Group formed 1969 by members of two moderately successful UK sixties pop/rock combos - John Jones and Terry Rowley from The Montanas plus Glenn Huges, Mel Galley and Dave Holland from Finders Keepers. After the eponymous debute LP for Threshold flopped Jones and Rowley returned to The Montanas and for this follow up the band was down to a trio of former Finders Keepers members, in a way continuing the old band under another name. However there's not much remaining sixties feeling here. On the contrary this sounds beyond 1970 with a hard rock expression and sound that would take years to establish fully within the genre. Long ballad style numbers, blues based on a soft melodic ground covered by a rude superstructure of guitars and emotional vocals. Slow and cool with harsh riffs, distinct drum/bass and Glenn Huges' attractive voice on top. There's some resemblance to contemporary UK band Free and it's clear Huges had taken in some of Paul Rogers' idioms, but as this comes out both harder and more melodic I hear developing rather than copying. Not a bad track and it's truly surprising it didn't sell on release or is more appreciated today...other than by fans of the member's later bands (as Glenn Huges went to Deep Purple, Mel Galley to Whitesnake and Dave Holland to Judas Priest). Produced by Moody Blues bassist John Lodge. Audio is about the best you could get back then, which means sounding ten times better than any of the genre's later computerized outputs - big, clear, natural and so close you'd almost expect it to jump out of the speakers. First US on London/Treshold (THS 4). Premiere UK had label as shown here and matt fold/out cover, printed either by Robert Stace or Garrods & Lofthouse, and Decca co. "blue square" inner. (DÄRR*)
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