6360 054
BEGGAR'S OPERA - WATERS OF CHANGE (end of 1971)

More mellotron on this second album and more balance between melody and instrumental bravery. The atmosphere is cooler and more poised; the preoccupation with classical themes has been reduced somewhat. Most of this record sounds like palaces of glass, remote and coldly glittering, but undeniably beautiful. There are SF-implications on Time machine and traces of King Crimson too. Some tracks, on the other hand, still sound like filling material and lack some kind of necessity, but a track like The fox adds irregular metres to theatrical mellotron and choirs and is actually excellent. Definitely a step forward.

A cover that mirrors around the spine again and although the treated photograph is fine in itself, this does not make for any interesting imaging.
The lettering is very well adapted to the photo, but still looks a bit graceless in its flat pomposity.
The band is depicted all orange and violet on the inside.

Notes: When viewed through old-fashioned 2-colour 3D glasses (not the ones you get in current cinema's), the cover looks decidedly more adventurous.

6360 055
JOHN DUMMER BAND FEATURING NICK PICKETT - BLUE (januari 1972)

Did you ever notice how many British blues-bands are named after the drummer? Here's another one, but Nick Pickett Band would have been more adequate. He wrote all the (feeble) material and his violin is the only feature that stands out. This album was made after they had disbanded and it's easy to guess why they initially did. The success of the ''hit'' single Nine by nine caused them to have another try. Nothing here shows signs of big inspirations, what's left is competent blues-rock with violin to provide some uncommon textures. Sounds a bit like early Fleetwood Mac, but where are you Mr.Green? Routine music, unfortunately.

Nice fire-red cover that is die-cut in three layers. The cut-away clouds let the title and the bandname peep though (yes, these are...blue).
The lettering is not bad, but could have been improved with a little energy.
The inside is again blue text on red background. The clouds inside are sprayed with a dab of, you guessed it, blue.

Notes: The extremely fragile nature of the cover has left very few copies around that have the clouds still unscathed.
This release seems to have been considerably delayed, as was the next one by Ian Matthews: both are dated 1972, where quite a few numerically afterward still carry the date 1971.
The flatness of the scan makes it look as if the clouds are protruding from the cover. In fact, they are not. On the contrary, they lie deeper than the front cover.
A recent eBay auction offered a strange copy with a single (uncut) cover and the label in black and orange instead of black and white. The dating indications have been removed from the label. The matrix number was stamped and correct! Anyone??

6360 056
IAN MATTHEWS - TIGERS WILL SURVIVE (beginning of 1972)

A completely different backing band, compared to his last effort, but the profit is marginal only. The sound has more body, a little more emotion and - important - the choice of material is a little better. His own numbers mostly are still too saccharine, but Never again shows promise. And is this Spector-cover fun or isn't it? We are not quite sure. We are sure, though, that a producer with a somewhat more critical attitude would have been greatly advantageous to the results. This creepy feeling that Matthews is still working far beneath his possibilities is hard to shake off. One wonders lastly: does he really have this possibilities, or is their alleged presence just a phantom?

The structured cover shows an impressive Native American on a chair, but what has that got to do with the music?
The lettering is well in style with the image, although its placing is awkward.
Some friendly photographs adorn the inside, and - isn't it cute - there's a cat and dog too. Phew!

6360 059
PAUL JONES - CRUCIFIX IN A HORSE SHOE (end of 1971)

If we counted correctly, this is the fifth solo album of Jones, unfortunately filled with a bunch of songs of which the lyrics are better than the music. Maybe it's all the fault of producer Cooper, who tolerates orchestral parts that work to great disadvantage to the songs. Not that the material itself is very exciting, though, but a track as Who are the masters could profit more from its nice juxtapostion of middle-piece and strophes. Orchestra-rock, vaguely reminiscent of Barry Ryan is the rather sad result, though less spectacular and over-the-top. The lyrics are mainly excellent, as you can verify by looking inside the cover.

The face of Jones looms large on the cover, divided in two by the spine. What could we possibly say about that?
The lettering is straight out of the font catalogue, neither inspiring nor inspired.
Under a gloomy sky Jones chews a straw, lying in a field, while underneath the lyrics are printed, there you have the inside of the gatefold cover.

Notes: This was released in the U.S.A. on London (XPS 605) in 1971.

6360 060
LINDA HOYLE - PIECES OF ME (end of 1971)

The cream of jazz-rockers Nucleus back the Affinity singer to mixed results. Simone's Backlash blues sounds fine, but the lyrics are beyond Hoyle's experience. The Nyro cover is better. Spedding is in top-form, just hear the devastating fuzz on the title track. Almost all guitar parts are beyond suspicion here. The double-tracked vocals on two tracks are not a good idea: they remove the intimate quality of Hoyle's voice. And why must For my darling sound like Barbara Streisand? It's an old problem on this album: excellent musicians can hardly make interesting music if they are no songsmiths, but yet rely largely on self-penned material. Results are inevitably flawed.

Hoyle sits very relaxed/unrelaxed on the cover. She cannot possibly have this hair colour, now can she?
The lettering is straight from the posh restaurant menu. Chateau Margaux, anyone?
A host of small pictures and the lyrics adorn the inside. Business as usual.

6360 061
not released in Britain, BUT IT WAS RELEASED IN PERU!
please refer to the Peru page.

This number is seen on discographies as being assigned to an album by a band called Necromandus, but we haven't found any concrete indication to establish this.

6360 062
JADE WARRIOR - RELEASED (end of 1971)

Exotic material still rules on this second effort, as a look at the titles will readily confirm. More heavy riffing, this time, but still alternating with etherical episodes, that are less in number, but even more gossamer than on the debut. Bride of summer only just stirs in a pool of silence. Flute parts dominate the sound as before and the tendency to play with dynamic oppositions reign supreme on the instrumental Water curtain cave. Philosophical points of view about the nature of man can be found almost anywhere in the lyrics, but luckily not overly so. Only the very length of the African tinged Barazinbar irritates. This is at times almost ''world-music''-rock, long before the term became common currency. A fine effort.

It's Japan time on the cover, which again is a huge six-part fold-out piece of board. The lyrics of Minnamoto's dream are depicted in a convincing way when the poster is folded open. Eagle, archer, arrow and warrior placed in a desolate landscape and executed with enough feeling to satisfy. Unfortunately the front only shows the arrow...
The lettering is beautiful too and luckily not victim of some sort of cheap japanizing.
The lyrics are inside and they are a nice read, mostly..

6360 063
LEGEND - MOONSHINE (end of 1971)

Slightly better material than on ''red boot'' is featured here and the vocal parts are better too. Still, an attempt to sound like The Free as on Shine on my shoes is futile and the overly sentimental Mother of my child sounds completely out of place. There is, on the other hand a small spark of real power in Just because. And is it a good idea to use strings alongside this kind of straight ahead rock? Well, reasonably. A little progress notwithstanding, this still is a thoroughly overestimated band in collector's circles.

A group of average citizens on its way to or from the underground, all in modest grey. But wait! One is wearing a lion's head! Nobody seems to care or even to notice. That's the way it is, folks.
Awkwardly placed and ugly coloured lettering does no justice to the inventive picture on front..
Great band shot inside in a grey-lilac that looks as from another planet.

6360 064
HOKUS POKE - EARTH HARMONY (beginning of 1972)

The intro of the opening is adventurous enough to expect great deeds and on the second track Clarke proves himself an excellent, at times even brilliant, guitarrero. Those are good starting points, but unfortunately too many rock stereotypes disfigure the proceedings later on. There is also the impression that the production makes the band feel ill at ease in the studio. Average muscular rock, well played though, is the result. Still, there are the interceptions and solos of Clarke to enjoy, but on the whole this is not enough to keep the attention focussed. Probably this was a marvellous live band, but more thought should have gotten into the arrangements and the choice of material.

Another die-cut sleeve. This time the opening in the front gives way to a portrait of the gentlemen, not very inventive and clad in drab colours, too. The back cover shows the lyrics and another bandphoto.
The lettering is well executed, but looks contrived and too massive.
Inside there is beside the picture of the band a whole page of dark brown, with nothing else on it, a sure sign of lack of inspiration.

Notes: Brenda Brooker is credited with production duties on the label, but the cover says of her ''who held us all together'' and only Lynch gets a production credit there.

I have read reports that this catalogue number would have been used to reissue Nucleus' Elastic Rock, but I have never seen a copy of this with my own eyes. If there is anyone out there who can provide further information, we would greatly appreciate this.

6360 066
WARHORSE - RED SEA (beginning of 1972)

A modest improvement compared to the debut, this still suffers from too many conventional  rock gestures to convince some thirty-odd years later. Surely the guitar parts on Back in time sounds fresh still, but mostly this is strongly in Deep Purple or Uriah Heep territory, with neither the drive of the former nor the aplomb of the latter. Recommended strictly to hard-core aficionados of the genre, who probably find here all they wish for. The claim of the liner-notes that Simper after his stint with Deep Purple is now ''creating completely new dimensions with his talent'' is as hilarious as it gets.

Again a design that mirrors around the spine, but as it is a ship, it's not as annoying as usual: the two halves make a whole. Until you start to look closer and see that the water is flowing in two different directions because of it. On the bow the five gentlemen are drawn, the rear carries a (war?) horse. If it wasn't so stiffly executed, it could have been a nice image.
The lettering is strident and fits in very nicely.
Inside some sort of seated helenistic goddess of the sea appears, again in stark symmetry, with triton and shield. On the shields the rascals are depicted on small black and white photographs.

Notes: The cover inside states ambiguously ''all titles composed by Warhorse'', although I [who have nothing] has the right composers credits in brackets.

6360 067
JACKSON HEIGHTS - 5TH AVENUE BUS (beginning of 1972)

Melodic rock with a hint of pop appeal that balances on the edge of the acceptable, but fortunately mostly succeeds through quite some unexpected twists that season the music. The keyboards are generally lovely, which is a rare thing to encounter within this style. Multi-part vocals are a bonus and give the music at times even a west-coast flavour. Almost all of side A convinces, except a tedious pianosolo on Sweet hill tunnel. This song has the advantage of a blood-curdling harmonic twist at the end that will send your hair a-flying, though. Pity that side B cannot maintain this level. The songs sound like weaker versions of those on side A. Mostly this side sounds over-polished and routine. The last track, a biting satire on living life as a pastor, makes up for the lost opportunity. This again is rich and variable music.

Nice die-cut cover again, though the image itself is a little dull. You can open the frontdoors of the bus and instead of a driver, you will see the nucleus of the band. We also learn by the ad on top that Japan has a classic whisky to rejoice in. Probably in the same manner as Scotland having a classic saké.
The lettering is completely sterile, wasted time.
Inside there is a quite terrible picture of the boys, must have been saved from the dustbin somehow.

6360 068
MAGNA CARTA - IN CONCERT (beginning of 1972)

Big advantage here is the lack of cloying strings and other tricks, rendering the songs unmarred, as this is recorded live all the way. We now hear that they surely can sing crystal clear vocal lines and play in tune. Which, of course, does not solve the problems of previous albums: the songs are as watery and nondescript as before. The announcements in between are irritatingly posh and mostly downright boring. Even with no strings attached, we can not recommend this bland record to anyone.

A quite horrible tablecloth holds bandname and track listing augmented by a lilac ornamentation, as insipid as it gets. The spine is left unprinted.
The lettering is huge, thick and obtrusive, thus disbalancing the image most crassly.
Inside the same tablecloth becomes visible, this time with tiny liner notes about the Concertgebouw. Makes me pretty proud to be born in Amsterdam, folks!

A cover variation with the arwork displayed horizontally instead of vertically has been spotted!

6360 069
GORDON - Same (beginning of 1972)

OK, it's one half of Peter & Gordon and so the liner notes claim that Gordon Waller was a product of the sixties. But, luckily, this is now a completely different Gordon: relaxed and much more mature. Then, the music. Did Jim Croce have a retarded brother? Obviously he did. The efficient backing band plays all possible stereotypes from the americana catalogue, and even expands it! The only track barely acceptable is written by Wainwright, everything else is of the lowest imaginable interest. A record as bad as its reputation. Probably this is the rarest regularly released Vertigo album, as almost no copies were sold in 1972. Sometimes there is some justice in record land after all.

Our hero sports a Crosby-moustachio and a hat and is cuddling a flock of poultry on the front. Pretty cosy. The picture is slightly raised and printed on a glossy paper, whereas the border is not. This is a single cover, not a gatefold! On the back Gordon stands in the door opening of a large hall that is totally devoid of any furniture and looks stripped and abandoned. Not cosy, but somehow better.
The lettering is quite common, but its bordering ornaments are beautiful and well-chosen.

6360 070
GENTLE GIANT - THREE FRIENDS (spring 1972)

After the giant leap between the first two albums, it was hardly to be expected that a similar progression would be made on the third. A new drummer and a lyrical concept should lead the way, but unfortunately the band often sounds cramped and restricted, less inspired and above all less colourful. The Prologue is promising enough with its trademark of soaring guitar and syncopated vocals. But already the overlong Schooldays sounds constructed. A superfluous child's recitation (son Calvin Shulman) underscores the helplessness to keep the ship on course. Working all day sounds like a remake of Wreck of the previous album, but more dull and monochrome. Sax and moog parts are extremely displeasing. Side B starts again fine. Peel the paint is the best track by far: adventurous, biting and with another awesome juxtaposition of velvet chamber music and hard-hitting rock. The rest has its incredible moments, but cannot save the album as a whole.

Three highly abstracted human figures (the three friends) adorn the cover, a seagull sits between them. On the back the friends turn their backs to each other and the seagull flies away with the ribbon that held them together. Fine idea, somewhat stiffly executed.
The lettering is integrated into the image, complete with binding ribbons, very fine indeed.
Inside the lyrics and drawings of the friends, a bit awkward, unfortunately.

Notes: There are two different labels for this: with ''Made in England'' at 1 o'clock and without that caption. The one without is believed to be released first.

6360 071
BLACK SABBATH - VOL. 4 (spring 1972)

The fact that BS is a powertrio with additional singer is well-masked on this their 4th and most developed album so far. Small, but cunning overdubs enrich the sound and make the music more differentiated than on previous efforts. Wheels of confusion opens the record with verve, even with a rhythm change and a totally different ending. Changes may even be called a ballad and Fx experiments with sounds unheard of. Overall, the level of organisation is higher and the best BS track up till now must be Snowblind that flows and urges like a real composition. The sledgehammer heavy stuff like St.Vitus dance also sounds more mature than comparable tracks on previous albums. Even when heavy-fans may balk at the romantic and string-soaked Laguna sunrise, the effect of an oasis in the middle of the violence is welcome enough. Best Sabbath album on Vertigo.

Ozzy in orange/black duotone graces the front in a triumphal gesture. The back uses the same image in white on black, another sure lack of imagination by Bloomsbury.
The lettering is too massive and roofs the singer, thereby cutting his triumph short, an exceptionally bad idea.
Luckily the inside is garnished with an extra 4-page photosession, showing the culprits in full action. Especially the picture of Ozzy is great!

Notes: This was issued in the U.S.A. on Warner Brothers (BS 2602) in 1972.
There are the different pressings of the UK pressing in circulation, the rarer one showing running time for all tracks inside the gatefold (see scan). The disc that belongs to this has no extra writing in the run-out groove. The label has an extra ''Made in England" underneath the pressing year indication.

Rarer (probably later) version of 6360 071 with ''Made in England'' and running time indications inside the cover, as well as ''deluxe'' on the backcover above the catalogue number.	More common version of 6360 071 without those features and the VO price code surviving still, though probably the first version, as ''Made in England'' came in use later  in 1972.

6360 072
FREEDOM - FREEDOM IS MORE THAN A WORD (spring 1972)

The inclusion of an uncredited solo violin and a guitar highlight right on the opening track conveys the impression that no trouble has been eschewed to make this album better than the strongly flawed Through The Years. Still, it's wrestling with the blandness of the musical material most of the time. Luckily there is the talented guitar of Jolly, without whom not much of this LP would have been left. Just hear his emotional interceptions on the slow blues Direction, the best track here. The nice ballad Dream is heavily impaired by unsavoury strings and the sax on Ladybird is ill-advised too. Enjoy the guitar parts, forget the rest.

Rick Breach surely likes archaic composition on his covers, and here's another starkly symmetrical design. It is die-cut in the middle with a rectangle, where the poem is allowed to peep through. Otherwise it's all neo-neo-renaissance, quite intricate, but not very convincing. The back cover shoulders on in much the same direction, lyre-playing muses and all.
The lettering is completely out of tune with the rest of the image, although on the back a fractal font is used, which is ever so slightly better.
Inside more of the same: neo-renaissance noodling, or should I say doodling, and yet another unfitting font.

6360 073
BEGGAR'S OPERA - PATHFINDER (summer 1972)

The effort to make this combo, that hovers between prog and classical-rock, sound more commercial does not yield the right results. In fact, this is a step backward. Where Waters Of Change could convince through its cold fire and otherworldliness, much of its successor rings false. The overly commercial Hobo copies the production values of  McCartney's Wings and the much-praised cover of Macarthur Park does not add anything to the well-known version by Richard Harris, technically attractive as it may be. The catchy riff of the title track is more persuasive, as is the cold emotionality of  From shark to haggis that even transforms into fine folk-rock. The closing Madame Doubtfire unluckily falls prey to the fashion of the times with satanical overtones like chromatic choirs, bitonality, icy ranting and diabolical laughing, which all sounds contrived and untrue. A pity, as the previous album showed real promise.

A pity, too, that our scanner cannot cope with the huge six-part poster that is the cover. Only one sixth of this GIANT image is shown here. A desert rider sporting a space-helmet gallops ahead on a wild brown horse through an archaic landscape. A beaten dragon lies behind him. Through the helmet's perspex not a face becomes visible, but a planet suspended in space.
The lettering is slight and does not distract from the image.