ULTRA Scarce (The Only One???) 1982 Australian 12 inch LP debut release from INFINITY RECORDS (A Division of Festival) "BAND ON THE RUN" surf movie soundtrack.

This is the rare rare rare non-promo stock issue that was supposed to have been destroyed. 

The last 2 copies sold on ebay in 2014 & 2015 were promo copies and sold for $400 & $350 respectively.

The labels on this LP are clean and show no evidence of a removed promo sticker....it is in the exact condition as when purchased.

Record has been played all the way through both sides...sounds fantastic a great album...no skips or jumps.

Conservatively graded....Vinyl has a few light marks on it appears EX , sleeve has only the slightest amount of ringwear...barely noticeable and a little corner and edge wear. No seam splits.

See photos for track listing and condition.....as this is the exact item you will receive.

Side 1:
EX...tiny bit of light background noise at the very start and in between tracks barely noticeable.

Side 2:
VG+/EX...as for side 1 but slightly more noticeable background noise at start and finish

SLEEVE: VG+ ...see photos

Record sent securely wrapped in bubble wrap in an LP mailer with tracking number, signature on delivery and insurance to the full value included to anywhere in Australia for FREE.

Also comes with a free Analog (No Compression) recording of the album burnt on to CD-R to play in the car.

I recorded the entire album on to an audio CD while I listened to it.

Record will be removed from cardboard sleeve in a plastic sleeve to avoid seam splits.

One of The Great Rarities of Aussie Rock!

By Ian McFarlane. ‘It really is a tremendous recording.’

Band on the Run – Music from the Soundtrack of the Film

By the time he was 21 years old, guitarist TIM GAZE had played on four of the most feted of all Australian progressive albums from the early 1970s – Tamam Shud’s Goolutionites and the Real People (1970), Kahvas Jute’s Wide Open (1971), the Morning of the Earth soundtrack (1972) and Ariel’s A Strange Fantastic Dream (1973). A guitar prodigy of exacting technique and energy, he was also a capable songwriter and contributed a number of quality songs to the albums.

Following his departure from Ariel in April 1974, he played on Renee Geyer’s It’s a Man’s Man’s World (1974) and toured with Stevie Wright and the All Stars for six months. He then spent a couple of years trying to get a number of different bands off the ground – Dayride, Tim Gaze Rock Ensemble – finally getting his dream outfit, the Tim Gaze Band, together in 1977. The line-up comprised Gaze, Peter Bolton (keyboards), Harry Curtis (bass) and Robbie France-Shaw (drums), a very proficient and skilled combo capable of playing in a variety of rock styles. Later on he added Suzanne Petersen (vocals, guitars, flute, piano) and Annette Henery (vocals, percussion) to the line-up.

In 1979, film-maker Harry Hodge approached Gaze with the idea of composing the soundtrack to his latest surfing documentary, Band on the Run. The film followed champion surfers Paul Neilsen, Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew, Bruce Raymond and Brian Cregan as they went in search of the “perfect wave”. Indeed, the tagline for the film was “The world was their stage, the ocean their playground”. The water photography was by the acclaimed Dick Hoole / Jack McCoy team who had made their own films such as Tubular Swells (1976).

Surfing and rock music made a powerful and enticing combination that had proliferated since the early 1960s, and in Australia we’d already seen the likes of The Hot Generation (1967), Evolution (1969), Sea of Joy (1971), Morning of the Earth (1972), Crystal Voyager (1973), Drouyn (1974) and Highway One (1976) feature tremendous soundtracks of Aussie rock music. Possibly because of his contribution to Morning of the Earth, Gaze seemed like the logical candidate for the job.

The band worked quickly, laying down a dozen demos (known by the band as the “first wave”) in order to get approval for the “real” recording process (the “second wave”). Of the final ten songs recorded, eight were earmarked for the Band on the Run soundtrack album: ‘Give Me Life’, ‘Oceans’, ‘Beautiful Lady’, ‘Lazy Day Fever’, ‘Brothers and Sisters’, ‘Paradise’, ‘Looking for Answers’ and ‘End Theme’.

By 1980, things were well advanced but it was at this point that things also started to get complicated. Apparently, roots rock singer / guitarist J.J. Cale and his producer Audie Ashworth expressed an interest in contributing to the soundtrack album with a tie-in to issue the record in the US on Cale’s label Shelter Records (distributed by Festival in Australia). So three tracks from Cale’s Troubadour album (‘Travelin’ Light’, ‘Cocaine’ and ‘I’m a Gypsy Man’) plus two new songs (‘Nowhere to Run’ and ‘Bringing it Back’) were added.

Inevitably that delayed the project so it wasn’t until 1982 that Festival had prepared the Band on the Run soundtrack album for release on the Infinity label. The covers were printed and the vinyl pressed (most likely in a run of say 3,000-5,000 copies) but at the eleventh hour someone realised that there was a SNAFU with the licensing for the J.J. Cale tracks and the release was cancelled.

The irony was that a shipment of promo-only copies had already been despatched to the media and sales reps and this is where the rarity factor of this record comes into play. The promotional allocation would probably have been something like 50 copies (or certainly no more 100) and the very few copies of the album that have ever turned up since feature the large Festival red and white bullet promo sticker on the label. No stock copies have ever appeared so we can only assume that the rest of the vinyl and covers were destroyed.

So in terms of collectability the Band on the Run soundtrack album is one of the great rarities of Aussie rock. Yet beyond that, and the inclusion of the Cale tracks, it’s a great pity it didn’t receive its due because it really is a tremendous recording. The Tim Gaze Band tracks are highly competent and beautifully played, featuring a bright, melodic, harmony rich West Coast sound mixed with elements of reggae and symphonic touches courtesy of the interplay between Gaze’s soaring lead guitar and Bolton’s Hammond organ. Perhaps the only other Aussie performer with a similar style was Richard Clapton.