Radar Favourites - Radar Favourites
SKU
Reel Recordings 017
Found a few of these hiding in a warehouse. Long out of print. Last time ever on this wonderful release from the wonderful, now gone, Reel Recordings label.
Last time ever on this release from the wonderful, now gone, Reel Recordings label.
Great to finally be able to hear one of the great lost 1970s groups that everyone who follows this sort of thing had heard of (see who is on this below) but that no one had ever actually heard. With any luck, maybe someday I'll get to hear "Dolphin Logic" (pre-This Heat) or "Sunship" (with Alan Gowen and Allan Holdsworth) too.
"This legendary band - with Gerry Fitzgerald, Jack Monck, Cathy Williams and Charles Hayward - was put together by Geoff Leigh just after he left Henry Cow in 1973. Geoff and Gerry had been in Mouseproof together (and Gerry next surfaced on the second volume of Frith's Guitar Solos); Jack Monck, then best known from his time in Delivery with Lol Coxhill & Carol Grimes, was also an old Cambridge friend of Henry Cow's [he, Fred and Chris were briefly in a band called Sparks together]; Cathy and Geoff went on to form Red Balune. So, this captures a mightily interesting socio-musical moment. The recordings here are of the first edition of the band, since everything else seems to have been lost - including the famous Virgin demo, which I remember we all loved but Virgin passed on. But, here are two great, mostly instrumental, compositions, strong, filmic and with their own unique musical identity, and a handful of rare live recordings, the last of which is an improvisation, to my ears, quite spookily Cowish. This is a recording very much of its time, eloquent of a musical climate and style that has long vanished, almost without trace. If you were there or are interested in the critical byways of the period, this is pretty essential. Carefully re-mastered from original reel-to-reel tapes, with the originally projected cover by Barney Bubbles." - Chris Cutler
"Radar Favourites was formed in the summer of 1974 by saxophonist/flautist Geoff Leigh, after making Henry Cow’s Legend album the undisputed classic it is. Geoff & his lady, keyboardist/singer Cathy Williams, teamed with electric guitarist Gerry Fitz-Gerald (Mouseproof), bass guitarist Jack Monck (Delivery and Stars), and drummer Charles Hayward (Quiet Sun). This quintet drew upon their disparate playing experiences to inject fresh oxygen into the then increasingly bloated body of British Rock. Theirs was not a regular music, but one that repositioned the markers on the rarified field of experimental rock. By year’s end Radar Favourites had completed two studio tracks and gave just four concerts, before shifting personnel and eventually disbanding under industry indifference. This historical CD release presents the original Radar Favourites, carefully remastered from the reels extant. At last we can experience the bands sublime studio recordings, an untethered private session and a forceful concert excerpt recorded at London’s College of Printing, in a specially designed cover by Hawkwind’s graphic artist, the legendary Barney Bubbles. Seldom has an ostensible rock group scoped such prescient musical terrain; free collective improvisations, dynamic tension and release within interweaving layers, and dramatic trans-dimensional song structure. Without reservation, Reel Recordings recommends the music of Radar Favourites as a never less than exhilarating revelation. File under essential!"
- LabelReel Recordings
- UPC654367021033