ROCK WORKSHOP The Very Last Time ALEX HARVEY UK 1971
$
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Description
or ROCK WORKSHOP
The Very Last Time
CBS S 64394 UK1971
VINYL: VG++ (just a couple angel hair lines)
COVER: VG+ gatefold
SIDE 1:
Living Reason
Street War (parts 1 and 2 )
Going Home
What’s Mine Is Mine
Weeping Wood Mandalas
SIDE 2:
Forgotten How To Live
Light As Light
I Think It’s....
Ella Banta Dum Bundy
Very Last Time
BELOW ARE 2 REVIEWS I GOOGLED
Rock Workshop
This is the second trip into the archive for Rock Workshop, a collective of musicians who featured 'sensational' Alex Harvey in formative career mode before he jumped ship to bigger things.
As a consequence, Rock Workshop are perhaps more notable for their "connections", with guitarist Ray Russell forging a later career as a respected composer/producer. Detail on the other participants is sketchy and we learn that female singer Ginger "was great but we never really knew her...she kind of just floated into the studio and did the vocals!" Ah, those were the days.
Harvey watchers should seek out the first album, also reissued on Angel Air, because their hero is fully featured. He had left the band by the time this second album was recorded, although he's included on a few bonus cuts from the period.
Rock Workshop peddled a brand not far removed from the jazz-rock of Blood Sweat and Tears. It is quite clear, though, that this blend of funky Russell riffery and free jazz was not going to yield a Top 20 appearance. The bonus track 'Heavy Weather' is really where they were at and is a wonderful blend of brass, organ and rock guitar. 'Ashen Besher' sounds remarkably contemporary, too, with a hypnotic riff topped with Russell's frenzied fretting. A feast.
Reading between the lines, Rock Workshop like many before and after were snuffed out by the age-old dilemma of artistic integrity versus the need for a hit single. Needless to say the band stuck to their virtues and promptly disappeared. Which makes this second outing all the more interesting.
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It’s probably accurate to claim that Rock Workshop couldn’t exist today. Only during the early seventies did record labels bestow upon bands the flexibility and freedom that led to the creation of such original and often avant-garde albums.
Rock Workshop were just such an innovative project. The band formed in 1971 when guitarist Ray Russell (who had previously worked with Georgie Fame And The Blue Flames) colluded with the legendary singer Alex Harvey. Russell had first met Harvey after standing in for Harvey’s brother Leslie (of Stone The Crows) in the musical ‘Hair’ (at a tender age).
Their shared enthusiasm in producing more left-field material enabled them to recruit a sprawling band of twelve members that included a lively brass section.
Their debut album ‘Rock Workshop’ was recorded over a two-day period in April 1970, and released soon afterwards, though it surprisingly failed to make any substantial impact on the charts. Containing such tracks as ‘Hole In Her Stocking’ and ‘Born In The City’- both delivered with Alex Harvey’s hefty vocals- and it remains fresh even today.
OF COURSE I COMBINE AUCTIONS FOR THE CHEAPEST POSSIBLE SHIPPING
NM (Near Mint): Record and cover appear virtually unmarked.
VG++: A hair under near mint may have just a very few visual marks that should not affect sound.
VG+ : A well cared for record. Should have only very slight if any audible imperfections.
VG : Many only surface lines or may have 1 or more small scratches .Background sound but still very enjoyable. Cover defects will be noted.
VG-: significant background sound from various defects but music always quite audible above it. Cover has some damage that will be noted.
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