoscope’s legion of followers in ecstacy! Also thought lost and making their debut on record and CD are three splendid tracks by Tomorrow featuring Keith West - included are excellent renditions of ‘Blow Up’ and ‘Colonel Brown’ but the pick of the bunch is almost certainly ‘Real Life Permanent Dream’, with its overdrive of twisting wah wah guitar throughout from the nimble fingers of Steve Howe. It’s been a while since any fresh music from Timebox was released and ‘Shapes And Sounds’ offers their four remaining session tracks from the Beeb archives, which include a beautiful version of their famed ‘Beggin’, a rendition of ‘Yellow Van’ which most definitely puts the single cut to shame, a superb take of ‘Stay There’ and perhaps most importantly, an admirable slice of blue eyed soul in their cover of the Young Rascals’ ‘A Girl Like You’, which the band never recorded outside of the BBC.

The Montanas’ BBC take of their most prized pop/psych 45 ‘A Step In The Right Direction’ is literally drowned in a veritable tidal wave of phasing, whilst ‘You’re never going to get my lovin’ would have made a better choice for a single than some of those that were actually released. The other Montanas performances form something of a Moby Grape tribute, with a cracking rendering of ‘Hey Grandma’ and a blistering attack on ‘Omaha’. Of all these numbers from their repertoire, only ‘A Step In The Right Direction’ ever appeared on a single. Oxfordshire’s Gentle Influence have come to more prominence recently with the inclusion of their popular ‘Easy To Know’ on the ‘Le Beat Bespoke’ compilation and Top Sounds have uncovered a similarly styled nugget with their BBC only cover of Curtis Mayfield’s ‘You’ve Been Cheatin’, as well as a superior version of their final 1969 A’ side ‘Always Be A Part Of My Living’.

And last but my no means least The Spectrum - hitherto not the most rated of 60s bands by some - impress with a fuzz guitar spiked performance of ‘Headin’ For A Heatwave’ which is more virile and much more atmospheric than the 45 version, and they enthusiastically rip through a Beeb only take of the Artwoods favourite ‘I Take What I Want’.

The sound quality is absolutely superb throughout, with nearly every track sourced from original BBC Transcription records. The Tomorrow performances have been taken from excellent off air recordings and similarly shine and few of the tracks on the collection needed much enhancement at all, all have nevertheless been professionally restored and mastered. The presentation is immaculate and as with the ‘Alphabeat’ release, Artholeghraphics have designed a memorable period flavoured package. The LP has a sixteen page colour booklet based on a vintage Radio Times (the CD has a twenty four page book) packed with illustrations, band histories and listings of all their known BBC sessions written and supplied by Nigel Lees, author of much of Record Collector magazine’s ‘The British Psychedelic Trip’ series. Except for one of the Montanas recordings being bootlegged many years ago, none of the tracks have ever been commercially available and most have not been heard in public since the 60’s.

All copies are hand numbered and ‘Shapes And Sounds’ is a legitimate limited edition release, licensed from the BBC with the blessing / co-operation of no less than nineteen band members.

Check out the new website
http://topsoundsrecords.co.uk/intro.html


 

SHAPES AND SOUNDS VOLUME 2

Shades of Deepest Purple From The BBC Archives 1967-1971

THE CASUALS- Jesamine THE GUN- Lights On The Wall
THE MIRAGE- The Wedding Of Ramona Blair THE BYSTANDERS- I Am The Walrus
KATCH 22- The Price Of Love THE CASUALS- Take Me For A Little While
THE ALAN BOWN- Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies THE GUN- A Most Peculiar Man
THE GUN- Hold On THE BYSTANDERS- Renaissance Fair
THE CASUALS- Midnight Confessions THE ALAN BOWN- Magic Handkerchief
THE ALAN BOWN- Movie Star Baby PORTRAIT- Born To Be Wild
THE BYSTANDERS- Royal Blue Summer Sunshine Day KILLING FLOOR- Milkman

 

With this second excavation of previously unreleased live BBC session performances spanning the period

1967 - 1971, ‘Shapes And Sounds’ becomes a series and Volume Two features a completely different line up of

bands from last years’ set. Pride of place on this second edition arguably goes to the Gun, with three

astonishing performances that were recorded nearly a year before ‘Race With The Devil’ which illustrate their

late ’67 menu of mod and psych pop, with cracking versions of Rupert’s People’s ‘Hold On’, Paul Simon’s

A Most Peculiar Man’ and a quite splendid airing of their legendary ‘Light On The Wall’! The Casuals surprise

with the beat of ‘Midnight Confessions’ and ‘Take Me For A Little While’ as well as a fine rendering of ‘Jesamine’,

 whilst the Mirage perform a live version of their May 1967 single ‘The Wedding Of Ramona Blair’.

The Alan Bown play an excellent take of ‘Magic Handkerchief’ and even more interestingly offer two numbers

that never appeared on any Bown release, with the self penned progressive popper ‘Movie Star Baby’ and

a brilliant interpretation of the Association’s ‘Pandora’s Golden Heebie Jeebies’.

Also with three tracks on ‘Shapes And Sounds’ are Wales’ Bystanders, who turn in a lovely version of

Royal Blue Summer Sunshine Day’ as well as a glorious homage to the Byrds with ‘Renaissance Fair’.

Even better and long talked about in collectors circles but never previously released is their absolutely

stunning rendition of ‘I Am The Walrus’, which Top Sounds are sure will disappoint no-one!

Sourced from an off air recording of their only British television appearance on Disco 2, Killing Floor

perform ‘Milkman’ from their ‘Out Of Uranus’ LP in superb quality (the TV show was wiped decades ago)

and of similarly heinous rarity are live tracks from Portrait and Katch 22, who turn in forceful renderings

of ‘Born To Be Wild’ and ‘The Price Of Love’ respectively (the latter of which is better than the Status Quo cover!)

   The sound quality is absolutely superb throughout, with twelve of the sixteen tracks sourced from

original BBC Transcription records. The other performances have been taken from excellent off air recordings

and similarly shine and though few of the tracks on the collection needed much enhancement at all,

all have nevertheless been professionally restored and mastered. The presentation is immaculate and

as with the previous ‘Shapes And Sounds’ release, Artholeghraphics have designed a memorable

period flavoured package. The LP has a sixteen page colour booklet based on a vintage Radio Times

packed with illustrations, band histories and listings of all their known BBC sessions written and supplied

by Nigel Lees, author of much of Record Collector magazine’s ‘The British Psychedelic Trip’ series.

Except for the Mirage recording being bootlegged many years ago (in lesser quality!), none of the tracks

have ever been commercially available and most have not been heard in public since the 60’s.

The compact disc version will be available early in 2008.

   All copies are hand numbered and ‘Shapes And Sounds’ is a legitimate limited edition release, licensed from

the BBC with the blessing / co-operation of many band members.

 

 

SHAPES AND SOUNDS VOLUME 3

 

 

 

SHAPES AND SOUNDS Volume THREE

TSLP 004 Vinyl £14.49 (to follow)

TSSCD 004 Compact Disc £12.99

     Top Sounds Records return once again with another collection of music recorded live for BBC radio and TV during the late 1960s and early 70s, with a significant proportion of wonderful material long thought lost. Available as usual on vinyl and CD the compilation begins and ends with some most welcome performances from BILL FAY, documenting his appearance on the Disco 2 television show in early 1971. With the TV programme being wiped this is the only known evidence of Bill playing live, and he performs in superb audio quality ‘Tell It Like It Is’ and a song he never recorded anywhere else called ‘After The Revolution’. Three tracks from THE PRETTY THINGS late 1968 session for Top Gear have been widely available for a while but the fourth, a version of ‘Old Man Going’, was never retained by the BBC - needless to say Top Sounds have located a master tape of the performance and are pleased to inform the Pretties’ fans that its even better than the album version, with the fuzzed guitar cranked up to maximum! A double CD of DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK and TICH’s BBC sessions was released in 2008, but Shapes And Sounds Three adds to that considerable legacy with a better version of ‘Frustration’ and more spectacularly, the band’s fantastic psychedelic rock assault on the First Edition’s ‘Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)’. Long time favourites with psych pop enthusiasts are THE END who have had much previously unreleased music released in the past, their BBC sessions however have always proved elusive as the BBC wiped their tapes. Rescued from off air recordings Top Sounds present two numbers from their 1968 ‘Top Gear’, with an atmospheric rendering of ‘Shades Of Orange’ and a brilliant take of ‘Under The Rainbow’ which is wildly different from the studio version on ‘Introspection’. Like The End, Geordie psychsters SKIP BIFFERTY have been well served by compilations - ‘In The Morning’ and ‘Follow The Path Of The Stars’ however now appear in pristine quality straight from transcription disc whilst ‘On Love’ and ‘Yours For At Least 24’ (from their first ever radio session) make their debut and were previously presumed lost. BBC material by CUPID’S INSPIRATION similarly emerges for the first time with a quite splendid mix of pop, blues and rock across four numbers, only one of which was ever released in their original discography. Especially noteworthy is a crunching take of ‘Dream’ and a frantic version of Garnet Mimms ‘As Long As I Have You’. GULLIVERS PEOPLE prove admirably they could deliver psych pop with an excellent performance of the Bee Gees’ psych opus ‘Horizontal’ whilst ‘On A Day Like This’ improves on the single, then finally Plymouth group THE EARTH offer some rather good tunes with live versions of ‘Everyone Sing The Song’ and the prog rock favourite ‘Resurrection City’ from 1969.

    The music has all been professionally restored and mastered and the presentation is immaculate and as with the previous ‘Shapes And Sounds’ volumes, Artholeghraphics have designed a memorable period flavoured package. The LP will have a sixteen page colour booklet based on a vintage Radio Times (the CD has a twenty eight page book) packed with illustrations, band histories and listings of all their known BBC sessions written and supplied by Nigel Lees, author of much of Record Collector magazine’s ‘The British Psychedelic Trip’ series. Bar the appearance of some of the Skip Bifferty recordings which have previously appeared in off air quality, none of these performances have ever been commercially available and most have not been heard in public since the 60’s.

    ‘Shapes And Sounds Volume Three’ is a legitimate release, licensed from the BBC with the blessing / co-operation of many band members.

   The compilation will be available on both vinyl and CD, the compact disc is out now and projected release date of the LP version is late May 2008.