The Kinks - The Kink Kontroversy 1965 (1999 Castle Music US) Mono

The Kinks came into their own as album artists -- and Ray Davies fully matured as a songwriter -- with The Kink Kontroversy, which bridged their raw early British Invasion sound with more sophisticated lyrics and thoughtful production. There are still powerful ravers like the hit "Til the End of the Day" (utilizing yet another "You Really Got Me"-type riff) and the abrasive, Dave Davies-sung cover of "Milk Cow Blues," but tracks like the calypso pastiche "I'm on an Island," where Ray sings of isolation with a forlorn yet merry bite, were far more indicative of their future direction.

Other great songs on this underrated album include the uneasy nostalgia of "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?," the plaintive, almost fatalistic ballads "Ring the Bells" and "The World Keeps Going Round," and the Dave Davies-sung declaration of independence "I Am Free." (Richie Unterberger, allmusic.com)

I think this is one of the three strongest Kinks albums ever although not all are comparable. What i like here, it is the first album where the Kinks show their way into their future (i think so, lol). Some songs already go different ways compared to the brit invasion sound. However, give it a listen if you haven't heard it yet.Enjoy.(Frank)

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Psychedelic/Sunshine Pop/Folk Rock: The Hobbits - Men And Doors (The Hobbits Communicate) 1968 (Decca, Vinyl)

Folk-rock outfit the Hobbits was the studio project of Queens, New York-born singer/songwriter Jimmy Curtiss, who ranks as one of the more interesting footnotes in the history of rock & roll -- the rare would-be teen idol who actually wrote his own material (and did so admirably), he later expanded his reach into psychedelia and harmony-laden folk-rock, but while the subject of a small cult following, none of his records ever made a commercial dent. Curtiss first surfaced in 1959 as a member of the doo wop combo the Enjays and issued his solo debut, "Without You," on United Artists in 1961 -- the label attempted to position him as a teen crooner in the mold of Bobby Vee or Paul Anka, but he failed to make a commercial impact. After a period working as a songwriter he dropped out of music to pursue a career in advertising before resurfacing in 1967 with the bubblegum cult classic "Psychedelic Situation," a major hit in Germany that attracted little attention at home. Curtiss then signed to Decca, collaborating with producers Jerry Vance and Terry Phillips and songwriter Marcia Hillman on the Hobbits -- despite borrowing their name from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings novels and titling their 1967 debut Down to Middle Earth, the Hobbits turned out relatively straightforward sunshine pop, and the album is much sought-after by soft-psych aficionados. The follow-up, Men and Doors: The Hobbits Communicate, appeared in 1968 -- like its predecessor, the record didn't sell, and Decca terminated the contract. Curtiss then formed his own label and production company, both dubbed Perception, and helmed an LP and three singles by the psychedelic soul act the Bag, members of which reportedly worked on the Hobbits project as well. Speaking of which, after rechristening the group the New Hobbits, Curtiss released 1969's Back From Middle Earth, essentially a solo effort. According to the liner notes in the second volume of the Soft Sounds for Gentle People series, he eventually ended up in San Francisco, going solely by the initials J.C. -- his current activities and whereabouts are unknown. (Jason Ankeny, allmusic.com)

I think the first Hobbits album will be by far the better known album. Nevertheless, this Curtiss work also deserves attention. It musically follows a similar direction like the first album and yet is different. By the way, Jimmy Curtiss is for shure a very underrated pop writer of the sixties. I think if you don't know the album you should listen to it yourself if you like this kind of music. Enjoy.(Frank)

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                            pass: SB1

Psychedelic/Baroque/Prog From France: Classical M - Bad Guys The Complete Collection 1967-1970 (2005 Lion)

Classical M could have made a great album if given the chance. As it is, the songs contained on this disc make for a stunning collection, with the band’s psychedelic flourishes, outrageous melodies, and fantastic attention to production detail evident throughout. This profoundly original music was made in three short years (1967-1970): twenty-four delirious and provocative songs that establish Classical M as perhaps the best, and certainly the most intriguing French band of all time.

Their offbeat sense of rhythm and harmony, the complex intertwining of voices, and perhaps more than anything, their unusual practice of trying to play all sorts of instruments—be they electronic or traditional—these elements make the music of this odd French trio unique and very special.(lightintheattic.net)

Release Date: 1967/1970 French band
Freedom fries' idiocy aside, the country of France and the genre of psychedelia are usually thought of as 'mutually exclusive'. We humbly present a glorious exception. Deftly combining lilting vocal harmonies and lush studio production, to say the brothers Maruani (Guy and Andre) and Henri Bratler were the 'Gallic Fab Three' is a claim ably backed up by the sheer brilliance of their two English language 7"s released by EMI-Odeon in 1969.

Fortunately for us, and despite the machinations of the Robert Stigwood Orginasation (a management decision they would soon regret), they had a bit more to say and so we give you all four single sides, seventeen unreleased compositions (most in finished form with superb studio fidelity) and three tracks sourced from the 1970 appearance on the French TV show 'Pop Club' (also easy on the ears fidelity-wise). Rounding up this package are track-by-track liner notes by the ever-sardonic Guy Maruani, complete lyrics and a multitude of photos from the era. C'est si bon!'(Note from discogs)

Have fun with the album and this French band of the sixties, of which some say they are the best French band of all times. In any case, they had a wide range of expression in their music. And that on a very high level in the international comparison of pop music at that time.(Frank)

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Power Pop: The Grip Weeds - House Of Vibes Revisited (2007 Ground Up)

The Grip Weeds' name tells you a lot about the New Jersey band, which got that name from John Lennon's Private Gripweed character in the 1967 comedy How I Won the War. Consistently mindful of 1960s rock, the Grip Weeds are a retro-psychedelic outfit whose influences range from the British Invasion power pop of the Who, the Kinks, and Revolver-era Beatles to the Southern California jangle pop of the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. The rockin' yet highly melodic quartet has often been compared to another New Jersey band, the Smithereens, and in fact, Grip Weeds singer/drummer Kurt Reil played alongside Smithereens members Dennis Diken (drums) and Jim Babjak (guitar) in the 1990s side band Jim Babjak's Buzzed Meg. But while the Grip Weeds and the Smithereens have a mutual appreciation of British Invasion rock, no one would have a problem telling them apart -- the Grip Weeds are too psychedelic to be mistaken for the tougher, grittier, more forceful Smithereens.
 Enjoy.(Frank)

House of Vibes
The Grip Weeds were formed in New Brunswick, NJ, in the late '80s, when Reil and his brother, singer/guitarist Rick Reil, joined forces with guitarist/singer Kristin Pinell and bassist Michael Nattboy. After playing the East Coast club scene for a few years, the Grip Weeds recorded an EP titled See You Through for Ground Up in 1992. Their first full-length album, House of Vibes, came out on Ground Up in 1994 and was followed by 1998's The Sound Is in You on the Buy or Die label. Summer of a Thousand Years was released on the Rainbow Quartz label in 2001, followed by the reissue of The Sound Is in You with bonus tracks in 2003. In 2004, the band released its fourth full-length, Giant on the Beach, again with Rainbow Quartz. The ambitious and diverse double-disc Strange Change Machine appeared in 2010.

The Album:

Coming at the tail end of grunge (Hole's Live Through This and Nirvana MTV Unplugged) and the last gap of slacker rock (Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain), 1994 was not a particularly auspicious year for power pop. To be sure, it was the year that Guided By Voices released its landmark Bee Thousand and Sebadoh turned substantially more melodic with Bake Sale. Still search as you might through old Pazz and Jop lists, there was nothing popular that sounded remotely like the Grip Weeds House of Vibes.
The New Jersey band's raucous blend of Cheap Trick's power chords, the Byrds' ethereal jangle and CSNY's airy harmonies was different, half a decade too early for the New York-based garage revival of the early 00s, and a decade or so too late to be in sync with the West Coast's Paisley Pop movement. No wonder this self-recorded, self-released gem of the power pop art fell on mostly deaf ears, lauded by a few Jersey visionaries, hailed in Germany but completely ignored by commercial radio and MTV.

It's too bad, because if there ever were a record tailor-made for blasting out of AM radio on the way to the beach House of Vibes is it. From the first crunching chords of "Out of Day" through the last feedback tripping psych solo of "Walking in the Crowd", the record balances precisely at the tipping point between rock and pop. It's the same enticing ground that the Who covered in their classic Sells Out, simultaneously hard-edged and accessible, blossoming with melody and rackety with drums. And along the way, the band cranks out half a dozen classic songs, "Salad Days", "Close Descending Love", and "Don't Belong."
This reissue of House of Vibes encompasses the entire original CD, remixed and remastered from the original multitrack tapes, plus 13 additional tracks recorded at about the same time in two radio appearances and a live show at Manhattan's Tilt. It has extensive notes about the band's then unusual DIY approach to recording, the original House of Vibes where they lived and worked and made the record, and the faux House of Vibes whose photo adorns the cover. (It was close by and more photogenic than their real house; it looks like the Adams Family house.)

The core of the album is, naturally, the original material, recorded in 1993 and 1994 by brothers Rick (guitar) and Kurt Reil (drums), guitarist Kristin Pinell, who had just joined, and Mick Hargreaves on bass. (Hargreaves has since left the band.) Their sound is classic 1960s Nugget-style pop, chiming guitar chords punctuating instantly memorable melodies, and everything sung in full-band, three- and four-part harmonies. It is embellished occasionally with additional instruments. There is a sitar and flute on the dreamy, bongo-paced "Realise" and some wonderful organ work on "Don't Belong" and "Salad Days." But mostly what the Grip Weeds play is almost the platonic ideal of power pop, hypnotic sweetness, amped and riffed and drummed into rock intensity.

Like all good power pop, these songs can be read as either sad or happy or somewhere in between, depending on how and when you listen to them. There's a bubbly effervescence here, unquestionably, yet also a measure of melancholy. The lyrics, too, have a thoughtful, spiritually questioning cast to them. "Realise," as breezy and sweet as a summer song can be is all about existential angst, with lyrics like "So how can you tell me that the love I sense is just a dream/when the fear of loneliness is in your eyes/to say would be the end/a moment to comprehend/that there is more before you realize." And even hard, Kinks-rocking "Don't Belong" slips themes of alienation, illusion and the hopes for transcendence in between howling psych-wailing guitar solos.
The main problem with House of Vibes Revisited is that classic power pop records have an ideal duration, maybe 45 minutes max. The original material fits these parameters exactly. However, with the radio interviews, demos, live alternate versions and other extras, the album clocks in at more than an hour. It feels a little bloated.

And yet, there is one track in the extras that has never been released anywhere, and which is, without a doubt, one of the band's strongest songs. That is "Edge of Forever," a slow-chorded, intoxicatingly harmonized mini-pop masterpiece that will remind you of a whole slew of great 1960s bands, the Byrds, the Monkees, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, while remaining essentially itself. It also contains the album's best line, the koan-like, be-here-now couplet "Paradise is never far away/And the edge of forever is a day". If you like power pop, it doesn't get much better than that.(popmatters.com)

Just one word: Enjoy.(Frank)

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Los Bravos - Bring A Little Lovin' 1968 (2000 Sin-Drome Records)

"It was the summer of 1966, the British Invasion was dying down, and American teenagers were getting together in their garages and fighting back." So begin the liner notes for the 2000 reissue of Spain's Los Bravos' Bring a Little Lovin', produced by Ed Strait and the crew at Retroactive Records. The notes continue to tell how German-born lead singer Mike Kogel (ex-Mike & the Runaways) met members of a Spanish group Los Sonor. After changing their name to Los Bravos and signing a management deal with Alain Milhaud, they were eventually signed to Decca Records' Spanish division and assigned to work with successful British producer/arranger/conductor/composer Ivor Raymonde. Raymonde (who, by then, had scored U.K. hits with Marty Wilde, Billy Fury, Dave Berry, and others) produced the band's "Black Is Black" single that same year. It shot up the charts, to number two in the U.K., and soon the band enjoyed moderate to major success around the world. By April 1968, however, there would be the inevitable changes in the group's chemistry that would mark the decline of their popularity, this despite all efforts by Decca-London to keep them from being a one-hit wonder. To wit, Raymonde was no longer producing the band (their manager, Milhaud, took on that role), and they were turning to other songwriters for help as well. Harry Vanda and George Young of the Easybeats, for instance, would provide them with "Bring a Little Lovin'," but the single only managed to chart at number 51 in America. When their July 1968 Bring a Little Lovin' album was issued, it actually featured five songs from their second U.K. release, and five from their third (which had remained unreleased in England). London's Parrot Records subsidiary label -- home to a legendary roster of groundbreaking pop acts, including Tom Jones, the Troggs, and the Walker Brothers -- failed to follow up with a second single for nearly a year. When "Save Me, Save Me" was released in February '69, Los Bravos were never quite able to reach the same heights as "Black Is Black," although it's quite evident from their first-ever U.S. reissues that the group also made really good pop albums. Retroactive's CDs feature the original LP artwork, rare photos, lengthy liner notes, and a full group discography. Bring a Little Lovin' also features "Los Chicos con las Chicas," which wasn't on the original album (it replaces "Black Is Black" from the first album, which had also been added to this album to pump sales). Also featured is the Spanish-language version of "Then the Sun Goes Down." (Bryan Thomas, allmusic.com)

Here is another nearly spanish band but certainly more popular in the times back then. They had a world hit with ''Black Is Black''. But as you read in the review it was more an international production. German lead singer, british production, spanish record label (Decca's spanish division) made it to a more international band project. And that is clearly to hear in their songs. The album had a lot of good pop songs but no one reached the success of ''Black is Black''. Nevertheless a good pop album and i really enjoy it.(Frank)

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                                       pass: SB1

Glam Rock; Marc Bolan And T. Rex - Twopenny Prince (2010 Easy Action)

I suspect that most people who visit my blog probably don't have that much interest in Marc Bolan's music. Nevertheless or just because of that I would like to advertise his music here.
Twopenny Prince is a collection of demos, live recordings and acoustic versions of his music. The first point I like about ''Two Penny Prince'', (I know there are probably hundreds of similar releases out there), CD 1 starts with one of his greatest hits, Jeepster, but recorded in a demo version in a French studio. This is one of the liveliest versions of the song I've heard. And I can understand that people from 11 to 90 love his music. The musical joie de vivre, or lust for life of this recording is simply great. And that Bolan's music at the height of its success was smiled at by the older audience (mostly male), but 25 years later was and is adulated by this same audience, is not surprising. Marc Bolan's music conveyed everything that attracted me and others to Rock 'n' Roll. Fun, sex, drugs, powerful guitars and great melodies. All packed in good looks and a lot of fantasy. The fact that during his lifetime he was denied the recognition of a large part of the audience for reasons that children also loved his music also shows the narrow-mindedness of music lovers.
To come back to this compilation, all the attributes of his music described above can be heard here in many recordings. Some more interesting, some better than others, but all by a great artist of his time who moved people, also in the literal sense. That's just my two cents and here comes the review by allmusic.com. Enjoy the music.(Frank)

 Can there really be a single note of music left unheard in the Marc Bolan archive? There have been so many "rare and unreleased"-style compilations created over the last few years that even that question now seems over-asked.

But for as long as material of this quality remains to be unearthed, Bolan's audience will continue to be well-served. In truth and viewed objectively, the sound of barrels being scraped can occasionally be discerned as Twopenny Prince runs its two-disc course, but even the best-recorded T. Rex live tapes are ropey by even contemporary standards, and the concert cuts here scarcely fall into that category.

But four songs recorded at a 1971 French studio session have a grinding boogie that is quintessential T. Rex, while epic workouts of "Jewel" (German TV) and "Elemental Child" (live) remind us that even as they inched toward pop superstardom, T. Rex remained a solid underground rock band.

A hyper-extended "Cadillac," a romping "Ride a White Swan" and a charming "Salamanda Palaganda," recorded live in 1968, rank among the other highlights. While the first disc concentrates on a grab-bag of generally hard-rocking numbers from the band's 1971-1972 heyday (with the occasional look back to the golden age of Tyrannosaurus Rex), disc two is dedicated to studio outtakes dating back to 1970's T. Rex album, snippets and false starts included.

It's not the stuff of repeated listens, but -- again -- there can be very little left in the Bolanic basement that is. Be grateful, then, for what we have here. The Twopenny Prince still sounds like a million dollars.(Dave Thompson, allmusic.com)

Links removed

Sixties Rock, Pop from Spain: Lone Star - Vuelve El Rock 1968 Vinyl (EMI Espana, 1968)

I found almost nothing on the net about the band. Their music is a mixture of rock and pop styles of that time and most of their songs they sang mostly in their native language Spanish. After listening to the album several times, it's now really fun in the right mood. You can grant the band a certain independence, even if they were influenced by the US/UK pop music of that time.Enjoy (Frank)

p.s.: I added the artwork of the cd, too. Although the song list is different in one song.

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The Barbarians - The Barbarians 1965 Vinyl (Laurie Records, Mono)

With their appearances on the Nuggets compilation and The T.A.M.I. Show, the Barbarians are one of the best-remembered garage bands of the '60s. Not that it's easy to forget the sight of a one-handed drummer, complete with hook, driving his band through a garage punk number in the company of the day's biggest British Invasion, soul, and surf stars. Moulty was hardly self-conscious about his handicap; on the tiny hit single immortalized on Nuggets (titled, logically enough, "Moulty"), he tells the story of the triumph over his loss in no uncertain melodramatic terms. The band also managed a somewhat bigger hit single, the British Invasion-inspired novelty "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl." (Richie Unterberger, allmusic.com)

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Sunshine Pop/Psychedelic Pop; The Canterbury Music Festival - Rain & Shine 1967-1968 (2003 Rev-Ola)

The Canterbury Music Festival recorded one of the rarest late-'60s sunshine pop albums, Rain and Shine, of which only 150 copies were pressed upon its initial 1968 release. The album mixed some decent if innocuous original compositions from lead singer Roger Gernelle with less impressive material supplied to them by their producers, the Tokens.

Though at their best they were adept at soft pop-rock songs with string arrangements, accomplished harmonies, and a tinge of psychedelia, the record was weighed down by Tokens-devised tunes with a more gimmicky bubblegum-psych flavor. Not too many people got to hear the record in any case; Gernelle has said that at the time, he didn't even know the LP was released.

For a band whose records barely made it into distribution at all, the Canterbury Music Festival had a complicated history. Formed in New York City around 1966, they got a contract with the Tokens' label, BT Puppy, in 1967. Their first single, "First Spring Rain"/"Poor Man," was first credited to We Ugly Dogs, although later pressings bore the name Canterbury Music Festival. In addition, a track by the Train called "Pamela" from the time that was recorded by another band might have Gernelle on lead vocals, and has been added to the CD reissue of Rain and Shine as a bonus track.

In any case, Gernelle left the Canterbury Music Festival to get into heavier psychedelic sounds, and the band's music remained virtually unknown until excavated for re-release by sunshine pop devotees.(Richie Unterberger, allmusic.com)

Marvelous sunshine pop album. Highly recommended. Enjoy.(Frank)
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Pop Rock/Folk Rock; Denny Laine - A Tribute To Paul McCartney & Wings (1999 Purple Pyramid)

For a few months at the height of the British invasion, Denny Laine was one of the most recognizable voices on the entire British music scene. As the lead singer on the Moody Blues' recording of "Go Now" -- a worldwide multi-million seller -- he stood out in a large pack, and did so splendidly. His soulful, agonized lead vocal performance, coupled with Mike Pinder's chiming piano, proved irresistable on the radio. Within a year, however, the band fell by the wayside.

Denny Laine was born Brian Hines and grew up in Birmingham, England. As a boy he took up the guitar, not under the influence of Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly, or even Scotty Moore, but rather jazz legend Django Reinhardt. His first band of any significance was Denny and the Diplomats, formed in Birmingham in the early '60s. The group's line-up also included future Move and Electric Light Orchestra drummer Bev Bevan and guitarist-singer Roy Wood. By 1964, Laine had abandoned Denny & the Diplomats and -- with four members of the city's other top bands -- formed the group that became the Moody Blues. Laine's tenure with the band was highlighted by one monster hit ("Go Now"), a brace of superb R&B-styled sides ("From The Bottom of My Heart," "Lose Your Money," etc.), and a string of commercial failures that left the band languishing by the end of 1965. Laine exited the group, to be replaced by Justin Hayward, whereupon the reconstituted Moody Blues adopted an increasingly adventurous sound that ended up making them the premiere progressive rock band of the late '60s.

Ironically, Laine himself went in a similar direction with his next major project, the Denny Laine String Band, an electric psychedelic outfit that featured an amplified violin and cello, remarkably similar in many ways to the configuration that the Electric Light Orchestra would adopt more successfully three years later. The Electric String Band failed to attract serious public attention, despite a lot of good press and enthusiastic concert reviews. Laine's next major gig was as a member of Ginger Baker's Air Force, a big-band rock outfit that was a partial offshoot of Blind Faith. The group attracted enormous amounts of press attention on both sides of the Atlantic, played some good shows in England, and then embarked on an American tour that collapsed almost immediately through lack of ticket sales. Laine was the band's lead guitarist and principal vocalist and even had a featured blues spot in their sets.

Wild Life
Laine was next heard from in 1971, when Paul McCartney announced that he was forming his first permanent band since exiting the Beatles. The group, christened Wings, was McCartney (joined by his wife Linda McCartney) on bass, guitar, piano, and vocals, with Laine at the core on guitar, bass, and vocals. In a 1980s interview, Laine indicated that he and McCartney got along well, not only because they came out of similar music backgrounds but also because each of them had lost control of bands they'd helped to found. Wings got off to a rocky start with an album called Wild Life, which wasn't really that bad but was mercilessly criticized by reviewers, who pounced on anything that didn't meet their expectations of Beatles-like perfection and importance.

Red Rose Speedway
Beginning with Red Rose Speedway, however, they began winning the hearts of listeners and the minds of critics. By 1976, with Wings At The Speed of Sound, they'd become one of the top-selling acts of the decade, and the tour that followed was a success of monumental proportions, at least as far as ticket sales were concerned. Wings was, along with ABBA and Led Zeppelin, one of those money acts that seemed to generate tens of millions of ticket sales around the world and reams of press copy with every note they played and utterance that they pronounced.

Laine wasn't quite an ex-Beatle, but as the member closest to McCartney (other than his wife), he was the most recognizable member of the band who wasn't a former Beatle. He even got a solo spot during concerts on their "Wings Over America" tour on which he sang and played several of the songs with which he was associated (most notably "Go Now") and a few covers that showcased his talents.

Laine had a falling out with the McCartneys at the close of the 1970s, as Wings itself collapsed, amid myriad personal and personnel problems. He recorded several solo albums and was a featured guest at some Beatles conventions, but retained only a fraction of his visibility. He re-emerged in the late '90s with a tribute album to McCartney, and has been the subject of many CD reissues spotlighting odd solo cuts from his post-Wings and pre-Ginger Baker's Air Force period. Laine will likely never achieve the stardom that his career seemed to point toward when he cut "Go Now" in the mid-'60s. On the other hand though, he has played enough interesting and inspired music to make him a recognizable name to two generations of rock & roll fans, and one of the more deservedly enduring alumni from the original British invasion.(Bruce Eder, allmusic.com)

Denny Laine was a long time member of the Macca band Wings. The songs here sounding quite similar as the originals so here are not a lot surprises. Nevertheless it is fun to listen to the album. Not more not lesser. Enjoy. (Frank)

 

 

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Great Vocal Pop/Soft Rock/Folk Pop; Design - Day Of The Fox + In Flight 1973/1974 (2011 RPM Retrodisc)

Design was a British vocal group of the early 1970s and its members were Barry Alexander, Gabrielle Field, Kathy Manuell, Jeff Matthews, John Mulcahy-Morgan and Geoff Ramseyer. Their musical style has been described as folk rock 'with intricate and appealing harmonies and an interesting psychedelic twist' and 'sunshine harmony pop with a light hippy vibe' and is now called sunshine pop. Design released 13 singles and 5 albums in the UK and appeared on more than 50 television shows before they split up in 1976.
Barry Alexander, Jeff Matthews and Geoff Ramseyer all played guitar in addition to singing, while Barry also played keyboards. Gabrielle Field occasionally played tenor recorder.

History:
Design was formed as a six-piece vocal group by singer and songwriter Tony Smith while he was working at the BBC in London in December 1968. The group signed a recording contract with Adrian Kerridge at Lansdowne Studios and recorded their first album Design during 1969. This led to a two-album deal with Epic Records in the USA.

When Tony Smith left the group in November 1970, he was replaced by guitarist Jeff Matthews. After this line-up appeared on The Morecambe and Wise Show in 1971 Design became one of the most televised groups in the UK, making guest appearances on dozens of TV shows with The Two Ronnies, Benny Hill, Val Doonican, Rolf Harris, Cilla Black, Tommy Cooper, and many others. They recorded the albums Tomorrow Is So Far Away, Day Of The Fox and In Flight before Gabrielle Field and Geoff Ramseyer left the group in October 1974.

The remaining foursome recorded the album By Design before finally disbanding in October 1976.(wiki)

I love the band and i love the first four albums (Haven't heard never their last fifth release. Shame on me, lol.) All full of very nice folky sunshine pop. The band developed a very own style. They mixed often british folk with hippiesque sunshine pop and the result in my opinion was great. If you like it you can find more Design here . Enjoy.(Frank)

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