CLIFF BENNETT AND THE REBEL ROUSERS/DRIVIN' YOU WILD REG 1039 (-66) UK EXPORT MONO

For the group's beginnings, relations and early adventures check  post on their first album https://monolover.blogspot.com/2013/03/cliff-bennett-and-rebel-rousers-pmc.html . One of the best debutes from the UK r&b scene in the sixties - all played with great skill, top vocals and lots of feeling. This follow-up shows a change of style. R&b is still the foundation, but the superstructure more blue eyed soul. It reminds a lot of early Manfred Mann or contemporary Tom Jones, Alan Price and Georgie Fame. The performance is top notch and Bennett's vocals as good as ever, still a little too polished to my taste and almost anonymous at parts. It's a good album, but I miss the edge. It seems EMI didn't have full confidence in the material. Both the UK domestic release and the export came on low-budget labels. In England issued on Music For Pleasure (MFP 1121) and for the rest of Europe on Regal. Mostly the Regal exports came years later than the originals, but this was made at the same time - using the same matrixes with a totally different cover. Issued in mono only. First export press had label as shown here, thick unflexible vinyl and laminated flip/back cover. (ÖXÄP*)(SXS*)