Procol Harlum

Jennifer Review by Joe Viglione
With a plethora of producers over the years – including Martin Cooper, Al Capps, Stewart Levine, Rob Fraboni, Jim Ed Norman, Val Garay, and Jim Price – it is this obscure album produced by the Velvet Underground's John Cale that captures a very special moment for Jennifer Warnes. A beautiful faded cover photo with the word "Jennifer" floating across the top, this album stands as landmark interpretation by the artist, and a production for Cale as important as his first album for the Modern Lovers. Don't expect the sound to be anything like the quagmire of Velvetsonics that Cale allowed the legendary members of Jonathan Richman's band to create. This is a pure pop album. "Needle and Thread" is a replica of what Motown producer Frank Wilson was doing exactly at this moment in time with the new Supremes, and "Be My Friend" is Diana Ross from this same period, by way of songwriter Paul Rodgers from Free. As A&R for Warner Bros.

Grapefruit’s landmark 100th release
A definitive overview of the British psychedelic scene, an epic five-CD/book set that includes more than 50 minutes ofpreviously unreleased music from the halcyon period 1966-68. Including the major acts of the era (The Who, Traffic, Small Faces, The Move, Procol Harum, Incredible String Band, Family, Crazy World of Arthur Brown etc), ‘Think I’m Going Weird: Original Artefacts From The British Psychedelic Scene 1966-68’ features many bands who also played London’s underground dungeons during the Summer Of Love. Featuring studio demos from the likes of Tintern Abbey, The Soft Machine, Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, Genesis, Mandrake Paddle Steamer, Dantalian’s Chariot and others plus numerous cult 45s (July, Caleb, Vamp, Blossom Toes, Sweet Feeling, etc) and fascinating album cuts from such scene stalwarts as Tomorrow, Fairport Convention, Kaleidoscope, The Deviants and Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera.

2016 three CD collection. As that noted hipster Plato once observed, when the mode of the music changes, the walls of the city shake. And there was certainly a whole lotta shakin' goin' on in 1967. A distended Summer of Love saw psychedelic pop emerging from the underground clubs to infiltrate the home-grown music scene mainstream, with the vast majority following in the footsteps of perennial market leaders The Beatles in surrendering to the new genre. As the year progressed, it seemed that more or less every element of the British pop world had been swept up in the blissed-out UFOria. Beat boom survivors, R&B stalwarts, sharp-suited mods, Swinging London soul revues, earnest acoustic folkies, Denmark Street hustlers, traditional pop acts… all abandoned or refined their previous identities to make music that reflected the ubiquitous influence of psychedelia in it's myriad paisley-patterned guises. Across four hours and eighty tracks, the all-singing, not-much-dancing Let's Go Down And Blow Our Minds anticipates the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love to chronicle a tumultuous twelve-month period of music-making within the British Isles.

It's an archetypal story of the modern record business two guys with a dream running their nascent label out of a West Hollywood garage in the summer of 1962. The label quickly gains momentum and eventually becomes one of the most important record companies the world has ever seen. The two guys were Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the A and the M in A&M Records. By the way, it was Alpert s garage and that first hit was The Lonely Bull, performed by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. And this year the two record men and UMe are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of their label. As part of the celebration, UMe is releasing A&M 50: THE ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION. A 60-track, 3-CD set curated by Alpert & Moss, THE ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION perfectly illustrates what a potent effect the legendary label is still having on contemporary popular music. We wanted to make good records, says Herb Alpert, reflecting on the label s genesis. That was our goal. We felt if we made good records there would be an audience. Herb and Jerry s dedication to development resulted in some of the biggest superstars in music ever: Joe Cocker, Procol Harum, Quincy Jones, Billy Preston, Cat Stevens, Carpenters, Peter Frampton, Supertramp, Jeffrey Osborne, Styx, Bryan Adams, Joe Jackson, the Police, Sting, Janet Jackson, Suzanne Vega, Sheryl Crow, Soundgarden, and so many more.

The latest instalment of Grapefruit’s popular year-by-year overview of the British rock/pop scenes of the 70s. Featuring big hits, intriguing misses and key album tracks from 1974 as well as a clutch of alternative versions and unissued-at-the-time gems. Although 1974 was dominated by the country’s crippling economic woes, the British rock and pop scene continued to flourish. The more creative element of the glam rock spectrum inspired a host of new bands, with Cockney Rebel, Be-Bop Deluxe and Sparks coming through to establish themselves alongside genre heavyweights Roxy Music, T. Rex and Slade. London’s pub rock circuit saw stalwarts Brinsley Schwarz joined by early Ian Dury outfit Kilburn & The High Roads, Ace (who scored a hit single with the timeless ‘How Long’) and Dr. Feelgood, whose aggressive attitude and slashing, guitar-based brand of tough R&B influenced a whole new generation of musicians.

Four CD set celebrating the finest musical sounds of progressive rock music of 1975. Five hours of music featuring tracks by Barclay James Harvest, Baker Gurvitz Army, Be Bop Deluxe, Camel, Caravan, Gentle Giant, Greenslade, Steve Hackett, Peter Hammill, Hatfield & The North, Hawkwind, Steve Hillage, Man, Manfred Mann's Earthband, Nektar, Pfm, Procol Harum, Nektar, Renaissance, Soft Machine, Van Der Graaf Generator, Yes and many more. Ring the Bells and Sing - Progressive Sounds of 1975 gathers together over five hours of music from 1975. Sometimes dismissed in later years by some critics as a year when rock music was failing to progress, this compilation reveals that 1975 was indeed a year where a great deal of excellent, diverse and creative music continued to be produced by artists for an audience for whom the album was the important format and the iconic television series The Old Grey Whistle Test was essential viewing.

New 4cd remastered clamshell various artists boxed set celebrating the finest musical sounds of so-called progressive rock music of 1974. five hours of music featuring tracks by kevin ayers, barclay james harvest, be bop deluxe, jack bruce, budgie, camel, caravan, gong, greenslade, peter hammill, hatfield and the north, hawkwind, jethro tull, man, nektar, pfm, procol harum, nektar, renaissance, todd rundgren’s utopia, stackridge, strawbs, traffic, robin trower, darryl way’s wolf and many more. includes an illustrated booklet with essay by mark powell. Reviews and features in national newspapers, uncut, mojo, record collector and prog magazines plus coverage on relevant websites and fanzines. The next release in their series of compilations celebrating so-called “Progressive” rock music – ‘Round and Round – Progressive Sounds Of 1974’, is a 4CD clamshell box set which gathers together over five hours of music from 1974, another year in which would continue to see Progressive music in all its forms continue to develop and retain its presence as a dominating force with the album buying public.