My Piercings

Every third Sunday we will write about piercings. Rather different from music, films etc, but close to our heart.

It’s very hard to find discussion forums about piercings. Some are nicely designed but inactive, others, including some run by on-line retailers, seem broken or dead.

It’s a shame, because there are plenty of people in the world who like piercings and want to share them and their experiences.

So we have created one. Do feel free to try it:

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Twelve British Songs… I

…that defined the 60s and are not The Beatles.

Simon Dupree and the Big Sound

Kites

1967

Before they became Gentle Giant they were SDatBS. They made several records, but Kites was their big hit. It’s a stop/start kind of tune, lots of plonky piano and percussion, there’s spoken word in the middle (in Chinese) and lots of Mellotron.

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Barclay James Harvest

Barclay James Harvest (BJH from now on) was/is a progressive rock band from the UK. They were formed in the north west of England in 1966, as a four piece, as so often from other bands.

The line up was:

BJH
Wolstenholme, Pritchard, Lees, Holroyd

Les Holroyd (bass guitar and vocals)

John Lees (lead guitar and vocals)

Mel Pritchard (drums)

Stuart Wolstenholme (keyboards, guitar and vocals), often known as Woolly.

After a couple of singles that received radio play but modest success, they released their first album in 1970.

BJH were signed to EMI and were on their progressive Harvest label. Some say the label took the name from the band, some say it didn’t. Mostly, it doesn’t matter.

It’s an interesting album, rather immature. You can tell it’s prog rock from all the Mellotron, and also the orchestra. There are a couple of rather duff filler tracks, Good Love Child being the main offender, but elsewhere there’s the final track, Dark Now My Sky, with orchestra, ‘choir’ and definite Mahler influences. Les and mostly Woolly share the vocals, and the song writing is credited to the whole band.

This album attracted some attention, and they were regulars on BBC radio.

1971 saw the second album, Once Again, in a similar vein with fan favourite Mocking Bird, written by Lees. EMI though enough of it to release a quadraphonic version, and even Alan Parsons plays on it. You know it’s prog rock because of the Mellotron.

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