Between 2018-2019, Esoteric Recordings – the prog rock subsidiary of Cherry Red Records – ran a brilliant reissue campaign for 70s band Greenslade. Their four major albums were lovingly repackaged and expanded with a wealth of live material, BBC Sessions and various alternate edits. In the case of fan favourite ‘Bedside Manners Are Extra’, the 1973 album was even coupled with a bonus DVD featuring the band’s appearance on the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test, making the short set available in full, officially, for the first time. Such a good job was made of these affordable reissues that it was hoped that the campaign would be extended to include keyboard maestro Dave Greenslade’s first two solo albums – 1976’s ‘Cactus Choir’ and 1978’s lavish album and book set ‘The Pentateuch of The Cosmonololgy’ – since both deserved a similar level of TLC. Sadly, it wasn’t to be: instead, fans merely got a compilation disc presenting the best of Greenslade appended with one rare nugget – ‘Feathered Folk’, recorded live at the Reading Festival in 1973, which, in fairness, should’ve featured on the ‘Bedside’ reissue. [As of April 2025, neither of those aforementioned solo discs have had a decent CD send off; the Angel Air reissue of ‘Cactus Choir’ sounds awful, and ‘Pentateuch’ exists in an inferior edited version.]
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VARIOUS ARTISTS – Get Ready For The Countdown: Mod, Brit Soul, R&B & Freakbeat Nuggets
When Cherry Red Records launched their Strawberry Records subsidiary in 2020, they knew they’d need something impressive to kick start what would technically be a successor to the excellent RPM label. Their inaugural release ‘Halcyon Days’ tapped into an accessible selection of mod and soul cuts, very much in the spirit of RPM’s ‘Looking Back’ series. Needless to say, fans of the style – and of that series of RPM box sets – were thrilled with the result. A second box of mod and soul cuts from Strawberry – 2021’s ‘I Love To See You Strut’ – was pretty much as solid, and at other times, the label’s well curated products – box sets celebrating “the music of Black Britain”, 60s and 70s club soul classics, and even dipping their toes into the world of psychedelic folk (normally the remit of sister label, Grapefruit) – have also been considered very welcome fare.
THE QUIREBOYS – Hey You!: The Parlophone Years 1989-1993
Somewhere near the beginning of 1990, Tommy Vance broadcast a live show by The Quireboys as part of his Friday Night Rock Show on Radio 1. The live set – recorded at Wembley Arena when the still relatively new band opened for the legendary Aerosmith on their ‘Pump’ tour in 1989 – presented the boys in great shape. Numbers like ‘Misled’ and ‘Man On The Loose’ captured a Faces-obsessed swagger in a way that few bands had managed since 1975; ‘Seven O’Clock’ – already known and loved by Vance’s devoted listeners – and the soon to be released as a single ‘Hey You’ showed the crowd pleasing power Spike and the boys already had from the off, whilst the country strains of ‘Sweet Mary Ann’ suggested the Quireboys had the potential to stretch out if required. Although short, this live show was, and remains, a great document of the band firing on all six.
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Middle Earth: The Soundtrack of London’s Legendary Psychedelic Club 1967-1969
Whenever psychedelic and swinging London appears in documentary footage, there’s always a tendency to suggest, to those of later generations, that Joe Boyd’s short-lived UFO club was where everybody hung out. This is largely to do with an easily available and well circulated clip of Syd Barrett and The Pink Floyd hammering through ‘Astronomy Domine’ against a home made light show. The late 60s saw lots of other underground activity, not least of all at UFO’s successor, Middle Earth.
VARIOUS ARTISTS – The Magic Forest: More Pastoral Psychedelia & Funky Folk 1968-1975
In 2022, the Cherry Red subsidiary label Grapefruit Records released ‘Deep In The Woods’, a 3CD collection of cult recordings from the late 60s and early 70s, which documented the trippier and occasionally proggier elements of folk rock. Featuring a host of familiar names along with some genuine obscurities, the lengthy listen played brilliantly, offering the more open minded prog fan and 70s rock buff a listen that relied on far more than easy nostalgia.