Posts Tagged ‘Cherry Red Records’

VARIOUS ARTISTS – ” Once Upon A Time In The West Midlands – The Bostin’ Sounds Of Brumrock 1966-1974 ” 3CD Box Set

Posted: October 31, 2021 in MUSIC
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• A 3-CD, four-hour celebration of the post-Brumbeat late ‘60s/early ‘70s rock scene in the West Midlands.

• Tracing the evolution and development of that scene as local musicians embarked on an epic journey that embraced mod pop, psychedelia, blues, progressive rock, glam-rock and heavy metal, inspired by the emergence of chief catalysts The Move.

• Revolving around the area’s big hitters, with key selections from The Move, The Moody Blues, The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, The Idle Race, Slade, The Electric Light Orchestra, Roy Wood and Wizzard, Judas Priest and others.

When the beat/R&B explosion died out around 1965, so did the influence of cities like Liverpool and Manchester. However, the live scene in Birmingham and surrounding towns went from strength to strength. By the end of the decade, the West Midlands had become the smelting house of the nascent hard rock/metal revolution.

Including a bunch of classic cult 45s (The Craig, Locomotive, Medicine Head, The Ghost) and essential cuts from enduring local legends like Steve Gibbons and his band The Ugly’s, Denny Laine, The Montanas and Jimmy Powell.

Also featuring several previously unreleased tracks, including music from post-World Of Oz outfit Kansas Hook, Big Bertha, Cathedral and the first-ever recording (made in 1967) to feature future Magnum vocalist Bob Catley.

Housed in a stylish clamshell box that includes a heavily illustrated and annotated 48- page booklet, ‘Once Upon A Time In The West Midlands’ is a fascinating microcosm of the post-beat/pre-punk development of British rock music that will be of huge appeal far beyond its narrow geographical focus.

Released November 26th, 2021.

VARIOUS ARTISTS – ” Think I’m Going Weird: Original Artefacts From The British Psychedelic Scene 1966-68 “

Posted: October 23, 2021 in MUSIC
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“Think I’m Going Weird: Artefacts From The British Psychedelic Scene” 5CD box set (Grapefruit UK)

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 of previously 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.

Perhaps most enticingly of all, the collection includes a number of hitherto-unknown recordings by bands who are only now gaining their first public exposure including Eyes Of Blond, Tinsel Arcade, Crystal Ship (whose contribution features lyrics from Pete Brown) and the semi-mythical 117, such a legendary name from the era’s handbills and posters that they even had a UK psych fanzine named after them in the ‘90s.

A dazzling feat of licensing and research, ‘Think I’m Going Weird…’ comes in a 60-page A5 book format with 25,000-word track-by-track annotation with some extraordinary and rare photos and memorabilia.

For anyone even remotely interested in British psychedelia, it’s simply an essential purchase.

BUZZCOCKS – ” A Different Compilation ” Record Store Day 2021

Posted: April 8, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Intended to capture their explosive and hugely popular live set in the studio, “A Different Compilation” sees Buzzcocks, led as ever by Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle, re-visit 24 of their best loved songs, bringing a new energy to those familiar tunes.

Performed with all of the energy and pace of a live show, and captured in a raw and uncompromising state, ‘A Different Compilation’ sits as a perfect companion to the original recordings, and was a huge hit among fans on its original release. All of these songs in their original studio versions. It was a brave thing for Buzzcocks to revisit these old songs and give them a new coat of polish, but it works nicely. Pete Shelley mentioned that many of the earlier recordings sounded like demos, and he is right to an extent. However, the original recordings sounded crisper and less ‘muddy’. Some of the songs have a new slant, others are faithfully reproduced, but all in all this makes for a thoroughly enjoyable listening experience. It’s refreshing to hear these newer live versions. Production is more grungy and heavier sounding. Apart from that they have not attempted to embellish them which is good. Noticeable tracks are Boredom sung by Shelley and Love is Lies which is more electric than the original acoustic version. 

“A Different Compilation” sits as a perfect companion to the original recordings, and was a huge hit among fans on its original release. Now available on vinyl for the first time, and spread across two glorious pink LPs, this is the perfect opportunity to revisit some old friends and see how well they’ve grown!

Now available on vinyl for the first time, and spread across two glorious pink LPs, this is the perfect opportunity to revisit some old friends and see how well they’ve grown!

  • ALL THE HITS AND CLASSICS, RE-RECORDED FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
  • INCLUDES ‘EVER FALLEN IN LOVE’, ‘ORGASM ADDICT’, ‘WHAT DO I GET’, ‘HARMONY IN MY HEAD’ AND COUNTLESS OTHER ANTHEMS FROM THE BAND’S EXTENSIVE BACK CATALOGUE.
  • ORIGINALLY ISSUED IN 2011.
  • NEVER BEFORE ON VINYL.

TRAPEZE – ” Live In Houston 1972 ” Record Store Day 2021

Posted: April 8, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The core of Trapeze can be traced back to Midlands band Finders Keepers in the late 1960s, featuring future Whitesnake guitarist Mel Galley, future Judas Priest drummer Dave Holland and the mercurial talents of Glenn Hughes on bass and vocals. After being discovered by The Moody Blues, they were snapped up for their own label, Threshold Records.
Trapeze would record three classic albums for Threshold; the self-titled “Trapeze” in May 1970, “Medusa” in November 1970 and “You Are The Music We’re Just The Band” in 1972.

By the time of their second album, Trapeze had scaled down to the classic power trio of Galley, Holland and Hughes, finding their definitive sound with a unique blend of blues, soul and hard rock, earning them plenty of fans in America.

One of Trapeze’s major strongholds in the States was Texas, so we’re lucky to be able to present a complete 1972 show from Houston recorded live in concert to promote their third record. Featuring ‘Way Back To The Bone’, ‘You Are The Music’ and ‘Keepin’ Time’ from “You Are The Music We’re Just The Band”, the remainder of the set was taken from second LP, “Medusa”. This double live LP includes truly epic renditions of ‘Jury’, ‘Seafull’, ‘Your Love Is Alright’ and the title track of “Medusa”.

Glenn Hughes would leave Trapeze to join Deep Purple in 1973, with Mel Galley and Dave Holland carrying the Trapeze banner for the remainder of the 1970s, periodically reforming this classic three-piece line-up. Glenn would eventually form Hughes / Thrall Band, join Black Sabbath, enjoy a successful solo career, collaborate with artists as varied as Gary Moore, Joe Lynn Turner and the KLF, founding Black Country Communion and California Breed, and currently fronts The Dead Daisies.

Released through Cherry Red Records, 12th June 2021 Limited Edition 180 Gram Gatefold Double LP

L7 – ” Wargasm ” The Slash Years 1992-1997

Posted: April 4, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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“L7 formed in Los Angeles in 1985 when Suzi Gardner (guitar, vocals) and Donita Sparks (guitar, vocals) joined forces with Jennifer Finch (bass, vocals). An all female band in a traditionally male-dominated, often sexist rock arena, L7 were happy to court controversy through spirited, occasionally infamous live performances, whilst playing songs often infused with humour as much as bite and bile. Having emerged from L.A.’s art punk scene, their music was a mixture of hard rock, alternative and punk, but they are arguably most synonymous with the grunge movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Packed with bonus tracks, artwork and memorabilia, “Wargrasm: The Slash Years 1992-1997″ includes new, extensive liner notes based on interviews with the band.”

From the L7 album “Smell The Magic”,

Through Rock For Choice they proved to be a band with a sociopolitical conscience too. Their music was a mixture of hard rock, alternative rock and punk rock, but they are arguably most synonymous with the grunge movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Releasing their self-titled debut on Epitaph Records (home of The Offspring and Bad Religion), their grunge credentials were cemented by the release of second record “Smell The Magic” released on Seattle’s Sub Pop, some-time home for many grunge lynchpins, including Nirvana, Soundgarden and Mudhoney, among many others.

In 1990, the classic line-up was completed by Dee Plakas on drums. Signing to Slash Records (Faith No More, Violent Femmes), they released their major label debut “Bricks Are Heavy” in 1992, produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage). Lead single ‘Pretend We’re Dead’ gave L7 a massive worldwide hit, especially in the States, followed by the singles ‘Everglade’ and ‘Monster’. The expanded edition of “Bricks Are Heavy” includes ‘Pretend We’re Dead’ (Edit), ‘Lopsided Head’ (B-Side), ‘Used To Love Him’ (B-Side), a cover of the tongue-in-cheek Guns N’ Roses track and ‘Freak Magnet’ (B-Side).

Touring with Nirvana and Hole, as well as appearing on the main stage at Lollapalooza, L7 followed up “Bricks Are Heavy” with “Hungry For Stink” in 1994. Featuring the single ‘Andres’, this expanded edition features ‘Baggage’ (Live), ‘Punk Broke (My Heart)’ (B-Side), ‘Stuck Here Again’ (Edit) and ‘Interview’ (B-Side).

During the recording of their third album for Slash record, Jennifer Finch left the band, eventually replaced by Belly’s Gail Greenwood. Their fifth record, “The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum”, was released at the beginning of 1997, and although their shift in direction received plenty of critical praise, it was their last album for Slash Records. ‘Off The Wagon’ was issued as a single, with the B-Sides ‘Guera’ and ‘Worn Out’ included as bonus tracks, alongside ‘Drama (Piss Off Version)’.

 L7 would record one more album during the 1990s before calling it a day in 2001. They would reform in 2014, touring extensively, and enjoying a creative renaissance, releasing their seventh album “Scatter The Rats” in 2019.

Packed with bonus tracks, artwork and memorabilia, “WARGASM – THE SLASH YEARS 1992-1997” includes a new, extensive liner note based on interviews with the band.

The LOFT – ” Ghost Trains And Country Lanes “

Posted: March 15, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Among the crop of Creation Records bands in the mid-1980s, THE LOFT seemed the most likely to break through. Following the success of The Smiths, guitar-based independent pop was in vogue, Alan McGee’s Creation label was turning heads – its bands blending 60s psychedelia, the melodic end of punk and a new sound which would soon be immortalised on NME’s C86 cassette. And in this London quartet, Creation had their answer to bands like Television, The Only Ones or early Modern Lovers, offering taut, off-kilter songs with an irresistibly deadpan cool.

Sadly, after just two singles, 1984’s downbeat debut ‘Why Does The Rain’ and the punchier sequel, ‘Up The Hill And Down The Slope’ – an indie hit which the band performed live on TV show The Oxford Road Show, The Loft dissolved, with various members founding new bands The Weather Prophets, The Caretaker Race and The Wishing Stones. They left behind seven studio tracks, a BBC Radio 1 session for Janice Long and one track from a Creation LP documenting the scene’s roots in small club The Living Room.

However, The Loft’s legend endured, eventually prompting a reunion in the early 2000s with all four original members – singer/songwriter/guitarist Pete Astor, guitarist Andy Strickland, bassist Bill Prince and drummer Dave Morgan. Alongside various well-received live shows, that led to a new single, ‘Model Village’ (2006) and more recently a session for Gideon Coe on BBC 6 Music (2015). The Loft’s reputation as founding fathers of a new breed of mid-80s indie pop continues to grow to this day, with the band often cited as an influence.

Compiled and coordinated by the band, “Ghost Trains & Country Lanes” expands on previous retrospectives of The Loft, adding those reunion recordings (including three previously unissued tracks), the Gideon Coe session and several live recordings from that historic performance at The Living Room back in 1984. (including many exclusive songs which were never recorded in the studio).

• With new sleeve-notes by Danny Kelly, this is the definite tribute to The Loft. And with the release on 20th March of Creation Stories, the film adaptation of Alan McGee’s autobiography, the timing couldn’t be better.

Released 23rd April on Cherry Red Records. 2 CD, 8 new songs, 17 previously unreleased recordings, 30 tracks including a Living Room club set from ‘84.

CHAPTERHOUSE – ” The Albums “

Posted: January 31, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Chapterhouse were a British shoegazing/alternative rock band from Reading, Berkshire, . Formed in 1987 by Andrew Sherriff and Stephen Patman, the band began performing alongside Spacemen 3. They released two albums entitled Whirlpool (1991) and Blood Music (1993). After the band split in 1994, Sherriff later formed Biocom. The group temporarily reformed in 2008 after being asked to join Ulrich Schnauss onstage to perform his cover version of their song “Love Forever” at the Truck Festival in Oxfordshire. The band finished the brief reunion with two gigs in London (2009–2010) and tours in North America and Japan in 2010.

Chapterhouse took the unusual step of rehearsing and gigging for well over a year before recording even a demo tape. Initially lumped in with the British acid rock genre, this became modified to shoegazing, despite early sojourns including supporting Spacemen 3. They were deemed to have joined fellow shoegazers such as Lush, Moose, Ride and Slowdive.

Bassist Jon Curtis left early on to study, being replaced by Russell Barrett . Chapterhouse signed to the newly formed Dedicated label, releasing a series of singles, including “Pearl”, which featured guest vocals by Rachel Goswell of Slowdive .

The band’s first album, “Whirlpool”, released in 1991, has been cited as one of the genre’s high points, but failed to capture a wider market In the same year, Chapterhouse also appeared in their home town Reading Festival immediately following Nirvana’s performance.

The band’s second album “Blood Music”, stylistically different, was released in 1993. Singles from the album, “She’s a Vision” and “We Are the Beautiful”, were relatively successful. Some copies of Blood Music included a bonus disc “retranslated” by Global Communication, called Pentamerous Metamorphosis that was withdrawn due to a sampling lawsuit, but later reissued in a slightly altered version.

The band then released no further new material other than a double album, Rownderbowt in 1996, compiling their singles, various B-sides, rarities and unreleased demos which featured Slowdive drummer Simon Scott. Sherriff went on to form Bio.com and Rowe went on to play guitar for Mojave 3. Bates formed Cuba and now plays in the British folktronica band Tunng, and Chapterhouse ceased for almost fifteen years.

The music of Chapterhouse was mostly out of print on CD until March 2006, when Cherry Red Records reissued the album Whirlpool with bonus tracks, and for the first time, lyrics.

The band played a version of “Love Forever” with Ulrich Schnauss on the Barn Stage at the 2008 edition of Truck Festival. In response to requests over the years, Chapterhouse played live at Club AC30’s Reverence show at the ICA in November 2009 along with Ulrich Schnauss and Kirsty Hawkshaw. This was preceded by a warm up show at the Luminaire in Kilburn. The band also played at The Scala in London March 2010, and undertook short tours of Japan in April 2010 and North America in May 2010. The North American tour had to be postponed due to the Icelandic ash cloud cancelling flights, stranding Patman in Japan. Chapterhouse rescheduled the North American tour for September and October 2010. No plans were made for any other shows and the band ended the brief reunion in 2010.

Since 1997, Sherriff has been working as a composer/sound designer for an Emmy Award-winning music production company Adelphoi Music. Patman and Bates joined him later in 2001.

The band comprised Andrew Sherriff (guitar/vocals), Stephen Patman (guitar/vocals), Simon Rowe (guitar), Jon Curtis (bass) and Ashley Bates (drums)

Studio albums

  • Whirlpool (1991) 
  • Blood Music (1993)

Compilations

  • Rownderbowt (1996)
  • The Best of Chapterhouse (2007)

EPs

  • Freefall (1990)
  • Sunburst (1990)
  • Pearl (1991)

BE BOP DELUXE – ” Drastic Plastic ” Box Set

Posted: January 25, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The final album from Be-Bop Deluxe, “Drastic Plastic”, is getting an expanded release. The 1978 recording is receiving a newly re-mastered, limited edition, 6-disc deluxe (naturally) boxed set (comprising four CDs and two NTSC – Region Free DVDs), including 43 previously unreleased tracks. The set arrives March 5th, 2021, via Cherry Red Records.

“Drastic Plastic” was recorded in the summer of 1978 in the south of France utilizing the Rolling Stones’ mobile studio, with final sessions taking place at The Manor Studio and Abbey Road Studios. The record saw Bill Nelson (vocals, guitars, keyboards), Charles Tumahai (bass, vocals), Andy Clark (keyboards) and Simon Fox (drums) venture into new musical styles, with the album being ground-breaking in its move to more art rock and new wave influences.

Co-produced by Nelson and John Leckie, the English progressive rock band’s Drastic Plastic featured such songs as “Electrical Language,” “Panic in the World,” “New Mysteries,” “Islands of the Dead” and “Surreal Estate.” The recording sessions produced many more tracks which would appear as singles and others that were originally planned for release as an EP set, all of which eventually appeared on the retrospective compilation The Best of & the Rest of, later that year.

This expanded deluxe reissue has been newly re-mastered from the original master tapes and features an additional 88 tracks, drawn from new 5.1 surround sound and stereo mixes from the original multi-track tapes by award winning engineer Stephen W. Tayler, previously unreleased out-takes from the album sessions, a BBC Radio John Peel Show session from January 1978, along with a CD of Nelson’s previously unreleased demos for the album, A Feeling of Playing.

Also included is an additional DVD featuring Be-Bop Deluxe in the south of France, (a collection of Bill Nelson’s 8mm home movies shot while recording Drastic Plastic) and the band’s “Sight & Sound in Concert” performance for BBC TV from 1978.

“Drastic Plastic” (1978 album; remastered four-CD, two-DVD box set, featuring an additional 88 tracks, 43 of which are previously unreleased, drawn from new 5.1 surround sound and stereo mixes from the original multi-track tapes by engineer Stephen W. Tayler, etc.; Expanded & Remastered Edition, two CDs; Esoteric Recordings / Cherry Red)

The boxed set includes a lavishly illustrated 68-page book with many previously unseen photographs and an essay of recollections by Nelson. The set includes postcards and a replica poster.

The set arrives March 5th, 2021, via Cherry Red Records.

VARIOUS ARTISTS – ” Shake The Foundations: Militant Funk & The Post-Punk Dancefloor 1978-1984 ” Cherry Red Box Set

Posted: January 22, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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If you know Gang of Four, PiL and The Slits inside and out, this three-disc box sets heads mostly to the fringes of the original post-punk disco scene

Making for a nice follow-up to the EXEK reissue is this new three-disc compilation of scratchy disco from the original post-punk era. The mix of funk, disco, punk, dub and bleak industrial noise is formative to this writer and its a sound that will forever be appealing to me, whether it’s the original article (Gang of Four, ESG, PiL, The Slits, The Pop Group), the ’00s second-wavers (Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Radio 4, Franz Ferdinand), and more recent acts like EXEK or Working Men’s Club.

For those who think they’ve heard it all, as well as folks who only casually know the heavy hitters, new three-disc compilation “Shake The Foundations: Militant Funk & The Post-Punk Dancefloor 1978-1984” opens a few new doors and brushes the dust off some forgotten acts from the era. While it doesn’t have Gang of Four, The Slits or Au Pairs — probably for budgetary reasons — it does have great tracks from lesser-known acts like Medium Medium, The Higsons, PiL bassist Jah Wobble, punk poet John Cooper Clarke, Glaxo Babies, Blue Rondo A La Turk, Specials-offshoot Fun Boy Three, pre-Breakfast Club Simple Minds, very early Haircut 100, Ian Dury, Bauhaus offshoot Tones On Tail, Visage, Furniture, Family Fodder, and more. There are also plenty of bands who are new to me, including The Chicken Granny, Viscous Pink, and C Cat Trance.

Bill Brewster, who wrote the great history of DJing, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life and compiled this box set, says he took the same approach to this collection as he would a DJ set. “The important thing was not to impress James Brown, emulate the Fatback Band or wear Kraftwerk’s game-face. The point was to have a go. ‘Shake The Foundations’ is not a comprehensive look at post-punk, so much as a shakily hand-drawn map of a particular area. It’s what happened when the post-punk fallout collided with the dancefloor, and forty years later we’re still feeling its effects.” 1980 single that also appeared on their Nine Months To The Disco debut album. Tony Wrafter, Dan Catsis and Charlie Llewellin eventually left and formed Maximum Joy with singer Janine Rainforth.

Shake The Foundations: Militant Funk & The Post-Punk Dancefloor 1978-1984 is out March 26th via Cherry Red Records. You can check out the full tracklist and preorder the album here and meanwhile this is the compilation’s title inspiration, Glaxo Babies’ “Shake the Foundations”:

IGGY and the STOOGES – ” You Think You’re Bad Man: The Road Tapes ’73 – ’74 ” Cherry Red Box Set

Posted: January 21, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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In 1969, The Stooges were a truth serum, forcing hippiedom to belch up the reality that flowers and hope had become just another guise for hucksters and snake-oil salesmen to take advantage of the naïve. By 1973, however, The Stooges were no longer the mirror to an era’s hypocrisy. They were the representatives par excellence of desiccated overindulgence and self-destruction. Too many bad shows, too many blatantly underage groupies, too much booze, too high — way too high. While The Stooges’ noise-rotted nihilism, originality, and underrated musicianship have ensured their longevity, the final six months of the band, as captured on Cherry Red’s new box-set, “You Think You’re Bad Man: The Road Tapes ’73 – ’74” were a squalid and chemically-warped stagger toward total collapse.

The five live shows captured are all previously released, originally licensed by Tony DeFries’ MainMan management company to record labels like Revenge, Bomp!, and Jungle during the 1980s and 1990s. However, this box-set is a very welcome tidying up exercise with good packaging and liner notes, all at a fair price. For decades, delving into the vast quantity of Stooges deep-cuts meant investing in a chaotic mishmash of compilations, so the 21st century has been wonderful in terms of labels (Easy Action in particular) bringing professional curation to the Stooges output. This Cherry Red Records compilation is a part of that positive trend, and one can only hope they get a similar grip on the many studio demos still out there.

Going on tour with the defeated, newly label-less Stooges—Los Angeles to Baltimore to New York, battered and defeated to their home, Detroit—via this Cherry Red box is akin to living through the hell of the worst tour ever, driving on Highway 1 with a cheap 1965 Chevy, low on gas, with its tires on fire and an incessant burning oil smell on your clothes. The car radio? Its speakers are blown, the perfect shredded tone for repeated, wired versions of “Search and Destroy,” the gothic “Gimme Danger,” and the stammering “I Got Nothin’.” The Cherry Red collection is the sound of brain-numbing, aggressive anger and disgust at a thousand nights of self-inflicted road food, drugs, and fucks tucked into a clamshell box.

It didn’t take long for The Stooges to acquire an afterlife. They played their final show in February 1974. In May 1975, Nick Kent wrote a multi-page feature for NME on the ups and downs of Iggy Pop and Co. In September 1975, Sounds reviewed a new album by the defunct band titled “Metallic KO”. One side of it was recorded at that final show.

“I’m a tasteless little bastard and I really enjoy it,” wrote Giovanni Dadomo of the wreckage captured on the vinyl. “It’s no great rock ‘n’ roll record per se. What I do believe is that it’s an astonishing piece of documentary work, revealing as it does the face of rock ‘n’ roll that few singers/musicians would ever be rude, angry, wrecked or impolite to reveal. Sure, it’s crass, conceited and unjustifiably vulgar plus a hell of a lot of other singularly ‘unpleasant things’, but still I like it. A record that quite literally has to be heard to be believed.”

“Metallic KO” began an apparently never-ending series of post-split Stooges releases. Few are essential – like the wonderful “Live at Goose Lake” August 8th, 1970, released earlier this year. Most are for the committed or completists. An intermittently great and handy one-stop collection collating various previously issued live releases, the new “You Think You’re Bad, Man? The Road Tapes 1973-74″ is in the latter camp.

A five-CD clamshell box with a booklet (its band pics and the cover shot are from 1972, not the period of what’s heard), You Think You’re Bad, Man? includes these shows: The Whisky a Go Go, L.A., 16th September 1973; Michigan Palace, Detroit, 10th October 1973; The Latin Casino, Baltimore (despite the credit it’s probably Cherry Hill, New Jersey), November 1973, The Academy of Music, New York (supporting Blue Öyster Cult. Kiss were also on the bill), 31st December 1973; Michigan Palace, Detroit 9th February 1974. The two Michigan Palace were filleted for Metallic KO.

It’s a bumpy ride, not just because of the spotty sound quality which ranges from a bootlegger’s “B” to “A-“. The Whisky gig is pretty tight, and its “Search and Destroy” and “Open Up and Bleed” are great; the best versions in the box. The New York show is a disorderly mess. The two Michigan Palace shows are well known, have been round the block many times and, of them, the final outing of the band is worse than a mess. The sound quality of the relatively disciplined Baltimore show is the poorest of them all, but it does have the box’s top run-through of “I Need Somebody”.

The Stooges of this period were in choppy waters. The Raw Power album had been released in February 1973 and guitarist James Williamson left in June. After a spell as a porn cinema projectionist, he returned to the band late that month with the proviso that a piano player came on board. First, that role was filled by Bob Scheff. Then, from late July, Scott Thurston joined. He appears throughout, with plinkity-plonk or barrelhouse playing which distracts. It is no fit with the band. The Stooges did not need Mrs Mills, or any piano player. Other wobbles came when the band’s management ditched them in August. Their label Columbia had already done so.

Nonetheless, there were snatches of the positive. In Raw Power’s wake the band had new songs and were clearly thinking of their future. A lot are heard on You Think You’re Bad, Man? “Open Up And Bleed” and “Head On” are the best. “Heavy Liquid” was good. “Cock in my Pocket”, “I Got Nothin’”, which prefigures The Stones’s “Fool to Cry”, and the puerile boogie rocker “Wet My Bed” are OK. The infantile, silly “Rich Bitch” is not alright. A new album could have been made. There was label interest too. In October 1973, Elton John wanted The Stooges for his Rocket Records imprint. But it all fell apart in February 1974. You Think You’re Bad, Man? is a series of bullet points in the narrative of the band’s collapse.

These are not the only post-Raw Power shows which have been released ). The 2010 Raw Power box included a scrappy October 1973 Atlanta gig with loads of the annoying piano – it was recorded off the sound desk though, so sounded fine. The 2005 Heavy Liquid set had one from Max’s in NYC from 30th July 1973 and another played in San Francisco in January 1974, as well the Whisky show.

This endless afterlife is further confirmed by another new release. Titled From K.O. To Chaos, it’s an 8-disc box set of random Iggy sniff-snaff. It includes Metallic KO on one disc, and its source shows on another two other discs – each of which is also collected on You Think You’re Bad, Man?

Although You Think You’re Bad, Man? The Road Tapes 1973-74 says nothing new, it neatly chronicles The Stooges in the wake of Raw Power’s release. The album was recorded in September and October 1972 and a year and more later, without a label and management, they had not given up. They could be dreadful. But they could also be impressive. It’s a disparity coursing through these five discs – five discs of shows which were originally never meant to be recorded and released, or even listened to.

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