In 2003 and/or 2004, Phantom Import Distribution and then Wooden Hill Records put out a CD also called Midnight Love Cycle that included the tracks from the Midnight Love Cycle LP plus five songs from the 2000 concert by the Klubs at the Cavern Club; two of these live songs – "Train to Nowhere" and "A Simple Song" – were not among the 12 songs on the original LP. Rounding out the bonus tracks are four very nice post-Klubs songs: "Unknown" by Strife from 1972 (featuring John Reid), two songs called "We Will Always be Together" and "One Last Time" by the Lettermen (not the American band called the Lettermen, needless to say) that included Trevor Griffiths (also from 1972), and a 1999 demo of "I Wonder" by John Reid that featured Norris Easterbrook on bass.
(July 2013)
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Chimera recorded something like 20 songs (variously reported as being in 1968, 1969 and/or 1970) in a acid-folk style for a planned album that remained unreleased for decades, while picking up legendary status among psychedelic record collectors. After having several bootleg pressings, the album (10 songs) was finally officially released by Tenth Planet Records in 2002 in a limited edition (1,000 numbered copies) of 190-gram LP's; that is the one that I picked up years ago. More recently, Wooden Hill Records issued a more complete CD of Chimera's music in 2004 that includes 19 tracks.
(November 2013)
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With their experience in Norway fresh on their minds, Mal and the Primitives decided to become one of several expatriate British rock bands that began to appear elsewhere in Europe by the mid-1960's. The Downliners Sect and Alexis Korner followed a similar route. Perhaps the best known is the Sorrows; unable to follow up their 1965 hit "Take a Heart" in their home country (also included on Nuggets II), the group relocated to Italy in 1966 and recorded a highly esteemed Italian album in 1968, Old Songs New Songs. I have the first official reissue of Old Songs New Songs in 2009 on Wooden Hill Records; a second CD includes an early demo of the album plus a concert performance from 1980. A full cover by the Sorrows of the early Bee Gees hit "New York Mining Disaster 1941" is included on this early demo; only a single line from "New York Mining Disaster 1941" made it onto their album.
(May 2015)
