(Continued)

Like The End, Geordie psychsters SKIP BIFFERTY have been well served by compilations - ‘In The Morning’ and ‘Follow The Path Of The Stars’ however now appear in pristine quality straight from transcription disc whilst ‘On Love’ and ‘Yours For At Least 24’ (from their first ever radio session) make their debut and were previously presumed lost. BBC material by CUPID’S INSPIRATION similarly emerges for the first time with a quite splendid mix of pop, blues and rock across four numbers, only one of which was ever released in their original discography. Especially noteworthy is a crunching take of ‘Dream’ and a frantic version of Garnet Mimms ‘As Long As I Have You’. GULLIVERS PEOPLE prove admirably they could deliver psych pop with an excellent performance of the Bee Gees’ psych opus ‘Horizontal’ whilst ‘On A Day Like This’ improves on the single, then finally Plymouth group THE EARTH offer some rather good tunes with live versions of ‘Everyone Sing The Song’ and the prog rock favourite ‘Resurrection City’ from 1969.

The music has all been professionally restored and mastered and the presentation is immaculate and as with the previous ‘Shapes And Sounds’ volumes, Artholeghraphics have designed a memorable period flavoured package. The CD has a twenty eight page booklet based on a vintage Radio Times packed with illustrations, band histories and listings of all their known BBC sessions written and supplied by Nigel Lees, author of much of Record Collector magazine’s ‘The British Psychedelic Trip’ series. Bar the appearance of some of the Skip Bifferty recordings which have previously appeared in off air quality, none of these performances have ever been commercially available and most have not been heard in public since the 60’s.

‘Shapes And Sounds Volume Three’ is a legitimate release, licensed from the BBC with the blessing / co-operation of many band members.

The compilation will be available on both vinyl and CD, the compact disc is out now and projected release date of the LP version is late May 2008.