Esoteric’s Stackridge collection is finally complete after their string of (mostly 2CD) reissues of the band’s 70s albums last year, as well as the live 2CD+DVD of The Forbidden City released in April this year. It might seem like a slant to the group’s final two studio albums – which are surprisingly good for a group that have experienced a long hiatus – to coop them up with a live album rather than letting them have their own releases, but there is a practical reason for this ‘Reunion Years’ boxset.
It seems that the group’s output was rather messy in this period. In the decade between the releases of Something for the Weekend and A Victory for Common Sense, Stackridge also released: Lemon 2002, a six-track EP; Sex and Flags, a compilation of Something for the Weekend and Lemon 2002 which also contained two new songs; Purple Spaceships Over Yatton – Best Of, a compilation that included a new recording of the title track; and a few non-album singles too. This is all summarised in detail on this fan-made page, and they even point out what music is missing from this set too. All this loosely-organised output makes it difficult to figure out how reissue it all, so Esoteric has fortunately made it simple by releasing it all in a single package. I must say, I’m grateful not to be strung along.
Something for the Weekend reintroduces the group, although Mutter Slater is conspicuously missing (he’ll be back later). The opening songs It’s a Fascinating World and Ruth, Did You Read My Mind are catchy tongue-in-cheek numbers that recall the group’s glory days and show that Warren’s voice has not aged a bit. Something About the Beatles was clearly intended as a hit and is surprisingly un-Beatles-y, having a harder rock edge to it. I’m still not really sure what the lyrics are supposed to mean.
More experimental fun is to be had with The Vegan’s Hatred of Fish while Sliding Down the Razorblade of Love recalls a 1940s blues atmosphere. Five-Poster Bedlam is an instrumental jig showcasing Mike Evans on violin, but it’s a little repetitive at four minutes. Wildebeeste is perhaps the most unpredictable tune with a waltz-like structure that features complex verbal breakdowns. All of it is handled with that signature Stackridge humour. While I wouldn’t deem it ‘progressive’, it’s certainly a return to form for the group. After all, the band were never all that ‘prog’ anyway.
The tracks from Lemon 2002, however, are pretty disappointing by comparison. Instead of the dynamic, fun, interesting music we had just been listening to, these EP tracks are all very monotonous and dull. Even the addition of Mutter Slater can’t save them from mediocrity. Half of the tracks are acoustic and feature no drummer and the rest sound as if they were recorded with a drum machine. No drummer is listed for these tracks in the notes and the difference in quality shows; you can’t cut corners on stuff like this.
Curiously enough, all the songs from Something for the Weekend, Lemon 2002 and Sex and Flags all fit snugly on one CD. I’m rather curious, then, why the band chose to exclude some songs from Something for the Weekend on Sex and Flags. Evidently, all the songs can fit, so my only conclusion is that the band were being stingy at that time, making it so that fans needed to buy both CDs in order to get all the songs.
Fortunately, a drummer had been recruited for A Victory for Common Sense and the song quality had also improved dramatically. The album begins with a cover of Warren and Davis’s 1979 track Boots and Shoes, originally from the Korgis’ debut album. This seems appropriate enough as The Korgis covered Something About the Beatles in 2006. With a hard rock edge, I must say, I prefer the new version of Boots and Shoes immensely. The Old Country, meanwhile, brings back the West Country oom-pah-pah that enlivened such tracks as Do the Stanley. A delightful flute solo breaks up the song and a very Beatles-esque fade out concludes it.
In pure Stackridge style, the angstiest numbers on the record are Red Squirrel and Cheese and Ham, both hard-edged compositions clocking in at roughly six minutes each. Long Dark River takes up seven minutes of the listener’s time but doesn’t give much in return, repetitive and monotonous as it is. But I hadn’t expected this latter-day incarnation of the band to turn in an eleven-minute epic, and one that is seemingly inspired by space rock groups such as Pink Floyd no less. It automatically becomes their second-longest track after their folk epic Slark from their debut. Less musically complex than some of their other work, however, The Day the World Stopped Turning works by softly smooshing three shorter songs together, two similarly-themed bookends sandwiching a more uptempo, synthesiser driven part. It’s certainly nice listening but it isn’t all that compelling.
A few simple bonus tracks – A- and B-sides – follow the conclusion of A Victory for Old Sense but the 2006 re-recording of Purple Spaceships Over Yatton is worth hearing. In this version they eschew the awkward major intro of the original and jump straight into the minor guitar theme that follows. With the advancements in technology, the pure wall of sound of the new version obliterates the original mix, even though the original version has a more demented breakdown. Sonically, the newer version is incredible.
We skip ahead to 19th December 2015, when Stackridge performed their final concert for their fans in their hometown of Bristol. We actually reviewed this live album, The Final Bow, when it was released in 2017, but I’ll add my own take. It’s a really decent concert featuring a lot of Stackridge favourites, old and new; all seven Stackridge albums are sampled for this finale. My favourites would have to be the epic, multi-part Syracuse the Elephant, the soulful, catchy No One’s More Important Than the Earthworm and the playful instrumental Lummy Days.
But there are some surprises. Stackridge are joined – for seemingly the first time – by a female vocalist, Clare Lindley. She’d actually joined the band in 2009, but that was news to me. Hers is the first voice we hear on the new track Over the Horizon, a piano ballad that features Lindley on lead vocals. I was wondering if I’d accidentally been sent the wrong album! She accompanies Warren on the more familiar tunes, augmenting them with a feminine touch; the results are hit and miss. Occasionally, I like hearing a new slant on an old classic, other times it feels unnecessary – change for change’s sake.
I’m not sure any Stackridge setlist could completely satisfy an individual fan; after all the band took their music in so many different directions that some tracks will be hits and others will be misses. I will say though that I was slightly more fond of The Forbidden City’s setlist. Perhaps it’s the selected songs that are the culprit or perhaps it’s the noticeable absence of Mutter Slater who, for unknown reasons, decided not to tour with the group after 2010. The setlist reflects this by showing fewer songs with his influence. But strangely enough, he did actually make a guest appearance at this very concert, adding his flute just to two songs: Purple Spaceships Over Yatton and Slark. Couldn’t he have also been allowed to play on Lummy Days? The synthesised flute is a travesty compared to the real thing. I was also a little disappointed they couldn’t have made space for just one of his songs like The Volunteer or The Galloping Gaucho to have him really star. I’m sure a Stackridge superfan out there will be able to tell me why this wasn’t possible.
This is the sort of info I should have been able to glean from the accompanying booklet. What I was hoping for was an essay by the ever-informative Mike Barnes, detailing the ins and outs of the reunion period. What we get instead is a rather flat band bio penned by Esoteric label manager Mark Powell that doesn’t feature anything you can’t quickly find online. Bizarrely and unhelpfully, this bio recounts all of the band’s albums and line-up changes in the 1970s, giving very little space to recap the reunion years… y’know, the years that are focused on in this box set. And when he reaches the reunion years, we mainly hear what the band recorded and released with little answer as to why. Why did the band record an EP of tracks in 2002 rather than a full album? Why was there no real drummer? Why did Mutter Slater leave again in 2010? Why did Clare Lindley join? As lacking as the booklet is in terms of informative content, however, I will say it’s well laid out with plenty of band photos and album covers from this time to gaze at.
The band’s final set concluded with a brass band playing an instrumental version of an old favourite: Do the Stanley, which the audience can be heard chanting along to. Although I’m disappointed Mutter Slater elected not to sing along, it’s still a wonderfully different sort of conclusion for the band, and it’s only fitting that this particular band would end on a joke. I am thrilled that a band as joyful and inventive as Stackridge managed to have a fruitful second coming that wasn’t plagued by the massive dip in quality that one would expect when an ancient band reforms many years later. It’s good that they knew also when to call it a day and leave on good terms, with the audience wanting more, not less. I’m nearly a decade late but it seems my journey with Stackridge has finally come to an end too… unless the band decide to reform just to troll me. That would be a very Stackridge thing to do, after all.
TRACK LISTING
DISC ONE
Something for the Weekend
01. It’s a Fascinating World (4:00)
02. Ruth, Did You Read My Mind (3:17)
03. Something About the Beatles (3:50)
04. Help Under Doors (4:06)
05. The Vegan’s Hatred of Fish (3:21)
06. Sliding Down the Razorblade of Love (3:09)
07. The Youth of Today (3:56)
08. Have Faith in Love (3:40)
09. Five-Poster Bedlam (4:22)
10. Wildebeeste (3:22)
11. Grooving Along on the Highway on a Monday Morning Once (2:18)
12. Someday They’ll Find Out (2:02)
13. Drinking & Driving (2:56)
14. It Must Be Time for Bed (4:20)
~ Bonus tracks
15. The Final Bow (3:10)
16. Big Baby (4:14)
17. Charles Louis Dance (2:29)
18. Wonderful Day (3:22)
19. Bread & Water (3:34)
20. Dirty Little Nightingale (4:54)
21. First Name of Love (2:31)
22. Beating a Path (5:14)
Time – 77:57
DISC TWO
A Victory for Common Sense
01. Boots and Shoes (4:08)
02. The Old Country (3:18)
03. (Waiting for You and) England to Return (4:04)
04. Red Squirrel (5:45)
05. North St. Grande (3:50)
06. Long Dark River (7:19)
07. Lost and Found (4:42)
08. Cheese and Ham (5:57)
09. The Day the World Stopped Turning (11:10)
~ Bonus tracks
10. Seek and You Will Find (3:48)
11. Beside the Sea (4:35)
12. Dummies (5:03)
13. Purple Spaceships Over Yatton (2006 version) (7:22)
Time – 70:56
DISC THREE
The Final Bow, Bristol 2015
01. Over the Horizon (3:34)
02. The Road to Venezuela (4:47)
03. The Last Plimsoll (4:05)
04. Red Squirrel (5:41)
05. Syracuse the Elephant (8:06)
06. Fundamentally Yours (2:38)
07. Highbury Incident (4:09)
08. Teatime (5:14)
09. God Speed the Plough (5:45)
10. Long Dark River (6:31)
11. Purple Spaceships Over Yatton (7:21)
Time – 57:48
DISC FOUR
The Final Bow, Bristol 2015
01. All I Do is Dream of You (3:50)
02. Fish in a Glass (7:41)
03. Something About the Beatles (4:08)
04. No Ones More Important Than the Earthworm (5:10)
05. Lost and Found (4:47)
06. Boots and Shoes (4:56)
07. The Final Bow (3:22)
08. Lummy Days (3:37)
09. Slark (5:16)
10. Dora the Female Explorer (3:26)
11. Do the Stanley Aviator Brass (2:34)
Time – 48:43
Total Time – 255:23
MUSICIANS
Andy Cresswell-Davis – Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals, Ukulele (Disc 1, Tracks 15-22; Discs 2-4)
Jim “Crun” Walter – Bass Guitar, Acoustic Guitar (Discs 1-3)
James Warren – Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals, Bass Guitar
Glenn Tommey – Keyboards, Trombone, Backing Vocals (Discs 2-4)
Eddie John – Drums (Discs 2-4)
~ With:
Michael “Mutter” Slater – Flute, Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards (Disc 1, Tracks 15-22; Disc 2; Disc 3, Track 11; Disc 4, Track 9)
Tim Robinson – Drums (Disc 1, Tracks 1-14)
Innes Sibun – Guitar Solo (Disc 1, Track 1)
Richard Stubbbings – Backing Vocals, Piano and Wind Ensemble Arrangement (Disc 1, Track 6)
John Miller – Piano (Disc 1, Tracks 7, 10, 11)
Hayward Slater – Guitar (Disc 1, Track 10)
Graham Smith – Harmonica (Disc 1, Track 13)
Steve Robinson – Backing Vocals (Disc 1, Track 13)
Davide Rossi – Violin (Disc 1, Tracks 19, 20), String Arrangements (Disc 2)
Jenny Crook – Harp (Disc 1, Tracks 19, 20)
Jamie Matthews – Penny Whistle (Disc 1, Track 20)
David Lord – Keyboards (Disc 1, Tracks 15, 19, 20)
Rachel Hall – Violin (Disc 2)
Sarah Mitchell – Violin, Backing Vocals (Disc 2)
Andy “Codge” Marsden – Drums (Disc 2)
Mark Frith – Programming (Disc 2)
Chris Hughes – Percussion (Disc 2)
Clare Lindley – Violin, Guitar, Ukulele, Vocals (Discs 3-4)
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Esoteric Recordings | Cherry Red Records
Catalogue#: ECLEC 42884
Country of Origin: U.K.
Date of Release: 27th September 2024
LINKS
Stackridge – Website | Facebook | Twitter | Cherry Red page for Lost And Found: The Reunion Years 1999-2015