Posts Tagged ‘Caravan’

CARAVAN – ” Who Do We Think We Are? ” 27 Disc Box Set

Posted: May 28, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Legendary Canterbury UK prog rockers Caravan have announce they will release a massive 37-disc deluxe box set in August. You can watch a video trailer for the new release below.

Who Do We Think We Are?, which has been put together with the band’s full co-operation, is the ultimate celebration of the Canterbury band and will be released through Madfish Records on August 20th.

The set runs to a staggering 37 discs, including all the official Caravan albums – studio and live recordings among them – are joined by eleven discs of previously unreleased live performances. A Blu-ray includes Steven Wilson’s 5.1 surround sound mix of the classic In the Land of Grey and Pink album. In addition, a DVD includes vintage European TV performances from 1971 – 1981 (London Marquee, German TV’s Swing In, Bataclan, Paris & French TV show ‘Pop 2’).

The Canterbury scene combined elements of jazz, folk, rock and melodic pop into a sound that bridged the gulf between psychedelia and progressive rock, and ultimately shattered all genre barriers. At the heart of the Canterbury scene was a group of musicians whose career has now spanned more than half a century: the legend that is Caravan. Who Do You Think We Are? is the ultimate tribute to the ultimate Canterbury band. This deluxe box set runs to a staggering 37 discs. All the official Caravan albums – studio and live recordings among them – are joined by eleven discs of previously unreleased live performances. A Blu-ray includes remixer extraordinaire Steven Wilson’s 5.1 surround sound mix of the classic In the Land of Grey and Pink album. In addition, a DVD includes vintage European TV performances from 1971 – 1981 (London Marquee, German TV’s Swing In, Bataclan, Paris & French TV show ‘Pop 2’).

https://youtu.be/n1mLxt1iSNs

Caravan’s long time leader is a modest guitarist, to the point of eventually bringing other players to do the heavy work. But the band made its best-loved albums as a one-guitar quartet, and Caravan’s beloved early epics benefit from Pye Hastings’ ability to swing and his knack for a heavy riff – “Nine Feet Underground” shows glory in both cases.

The lavish packaging of the set reflects the band’s stature. A hardback coffee table book features rare Caravan photos and memorabilia, and a full discography. A second Fan Club book assembles historic press articles from across the band’s career, alongside a new interview with founder member Pye Hastings. Every copy of the box includes photos signed by the three surviving members of the original Caravan line-up: Pye Hastings Richard Sinclair and David Sinclair. The celebration continues with a selection of memorabilia: a Caravan-centric map of Canterbury; a specially commissioned Caravan family tree poster, charting their long and circuitous progress; and two replica 1970s gig posters.

The full contents is as follows:

* 16 NEWLY REMASTERED STUDIO ALBUMS & 4 OFFICIAL LIVE ALBUMS
* 11 DISCS OF PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED CONCERT RECORDINGS ON BLU-RAY FOR THE FIRST TIME 48/24 STEREO & 5.1 MIX BY STEVEN WILSON OF IN THE LAND OF GREY & PINK
* DVD INCLUDING RARE FOOTAGE FROM THE MARQUEE 1971, ROCK EN STOCK 1972, BATACLAN 1973 & FRENCH TV PERFORMANCE 1981
* INDIVIDUALLY SIGNED PHOTO BY THE THREE SURVIVING MEMBERS PYE HASTINGS, DAVE SINCLAIR, & RICHARD SINCLAIR
* 144 PAGE HARDBACK COFFEE TABLE BOOK FEATURING RARE PHOTOGRAPHS & MEMORABILIA
* A4 FAN CLUB MINI BOOK FEATURING ARCHIVE ARTICLES & AN UP TO DATE INTERVIEW WITH PYE HASTINGS
* A4 REPLICA TOUR PROGRAMME FOR BLIND DOG AT ST DUNSTANS
* ‘FOR GIRLS THAT GROW PLUMP IN THE NIGHT’ REPLICA PRESS PACK
* CARAVAN’S TRIP DOWN MEMORY LAIN MAP OF CANTERBURY 
*ILLUSTRATED FAMILY TREE
*2 REPLICA POSTERS 

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CARAVAN – ” Waterloo Lily “

Posted: February 13, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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So in 1972….you may have the album,but what a treasure of delights was released that year. Take 40 mins over the weekend to enjoy this wonderful record.

Waterloo Lily is a 1972 released album by Caravan on the Deram label. The track “The Love in Your Eye” has been featured as a Caravan live track for many years. Waterloo Lily is the only album by Caravan with Steve Miller as the keyboard player. Before the recording of Waterloo Lily, David Sinclair had departed Caravan to join forces with Soft Machine skinsman Robert Wyatt forming Matching Mole. With the subsequent arrival of the former Delivery member Miller had an overwhelming jazz influence, the edgier progressive rock and folk elements that were so prevalent on their previous albums are somewhat repressed.

The band’s performance level did not suffer in the transition. In fact, the addition of Miller only punctuates Caravan’s previously honed improvisational skills. Beginning with Waterloo Lily’s lead off title track, there is a sound more akin to the jazzier efforts of Traffic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl70UahZ3a4

Steve Miller’s “Nothing at All” incorporates the jazz fusion even further as the long instrumental introduction more than hints at Steely Dan circa Katy Lied. The up-tempo staccato bop featuring Miller’s electric piano accents, when juxtaposed with Pye Hastings‘ liquid-toned electric guitar could easily be mistaken for that of Walter Becker and Donald Fagan. The remainder of the album centers on a couple of pieces that evoke the sound and spirit of the previous Caravan outings. Most reminiscent of the classic sound is Hastings‘ epic “The Love in Your Eye” suite. The track recalls the laid-back intensity and phenomenal improvisational synergy of earlier tracks such as “For Richard” and “Where, but for Caravan Would I,” while wisely incorporating Miller’s formidable jazz chops to give the instrumental sections sustained substance throughout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osLImIcwSps

The remastered CD offers three additional compositions circa the Waterloo Lily sessions. “Pye’s June Thing” and “Ferdinand” are two of Hastings‘ acoustic demos. A considerably more complete “Looking Left, Looking Right” is a treasured recovery from the vaults. Originally vaulted due to the time limitations of vinyl, this track, along with “Pye’s Loop” — which acts as a coda to “Looking Left…”

Miller brought a jazzier feel to the sound of Caravan than had been heard on the previous album through his stylings on the Wurlitzer piano rather than the Hammond organ favored by previous keyboardist Dave Sinclair. Guests Phil Miller and Lol Coxhill from Steve Miller’s previous band Delivery play on “Nothing at all”, an instrumental modeled after Miles Davis’s “Right Off”. Soon after Waterloo Lily, Richard Sinclair and Steve Miller left Caravan to play with Phil Miller and Coxhill in a re-formed Delivery, which led to the formation of the band Hatfield and the North.

Caravan
  • Pye Hastings – guitars & vocals
  • Steve Miller – Wurlitzer electric piano, grand piano, Hammond organ, electric harpsichord
  • Richard Sinclair – bass & vocals
  • Richard Coughlan – drums

The album cover is detail from “The Tavern Scene” from A Rake’s Progress by William Hogarth.

VARIOUS ARTISTS – ” Revolution ~ Underground Sounds Of 1968 ” Box Set

Posted: February 24, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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This new 3 CD Re-Mastered Box Set Celebrating The Musical sounds of the so called British “UNDERGROUND” Rock Music Of 1968. featuring tracks by Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Barclay James Harvest, Julie Driscoll, Brain Auger & The Trinity, Spooky Tooth, Traffic, The Move, Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Van Der Graaf Generator, Procul Harum, Genesis, Caravan, Jeff Beck, Pretty Things, The Incredible String Band, Tomorrow.

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of “Revolution – Underground Sounds of 1968”, a 3CD clamshell boxed set celebrating the so-called “underground” rock music 1968, a year that saw huge changes, both musical and social. 1968 was a pivotal year for creativity in British rock, beginning with some influences of psychedelia still present in work by ground-breaking artists such as Pretty Things, Tomorrow, Incredible String Band, Idle Race, Traffic and The Move, but gradually giving way to styles influenced by jazz, blues, folk and more that would eventually become termed as “progressive”, “folk-rock” and “hard” rock, all of which championed by “underground” figures of the day such as DJ John Peel on his BBC Radio One show Top Gear and by publications such as International Times and Oz.The common thread among all of these artists was an emphasis on experimentation and a desire to push the perceived boundaries of popular music. It was also a year that would see the very first record releases by bands that would go on to achieve success and influence in the 1970s such as Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Barclay James Harvest, Genesis, Status Quo, Van Der Graaf Generator and Caravan. Aside from featuring better known acts such as Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Procol Harum and Pentangle, this compilation also features lesser known acts.

Revolution Box

The common thread among all of these artists was an emphasis on experimentation and a desire to push the perceived boundaries of popular music. It was also a year that would see the very first record releases by bands that would go on to achieve success and influence in the 1970s such as Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Barclay James Harvest, Genesis, Status Quo, Van Der Graaf Generator and Caravan. Aside from featuring better known acts such as Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Procol Harum and Pentangle, this compilation also features lesser known acts that produced work of a wide breadth such as Eyes of Blue, Love Sculpture, The Action, Dantalian’s Chariot, Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera, Gun, Second Hand, The Moles and Blonde on Blonde.

This collection celebrates a creative period when rock music was evolving into something altogether more serious, moving away from the single as medium to give way to the dominance of the album. Feed your head with Revolution – Underground Sounds of 1968.

Revolution Box Set

CARAVAN – ” In The Land Of Grey And Pink “

Posted: January 21, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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reDiscover Caravan’s ‘In The Land Of Grey And Pink’

Caravan’s total of just two weeks on the official UK album chart utterly belies their historical importance to the British rock landscape, and the progressive “Canterbury scene” in particular. In salute to co-founder Pye Hastings, we’re discovering the band’s third album, 1971’s In The Land Of Grey And Pink. 

Perhaps the best-known LP by the English outfit and seen by many as their finest recording, Grey and Pink arrived some three years after Caravan came into being. They were formed by musicians who’d all played, at varying times, with Wilde Flowers, also the basis of Soft Machine. Hastings set off on this new adventure with Dave Sinclair, his cousin Richard and Richard Coughlan.

An early US deal with the Verve label led to their first, self-titled album, but proved something of a false dawn. As they built their live reputation, Caravan won a second deal with Decca Records, who released 1970’s If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You. Then came the sessions at both Decca and the new AIR Studios that produced In The Land Of Grey And Pink, which proved to be the last album by this line-up until 1982.

Hastings was less prominent on this release than its predecessors, with Richard Sinclair taking the majority of the lead vocals, including on his opening composition ‘Golf Girl.’ Pye’s lighter vocal touch was the lead for the whimsical ‘Love To Love You (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly).’ But it was the episodic, 22-minute ‘Nine Feet Underground,’ which formed the whole of side two of the LP, which came to represent the height of Caravan’s free-spirited sonic experimentation and their highly individual marriage of folk, jazz and rock elements.

The album often exuded a poppy feel, with a piccolo solo on ‘Golf Girl’ by Pye’s brother, fellow Canterbury alumnus Jimmy Hastings. The track was on the b-side of the single released in February 1971, led by ‘Love To Love You.’ The album followed in April on Decca’s Deram label, with a gatefold sleeve featuring Anne-Marie Anderson’s memorably Tolkienesque illustration.

The album missed the UK chart, but went on to become Caravan’s bestselling release, and has always remained in catalogue. In 2011, the record’s 40th anniversary was marked with a deluxe reissue. The original multi-track session and album masters were revisited by modern-day progressive music figurehead Steven Wilson, who completed new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes.  

More recently, after many years of talk about a solo project for Hastings, he started a successful PledgeMusic campaign to fund his first album in his own name, From The Half House, released in the summer of 2017.

Richard Sinclair – bass guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals Pye Hastings – electric guitars, acoustic guitar, vocals David Sinclair – organ, piano, Mellotron, harmony vocals Richard Coughlan – drums and percussion All songs by Richard Coughlan, Pye Hastings, Dave Sinclair and Richard Sinclair (except “Aristocracy”, by Coughlan, Hastings and Richard Sinclair)