VA Decca Opera Series

A new 4cd remastered clamshell boxed set celebrating the finest musical sounds of so-called progressive rock music of 1973.
Five hours of music featuring tracks by kevin ayers, edgar broughton band, budgie, camel, caravan, curved air, electric light orchestra, emerson lake & palmer, family, gong, greenslade, hawkwind, help yourself, manfred mann’s earthband, nektar, pfm, pink fairies, procol harum, nektar, anthony phillips, rare bird, renaissance, al stewart, traffic, darryl way’s wolf, yes & many more. The next release in the series of compilations celebrating so-called “Progressive” rock music concentrating on 1973, another year in which Progressive music in all its forms would continue to be a dominating force with the album buying public. Much of this music appeared on the “progressive” imprints of major record labels such as EMI’s Harvest, Decca’s Deram and Philips Records’ Vertigo and the emerging independent labels such as Charisma, United Artists and Island Records and led to an increasing presence of underground album music on BBC Radio One on its Sounds Of The Seventies and Top Gear programmes and on television on the iconic series The Old Grey Whistle Test.

A new 4cd remastered clamshell boxed set celebrating the finest musical sounds of so-called progressive rock music of 1973.
Five hours of music featuring tracks by kevin ayers, edgar broughton band, budgie, camel, caravan, curved air, electric light orchestra, emerson lake & palmer, family, gong, greenslade, hawkwind, help yourself, manfred mann’s earthband, nektar, pfm, pink fairies, procol harum, nektar, anthony phillips, rare bird, renaissance, al stewart, traffic, darryl way’s wolf, yes & many more. The next release in the series of compilations celebrating so-called “Progressive” rock music concentrating on 1973, another year in which Progressive music in all its forms would continue to be a dominating force with the album buying public. Much of this music appeared on the “progressive” imprints of major record labels such as EMI’s Harvest, Decca’s Deram and Philips Records’ Vertigo and the emerging independent labels such as Charisma, United Artists and Island Records and led to an increasing presence of underground album music on BBC Radio One on its Sounds Of The Seventies and Top Gear programmes and on television on the iconic series The Old Grey Whistle Test.

Esoteric Recordings’ next release in their series of compilations celebrating the so-called “underground” rock music. 1971 was a momentous year in rock and one which would continue to see Progressive music in all its forms become a dominating force with the album buying public. Much of this music appeared on the “progressive” imprints of major record labels such as EMI’s Harvest, Decca’s Deram and Philips Records’ Vertigo and emerging independent labels such as Charisma, United Artists and Island and led to an increasing presence of underground album music on BBC Radio 1 on its Sounds Of The Seventies and Top Gear programmes.

A new 4cd remastered clamshell boxed set celebrating the finest musical sounds of so-called progressive rock music of 1973.
Five hours of music featuring tracks by kevin ayers, edgar broughton band, budgie, camel, caravan, curved air, electric light orchestra, emerson lake & palmer, family, gong, greenslade, hawkwind, help yourself, manfred mann’s earthband, nektar, pfm, pink fairies, procol harum, nektar, anthony phillips, rare bird, renaissance, al stewart, traffic, darryl way’s wolf, yes & many more. The next release in the series of compilations celebrating so-called “Progressive” rock music concentrating on 1973, another year in which Progressive music in all its forms would continue to be a dominating force with the album buying public. Much of this music appeared on the “progressive” imprints of major record labels such as EMI’s Harvest, Decca’s Deram and Philips Records’ Vertigo and the emerging independent labels such as Charisma, United Artists and Island Records and led to an increasing presence of underground album music on BBC Radio One on its Sounds Of The Seventies and Top Gear programmes and on television on the iconic series The Old Grey Whistle Test.

Esoteric Recordings’ next release in their series of compilations celebrating the so-called “underground” rock music. 1971 was a momentous year in rock and one which would continue to see Progressive music in all its forms become a dominating force with the album buying public. Much of this music appeared on the “progressive” imprints of major record labels such as EMI’s Harvest, Decca’s Deram and Philips Records’ Vertigo and emerging independent labels such as Charisma, United Artists and Island and led to an increasing presence of underground album music on BBC Radio 1 on its Sounds Of The Seventies and Top Gear programmes.

As director of an annual series of staged operas at the Barber Institute in the University of Birmingham, Lewis conveyed to first a local audience, and then a more international one with these Decca and Argo recordings, that Baroque opera should no longer be the preserve of scholars but contained as much lively and powerful drama as the works of Mozart and Puccini.