Pete Hartley: sometime dramaturg, perennial scribbler
Earlier this month, singer-songwriter Dave Cousins died. There are many obituaries out there. I will not add to those. This, instead, is an attempt to explain how and why his work became vital to my spiritual searching, my creative impetus, my imaginary plundering and my psychological balance.
The most extraordinary aspect of the Deadlines album is the cover. It's not the arresting image that makes it exceptional, but the fact that the action depicted in the picture is not artificially composed. It really is a shot of a man in a telephone kiosk filled with water. The booth was a specially strengthened … Continue reading Reviving Deadlines
The previous three pressings had an autumnal or winter feel to them. This album always sounds like summer, even when the song is a tragic or sad one, or even about the prospect of a hard, hard winter. Many of the tracks were written quickly during the warmer months of what in the UK was … Continue reading Deep Cuts and shallow scars
I couldn't believe my eyes. It was in the bargain LP display stand in Woolworths. My newly adopted favourite rock band were more successful than they'd ever been, having just clocked up a number two single and album, and here was a hitherto unreleased recording among the budget collections of compilation albums, popular classical orchestras … Continue reading Hallmarked from Woolworths
This is where it all began for me. This album spawned a life-long love and addiction, but it germinated far more than that. This was the mystical key. This was the ledger that unlocked the cauldron of creativity, this was the testament that told of the way to traverse the path through pain and pleasure, … Continue reading Bursting at the Seams
A solo album is almost never a solo enterprise, and the musicians that are assembled here is one of the best kept open secrets of the prog-rock heyday. On board were Miller Anderson from The Keef Hartley Band; Rick Wakeman from Yes; Roger Glover from Deep Purple, and Jon Hiseman once of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers.
One objective of fictional dystopia is to offer a hope of readdressing the hypocritical myopia in the real world. This album does that, putting duplicitous morality to the fire, ripping the finery off the self-righteous and unmasking the two-faced flag-bearers of bigotry.
Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios is a unique artefact in several ways. It is a live album like no other, in that is truly cohesive in style, mood and configuration, yet it is not a repressing of ‘greatest hits’, nor is it a crowd-pleasing indulgence. It is much closer to a proms concert … Continue reading Antiques, Curios and collectable dreams
Stroking stringed instruments and kissing winged insects. An appreciation of the second Strawbs album, released in 1970.
The ‘first’ Strawbs album The cover of the first A&M Strawbs album released in 1969 is the most incongruous of them all. It bears no emblematic link to the band or any of the tracks. It has not stood the test of time, perhaps because the only possible justification for it was to appeal to … Continue reading Strawbs: Strawbs
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