WRITING ON THE WALL THE POWER OF THE PICTS MIDDLE EARTH MDLS 303 UK NON-TEXTURED

	£		127
	$		168

Here is a very rare late 60's progressive rock album form the progressive rock band from Scotland, Writing on the Wall. You don't see these coming around too often. 
Considering the age and nature of the music this is in good condition. The sleeve has noticeable edge wear, the spine text being completely illegible and the top has a small breach about two centimetres long. The vinyl is however very good. There is some background crackle but the music shines through and is still a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
I will supply it in a protective plastic sleeve. It will be ver carefully packaged and insured.

Writing on the Wall were a Scottish rock band of the late 1960s and early 1970s who became a popular live act in the United Kingdom.
The group originally formed as the Jury, changing their name to Writing on the Wall in early 1968. The band's manager, Brian Waldman, moved the group to London and let the band perform at his club, the Middle Earth. That same year, the band recorded a BBC radio session for disc jockey John Peel and made a live demo album as well.
They eventually recorded their lone album, The Power of the Picts, for Waldman's Middle Earth label. In 1971 the band did another session for John Peel and made an LP in Scotland that was never released in 1972, then went through several lineup changes. The group tried to record another album in Wales near the end of 1973, but gave up when their equipment was stolen in December of that year.
"Writing on the Wall's only album was theatrical heavy blues-psychedelic-rock that, despite its power and menace, was too obviously derivative of better and more original artists to qualify as a notable work. The organ-guitar blends owe much to the Doors, Procol Harum, and Traffic, though the attitude is somehow more sour and ominous than any of those groups. The vocals are sometimes pretty blatant in their homages to Arthur Brown, particularly when Linnie Paterson climbs to a histrionic scream; Jim Morrison, Gary Brooker, and Stevie Winwood obviously left their imprints on him too. Throw in some of the portentous drama from the narrations to the Elektra astrological concept album The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds (particularly on "Aries") as well. A problem is, however, that not many singers other than Morrison and Brown could pull off this kind of solemn poetic mood, and on "Aries," to take one example, the attempt to create a seance-like atmosphere seems faintly ridiculous. To look at the positives, the band does play with a soul-rock crunch; the songs sometimes shift tempo (occasionally in and out of martial beats) and melody unpredictably, if not nearly as memorably as, say, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown did; and there are occasional off-the-wall touches of accordion and, on "Virginia Waters," speaking-in-tongues vocals with a nod to Family's Roger Chapman."
Here is some information about this version courtesy of discogs.com:-
Writing On The Wall ?– The Power Of The Picts Label: Middle Earth ?– MDLS 303, Middle Earth ?– MDLS.303 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Non-Textured Cover  Country: UK Released: 1969 Genre: Rock Style: Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Tracklist  
A1 It Came On A Sunday Written-By – Robert Smith* 4:10 A2 Mrs. Cooper's Pie Written-By – Bill Scott, Jake Scott, Willy Finlayson 4:50 A3 Ladybird Written-By – Bill Scott, Jake Scott, Jimmy Hush, Linnie Paterson, Willy Finlayson 4:48 A4 Aries Written-By – Unknown Artist 6:02
B1 Bogeyman Written-By – Bill Scott, Jake Scott, Willy Finlayson 3:10 B2 Shadow Of Man Written-By – Bill Scott, Jake Scott 6:30 B3 Taskers Successor Written-By – Jake Scott, Willy Finlayson 3:35 B4 Hill Of Dreams Written-By – Bill Scott, Jake Scott, Willy Finlayson 3:10 B5 Virginia Waters Written-By – K. Bernard*, Page* 5:50
Companies, etc. Distributed By – Pye Records (Sales) Ltd. Printed By – Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd. Made By – Garrod & Lofthouse
Credits Engineer – Andrew Hedrixon* Producer, Conductor, Arranged By – Dave Howson Notes Non-textured cover version of this.
Released on an aqua blue Middle Earth Label. First cat.nr. on cover, second on label. A4 credited to ''Composer Unknown''. On the back cover the title of A5 appears as ''Virginia Water'', the label lists it correctly. Engineer appears like this on the back cover, on the label it's erroneous too: ''Andrew Hendrixson''
Barcode and Other Identifiers Matrix / Runout (Side A label): MDLS.303-A Matrix / Runout (Side B label): MDLS.303-B Matrix / Runout (Run-out side A): MDLS 303 A1 - <> H STEREO Matrix / Runout (Run-out side B): MDLS 303 B1 - <> H STEREO Other (U.K. tax code. Runouts etched. ): KT