Aghast

Assemblage 23 is the musical brainchild of Seattle-based musician Tom Shear. Exploding onto the scene with the release of his albums Contempt and Failure, Assemblage 23 quickly became one of the most popular acts in the genre. Collection includes nine albums and two compilations.

Peter Green is regarded by some fans as the greatest white blues guitarist ever, Eric Clapton notwithstanding. Born Peter Greenbaum but calling himself Peter Green by age 15, he grew up in London's working-class East End. Green's early musical influences were Hank Marvin of the Shadows, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Freddie King, and traditional Jewish music. He originally played bass before being invited in 1966 by keyboardist Peter Bardens to play lead in the Peter B's, whose drummer was a lanky chap named Mick Fleetwood. The 19-year-old Green was with Bardens just three months before joining John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, whose rapidly shifting personnel included bassist John McVie and drummer Aynsley Dunbar. A keen fan of Clapton, Green badgered Mayall to give him a chance when the Bluesbreakers guitarist split for an indefinite vacation in Greece. Green sounded great and, as Mayall recalls, was not amused when Clapton returned after a handful of gigs, and Green was out.

To us, the spirit of the album lives in the sessions we did in the town of Alexandra in a farmhouse on the lake. The story was always the most important thing to tell; Bendigo the most important thing to portray. It was kind of like one of those TV cooking show challenges; where you get five ingredients, a George Foreman grill and whatever’s in the fridge - and you have to go make the best meal you can…

Even if you're in the Sandie Shaw cult, you might be disappointed, even aghast, at the quality of her debut LP. From every standpoint, it betrayed hasty execution–wafer-thin production, shoddy original material (none of her early singles are included), lousy covers of American and British pop and rock hits, and one-dimensional vocalizing and interpretive skills from Sandie herself. The British public didn't care, sending it to #3 in the charts; in fact, it was her most successful album in the U.K. The LP was reissued in its entirety as part of the 55-track 64/67 Complete Sandy Shaw, where listeners can easily skip it or program its omission if they want to stick with the singles.