Italian progressive rock band - Jumbo

A very important band that would have deserved much more success than they really had at the time, Jumbo were formed in Milan at the end of 1969 around singer-songwriter Alvaro "Jumbo" Fella, previously playing as bassist with the group from Vercelli Juniors.
Their debut came with two pop singles in 1970 on Numero Uno, sharing the same B-side and containing two cover versions, with Montego Bay and an italian version of In the summertime called In estate. First LP arrived in 1972 (but recorded earlier) on Philips, rather thin, conceived as an Alvaro Fella solo album (his nickname then became the name of the group) and mostly based on acoustic guitar compositions with little space for electric group parts. There are some good moments like Amore sono qua and Dio è (re-recorded on second album), but the result is not impressive and on a lesser level than their following works.
Later that year came their second album, DNA, an incredibly mature work, and especially when compared with the previous one this is their real first album as a group. It's composed of four extended tracks, with the long Suite per il Signor K taking the whole of side one. The beginning is in the same style as on the first album, based on acoustic instruments (guitar, flute, piano) but suddenly a distorted electric guitar introduces a much more aggressive sound, led by Fella's harsh voice and strong lyrics. One of the best italian prog albums for sure!
Last album in 1973, after a drummer change with Tullio Granatello from Novara replacing the original member Vito Balzano. Vietato ai minori di 18 anni? is their most ambitious work, containing strong lyrics and fragments of avantgarde-inspired music, with the help of Franco Battiato. Come vorrei essere uguale a te and Specchio deal with difficult subjects as homosexuality and social alienation and the result is intriguing and rewarding even if less immediate than DNA. The strong contents of the lyrics caused the band being banned by radio programs.
The band was very popular live and kept playing for some years, in 1975 they released a last commercial single, playing at Milan Parco Lambro festivals in 1975 and 1976 (this time with Roberto Biancone on sax and Valter Frazzi on keyboards, replacing Guidotti and Conte).
Flutist Dario Guidotti was briefly involved as singer with the supergroup Track in 1974, along with former members of Nuova Idea and I Giganti for their sole album Track rock.
After a not successful reunion attempt in 1983, documented on the Violini d'autunno CD, the band reunited again in late 1989 with original members bar Sergio Conte (replaced by Paolo Dolfini) for a one-off concert in Paris with IQ and Magma, organized by a french fan of theirs, and the very nice evening is documented on the brilliant Live in Paris CD.
2001 has seen the release of another CD, called Passing by, containing 1991-2001 recordings by guitarist Daniele Bianchini (always the driving force behind the reunion attempts) aided by some of the band original members, like Alvaro Fella, Dario Guidotti and Tullio Granatello, more new age oriented and mainly instrumental, but containing some very good moments.In 2007 BTF released the DVD Anthology, containing interviews, pictures and videos documenting the group's career.



Line-up

1970-72:

Alvaro Fella (vocals, acoustic guitar, sax, keyboards, percussion)
Daniele Bianchini (guitar)
Dario Guidotti (flute, mouth harp, acoustic guitar, percussion)
Sergio Conte (keyboards, vocals)
Aldo Gargano (bass, guitar)
Vito Balzano (drums, percussion, vocals)

1973:

Balzano replaced by:Tullio Granatello (drums)

Italian progressive rock band - Premiata Forneria Marconi

Much has been written and said in Italy about Premiata Forneria Marconi, and they have surely been the most popular band here for many years. No one who was in his teens in Italy during the 70's, doesn't know È festa or Impressioni di settembre. They were also the first (and last, probably) italian band to have some success abroad, playing some good european and american tours, and even playing the popular Reading festival in England.
The band was formed in Milan around 1970 when the ex-Quelli (a popular beat band during the 60's) Mussida, Premoli, Piazza and Di Cioccio met multiinstrumentalist Mauro Pagani from Dalton. The four Quelli had a change in their musical style near the end of the 60's and even made a single as I Krel, before the new name was adopted.
The new band had a long name, as it was the tendency for the prog-oriented italian bands of the time, and were usually referred to as "La Premiata" and later PFM. Their live beginnings, recently documented in the 10 anni live 71/81 box set, included many covers, especially by the likes of King Crimson and Jethro Tull that were among their strongest influences.
In June 1971 Premiata Forneria Marconi were invited at the first "Festival d’Avanguardia e Nuove Tendenze" in Viareggio, and they won it, along with Osanna and Mia Martini.
But their first single, coupling La carrozza di Hans with Impressioni di settembre, began a highly original musical style, where the foreign influences had been mixed with classical music and some typical mediterranean sounds, creating the distinctive "italianprog" sound that has been later perfectioned by many others.
First album, Storia di un minuto in 1972 is a milestone in the genre, the quintessence of the italian prog, and few others can be compared with this that's surely one of the top five italian LP's for its contents and energy. Tracks like the two on the single, È festa and Dove.. quando are still among the finest example of their distinctive sound. The fine playing of Mauro Pagani, Franco Mussida and Flavio Premoli, despite the lack of a good role singer (always one of their limits), create a highly regarding sound that's still valid today.
The same year saw the release of their second LP, Per un amico, containing the same elements as the previous one with cuts such as the title track, Generale, Il banchetto. Both the albums were very successful and, along with the first Banco del Mutuo Soccorso album, opened the way to a large audience recognition of the new musical style.
Third album, Photos of ghosts, contained mostly reworkings of old tracks in english version, and represented the first attempt by italian rock bands to break the foreign markets. The LP was released abroad by ELP label Manticore (just like Banco's fourth eponymous album) and gave the band a huge success in the USA.
In 1974 the fourth album, L'isola di niente, also had an english version released with the same track listing, called The world became the world. A new bass guitarist had joined the band, Patrick Djivas from Area (Giorgio Piazza formed the short-lived Crystals), and english lyrics were by Pete Sinfield. The album was again very successful and the band embarked in their first US tour, documented in their Live in USA album.
The lack of a lead singer in the band had always been marked by the press as PFM's main defect, and for this reason the group enroled Bernardo Lanzetti from Acqua Fragile. Lanzetti had lived in the States and with his distinctive voice could solve the major problems for the band, singing and speaking english! The first (and sadly the only) release by the new six-piece was Chocolate kings, the first album only released with english lyrics (and their least successful so far for this reason in Italy). Containing some very good songs such as the title track and Out of the roundabout, the album had probably lost some of the typical italian feel of their previous works, going closer to the foreign markets' taste. A successful album abroad, it gave the band new chances to play in foreign countries, with new tour in Europe, USA and Japan.
But after the long tour, Pagani, tired of the hard life on the road, decided to quit the band. The band tried to replace him with american violinist Greg Bloch (from Flock and It's a Beautiful Day) but their decline had started. Jet lag, released in 1977 on the new Zoo label, still has very discordant reviews, its sound being very far from past glories, and Passpartù in 1978, with lyrics written by italian songwriter Gianfranco Manfredi, saw a strong turn towards pop music.
In 1979 a successful tour brought PFM all over Italy as backing band to the singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André, and two live albums were released by Ricordi (Fabrizio De André e la PFM In concerto voll. I & II).
The band released the good Suonare suonare in 1980 with new member Lucio Fabbri (on violin and keyboards, from Piazza delle Erbe) but some low level albums followed during the 80's, wit the group still continuing its successful live activity in Italy, and members Mussida and Di Cioccio also released solo albums. After Miss Baker in 1987 PFM officially split.
Reunion of the basic four piece of Mussida, Premoli, Djivas and Di Cioccio came in 1997 with the Ulisse LP, and the band had some successful tours in the following years, well documented by the live http://www.pfmpfm.it/, a sort of "live greatest hits" album as stated in its subtitle Il Best.
A studio CD has come in 2000, Serendipity, and again a double live CD, Live in Japan 2002 (better than the previous 1998 live), is another nice document of the group's concert energy, and this also includes two new studio unreleased recordings, a cover of Franco Battiato's Bandiera bianca (following Battiato's remake of Impressioni di settembre in his 2002 album) and a great Sea of memories with vocals by Peter Hammill. Summer 2003 sees the group playing all over Italy with renewed energy, with Mauro Pagani, Peter Hammill and other artists guesting in some dates.Di Cioccio also plays blues in a sort of supergroup and has a record company, Immaginifica, that has recently released the second album by the italian band Stereokimono.
In 2006 the group, always playing live all over Italy, has no less than three different shows going on, the classic PFM canta De André, the new Stati d'immaginazione, featuring improvisations built on original videos, and the rock opera Dracula, released on CD in 2005.



Line-up

1970-73

Mauro Pagani (vocals, flute, violin)
Franco Mussida (guitar, vocals)
Flavio Premoli (keyboards, vocals)
Giorgio Piazza (bass, vocals)
Franz Di Cioccio (drums, vocals)

1974

Piazza replaced by:Patrick Djivas (bass, vocals)

1975

enters:Bernardo Lanzetti (vocals, guitar)

1976

Pagani quits, replaced by:Greg Bloch (violin)

1977

Bloch quits

Italian progressive rock band - Latte E Miele

Another group from Genova, this young three-piece was one of the italian bands with the strongest classical influences. They were formed in 1971 by guitarist Dellacasa, that had collaborated with I Giganti in their Terra in bocca, with the drummer Vitanza only 16 year old! A keyboards trio in the same style as ELP or Le Orme in Italy, their first album was Passio secundum Mattheum, with Bach-inspired music and lyrics on the Gospel. An ambitious work, it has its moments but can be boring at times. The band members had a good technique but their keyboard/bass/drums formula was repetitive and mixed with a melodic voice with a result that's not too convincing.
A second album, Papillon, came the following year in a similar style, but the production was much better. The album contains two side-long tracks with the Beethoven's derived Patetica on most of side two being a nice example of their style. An english version of it was also recorded but only saw the light in 1992 on CD.
The band had a good live activity, and even supported Van der Graaf Generator in one of their italian tours. A good 1974 live recording was made available by Mellow with their Latte e Miele Live CD.
After a couple of singles in 1974, the last of which was melodic and far from the albums' level, the group disbanded, and was reformed in 1976 by drummer Vitanza with three new recruits.The new line-up released an album for Magma, Aquile e scoiattoli, a very good album, maybe their best and most original work, containing a rendition of Beethoven in Opera 21 and the nice 23-minute long Pavana, composed with help from former band member Lacagnina and also released in edited form on single (but curiously this appeared on Grog label).
The band kept playing until the beginning of the 80's with an always more commercial sound but the singles released were not successful. Their last single from 1980, Ritagli di luce, even took them to the Sanremo italian song contest. The group included in its latest days bassist Dario Carlevaro and drummer Enzo Barbieri.
An album recorded in 1979 was not released until it was released on CD by Mellow in 1992. Called Vampyrs, and played by the three-piece line-up of Gori, Poltini and Vitanza, it's mostly pop-rock and not comparable with the band's previous works.
Drummer Alfio Vitanza has collaborated with Vittorio De Scalzi in a revised New Trolls' line-up at the end of the 90's and is still playing nowadays with the recent De Scalzi's New Trolls incarnation called La Storia dei New Trolls. He is planning to reform the original Latte e Miele three-piece line-up for a one-off CD.
A commercial single released on Grog in 1976 by LM Special was in fact by Latte e Miele in disguise.


Line-up

1972-75

Oliviero Lacagnina (keyboards, vocals)
Marcello Giancarlo Dellacasa (guitar, bass, vocals)
Alfio Vitanza (drums, flute, vocals)



1975-76

Mimmo Damiani (keyboards, guitar, vocals)
Luciano Poltini (keyboards, vocals)
Massimo Gori (bass, guitar, vocals)
Alfio Vitanza (drums, acoustic guitar, vocals)

Italian progressive rock band - Osanna

One of the greatest bands in the italian prog field, Osanna came from Naples, formed in 1971 by the members of I Volti di Pietra and Città Frontale (another band with the same name came from Osanna ashes and recorded El Tor) whose keyboard player Gianni Leone has gone to Balletto di Bronzo. Reeds player Elio D'Anna came from Showmen, the others didn't have significant experiences.
During their four years lifespan Osanna failed to create, as many critics have pointed, the perfect album, but left us four very good LP's, among which Palepoli deserves a particular mention.
L'uomo, their first album, released in a memorable triple gatefold cover, already contains their distinctive elements, the nice voice of Lino Vairetti (with interesting lyrics indeed), the aggressive flute of Elio D'Anna, fluid guitar playing by Danilo Rustici and the solid rhythm section of Lello Brandi and Massimo Guarino. Taken from this album the tracks L'uomo and In un vecchio cieco were also released as a single, both starting with an acoustic guitar introduction followed by guitar and flute riffs.
The band also had an intense live activity, with band members all dressed in long vests and with their faces painted. The collaboration with theatrical groups produced interesting shows, unique for the italian audience of the time. They also played with Genesis in their early it


Line-up

Lino Vairetti (vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards)
Elio D'Anna (flute, sax)
Danilo Rustici (guitar, organ, vocals)
Lello Brandi (bass)
Massimo Guarino (drums, percussion)

Great progressive rock band -King Crimson

If there is one group that embodies both the best and the worst aspects of progressive rock (from the standpoints of both its supporters and its detractors), it is King Crimson. During its first five years of existence, from 1969 through 1974, in a variety of different lineups, this band led by guitar/Mellotron virtuoso Robert Fripp broke lots of new ground in progressive rock, stretching both the language and structure of the music into realms of jazz and classical, all the while avoiding any of the pop or psychedelic sensibilities of the Moody Blues. The absence of those pop compromises, and the lack of an overt sense of humor, ultimately doomed King Crimson to nothing more than a large cult following, but made their albums among the most enduring and respectable of progressive rock relics. King Crimson originally grew out of the remnants of an unsuccessful trio called Giles, Giles & Fripp. Michael Giles (drums, vocals), Peter Giles (bass, vocals), and Robert Fripp (guitar) had begun working together in late 1967, after playing in a variety of bands. Robert Fripp (born May 16, 1946, Dorset, England) had studied guitar in Bournemouth with a teacher named Don Strike, whose other students included a slightly younger Greg Lake. As a teenager, he'd played in a local band called the Ravens, whose lineup included vocalist Gordon Haskell, also a boyhood friend of Fripp's. From the spring of 1965 until the following spring, he and Haskell had been members of a group called the League of Gentlemen (the name taken from a very famous British crime-caper movie), and Fripp had also played guitar in the Majestic Dance Orchestra. Michael Giles (born 1942, Bournemouth, Dorset, England) and Peter Giles had played with bandleader/brothers Dave and Gordon Dowland in a group called the Dowland Brothers from 1962 until 1964. More recently, they'd been part of a Bournemouth group called Trendsetters, Ltd., but had left that group in the summer of 1967 and were looking to put together a band of their own. They hooked up with Fripp in August of 1967, and by September the trio had journeyed to London in search of fame and fortune. Instead, they found an Italian singer for whom they played backup for a week before parting company. At the time, British rock, and especially the London music scene, was in the process of evolving by leaps and bounds. The release of the Sgt. Pepper album in the summer of 1967, coupled with the ever druggier ambience both in everybody's songwriting and at the city's clubs, was causing a revolution in the sound of rock music. The totally unexpected success of what had been intended as a "stereo demonstration" record by the Moody Blues and the London Festival Orchestra, released by Decca Records' Deram imprint later that year, seemed to confirm that bands other than the Beatles could sell records of that type. Deram Records, thanks to the Moody Blues, was suddenly a locus for this new sound, and the label was scrambling around for anything vaguely psychedelic and pretentious. One of their signings was Giles, Giles & Fripp, who began cutting their single "One in a Million" and a follow-up album, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp, during the summer of 1968. Neither sold in any quantities, however, and Keith Moon of the Who, reviewing the record in Melody Maker, even trashed the single and its production. In retrospect, Giles, Giles & Fripp's sound was too precious for words, with pop choruses (with a strange "French" feeling to the arrangements, in some people's ears) and jazzy guitar juxtaposed alongside odds songs and narrative tales. Even as the album was in the works, however, the group's lineup was changing. London-born Ian McDonald (born June 24, 1946) and Peter Sinfield, working in a band called Infinity as singer/guitarists, joined up with the trio late in 1968. McDonald's enthusiasm for music dated back to age seven, when he was listening to the music of Louis Belson, Les Paul, and Earl Bostic. By 11 he was playing guitar and had joined his first band at 13. He was an unexceptional student, however, and after leaving school at 16, he made what seemed to be the mistake of his life by joining the army as a bandsman. He was in for five years, in the course of which he learned the clarinet, the saxophone, and the flute, as well as studying harmony and orchestration. He emerged a multi-instrumentalist and made his living playing in various orchestras and dance bands before hooking up with Sinfield, a poet, computer operator, and would-be guitarist and singer, in Infinity. McDonald switched to saxes and keyboards while Sinfield provided the words to a couple of songs, "I Talk to the Wind" and "Under the Sky," written with McDonald. And then Judy Dyble, who had passed through the first Fairport Convention lineup, joined briefly as a singer. This lineup recorded demos of "I Talk to the Wind" and "Under the Sky," but Dyble exited quickly. The band that shook out of this lineup, Giles, Giles & Fripp (Mark III), consisted of Fripp, McDonald, Giles, and Giles, and existed for about four months. Bassist Peter Giles, however, wasn't happy with the direction in which the new group was moving — Fripp left open the possibility that either he or Peter Giles could be replaced by Fripp's boyhood friend Greg Lake, who was proficient on both bass and guitar, at the decision of Michael Giles and Ian McDonald. At around this time of decision, Giles, Giles & Fripp ceased to exist, after having sold a total of 600 copies of their album. Peter Giles exited the scene on November 30, 1968, and Greg Lake joined two days later. This lineup, Fripp, Lake, McDonald, and Michael Giles, with fifth member Peter Sinfield writing their lyrics and later running their light show, among other functions, officially became King Crimson on January 13, 1969. The name derived from Sinfield's lyrics for "The Court of the Crimson King," which also provided the title of their debut album. Ten days later the group was signed to the management company E.G., founded by David Enthoven and John Gaydon in early 1969. During February and March, the quartet (or quintet, counting Sinfield) was still known as Giles, Giles & Fripp. The group had already come to the attention of Moody Blues producer Tony Clarke, who wanted to get them signed to the band's Threshold label. Unfortunately, the Moody Blues were too impressed with the new band — despite a few technical problems at their shows, the band was so much stronger than the Moodies as musicians, there was no chance of them being signed to Threshold. In July of 1969, the group played to 650,000 people at a free concert in London's Hyde Park, on a bill with the Rolling Stones, who were introducing their new lineup with Mick Taylor on guitar, and eulogizing a two-days-dead Brian Jones. Later that month, after an abortive start with Tony Clarke, King Crimson ultimately recorded and produced their first album themselves, under a distribution contract negotiated by E.G. with Island Records in England and Atlantic in America. In the Court of the Crimson King was one of the most challenging albums of the entire fledgling progressive rock movement, but somehow it caught the public's collective ear at the right moment and hit number five in England in November of 1969 — four months later, the album climbed to number 28 on the American charts. Ironically, by that time, the original band had broken up. Crimson had toured America from October through December 1969, astounding audiences and critics with their sound. They played about as loud as anybody, but the sounds that they played were like nothing that had been heard on the concert stage — Fripp's guitar work recalled Jimi Hendrix as much as anyone else, and McDonald's Mellotron presented this instrument in a guise unique in music, generating huge blasts of sound, while Michael Giles revealed himself as maybe the most inventive drummer in rock at that time. Even as that tour was progressing, however, McDonald and Giles were becoming increasingly unhappy with the group and its direction, as well as the strain of three months' touring of the United States. By November they'd decided to leave — Fripp was so shaken that he even offered to leave if they would stay. The original group played its last show on December 16, 1969, before returning to England. Greg Lake, having joined the group last, was uncomfortable with the idea of staying on with two replacement members. He had also been approached by Keith Emerson of the Nice while both groups were booked on the same bill, about the possibility of forming a group with him. Lake decided to leave Crimson as well, but agreed to stay long enough to record vocals for the next album. Whether there would be a next album was debatable for a time — Fripp was even offered the chance to replace Peter Banks in Yes early in 1970. A new single ("Catfood") and album (In the Wake of Poseidon) were recorded early in 1970 and released in May of that year. Essentially, In the Wake of Poseidon was a Fripp-dominated retake of In the Court of the Crimson King. Lake sang on all but one of the songs, Fripp played the Mellotron as well as all of the guitars, and there was Mellotron everywhere on the record, and a new singer, Fripp's boyhood friend Gordon Haskell, debuted on one song, "Cadence and Cascade." The album got to number four in England and number 31 in America, both of which were excellent performances considering that there was no "band" at the time to tour and promote the record. Fripp spent the month of August rehearsing a new King Crimson lineup, consisting of himself, Haskell (bass, vocals), saxman/flutist Mel Collins (who had played on Poseidon), and Andy McCullough (drums). This group, augmented by pianist Keith Tippett, guest vocalist Jon Anderson of Yes, and oboist/English horn virtuoso Marc Charig, recorded the next Crimson album, Lizard, in September and October of 1970, but Haskell and McCullough both walked out on the band soon after it was finished. With Fripp busy putting a new band together, Peter Sinfield took over a lot of the final production chores as well as many of the design decisions on Lizard, resulting in the most ornate, mystical-looking album in Crimson's output. In December of 1970, Ian Wallace joined on drums, and after auditioning several aspiring singers including Bryan Ferry, Fripp chose Boz Burrell (born August 1, 1946) as the group's new singer. Rick Kemp, later of Steeleye Span, was supposed to play bass in this lineup, but he quit after a pair of rehearsals in January of 1971 and Burrell, after a series of lessons from Fripp, took over on bass. By this time, the lineup changes, and the fact that Crimson hadn't toured since December of 1969, began to affect the group's record sales. Lizard only reached number 30 in England and peaked at a disappointing number 113 in America. Another complication for the group was the growing competition in the whole field of progressive rock — while Crimson's membership had been splintering over the previous 15 months, both Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer had been taking the charts and the airwaves by storm with a brand of prog rock that was not only more animated than Crimson's recent work but also more accessible. Indeed, Lake's presence on the first two albums had undoubtedly helped sustain some interest in those records. Even the presence of Yes' Jon Anderson as guest vocalist on one long track from Lizard didn't help that record's sales, since one had to open the gatefold jacket to realize that Anderson was there. The album itself was probably the group's most self-consciously beautiful, and its most calculatedly jazz-oriented. The influence of Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain could be heard, surrounded by immense masses of Mellotron-generated sound, Keith Tippett's rippling piano embellishment, Marc Charig's prominent English horn, and Collins' soaring saxes and flutes. Ironically, the departed Gordon Haskell released a solo album a year or two later entitled It Is and It Isn't, which contained one song with a dig at the Lizard album, and one of the players on that solo album was his eventual successor in King Crimson, John Wetton. The Crimson lineup of Fripp, Burrell, Collins, and Wallace emerged on-stage in April of 1971, and for the next 11 months, King Crimson was a going concern, playing gigs in England, continental Europe, and the United States and Canada. The only casualty during the remainder of the year was Peter Sinfield, who split with Fripp in December after the latter asked him to leave. The group's new album, Islands, got to number 30 in England, and number 76 in America, helped by the fact that the group toured behind its release. Their audiences were smaller, and the presence of more conventional progressive bands like ELP and the Moody Blues made Crimson seem more outré than ever, but very much on the cutting edge. Where the Moody Blues used the Mellotron as an orchestra, and Genesis used it as a choir, King Crimson used the Mellotron almost like a weapon; huge bursts of sound, like tonal howitzer blasts, emanated from their stage performances, punctuated by Fripp's ferocious guitar and accompanied by Collins' virtuoso sax work. Actually, what Crimson did with the Mellotron was similar to what Brian Eno was doing with the synthesizer, in contrast to groups like Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Rather than making the instrument mimic other instruments, in the manner of the Moody Blues, King Crimson generally let the Mellotron sound like itself, with its own distinct timbre and tone. Mixed with Fripp's unique guitar sound, this yielded a group sound that was instantly identifiable (and just as instantly off-putting to many people — friends of this writer who soaked up every note that Yes or ELP ever recorded used to called King Crimson "a bunch of noise"). The band might've succeeded had it lasted for another album to make its case. As it was, there were parts of Islands that had their roots all the way back with Giles, Giles & Fripp. Other elements of Islands were very surprising. "A Sailor's Tale" was a dazzling instrumental, progressive rock yet built on surprisingly lean instrumentation; at times, the group's sound was also relatively light and muscular — "Ladies of the Road" could almost have passed for an Abbey Road-period Beatles song, albeit a throwaway. In April of 1972, however, this latest King Crimson lineup broke up — Wallace, Collins, and Burrell moved as a trio to join Alexis Korner in a band called Snape. Burrell later became the bassist with Bad Company. Meanwhile, Island Records released a live album recorded along the band's final U.S. tour — Earthbound, recorded on a portable cassette unit, may have been the worst-sounding legitimate live album to come out of the entire progressive rock scene, so poor that Atlantic Records rejected it for release. The album later became a choice import, much sought after by hapless fans who were inevitably disappointed by its poor audio quality. It seemed as though King Crimson had finally come to an end. Then, in July of 1972, Fripp put together a new band consisting of ex-Yes drummer Bill Bruford (born May 17, 1948), ex-Family member John Wetton (born July 12, 1949) on bass and vocals, David Cross on violin and Mellotron, and Jamie Muir on percussion. Peter Sinfield's successor as lyricist was Richard Palmer-James, who was otherwise invisible in the lineup. This group recorded their debut album, Larks' Tongues in Aspic, and made its debut in Frankfurt in October of 1972, and later toured England. This album revealed the new lineup as the most radical reconsideration of King Crimson's sound since their 1969 debut. Fripp's guitar was now even more prominent, and coupled with Cross' amplified violin and the Mellotrons played by them both as well as Wetton's thundering bass and Bruford's near-melodic drumming, the band's music now sounded not so much majestic as otherworldly. If the original Crimson played music suited to the collision of planets, this new band sounded like their music should accompany atoms splitting and the accompanying vibrations. Jamie Muir was out of the lineup by February of 1973, but this version of Crimson, as a quartet, toured England, Europe, and America. Larks' Tongues made it to number 61 in America, the group's best chart performance since Poseidon, and all the way to number 20 in England. In January of 1974, King Crimson cut a new album, released early that spring as Starless and Bible Black, thus becoming the first King Crimson band to remain intact for more than one American tour and more than one album (discounting the departed Muir). Starless didn't do as well as Larks' Tongues, only reaching number 28 in England. By this time, the current group had established a credibility that ended any comparisons with the original group (a problem that had bedeviled all of the post-Lake/McDonald/Giles lineups), and their shows and records were getting very positive reviews, even from critics who weren't comfortable with the music. Fripp and company even found themselves treated less as progressive rock musicians, and more like contemporary serious composers, in the manner of Stockhausen. Amid all of this activity, Fripp began to emerge as an artist separate from King Crimson. He had always produced or played on some other artists' albums, including Soft Machine offshoot Matching Mole, British prog rock outfit Van Der Graaf Generator, and the large-scale jazz orchestra Centipede. In 1973, however, Island Records released No Pussyfootin', a collaboration between Fripp and ex-Roxy Music keyboard player Brian Eno. A follow-up Fripp and Eno album, Evening Star, was released two years later. Alas, by July of 1974 the most long-lasting King Crimson lineup in the whole history of the band had begun to splinter. This time David Cross was the one to exit, following a performance in New York's Central Park. With King Crimson reduced to a trio of Fripp, Wetton, and Bruford, one more album, Red, was completed that summer with help from Cross and former members Mel Collins and Ian McDonald (who had gone on to fame and fortune as the co-founder of the arena band Foreigner), and it was released in the fall. Fripp disbanded the group on September 25, 1974, seemingly for the last time. Wetton later passed through the lineup of Uriah Heep — curiously, a band spun out of the Gods, the same group that Greg Lake had come from before joining Fripp and company — before going onto international success as the lead singer of Asia (and when he left Asia, his temporary replacement was Greg Lake). David Cross later turned up on the Mellotron multi-artist showcase album The Rime of the Ancient Sampler, which also featured contributions by the Moody Blues' Michael Pinder and the Strawbs' Blue Weaver. With no band to support Red, it barely scraped the British charts. By this time, however, King Crimson had taken on a life of its own, especially in America, where the group's audience, though not huge, was notably fanatical. There was a growing trade in live tapes going back to the Boz Burrell lineup, and fanatical interest in the original band — tapes of the first lineup's 1969 Fillmore shows were considered the Holy Grail of progressive rock, but were not to be found easily or traded at all. And at least two bootleg albums of live radio broadcasts by the Larks' Tongues/Starless lineup were pressed and distributed widely among collectors. The band had the last word, however. In June of 1975, 11 months after their last public concert, a live album called USA was issued by Island and Atlantic and got to number 125 in America. In early 1976, Island Records released the first King Crimson retrospective, a double LP called The Young Person's Guide to King Crimson, made up of the best and rarest tracks by the various lineups (including demos by Giles, Giles & Fripp) and highlighted by a huge and incredibly detailed booklet. Four months later, Fripp's first solo album, Exposure, was released. For the next four years, Fripp remained a highly respected cult figure in music, and King Crimson remained a fond memory. Music changed, and most of the progressive rock bands that were still working either changed their sound radically (Genesis) or fell out of favor and collapsed (ELP). In May of 1980, Fripp's God Save the Queen/Heavy Manners album reached number 110 on the U.S. charts. That same year, he formed a one-shot group called the League of Gentlemen, taking its name from his long-ago band with Gordon Haskell. Their resulting album reached number 90 on the U.S. charts. Finally, in April of 1981, Fripp formed a new group called Discipline with Bruford, bassist Tony Levin, and guitarist/singer Adrian Belew. By the time their album was released in October of that year, the group's name had been changed to King Crimson. This band, with a sound completely different from any of the other lineups to use that name, has ended up both enduring and successful. There have been lapses, interruptions, and a few lineup changes, but they have toured and recorded regularly over the years, including full-length video productions. Most fans of the original King Crimson or its 1972-1974 variant, however, don't regard this band as the real King Crimson. Fripp himself sometimes came to lose patience with longtime fans — at a concert during the early '80s, he was heard to tell an audience member shouting out for "The Court of the Crimson King" to go across town to where Greg Lake (in his own post-ELP career) was playing those songs. The CD boom of the late '80s was frustrating for longtime Crimson fans. The current band of that name had perfectly good-sounding (but, to longtime fans, totally irrelevant) compact discs of their 1980s music. The original group and its offshoots, however, were badly represented. The original CD releases of their albums — especially In the Court of the Crimson King — on the E.G./JEM imprint in the United States and on Polydor in Europe sounded poor, with very compressed sound and lots of noise. In 1990, however, the rights to the King Crimson back catalog moved to Caroline Records in New York, and with some effort, they and E.G. tracked down the best source tapes on all of the early albums. The reissues, which designated Caroline Records as the distributor, have considerably better sound, although there remains a small flaw on Islands that is more annoying than a real problem. Then, in 1991, Fripp severed his relationship with E.G., preferring to make new business arrangements for the current group and any unreleased vintage tapes. E.G. did release two boxed sets, Frame by Frame: The Essential King Crimson and The Great Deceiver, a collection of live recordings by the Fripp/Bruford/Wetton/Cross band. This was originally to have been one of three sets, with live work by each the three early Crimson lineups, but the relationship between E.G. and Caroline ended, and Fripp's severing of ties with E.G. ended any chance of a collection of early live material coming out in connection with The Great Deceiver. The long-awaited live 1969 recordings by the Fripp-McDonald-Lake-Giles-Sinfield band finally turned up as a boxed double-CD set entitled Epitaph in April of 1997, released by Fripp in conjunction with the other four original members of the band on the Discipline Global Mobile label. On April 26, 1997, Fripp, Lake, Giles, and McDonald made their first public appearance together since December of 1969, at HMV Records on 86th Street in New York, in a listening party and autograph signing in connection with Epitaph.


One of my favorite songs - In the Court of the Crimson King

Classic rock band - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd was the definitive Southern rock band, fusing the overdriven power of blues-rock with a rebellious Southern image and a hard rock swagger. Skynyrd never relied on the jazzy improvisations of the Allman Brothers. Instead, they were a hard-living, hard-driving rock & roll band — they may have jammed endlessly on-stage, but their music remained firmly entrenched in blues, rock, and country. For many, Lynyrd Skynyrd's redneck image tended to obscure the songwriting skills of their leader, Ronnie Van Zant. Throughout the band's early records, Van Zant demonstrated a knack for lyrical detail and a down-to-earth honesty that had more in common with country than rock & roll. During the height of Skynyrd's popularity in the mid-'70s, however, Van Zant's talents were overshadowed by the group's gritty, greasy blues-rock. Sadly, it wasn't until he was killed in a tragic plane crash in 1977 along with two other bandmembers that many listeners began to realize his talents. Skynyrd split up after the plane crash, but they reunited a decade later, becoming a popular concert act during the early '90s.While in high school in Jacksonville, FL, Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Allen Collins (guitar), and Gary Rossington (guitar) formed My Backyard. Within a few months, the group added bassist Leon Wilkeson and keyboardist Billy Powell, and changed their name to Lynyrd Skynyrd, a mocking tribute to their gym teacher Leonard Skinner, who was notorious for punishing students with long hair. With drummer Bob Burns, Lynyrd Skynyrd began playing throughout the South. For the first few years, the group had little success, but producer Al Kooper signed the band to MCA after seeing them play at an Atlanta club called Funocchio's in 1972. Kooper produced the group's 1973 debut, Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd, which was recorded after former Strawberry Alarm Clock guitarist Ed King joined the band. The group became notorious for their triple-guitar attack, which was showcased on "Free Bird," a tribute to the recently deceased Duane Allman. "Free Bird" earned Lynyrd Skynyrd their first national exposure and it became one of the staples of album rock radio, still receiving airplay decades after its release."Free Bird" and an opening slot on the Who's 1973 Quadrophenia tour gave Lynyrd Skynyrd a devoted following, which helped their second album, 1974's Second Helping, become its breakthrough hit. Featuring the hit single "Sweet Home Alabama" — a response to Neil Young's "Southern Man" — Second Helping reached number 12 and went multi-platinum. At the end of the year, Artimus Pyle replaced drummer Burns and King left the band shortly afterward. The new sextet released Nuthin' Fancy in 1975, and it became the band's first Top Ten hit. The record was followed by the Tom Dowd-produced Gimme Back My Bullets in 1976, which failed to match the success of its two predecessors. However, the band retained their following through constant touring, which was documented on the double live album One More from the Road. Released in late 1976, the album featured the band's new guitarist, Steve Gaines, and a trio of female backup singers, and it became Skynyrd's second Top Ten album.Lynyrd Skynyrd released their sixth album, Street Survivors, on October 17, 1977. Three days later, a privately chartered plane carrying the band between shows in Greenville, SC, and Baton Rouge, LA, crashed outside of Gillsburg, MS. Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and his sister Cassie, one of the group's backing vocalists, died in the crash; the remaining members were injured. (The cause of the crash was either fuel shortage or a fault with the plane's mechanics.) The cover for Street Survivors had pictured the band surrounded in flames; after the crash, the cover was changed. In the wake of the tragedy, the album became one of the band's biggest hits. Lynyrd Skynyrd broke up after the crash, releasing a collection of early demos called Skynyrd's First and...Last in 1978; it had been scheduled for release before the crash. The double-album compilation Gold & Platinum was released in 1980.Later in 1980, Rossington and Collins formed a new band that featured four surviving members. Two years later, Pyle formed the Artimus Pyle Band. Collins suffered a car crash in 1986 that killed his girlfriend and left him paralyzed; four years later, he died of respiratory failure. In 1987, Rossington, Powell, King, and Wilkeson reunited Lynyrd Skynyrd, adding vocalist Johnny Van Zant and guitarist Randall Hall. The band embarked on a reunion tour, which was captured on the 1988 double live album Southern by the Grace of God/Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour — 1987. The re-formed Skynyrd began recording in 1991, and for the remainder of the decade, the band toured frequently, putting out albums occasionally. The reunited Skynyrd frequently switched drummers, but it had little effect on their sound. During the '90s, Lynyrd Skynyrd were made honorary colonels in the Alabama State Militia, due to their classic rock staple "Sweet Home Alabama." During the mid-'90s, Van Zant, Rossington, Wilkeson, and Powell regrouped by adding two Southern rock veterans to Skynyrd's guitar stable: former Blackfoot frontman Rickey Medlocke and ex-Outlaw Hughie Thomasson. With ex-Damn Yankee Michael Cartellone bringing stability to the drum chair, the reconstituted band signed to CMC International for the 1997 album Twenty. This lineup went on to release Lyve from Steeltown in 1998, followed a year later by Edge of Forever. The seasonal effort Christmas Time Again was released in fall 2000. Although Wilkeson died one year later, Lynyrd Skynyrd regrouped and recorded Vicious Cycle for a 2003 release. The DVD/CD Lyve: The Vicious Cycle Tour followed a year later, 2006 saw the release of Face to Face, and 2007 brought Paper Sleeve Box and Lyve from Steel Town.


Fire !!!

A song called " Fire Bird"

Great progressive rock band -Marmalade

Marmalade is one of those groups that just seems to endure. They are best remembered today for one record, their cover of the Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," although they charted number one records and even Top Ten American singles into the 1970s. The group, especially as constituted up through the early '70s, had many sides, including white soul, harmony dominated pop/rock, and progressive pop, all very much like the Beatles in their middle years. However, it was their cover of a Beatles song, oddly enough, that weighed down their reputation. In point of fact, they did somewhat resemble the Beatles musically, having started out as a band of teenagers eager to play hard rock & roll; like the Beatles, they developed a great degree of sophistication in their singing and playing, but they never had the freedom to experiment with the different sides of their music. Ironically, in their prime, their career arc most resembled that of the Tremeloes, who made incredibly well-crafted pop/rock but were never taken seriously. The quintet's history began in 1961 when teenagers William "Junior" Campbell and Patrick Fairley met on Campbell's 14th birthday and discovered that they both enjoyed playing rock & roll. Their early inspirations were the Everly Brothers and Cliff Richard & the Shadows. Soon they were playing together, Campbell on guitar (and, increasingly in later years, keyboards) and Fairley on guitar, and then they added bassist Billy Johnson and drummer Tommy Frew. They took the name the Gaylords and played local clubs for little or no money, and Johnson and Frew were later succeeded by Bill Irving and Raymond Duffy, respectively. The group began getting decidedly better gigs when singer Thomas McAleese — who took the stage name Dean Ford — joined. For a time, they were known officially as Dean Ford & the Gaylords, in keeping with the notion that many successful acts (Cliff Richard & the Shadows, et al) had one member as their focus. This was still the early '60s, when Liverpool bands had scarcely made an impression and Scotland's rock & rollers faced an even more daunting task just getting record company executives to hear them. For Dean Ford & the Gaylords, a recording contract didn't become a reality until almost a year after the Liverpool sound started to explode across the English charts and in early 1964, Dean Ford & the Gaylords were signed to EMI-Columbia. Their debut record, "Twenty Miles," sold well in Scotland, but never charted in England. Their success remained confined to their native Scotland, the group regularly supported visiting English acts like the Hollies, and they were regulars on BBC Radio Scotland. By the end of the year, with their hard yet melodic attack on their instruments and good close-harmony singing, Dean Ford & the Gaylords had made themselves the top band in Scotland, borne out in music poll results. As they were already commanding the best support spots and the highest fees promoters were willing to pay any homegrown act, there was just no place left to go in their own country and no easy way to get heard in England. The group finally took up residence in Wimbledon, just outside of London, but at first this had little affect. Irving left the band and was replaced by Graham Knight on bass and harmony vocals; a fourth single as Dean Ford & the Gaylords was recorded, but it failed to chart and marked the end of their EMI contract. The Gaylords were now living far from home in a place where they were largely unknown and they were at something of a loss as to how to continue. It was the Tremeloes, a band from London who'd had a pair of hit singles (including a chart-topper with "Do You Love Me") who came to their rescue. The two groups had played together and the Tremeloes admired the Gaylords' sound so they suggested the band sign with their manager Peter Walsh. He was impressed with their sound and their level of musical and performance expertise; all of those hard-rocking gigs to demanding audiences in Scotland had the same effect on the Gaylords that playing the Star Club in Hamburg had on the Beatles. Walsh's first order of business after signing the group was a change of name, from the Gaylords to Marmalade. The name supposedly came to him over a breakfast that, reportedly, indeed did include the sugary flavored snack. Whatever its inspiration, however, it worked. Walsh got them work and bookings, most notably at London's Marquee Club, billed third behind a then-new outfit called Pink Floyd and a soul-oriented band called the Action. The management, impressed with Marmalade's performance, eventually gave them a two-night a week spot. Their representation by Walsh also got the band another crack at that most coveted of opportunities in music: a recording contract. In 1965, Columbia Records, the American label that had previously licensed its music for British release to English companies like EMI, purchased the British Oriole Records label and used it as the foundation for its own British label, CBS Records (the "Columbia" name being unavailable in England, as it was already trademarked and used in England by a division of EMI). Walsh got Marmalade signed to CBS Records, which was hungry for homegrown talent to augment their American release schedule (the company would later sign the Tremeloes as well). They also shared the same producer, Mike Smith, who later ran the Tremeloes' recording sessions. Marmalade's first CBS single, "It's All Leading up to Saturday Night," showed just how far they'd come. The radiant harmonies and the powerful attack, boosted by the group's reliance on twin six- and four-string basses made it irresistible listening. Their second CBS single, "Can't Stop Now" (on which Alan Whitehead joined the lineup on drums, replacing Duffy), never charted in England, but managed the unusual feat of becoming a regional hit in the United States, getting to number one on some charts in Ohio. They were getting a lot of exposure as well, including an appearance in the movie (Subterfuge) and television work on (The Fantasist). The group seemed poised for greatness. "I See the Rain," an original by Campbell and Ford (using his legal name, McAleese), become their third CBS single, described by Jimi Hendrix as the best British single of 1967. Somehow it never charted in England but did well in Holland, which resulted in a tour of the Netherlands and Germany. Their fourth CBS single, "Man in a Shop," didn't make the charts in England either. The group was at a complete loss as to what to do or where to go from there. They'd given it their best shot and all they had to show for it was a demand for their music on the continent, but not at home. Finally, in early 1968, Marmalade decided to go for the most commercial sound they could live with and cut a pop/rock number called "Lovin' Things." This broke them through into the U.K. Top Ten, peaking at number six and selling 300,000 copies. The chart action was a welcome event and took some personal pressure off the band. Unfortunately, they'd also opened an artistic Pandora's Box. Having gone the commercial route, they now found the record company insisting that they stick with it. Songs that they didn't care for were foisted on them for follow-up singles, and they got too little time to record their debut LP, entitled There's a Lot of It About. Disaster struck (though no one thought it disaster at the time) with their late 1968 single version of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da." It was publisher Dick James who offered them the Beatles song ahead of the issue of The Beatles (aka The White Album). Marmalade cut the song not even knowing that it was a Lennon-McCartney composition. It become a number one hit in England and sold millions of copies around the world, generating a massive amount of radio exposure. The problem was that it wasn't really what the group was about. Marmalade was much more influenced by American soul, folk-rock, and progressive rock, but they had become locked into an image as a soft, bubblegum-type pop/rock band. And then, with a number one record behind them, they left the label. Their contract was up and CBS was eager to keep them, but their manager recognized that with that hit to their credit, they might never be in a better position to demand favorable terms. English Decca, the label that had the Moody Blues, had (and lost) the Small Faces, and was in the process of losing the Rolling Stones, outbid CBS both in monetary terms and an offer of artistic freedom. The group re-emerged in the winter of 1969 after nearly a year of inactivity with "Reflections of My Life," a daring original by Campbell and Ford incorporating pop/rock and harder progressive elements, including some superb guitar work. It topped the English charts six weeks after its release, in the final week of January 1970, and became a Top Ten American single as well. They followed this up with the equally appealing (though less successful) "Rainbow," which charted in both England and America. These twin hits were followed by the LP Reflections of the Marmalade, which proved to be something less than a success, owing to the sheer diversity of sounds on it that ranged from soulful rockers and harmony dominated progressive-sounding material to their covers of singer/songwriter-type repertory. The LP never found an audience in England, but did in America, where it was retitled Reflections of My Life and reached number 71. The group had an opportunity to open for Three Dog Night on a tour of America, who were then rapidly ascending to their peak of fame; their manager turned it down, thus costing the group a chance to expose the full range of their music to millions of listeners who only really knew the one major hit. By 1970, the band was beginning to show the first real signs of serious internal stress since their founding. The hefty advance they'd received from the label had been welcomed and their three initial singles (but especially "Reflections of My Life") had justified it. Now, however, they were being pressured to repeat that success, just when they were least able to pull together effectively. The bandmembers, pleased with the adulation they'd received, were eager to experiment in different directions, which created strains within the lineup. Junior Campbell, who'd arranged the Reflections of the Marmalade album and written the string parts for one of the follow-up singles, quit the band and enrolled in the Royal College of Music. The group was inactive for months after Campbell's departure until they recruited Hugh Nicholson, an ex-member of their one-time rivals from Scotland, the Poets. Nicholson's arrival heralded a new era for the band as he brought with him original songs as well as a heavier approach to music. Curiously, Campbell continued to write arrangements for the band, even after his sudden departure. Ford was pushed to the sidelines as Nicholson insisted on singing lead on certain songs himself, and then drummer Whitehead, who'd been with the group for five years, was dropped and replaced by one of Nicholson's ex-bandmates, Dougie Henderson. The switch in drummers accentuated the change in Marmalade's sound, from a progressive pop/rock outfit to a much harder, more straight-ahead rock & roll band. The group's next album, Songs, represented both the new and the old groups' sounds. By the spring of 1972, the band was down to a quartet as co-founder Pat Fairley decided to give up performing, taking over as their publicist and coordinating their publishing activities. An article in the lurid U.K. tabloid News of the World (which had revelled in the sex-and-drugs exploits of the Rolling Stones in the late '60s) dealing with Whitehead's more debauched activities as a member of Marmalade, had the surprising result of commercially helping the group. They got a number six British single out of "Radancer in the spring of 1972. Just when it seemed as though they'd not only dodged a bullet, but turned its trajectory to their advantage, Nicholson quit Marmalade. The surviving trio — Ford, Graham Knight, and Dougie Henderson — left Decca and signed with EMI, taking on Mike Japp to fill Nicholson's spot. When the smoke cleared, Marmalade reinvented themselves once again as a hard rock boogie band in the manner of Status Quo. The lineup changes had taken their toll, however, and even if they'd been able to establish credibility in this new form, the door now seemed open for more exits. Knight was the first out, and with his exit, there wasn't much left of Marmalade beyond Ford. Their history then took an utterly bizarre turn, one that anticipated the lawsuits over the use of classic group names that would become common in the 1990s — and even anticipate the development of acts like Creedence Clearwater Revival. Ford had dropped the band's classic hits from their set, choosing to perform only their recent, heavier material in hopes of reinventing Marmalade. Audiences, however, were having none of it. They came to the shows expecting to hear at least some of the old hits, and got none. Meanwhile, the group's ex-manager, Peter Walsh, knowing a good thing when he saw it, got Whitehead and Knight together with two more players, Sandy Newman (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Charlie Smith (guitar), and put them on the road as Vintage Marmalade, doing nothing but their old songs. Eventually, Ford and Marmalade gave up trying to reinvent themselves and Knight and the other group took over the original name. Ford went off to a solo career while the "new" (actually old) Marmalade got a recording contract in the mid-'70s and returned to the English Top Ten in 1977 with "Falling Apart at the Seams." This unit kept recording for the rest of the 1970s and since then, Knight and Newman have kept Marmalade going as an oldies act, playing at cabarets and clubs and touring Holland and Germany. Like the latter-day Tremeloes, Marmalade, in whatever lineup they're sporting, can always find an audience, even a quarter century or more after their last chart entry.

Great progressive rock band - Curve Air

One of the most dramatically accomplished of all the bands lumped into Britain's late-'60s prog explosion, Curved Air was formed in early 1970 by violinist Darryl Way, a graduate of the Royal College of Music, and two former members of Sisyphus, keyboard player Francis Monkman and drummer Florian Pilkington-Miksa. Adding bassist Robert Martin, the band named itself from avant-garde composer Terry Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air, a touchstone that would inform much of their early work.The quartet originally came together to provide accompaniment for producer Galt McDermott's musical Who the Murderer Was; it was McDermott who suggested, once the stage show closed, that they add vocalist Sonja Kristina, with whom he had worked in the U.K. production of Hair. In this form, the band launched a well-received U.K. tour and, that summer, they signed with Warner Bros. — the first British band on the company's roster.Curved Air's first album, Air Conditioning, was released in November 1970, a monumental recording that was flamboyantly issued as rock & roll's first-ever picture disc. Divided neatly between ambitious hard rockers and deeply classically influenced pieces, the album reached number eight in the U.K. chart and, while an accompanying single, "It Happened Today," did little, still Curved Air entered 1971 on the very edge of superstardom.With Ian Eyre replacing bassist Martin, the band crossed that precipice the following summer, when the incandescent "Back Street Love" rocketed to number four, ahead of the prosaically named Second Album. Disappointingly, the album emerged a somewhat lesser achievement than its predecessor, and climbed no higher than number 11, while a non-LP followup single, the lovely "Sarah's Concern," went by unnoticed.Curved Air bounced back in spring 1972 with their masterpiece, Phantasmagoria, home to the spectacular "Marie Antoinette" and Monkman's side-long "Phantasmagoria" suite. Once again, however, sales were low and, with the album bottoming out at number 20, Curved Air split up, victims of inter-band disputes that had already seen the two sides of Phantasmagoria pointedly divided between Kristina/Way's rock-tinged instincts and Monkman's more portentous contributions. Way formed a new band, Wolf, Pilkington-Miksa joined Kiki Dee's band, and Monkman moved into session work.Retaining the band name, Kristina and bassist Mike Wedgwood (who replaced Eyre for Phantasmagoria) brought in an entire new lineup — Jim Russell (drums), Kirby Gregory (guitar), and Eddie Jobson (violin, synths). In this form, the band released spring 1973's Air Cut album, but it was very much a last gasp. Although the group did record a second album, Love Child was shelved when Curved Air broke up that summer. (The album was finally released in 1990.) Jobson swiftly resurfaced as Eno's replacement in Roxy Music; Wedgwood joined Caravan.Kristina initially intended to launch a solo career. In fall 1974, however, Curved Air's original core quartet of Kristina, Way, Monkman, and Pilkington-Miksa reunited for a one-off British tour. With the lineup completed by bassist Phil Kohn, the band rekindled all of the past's most precious memories, captured for posterity on the blockbusting Curved Air Live album. The rejuvenation could not, however, heal the breaches that had destroyed the lineup the first time around and, when Curved Air resurfaced in fall 1975, Kristina and Way alone remained, alongside guitarist Mick Jacques, bassist John Perry, keyboardist Pete Woods, and drummer Stewart Copeland. (Perry would be replaced by Greenslade's Tony Reeves during 1976.)Two albums released over the next year, however, did nothing to reverse the band's fortunes — neither Midnight Wire nor Airborne offered much more than fleeting glances of the group's original, pioneering brilliance, with even the naturally effervescent Kristina appearing overpowered by the anonymity of her surroundings. Way was the first to depart, following one final unsuccessful single, a contrarily vibrant version of "Baby Please Don't Go"; he was replaced by Alex Richman, but the group lasted only a few more months before splitting in early 1977. Copeland promptly joined the Police, Reeves re-formed Greenslade, and Kristina finally launched that long-delayed solo career.Occasional reunions with Darryl Way have brought the Curved Air name back to life — 1984's "Renegade" single was followed by a short tour in 1988; 1990 then brought a fresh reunion by the original Kristina/Way/Monkman/Pilkington-Miksa quartet for a show at London's Town & Country 2. Featuring one new song, the appropriately themed opener "20 Years On," the performance was captured on the Alive 1990 album. Since that time, Curved Air has been best recalled by the Collector's Choice label's reissues of their first three albums and the excellent BBC Sessions collection, home to Way's otherwise unavailable showcase "Thinking on the Floor" alongside recordings dating from 1970, 1971, and 1976.