Brand X

Cambodia may be my favorite.

 

Checkout the Fire Merchants.

 

I LOVE them, one of my all top favourite bands - own almost evreything they've recorded. "Unorthodox Behaviour" (their first) is my favourite, by far.

 

Their first and outstanding album, see my post above. Then "Masque", after that "Product", then you'll find your way

 

I have an original UK vinyl of Unorthodox Behaviour, and it does sound lovely. It also has an insert that had photos and other silly notes in a very Pythonesque vein that were never reproduced on the CD reissues.

I'd like to hear the UK vinyl of Moroccan Roll - I've only ever owned the Passport LP.

I have the Charisma vinyl of Masques and have always thought that sounded nice too.

I would love to hear these albums remastered properly, but I doubt that we'll ever see that happen...

 

Must admit, had forgotten about the Devo incident at Knebworth till I saw Black Elks link, very dangerous at the time, I can remember the guitarist hitting back some bottles with his guitar, would have made a fair batsman i thought! Of course uncalled for, what an introduction to the UK, now Devo are revered of course.

 

Used to own it, sounded as lovely as Unorthodox... - very well pressed.

 

The CD releases were shoddy all around. Minimal artwork and notes - the Charisma/Virgin CDs don't even list the musicians, and have a cheesey "compact price" embedded into the cover art. Really awful. The Caroline/Blue Plate issues at least took off the "compact price" thing.

You shouldn't have too much trouble finding a UK Charisma pressing of any album.

 

Thanks for that info. I bought the Soho 12" for the non-Lp B side "Pool Room Blues" but never listened to see if Soho was different from that album version (it is not identified as being a different version).

 

"Don't Make Waves" on Product is a really good rock song, but some fans don't like it because it IS a rock song. Plus, its the only place you get to hear Phil Collins sing "a^&hole" (yeah I know, as opposed to singing like one...)

 

A couple of Brand X comments:

Product (1979) and Do They Hurt (1980) were composed of tracks from the same session. There were recorded using two different groups of musicians. Goodsall was the only common player.

Percy Jones explained: "Our record and management companies were both complaining about poor record sales and telling us we had to make the music more accessible. Some of the guys agreed to go along with this, but I felt, that to do this would not generate a new audience but would probably just alienate the one that we already had. The only solution was to have two bands, one being more accessible and the other being more experimental. For my stuff the lineup was Robinson, Clark, Goodsall and me; for the other direction it was Lumley, Collins and Goodsall with John Giblin on bass. We recorded in shifts, ours was 8pm to 4am and the others, 10am to 6pm"

"Experimental" Brand X
John Goodsall
Mike Clarke
Peter Robinson
Percy Jones
Morris Pert

"Accessible" Brand X
John Goodsall
Phil Collins
Robin Lumley
John Giblin

I believe that the band broke up in 1980. Apparently, Is There Anyone About (1982) is composed of left-overs from those same 1979 sessions that produced Product and Do They Hurt.

After the split, Goodsall had a band called Fire Merchants that put out two albums. The first (self-titled) was released in 1989 and it is my favorite. The second [Landlords of Atlantis (1994)] is more fusion-oriented. The Fire Merchants (especially the first album) had more of a rock sound that Brand X (most songs have no keys).

 

I saw them on their UK tour in 1980 where they shared the bill with Bruford, so they must have broken up after that.

 

Thanks for the correction! I don't think any dates were played after 1980. Do They Hurt was released in April 1980.

More Fire Merchants:

 

Brand X is great! If you like them, you might want to check out Tunnels with Percy Jones as well.

 

They did a tour of the UK in 1980... maybe elsewhere in Europe. Last time they played the US was in '79.
"Is there Anything About?" (1982) is indeed a collection of outtakes, and it's mostly junk, unfortunately. However the title track is a nice jam, which sounds like an outtake from the Unorthodox Behaviour sessions (1976).

I've heard recently that Universal is planning a CD reissue campaign, all the albums (except "Is There Anything...") plus bonus tracks, crammed onto 4 CDs. Bonus tracks will be some live BBC recordings from 76. No idea if anything is remastered or not.

 

That is great new! Where did you hear the information? I would be in on those for sure.

 

Heard it from Percy.
BTW, there are 2014 Japanese reissues, on SHM-CD, the ad blurbs say they are new "flat transfers from the original tapes". Haven't heard any as they are pricey.

 

I saw them back in '77 or '78 (I think) at a small club called the El Mocambo in Toronto (same one the Stones would frequent). No Phil, but what a night, sponsored by CHUM-FM and Ric Ringer.

I actually got a chance to bump into John Goodsall between sets. Nice enough fellow. For fellow Torontonians, it was quite the night in the club as all the CHUM-FM jocks were there: the late Reiner Schwartz, Dave Marsden, Dave Pritchard to name a few.

Oh, and those QUART-sized bottles of Export Ale!!! Good times.

"Unorthodox Behaviour" was my favourite, but I enjoy playing all of them.

 

Here they are doing 'And So To F' on The Old Grey Whistle Test. You might want to fast-forward; there's an interview with the drummer first.

 

The Feb 1976 BBC session is really good - as good as anything else I know by Brand X.

 

One of my all time fav bands, Percy And John Goodsall are both killer players, and widely unknown, I believe, which is a shame.

 

Anyone heard these 2014 remasters yet?

 

Love Brand X. Haven't listened to them in a long time. Thanks to this thread, I may have to give them a spin.

 

Saxophonist Jack Lancaster and Brand X keyboardist Robin Lumley released two albums that featured the entire Brand X band.

Peter and The Wolf (1975)
Marscape (1976)

Peter and The Wolf was released just before the Brand X debut. The beginning notes of "Born Ugly" were found (in a slightly different arrangement) on this album. A narrator is featured in this recording and various instruments act as different animals in the story. In addition to Brand X, the album features Bill Bruford, Cozy Powell, Gary Moore Eno, Gary Brooker, Manfred Mann, and many others. As a Brand X completist, I tracked the album down awhile ago. I was never all that interested in actually listening to it until today. It is an interesting concept. After my first listen, I am very intrigued.


Marscape is a more traditional album than Peter and The Wolf.... but it is far from boring. It was released before Moroccan Roll. The concept: Brand X goes to Mars. The album is a bit spacier (and acoustic) than Brand X. The instrumentation includes koto, violin, bamboo flutes, and water gongs. There are some great passages on this album. This is an especially nice addition for Brand X collectors.

 

I just found a copy of this used at Amoeba recently. All of the narration is in French...

Later, Chris