Reissue of wild 1972 Danish hard prog with Yes-like vocals, wild, frantic guitar soloing, organ roars, lengthy tracks.
The Old Man & The Sea offers a heavy prog type of music quite typical for that era, organ laden with similarities towards british school of that time like Uriah Heep, Purple or Atomic Rooster. The sound is accesible and melodic but also are some more hard rock parts that is well integrated in the overall prog atmosphere. The opening Living Dead or the ending Going Blind are quite more then ok, hammong melted with bluesy guitars but under prog flag. Nice vocal arrangements, Ole Wedel has a very good tone for such music.
Record collectors into Nordic rock are well aware of this band that recorded one album that is very much sought after, with its highly rated Hammond-driven hard rock rather typical of that era. They do have their own sound but can be compared to a rough Jethro Tull (Aqualung-style) or Atomic Rooster, playing tight music, but also leaving some space for instrumental interplay on some tracks. "1972-75" is a collection of songs that should have been the second album plus a few archive gems. Sadly in 1975 The Old Man & the Sea was dropped by CBS even before releasing anything on that label and it meant the end of the band as they couldn't get another deal.
The Old Man & the Sea split up back in 1975. Yet the band still kept in contact, and frequently met up to do jam sessions. One of these occasions were taking place on the 5th. of April 1978. At that time Tommy Hansen had established a studio facility called “HT Studio”. In these humble surroundings, the magic of “Witches Brew” ascended. Some dedicated friends of ours joined in for this particular jam session.
Apart from John Lundvig (drums) Erik Dolle Halager (bass) Ole Wedel (guitar) and Tommy Hansen (keyboards) Harry Jokumsen played the guitar, Poul Aage Hersland played the flute - oboe and saxophone, Torben Fingal Frederiksen did percussion, mainly congas, and finally Preben Lundvig did some guitar…
The Les Humphries Singers was a 1970s musical group formed in Hamburg, Germany in 1969 by the English born Les Humphries, who had been inspired to do his own version of the Edwin Hawkins Singers. The group consisted of a large number of singers of diverse ethnic origin, some of whom such as John Lawton also performed with other groups. Another member was Jürgen Drews, who later started a long-running solo career, starting with his 1976 hit in Germany, "Ein Bett im Kornfeld", a cover version of "Let Your Love Flow" by the Bellamy Brothers.