Lucky Lucke

Deluxe digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition. Having emerged from the ashes of beat boom hopefuls Mike Sheridan and The Night Riders, by late 1966 Birmingham band The Idle Race were looking for a new guitarist. The successful applicant was local teenager Jeff Lynne. By the time the band signed to Liberty Records, the prodigiously-talented Lynne - several years younger than his new colleagues - had been promoted to frontman status, blossoming as the band's chief songwriter while also taking lead vocals. After 'Skeleton And The Roundabout' had attracted much airplay but fallen just short of the charts, the band cut their debut album. Issued in October 1968, the idiosyncratic The Birthday Party gave notice of a major new talent on the British pop scene.