String Driven Thing

String Driven Thing may have disintegrated when Chris and Pauline Adams departed, but Graham Smith didn't let that deter him. He rebuilt the band from the foundation up and shifted the focus from progressive folk to a more straight-ahead rock & roll format, a sonic sensibility helped along by vocalist Kim Beacon, whose Rod Stewart-styled vocals provided a front to the heavy-hooked guitar-driven songs. The new format didn't win many points with the band's old fans, but String Driven Thing's more pop-oriented sound fit perfectly with the mainstream marketplace's own drift away from the prog-tinged seas that the band once sailed so masterfully.

This latest compilation includes the band’s complete first studio LP for Charisma Records (originally released in 1972 and confusingly titled 'String Driven Thing' - there had previously been another eponymously - titled LP by the band), as well as seven bonus tracks. Lasting 77 minutes and including 17 tracks, this collection also includes the rare 1972 single, 'Eddie’, five previously unreleased live archive tracks from 1973 recorded in Switzerland (with drummer Billy 'The Kid’ Fairley) plus a previously unreleased live track from 1995 digitally recorded in London…

First album and a complete unknown from the public since it was released on the Concord album with only 100 copies printed, which makes it one of the more expensive albums around…

While this group's name is often the impetus for String Driven Thing falsely acquiring a folk-rock classification, they were in actuality a boogie and psychedelia-laced rock & roll band who happened to have electric violin as their lead instrument. In 1973, when this album was initially released, very few rock bands featured the violin as prominently as they did…