Gizmo

Bridging prog’s lost years between the behemoths of old and new astral wanderers such as Porcupine Tree and IQ, Gizmo were deeply out of step with the times. Distilling the prog template of old into shorter, palatable songs, however, Gizmo fashioned a record that was in fact way ahead of it’s time. There are clearly New Wave touches to the likes of Those Lying Eyes and Long Gone Song, but the influence of the Canterbury scene generally, and Gentle Giant specifically, make this an album fans of both periods should savour. That the band clearly understood the limits of endless noodling is most discernable on Come The Day, on which Maurice Memmott’s able fiddle lends a welcome folkiness. Of course, Gizmo weren’t successful at the time, but this is testament that, come the tail-end of the 70s, prog was still bubbling healthily underground…

The story began in 1975 with singer and guitar player David Radford releasing a first single that was not commercially successful. So David hired a new line-up in 1976 with Maurice Memmott and Steve Wyse. The band had the reputation to do some impressive live shows for the visuals and the audio in 1977-1979. They released a first album "Just like Mater Bates" and a second one in 1981 "Victims". In 1984, Gizmo reformed with Martin Reed on guitar. They played some shows with Ozric Tentacles, released an EP, suffers many line-up changes and finally split-up in 1992 after the release of their third album "They're Peeling Onions in the Cellar"…

The story began in 1975 with singer and guitar player David Radford releasing a first single that was not commercially successful. So David hired a new line-up in 1976 with Maurice Memmott and Steve Wyse. The band had the reputation to do some impressive live shows for the visuals and the audio in 1977-1979. They released a first album "Just like Mater Bates" and a second one in 1981 "Victims". In 1984, Gizmo reformed with Martin Reed on guitar. They played some shows with Ozric Tentacles, released an EP, suffers many line-up changes and finally split-up in 1992 after the release of their third album "They're Peeling Onions in the Cellar". In 1995, David was contacted to do a Van der Graaf Generator tribute…