Week of April 28, 2002
Personnel:
Steve Bailey - vocals
Ron Bending - bass, vocals
Terry Sims - percussion, drums
Bob Weston - guitar, vocals, mandolin
Album:
In From The Cold (Decca Nova SDN-R 1) 1969
(CD reissue: Worldwide Records, SPM-WWR-CD-0053, 1993)
This was the first album released on Decca's progressive Nova label. Co-produced by Peter Sherter and Ian Sippin, much of the album bares an uncanny resemblance to early
Spooky Tooth. Propelled by Bailey's hoarse vocal growl and the band's penchant for screaming guitars, this comparison is reinforced on tracks such as
"Going Home", "Take These Chains" and "Out Of Us
Two". Elsewhere, Bailey sounds like Joe Cocker on "Practically Never
Happens", while Bob Weston's "Slightly Country" sounds like it was stolen from the early
Steve Winwood and Traffic catalogue. With the exception of the pedestrian blues number,
"Backlash Blues", but including the extended "Darkness", the album, is worth hearing.
"Practically Never Happens" got a further airing on "Broken Dreams, Vol.
6" (LP).
(Marcel Koopman/Scott Blackerby)
Taken from The Tapestry of Delights - The
Comprehensive Guide to British Music of the Beat, R&B, Psychedelic and
Progressive Eras 1963-1976, Vernon Joynson ISBN 1 899855 04 1