Classic Rock UK - April 2019

T

he Cherry Red boxed set, like the

internet, Strictly Come Dancing, and

emojis, has very much become a part of

human existence in the past few years, and like

those other things it has its highs and lows.

Sometimes the listener approaches a new box

set with slight nervousness regarding the

possibilities of its contents (the boxes are

always thoroughly researched and inclusive,

but that can lead to exhaustion), but this fear is

generally swept away by the sheer variety of the

bands and artists within.

To be frank, that’s not entirely the case this

time round, which is not necessarily the fault of

the compilers. Big Gold Dreams comprises five

CDs and more than 100 tracks, many of which

have never been compiled before, several by

bands who never released an album, and all

very representative of an independent music

scene that burst into action during punk and

led the way through the next decade.

The early years are for the elderly the best

• bands as diverse as The Skids and The

Rezillos lead the first wave, while the

arrival in ’79 of The Associates and

Josef K brought an arty strangeness

often lacking from music from the

southern place (unfortunately, and

oddly, there’s nothing here by

Orange Juice, surely one of the most

influential bands of the era, although

we get Edwyn Collins’s brilliant Don’t

Shilly-Shally).

And then suddenly it’s ’86, and

jangle breaks out. There are millions

of people who loved this tune-free,

vocally-wobbly music, and its

influence has spread across the

world, so it’s right to include it here, but dear

God, there’s a lot of it.

Other boxed sets have more musical

variety, and this is not because Scottish music

is dull and drab, just partly because of the

different diversities of other places – there’s

no reggae here, for example. But the relentless

emphasis in this record on the kind of music

that turned indie from an experimental,

adventurous form into a blind alley of pre-teen

mewling is wearing over five discs, even when

set next to Cherry Red’s own epic Scared To Get

Happy box set. There are, of course, exceptions

here, but even so...

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David Quantick

The Shop Assistants,

whose Somewhere In

China is included.

heart-stopping Steel Cathedrals.
Jon Hassell shines too, his
familiar muted trumpet
smudged sublimely across the
Words With The Shaman trilogy.
Double album Gone To Earth
(1986) also features guests,
including Bill Nelson playing over
the gorgeous ambient figure-
eights of Answered Prayers, while
Taking The Veil achieves
a distilled, perfume perfection.
Sylvian’s music, like that of the
Cocteau Twins, can be seen as
a process of journeying away
from trauma to an earned state
of bliss. This is encapsulated on
the brass solemnity of Let The
Happiness In from 1987’s Secrets
Of The Beehive.
A magnificent series of albums.
All QQQQQQQQQQ
David Stubbs

Flamin Groovies
Gonna Rock Tonite!
The Complete Recordings
1969-71 GRAPEFRUIT
Shaking some early action.
Like Mott The
Hoople, San
Francisco’s
Flamin Groovies
brandished too
much wild primal rock‘n’roll
essence for their times but later
were hailed as punk trailblazers.

Formed in mid-60s San

Francisco, the Groovies’ cavorted

against prevailing trends with

two exploratory romps, peaking

with 1971’s classic Teenage Head.

When that failed, they morphed

into their equally doomed Shake

Some Action power-pop phase.

The first three albums are

brought together in this

magnificent box set. 1969’s over-

produced debut Supersnazz, on

which singer Roy Loney,

guitarists Cyril Jordan and Tim

Lynch, bassist George Alexander

and drummer Danny Mihm

indulge their lavish studio

budget like kids in a candy shop,

allowing too many styles to join

the band’s trademark rockers.

Two concurrent singles (covers

of Rockin’ Pneumonia And The

Boogie Woogie Flu and Somethin’

Else) are bonus tracks.

Sharing bills with the Stooges

brought Detroit high-energy into

1970’s Flamingo as the Groovies

pile into Gonna Rock Tonite and

blueprint the New York Dolls on

Comin’ After You, before

Roadhouse’s blazing MC5-style

freakout. Bonus tracks are covers

such as Around And Around.

Then came Teenage Head, their

best sound yet, drenched in

Beggars Banquet blues-raunch

attitude on highlights including

the slide-lashed City Lights,

Robert Johnson’s 32-20, the

Elvis-homaging Evil Hearted Ada,

Randy Newman’s Have You Seen

My Baby, and Doctor Boogie

(revamping Doctor Ross’s The

Boogie Disease). Six more covers

of classics (all previously

released) provide the extras.

This fabulous set reaffirms the

Flamin Groovies as one of the

greatest lost rock‘n’roll bands

the world ever overlooked.

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Kris Needs

Meat Loaf

Reissues UMC/VIRGIN EMI

Two Meat epics get vinyl’d.

After years of

false starts and

non-returns to

form, Meat Loaf

and his creative

source Jim Steinman reunited

to make the follow-up to their

magnum opus Bat Out Of Hell.

1992’s Bat II, as it is really

called, was a real achievement,

a sequel that could stand next

to its mothership. With

a modernised, epic production,

a collection of superb (and

finely bracketed) songs and

a brand new work of Steinman/

Loaf genius in I’d Do Anything

For Love (But I Won’t Do That),

Back Into Hell (9/10) is that rare

thing, a return to the well that

works on every level.

Naturally the record company

wanted a follow-up, so 1995’s

Welcome To The Neighbourhood

(7/10) was made. As with all Bat

sequels, it features some

Steinman off-cuts (Original Sin,

Left In The Dark) and some

Steinmanesque pastiches, here

provided by the great Diane

Warren. Add a loose theme – the

chronological story of a love

affair – and an unlikely cover of

a Tom Waits song (Martha), and

the results are a perfectly decent

Meat Loaf album. These new

vinyl versions spread out and let

the roar expand.

David Quantick

REO

Speedwagon

The Classic Years

1978-1990 NHE

Twelve years’ worth of melodic

rock crammed into one box

set, and then some.

You Can Tune

A Piano But You

Can’t Tuna Fish

was the warm-

up for REO

Speedwagon, and the re-issue

offers the additional tracks Piano

Interlude and 157 Riverside

Avenue, the biggest hit from their

1971 debut record.

Going through three lead

vocalists before hitting their

stride paid off by 1980, when

Kevin Cronin returned for Hi

Infidelity, the album which

brought REO mainstream

success and four hit singles.

A whole CD is dedicated to

Fidelity bonus tracks,

including unheard demos –

such gems include Someone

Tonight and a very special Keep

On Loving You: The Reggae

Edition. Rest assured that

1987’s Life As We Know It

hides no secret country

renditions of Can’t Fight This

Feeling, nor a thrash-metal

Gotta Feel More, although

there are both short and long

edits of the latter among the

last few tracks.

The ninth instalment of this

monster box set ties together

the golden age of Speedwagon:

an extended Live, 1980-1990,

showcasing their greatest hits

and reaffirming REO’s clout as

a live act.

With every song in almost

every variation, The Classic Years

delivers all that REO fans could

possibly want, and more.

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Phoebe Flys

Various Artists

Big Gold Dreams: A Story Of Scottish

Independent Music 1977-1989 CHERRY RED

Most of the prime suspects along with some

obscurities, spread over five discs.

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