PRISONERS THE LAST FOURFATHERS LP 1985 OWN-UP M/M RARE

	£		28
	$		37

YOU ARE BIDDING ON THE PRISONERS "THE LAST FOURFATHERS" LP ON OWN-UP RECORDS .

UK 1st PRESS (1985) 12" LP. CAT No. OWN-UP U3.

NOTE: THIS IS EXTREMELY RARE AND BECOMING MORE AND MORE COLLECTABLE - TRY FINDING ANOTHER ORIGINAL ON eBAY!!!!

IT'S THE 3rd PRISONERS ALBUM, AND CITED BY EXPERTS AS THE BEST, AND MOST SOUGHT-AFTER FOR THIS ORIGINAL PRESSING

CONDITION:

COVER: MINT

VINYL: MINT 

LABEL: OWN-UP U3.  THIS IS EXTREMELY RARE - TRY FINDING ANOTHER ON eBAY!!!!!!!

TRACK LISTING

BACKGROUND / HISTORY

There is something about a rock'n'roll band that appeals. I think it's the feeling that with a little effort we could all be up there, guitars in hand. It is this "do it yourself" ethic that ensures that the popularity of guitar-based groups endures, and that even when the hot light of publicity is shining elsewhere those bands will still be formed. At the moment the classic garage band sound is very much back in vogue, coming from US bands such as the White Stripes from Detroit and their ilk. These bands and their members have been playing for years with little publicity and would have carried on doing so regardless of success. This is a similar situation to the scene that formed around the Medway towns just outside London, in the early 80s which produced many bands-.-notably the Milkshakes with leader Billy Childish, but also the Prisoners, whose rough-hewn take on 60s psych and garage made them one of the great "lost" bands of the 1980s. This unique re-issue of their debut album A TASTE OF PINK with additional tracks shows the band development from their earliest home demo through to their move outside their local area onto a wider audience.

The Prisoners formed in 1980 when Allan Crockford, Graham Day and Johnny Symons formed a band at school in Rochester. It was pretty basic stuff, Graham on guitar, Allan on bass and Johnny on drums, mixing punk and 60s influences, rehearsals at parents' homes and maybe the odd gig in between exams. 1981 saw the band take things more seriously, and the band expanded to a four piece with the addition of Bruce Brand from the Milkshakes as a second guitarist, which brought with it a stronger R&B flavour. This arrangement didn't last long and the far more important discovery for the year was Graham's voice as a songwriter.

Late in 1981 (Allan thinks November) the band recorded a home demo as a three piece. It's an interesting document which we present here for the first time. Obviously a little rough around the edges, the band is nonetheless a tight outfit with all the power you could want from a guitar trio. The songs include the previously unheard Talking Bout My Baby, which is strongly marked by one of Graham's biggest influences at that time, the Pretty Things. Two of the other songs, Don't Call My Name and Say Your Prayers, would be recorded again for A Taste Of Pink. The final song, Lilac Reflections, is a bit of a discovery, an early live favourite, still liked by Allan and Graham. This is the first time you will have ever heard it unless you were at the early gigs. These demos once again showed the touch of the Milkshakes as that band's Russell Wilkins helped in the recording - something that he did on and off throughout the Prisoners' career.

The Prisoners became a four piece in early 1982 with the addition of Jamie Taylor on organ. James, like the others, was in the same year at Rochester Mathematical School - and was Johnny Symons' best mate. Originally he played a modern Casio keyboard, which was given a distinct sound by playing its organ sound - loud - through a valve amplifier. The organ and Graham's songs gave the Prisoners a distinctive sound, allowing them their own niche within the local scene. Throughout the first half of 1982 they played all the local venues, most notably the Medway Indian Club (MIC), where they would later record a live album with the Milkshakes.

The Milkshakes were a discernable influence on the Prisoners' attitudes and it was their "get up and get on with it yourself" ethos that convinced the band that they could just go and record an album. So with money saved from their gigs - looked after by Allan's then girlfriend - and the spur of Jamie's impending exodus to university in Newcastle, the band recorded A Taste Of Pink. The album was recorded in two days at a studio in Herne Bay. The first day - a Sunday - saw the putting down of backing tracks and guide vocals recorded live to tape. The following Sunday the lead vocals and any lead instrumental parts were overdubbed. Due to the imminent birth of the engineer's daughter the whole thing was mixed down in an hour.

It is this album that announced the band to the world outside the Medway. The album was pressed at Mayking Records in the Portobello Road, West London after Allan and Graham had made up the sleeve the previous night at Graham's kitchen table. They had scraped enough money together to press 500 copies - not that they could really have expected to sell many more. They only had two or three weeks to sell the album at gigs before James left and they all thought that would be that.

Two things happened to change it all. Firstly, James lasted a mere three days at university before he returned and re-joined. Secondly, the album started to build a following for its blend of exuberant 60s influenced garage rock. It may well be a highly primitive recording, but from the opening blast of Better In Black to the undisguised snarl of Don't Call My Name a mere 30 odd minutes later, this is dirty, adrenaline-fuelled guitar music, short, sharp and aimed straight for the jugular. John Peel played Better In Black and Rough Trade ordered a couple of hundred copies. The Prisoners were starting to make a mark in the wider world. Those 200 copies sold out and Rough Trade ordered 500 more, a process that repeated itself for the next few years.

THE LAST FOURFATHERS is unarguably the best set of British rock'n'roll (not to mention garage punk, psych, mod soul and general Hammond-fuelled frenzy) of the past 20 years. For once, objectivity don't come into it. What would you match it against, anyhow? The Stone Roses' debut? Don't make me laff! Oasis's first album? Oh, pleeze! As you're no doubt aware, there are a multitude of records which are costly to track down, a significant percentage of which, musically speakin', simply ain't worth the vinyl they're cut on. However, the Kentish lads' third magnum opus, originally released to little or no mainstream acclaim by the band's Own Up label during 1985, is a different kettle of frogspawn entirely. That's why you can currently expect to pay around £100 for a pristine vinyl example, or even part with up to £50 for a copy of the band's own CD reissue from the early 90s.

Now, thanks to the good folks at Big Beat, you can enjoy the Prisoners' finest hour - a masterful mix of suss, soul, freakbeat wigouts, arresting organ instrumentals and sly wit - without having to empty yer wallet. "You, lucky, lucky people" as the great Tommy Trinder might've said!

Following on from their impressive debut set of 1982, A TASTE OF PINK!, and 1993's slightly overblown Thewisermiserdemelza, not to mention a never-ending trawl around the lowspots of Britain and Europe, 'Fourfathers finally saw the Prisoners capturing their awesome live attack on a micrgroove longplayer.

Impeccably produced by ex-Milkshake Russell Wilkins, 'Fourfathers finds Graham Day's paint-strippingly soulful vocals and lysergic guitar facing-off against Jamie Taylor's incisive, irresistibly pumping Hammond grooves, over the rock solid yet fluid drive of bassist Alan Crockford and drummer Johnny Symons.

Kicking off with the relentlessly funky Nobody Wants Your Love (Graham's only co-write with fellow Medway Delta mensch Billy Childish), 'Fourfathers takes the listener on a trip which still reflects an exciting alternative reality for homegrown rock'n'roll. One wherein the Small Faces, The Pink Floyd, 60s soul, the Jimi Hendrix Experience's Smash Hits (in mono, natch), the Pretty Things, the first two Nice albums and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown are unassailable talismans, as is the right to dance yer legs off.

In fact, 'Fourfathers remains the perfect antidote to the outright non-grooviness of modern 'white boy' music, by proving that 'vanilla' hipsters can, indeed, sing the blues (not to mention some of the greens, and a bit of purple, too).

As Dean Rudland rightly notes in his customarily acerbic and informative sleeve notes, during the 80s, for a young & righteous music fan, there was nothing to touch the Prisoners. Such likeminded misfits as Thee Milkshakes, the Stingrays and the Playn Jayn didn't even come close, sorry!

'Fourfathers was glued to my turntable for countless months after its release, so fully did it inform and soundtrack my miserable teenage existence. And that's not to mention the fervour with which it sent me out on a quest to uncover the musical fountainhead from whence the Prisoners had quaffed, both long and deeply.

A couple of other disaffected youngsters who undeniably felt the same, and subsequently enjoyed considerable chart success with a much simplified and watered-down take on the Prisoners' sonic stew, were Tim Burgess (the Charlatans) and Clint Boon (Inspiral Carpets). Later still, Kula Shaker turned Graham and co's searing, show-stopping arrangement of Joe South's Hush into a #2 hit. And if that last claim sounds a little overblown, lend yer lugs to the astonishing live take of Hush which is included as one of the Big Beat reissue's amazing bonus tracks, and then tell me I ain't got no ears!

All 'celebrity' endorsements aside - and reflecting on a strange old career, one which has found me chewing toothpicks with Dan Penn and quaffing Guinness avec Dr John - I'm real proud to confirm that 'Fourfathers is still one of my favourite albums. It continues to sound as fresh and classy as the day when I first heard it. And if that's a bit too 'gushy' for ya, tuff titty!