Guest review by Joe Geesin
Back in the day, Decca and it’s associated Deram, put out some wonderful music from the late 60s and early 70s. A wonderfully creative time, the British Invasion was over and psychedelia, folk, the British Blues Boom and the roots of the prog rock explosion ruled the world.
Post British Invasion The Flies kick off disc 1 with Stepping Stone, and Al Stewart follows. There’s some rare material by name bands, including The Moody Blues, Small Faces, Savoy Brown, Ten Years After, and many a lesser known band, including The Attack, Tintern Abbey and The Plague. Enlightening is a track by The Syn, featuring a pre Yes Chris Squire. Some of the folk/singer songwriter tracks offer a decent tune too. Not stuff I’d ordinarily listen to, but they add variation to the music.
Later on, on discs 2 and 3, there’s more quality if lesser known prog rock and blues, with the likes of Egg (who, like Caravan, also here, were part of the Canterbury scene), and the excellent Black Cat Bones. A decent pressing of the latter’s only album will set you back £200+, fine British blues rock well worth checking out. A track from the Genesis debut, wonderful. It’s also nice to hear performance artist/poet Pete Brown, perhaps best known as a lyricist for Cream.
Other contributions come from Davy Graham (a spearhead of the Folk Revival), East Of Eden, Keef Hartley and Tinkerbell’s Fairydust.
There’s a lovely fold out case/sleeve, and a well annotated thick booklet.
So whether taken as a sampler for the genre or just a wonderful and varied compilation, this album ticks every box.
The Rockin' Chair 