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Ghost Canyon

Title - 'Stone Survivor: Anthology' [4CD]
Artist - Paul Brett

For those not in the know, Paul Brett spent most of the '60s and '70s as one of rock's quintessential journeymen, a hired gun for the great and the good, one of the session guitarists of choice, as well as following that familiar trajectory from the Beat Boom onwards.

He played in a host of Beat, Mod, R&B, Psychedelic and Progressive outfits before finally creating his own band Paul Brett's Sage in 1970, resulting in three albums for Pye/Dawn in the last half century or so.

Included on this brand new, 4CD Stone Survivor: Anthology set from Cherry Red Records UK (due out March 26th, 2021), are rare tracks from the dawn of his career with budding beat/mod/psych bands The SW4, The Union and Tintern Abbey, as well as the historic debut 45 by The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown from 1967.

Key tracks from a subsequent purple patch for Paul Brett's Sage are also included, plus three rarities unissued at the time, followed by highlights from Paul's multi-album tenures with the labels Bradley's and RCA.

Sandwiched between them are selections from two self-released mid-70s albums, when Paul switched to the 12-string guitar whereas later choices are drawn from Paul's many self-released solo albums from the nineties and noughties, always centered around his guitar prowess.

In what, one assumes, to have been a quite extraordinary task to undertake such as to both garner and organize the collective works of Paul Brett, somehow the geniuses at Cherry Red Records UK have managed to do just that.

From collating the track listing for this quite wondrously unique Anthology, especially given that it is spread over 4 CDs, the followed timeline of material - that runs the gamut from Brett's recorded material of the 1960’s to today - brings forth a highly impressive 92 tracks for our musical enjoyment!

Born in Fulham, London, Brett first became interested in playing guitar at 14, for his Metalwork teacher, Mr. Carter, was a semi-pro guitarist in a local dance band who taught him a few basis chords.

The story goes that whilst actually in class, when everyone else was making copper ashtrays, Mr. Carter and he were making tremolo units. From there, it was the old way of learning, most notably from Bert Weedon’s great book ‘Play in a Day’ (oh, and slowing down 45rpm singles to 33rpm and painstakingly learning note for note, popular instrumentals like ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’ and ‘Apache.’)

This set opens on a couple from his semi-pro band, SW4. The lead singer was Ralph Denyer, later of Blonde in Blonde, and they played mainly R&B at the time, as did many other groups during that era.

Moving on and having auditioned Arthur Brown for his band The Swinging Machine (as they needed a singer), eventually they instead changed the band’s name to The Arthur Brown Union. There were 7 in the line-up, including two brass players and after a while Brown left was replaced by Dave Terry, later Elmer Gantry; so they just went out as The Union.

The story goes that when Arthur returned from Paris, he asked Brett to get a new line-up together and so they went back for a 6 month residency at The James Palladium, the top music venue at the time in Paris, along with the Bus Palladium.

After, they had done a 6 month stint in a new Night Club in Spain for the same promoter, Brett came back to London to wait for Arthur, but as he didn’t come back for awhile, he instead joined another band; just to pay the rent!

When Arthur did return, he asked Brett to play on his first single 'The Devil’s Grip,' which he, of course, did. However, Brett didn’t join the actual Crazy World line-up due to still playing with another band.

Up next was Tintern Abbey who were based in a small terraced house in Chelsea that was owned by publisher and group manager Nigel Samuels. It's been said that the band was nothing more than a rehearsal band where Nigel would occasionally turn up and ask them to play for him!

They did some demos and finally got the Spencer Davis Agency to take them on which meant they could, at last, play live. These gigs went down great and it also brought in Terry Goldberg from The Mark Leeman 5.

Two out of the four tracks Brett recorded with Tintern Abbey are on this first disc, but things drifted after that and so Brett was offered a gig with Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera, who had lots of live gigs and a hit record.

Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera were already a working outfit when Brett joined. Their guitarist, Colin Forster had just left, but Brett had worked before with Dave Terry (Elmer Gantry) in The Union. Playing a lot of live gigs with them, but when Elmer left the band, Brett got British Blues 12 string legend Johnny Joyce in and made the Velvet Opera Ride a Hustler’s Dream LP and a couple of singles.

Another band featured on these discs is Paul Brett’s Sage, which was formed out of his association with Fire. He and Bob Voice teamed up to play some Ritchie Haven’s style acoustic guitar and percussions songs, played a few gigs, it all went very well and so they sent a demo to Cyril Stapleton; the famous Big Band Leader who was head of A&R at Pye records.

The story goes that Cyril rang back almost immediately upon receiving it and offered them a contract to record an album with him producing. Fire had split and Dick joined them on bass and then they got in Nicky Higgenbottom to play flute and sax.

They recorded the album, which included '3D Mona Lisa,' their first single at Pye Studios and whilst they waited for its release, Bob and Brett played with Cyril’s Orchestra in Blackpool for a Sumner Season.

After a few weeks, Brett joined Lonnie Donegan’s group as his guitarist left suddenly, and they got on a like a house on fire (they both were huge Leadbelly fans).

The first Sage album was a mix of acoustic and percussive songs with a smattering of electric guitar and the odd drum kit thrown in. There was one orchestral arrangement track ‘Reason for your Askin’ in the songs and that was orchestrated by David Palmer, who was later with Jethro Tull. '3D Mona Lisa' was, as aforementioned, the first single and that seemed to be the track that paved the way for future albums.

When PBS split, Mike Piggott and Brett went on a National tour with Status Quo and were then signed to Bradley’s Records for a two album deal.

Before the end of the '70s, Brett has recorded 3 other albums for RCA - Interlife, Eclipse and Guitar Trek - with Tubular Bells producer Tom Newman having produced both Interlife and Eclipse.

Right at the dawn of the '80s, TV advertising company K Tel asked Brett to record a 16 track Romantic Guitar album, fully orchestrated album, which he did and it went into the UK charts and achieved Gold and Silver sales awards.

That album was released in the early '80s, but it also slowed the recording roll of Brett. Following its release, he took a job as MD of a company named Pan Polychord. He accepted this as he wanted to take a break from being a pro musician, especially after some behind-the-scenes K Tel monetary issues.

Towards the end of the '90s, Brett got together with his old mate Johnny Joyce and recorded Acoustic Power which got rave reviews. They followed this with a live album, recorded by Tom Newman at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith.

Sadly, Johnny died in 2004 just as Desmond Carrington on Radio 2 was playing ‘On the Road’ from the album. A fitting send off to Joyce's departure from the planet, I think we can all agree.

Finally, in 2014, Brett reactivated Paul Brett Sage (dropping the ‘s) and released an album called Emergence. A few others followed after that and it's said he is working on another currently.

"I am just trying to keep the name of the band alive plus the fact, I enjoy creating band style music with different line ups and keeping my hands fresh in electric playing," Brett has since said.

"I have tried to keep the balance between our original PBS format of featuring acoustic songs with band songs and adding vocal harmonies."

CD 1:
1. 'BO DIDDLEY' (The SW4)*
2. 'SHAME, SHAME, SHAME' (The SW4)
3. 'IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR' (The Union)*
4. 'SHAKE (The Union)'*
5. 'HOW DO I FEEL TODAY' (Tintern Abbey)
6. 'DO WHAT YOU MUST' (Tintern Abbey)
7. 'DEVIL’S GRIP' (The Crazy World of Arthur Brown)
8. 'GIVE HIM A FLOWER' (The Crazy World of Arthur Brown)
9. 'VOLCANO' (Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera)
10. 'STATESBORO BLUES' (The Velvet Opera)
11. 'RAISE THE LIGHT' (The Velvet Opera)
12. 'ANNA DANCE SQUARE' (The Velvet Opera)
13. '3D MONA LISA' (Paul Brett's Sage)
14. 'TROPHIES OF WAR' (Paul Brett's Sage)
15. 'THE TOWER' (Paul Brett's Sage)
16. 'COTTAGE MADE FOR TWO' (Paul Brett's Sage)
17. 'GOOD OLD FASHIONED FUNKY KIND OF MUSIC WINTER' (Paul Brett's Sage)
18. 'WRITTEN IN WINTER' (Paul Brett's Sage)
19. 'JUBILATION FOUNDRY' (Paul Brett's Sage)
20. 'GIVE A LITTLE SOMETHING TO THE RAGMAN' (Paul Brett's Sage)*
21. 'LOVE IS A FOUR LETTER WORD' (Paul Brett's Sage)*
22. 'ULYSSES THE TRAVELLER' (Paul Brett's Sage)*

* previously unissued Paul Brett

CD 2:
1. 'TUESDAY EVENING' (Paul Brett's Sage)
2. 'CUSTOM ANGEL MAN' (Paul Brett's Sage)
3. 'CHARLENE' (Paul Brett's Sage)
4. 'THE ANT' (Paul Brett)
5. 'HANDFUL OF RAIN' (Paul Brett)
6. 'THE SPANISH MAIN' (Paul Brett)
7. 'CLOCKS' (Paul Brett)
8. 'SOHO JACK' (Paul Brett)
9. 'EMPTY DREAMS AND FLYING MACHINES' (Paul Brett)
10. 'STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER' (Live) (Paul Brett)
11. 'MEDLEY' (Live) (Paul Brett)
12. 'PHOENIX FUTURE' (Paul Brett)
13. 'MY KIND OF DAY' (Paul Brett)
14. 'CATCHING CATFISH' (Paul Brett)
15. 'CHRISTENED BY FIRE' (Paul Brett)
16. 'ALONE IN SPACE' (Paul Brett)
17. 'DANCE OF THE DAWN HERALD' (Paul Brett)
18. 'INTERLIFE' (Paul Brett)
19. 'INTO LIFE' (Paul Brett)
20. 'ECLIPSE' (Paul Brett)

CD 3:
1. 'OVERTURE FOR DECADENCE' (Paul Brett)
2. 'CHAOS' (Paul Brett)
3. 'ALTERNATIVE 12 STRING' (Paul Brett)
4. 'THE BISHOP WENT DOWN TO FULHAM' (Paul Brett)
5. 'IN SEARCH OF AZTECS' (Paul Brett)
6. 'HAND-BUILT BY ROBOTS' (Paul Brett)
7. 'NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN' (Paul Brett)
8. 'I WILL SURVIVE' (Paul Brett)
9. 'AIN’T NO SUNSHINE' (Paul Brett)
10. 'THE BOXER' (Paul Brett)
11. 'ALBATROSS' (Paul Brett)
12. 'LOVE IS A CRAZY THING' (Paul Brett)
13. 'DIDN’T GET SO EXCITED' (Paul Brett)
14. 'LEENA' (Paul Brett)
15. 'TAKE 5' (Paul Brett & Johnny Joyce)
16. 'ON THE ROAD' (Paul Brett & Johnny Joyce)
17. 'DOLLARS AND DAMES' (Paul Brett & Johnny Joyce)
18. 'SUMMERTIME' (Paul Brett & Johnny Joyce)
19. 'EARTH' (Paul Brett)
20. 'THE QUEEN’S SHILLING' (Paul Brett)
21. 'IT’S ONLY ROCK’N’ROLL' (Paul Brett)
22. 'WALKIN’ ON MY GRAVE' (Paul Brett)
23. 'SHAKIN’ ALL OVER' (Paul Brett)
24. 'JESUS ON THE MAIN LINE' (Paul Brett)

CD 4:
1. 'THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE' (Paul Brett)
2. 'VIRTUE' (Paul Brett)
3. 'METAMORPHOSIS' (Paul Brett)
4. 'WAVE DANCERS' (Paul Brett)
5. 'THE GREEN MAN’S TEARS' (Paul Brett Sage)
6. 'AMSTERDAM' (Paul Brett Sage)
7. '666' (Paul Brett Sage)
8. 'THE TEMPEST' (Paul Brett Sage)
9. 'ROCK ISLAND LINE' (Paul Brett)
10. 'STEALIN’ (Paul Brett)
11. 'GIN HOUSE BLUES' (Paul Brett)
12. 'STONE SURVIVORS (GRYPHON SUITE FOR HIGH 12 STRING)' (Paul Brett)
13. 'BULLET' (Paul Brett Sage)
14. 'SPACE ODDITY' (Paul Brett)
15. 'DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT' (Paul Brett)
16. 'BAT OUT OF HELL' (Paul Brett)
17. 'ONE NIGHT STAND' (Paul Brett Sage)
18. 'YOU DON’T LIKE LOVE SONGS' (Paul Brett Sage)
19. 'METAL HEARTS – MENTAL MINDS' (Paul Brett Sage)
20. 'FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE' (Paul Brett)
21. 'GUNFIGHTERS' (Paul Brett)
22. 'SUN' (Paul Brett)
23. 'THE DEVIL’S WHISPER' (Paul Brett)
24. 'THE RAVEN' (Paul Brett)
25. 'THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM' (Paul Brett)
26. 'EVENING STAR' (Paul Brett)

Official 4CD Purchase Link

www.CherryRed.co.uk





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