Badger One Live Badger vinyl LP Tony Kaye Genesis Yes

	£		23
	$		30

A1   Wheel Of Fortune A2   Fountain A3   Wind Of Change B1   River B2   The Preacher B3   On The Way Home

From my own collection a rare and OOP vinyl LP by Badger "One Live Badger"

Vinyl Ex

Lable Ex

Cover Ex

Track list

A1   Wheel Of Fortune  7:04 
A2   Fountain  7:12 
A3   Wind Of Change  7:00 
B1   River  7:00 
B2   The Preacher  3:35 
B3   On The Way Home  7:10

Bass Guitar - Dave Foster*
Design [Cover], Artwork By [Drawing] - Roger Dean (4)
Drums - Roy Dyke
Engineer - Geoffrey Haslam , Martin Rushent

Guitar - Brian Parrish
Keyboards - Tony Kaye
Photography - Martin Dean
Producer - Badger (5), Geoffrey Haslam , Jon Anderson
Written-By - Badger (5) (tracks: A1 to B1, B3)

5* Review

After `The YES Album', their 3rd, the members of YES cast their beady eyes around and set their designs on the multi-banked keyboards of the Strawbs' keyboard player, a certain Mr. Rick Wakeman. To make room for the new keyboard wizard, the old one had to go. Therefore, with undue haste, founding member Tony Kaye was dumped from the lineup. (YES had once before done that, after their second album, when founding member guitarist Peter Banks was unceremoniously kicked out of the band to be replaced by the more manageable Steve Howe. Not a nice thing to do.)

After two more albums another founding member in the shape of drummer Bill Bruford would leave. However, to be fair, he jumped rather than being pushed. This left YES with an everlasting reputation for having a revolving door style lineup. Very rarely are have two consecutive albums been recorded with the same lineup. At one time in the early nineties there were actually two lineups touring under the YES banner, and then they all (eleven of them to be precise) combined for one ridiculous tour and album.

After being dumped by YES, Tony Kaye first set up his keyboards with old cohort Peter Banks of Flash and helped them record their first album, the self-titled 'Flash' (1972). After the recordings were completed, Tony realized that Flash was actually Peter Bank's band, and perhaps it would be better if he went on to set up his own band under the Badger monicker. After a handshake the pair went their own ways, however, unlike many of the other past members of YES, Tony and Peter have remained friends to this day.

Bassist David Foster was the first to be signed up, having come to Tony Kaye's attention when he was playing with Jon Anderson of YES in a band called the Warriors. Next to join was one of the true warhorses of rock drummers, Roy Dyke. He had previously been with Remo Four; Family; and represented one-third of Ashton, Gardner, and Dyke, who had scored a worldwide smash hit with `Resurrection Shuffle' in 1971.

The fourth member to join was a very young Brian Parrish on lead vocals and guitar. He proved to be a very good addition as he arrived with a bag full of ideas for songs as well as having a guitar style that was vastly different to anything like Kaye's former band styles, therefore lessening the comparisons.

Feeling that the band might be left behind in the fame stakes if they didn't get an album out on the record racks at its earliest opportunity, the Rainbow theatre was booked for two concerts in mid December 1972, both of which were recorded for a live album; a very novel idea for a debut album. When the album was released in early 1973, it came in a gatefold sleeve designed by Roger Dean with pop up badgers when you opened the artwork. With a blaze of publicity from their label Arco Records and the gimmicky artwork, the album broke into the bottom of the top thirty in both America and Great Britain. Unfortunately that is just about the last of the good news for this Badger. After early good sales they soon dropped off.

The music was competent, proficient even, but certainly not startling enough to keep the public's interest, even though some of the guitar/keyboard duels are extremely exciting. There are only six songs on this album, but it still clocks in at a very respectable forty-two minutes. Closing song `On The Way Home' has one of the heaviest organ introductions you are ever likely to be lucky enough to hear.

By the end of the first tour Parrish and Foster were let go to be replaced by ex-Stealers Wheel guitarist Paul Pilnick and Roy Dyke's old band mate Kim Gardner. The search for a front man was settled with the addition of Jackie Lomax, a very charismatic and talented soul singer, but definitely not the man to put into what was supposed to be a rock band. This was definitely a classic case of "wrong man, wrong place".

The band then went into the studio to record the studio album 'White Lady' (1973), with all the songs written by Jackie Lomax. With so many influences within the band - rock, funk, soul, reggae, jazz, pop, and to top it all a progressive rock keyboard player - the music released upon the public was some of the worst ever to be released by a major label. Fortunately for those involved, the band had already disbanded in disarray by the time of its launch, so no embarrassing post mortems had to be endured. What a sad end to a great idea. Even so, the first album has its moments to remember Badger by, but you have been warned about the dreaded 'White Lady'. You don't get the pop up badgers with the CD release either, what a swizz.