WRITING ON THE WALL - POWER OF THE PICTS 69 UK PROG HVY ROCK REMAST SLD LP + 12"

$

32

WRITING ON THE WALL – The Power of The Picts. Acme Records ADLP 1091. UK release. FACTORY SEALED NEW VINYL RECORD ALBUM, LP + 12" EP. Originally issued in 1969 on the Middle Earth label. This edition issued in 2014. Official definitive 180 gram remastered vinyl reissue of this top league UK heavy progressive rarity. Comes with an additional bonus 12" disc containing their rare single tracks Child On A Crossing and Lucifer Corpus—and for the first time on vinyl, the full length version of the mighty Buffalo, plus the demo version too. Both discs come in a single pocket jacket featuring the original cover art. MEMBERS:  Jimmy Hush (drums), William “Bill” Scott (keyboards), Jake Scott (bass, vocals), William “Willy” Finlayson (guitar), and Alby Greenhalgh (woodwinds). TRACKS:  It Came On A Sunday, Mrs. Cooper’s Pie, Ladybird, Aries, Bogeyman, Shadow Of A Man, Taskers Successor, Hill Of Dreams, and Virginia Water. BONUS 12” TRACKS:  Child On A Crossing, Lucifer Corpus, Buffalo (full length version), and Buffalo (demo). DESCRIPTION:  Scottish progressive heavy rock band Writing On The Wall made it big on the underground rock scene in the late 1960's. They regularly played the Middle Earth club, went on tour with the likes of Ten Years After, held a lengthy residency at the Marquee where they were supported by up-and-coming acts like Wishbone Ash. Writing On The Wall’s stage show featured choreographed fights, with the band dressed up as a caveman, a high priest, a monk, and a witchfinder, and the destruction of a bubble car. Wow! Melody Maker felt sufficiently disturbed to comment that the band had 'the reputation of being violent to frightening extremes.' However John Peel was suitably impressed and the band recorded two Top Gear sessions for Radio 1. The Middle Earth club launched a label with this maniacal rock band as lead off act, releasing a single and this LP in 1969. The band continued to record demos but a second LP deal failed to materialize. Live work continued to impress and in 1972 they were invited to play in Brazil at the Rio Song Festival, which they did in front of a 60,000 strong live audience and millions of South American TV viewers. Enough was earned to fund the recording of the band's most fully realized creation, the song Buffalo, managing at times to be both menacing and elegiac. A severely truncated version was released as a single by PYE in 1973. This edition has been remastered by Denis Blackham and comes housed in metallic silver printed jacket which replicates the original album cover art.    

For your further reading enjoyment and enlightenment I offer the following band bio which comes from the Prog Archives website, with some editing by me:

The band that became Writing On The Wall began as Scottish soul band the Jury in the mid-sixties, eventually transforming themselves, like so many of their contemporaries, into a psychedelic-tinged group along with a name change in 1968. The band issued but one official studio album, the 1969 release The Power Of The Picts. Like many evolving groups caught in the midst of rapid musical evolution in the late sixties, Writing On The Wall retained much of the blues influence of the music they came of age with by mixing heavy and sometimes uneven blend of psych and blues with idealistic and often abstract lyrics to form a distinctly late sixties sound reminiscent of groups like Blues Image, Cactus, and Babe Ruth. Writing's music tended toward a more somber tone than most of their peers, and the band further distinguished themselves by relocating to London in hopes of making an impression on the British scene of that day. The band recorded for DJ John Peel in late1968, and released their sole album on Brian Waldman's fledging Middle Earth label. Waldman also served as the band's manager, and secured them gigs in his club, also named Middle Earth. While Writing failed to launch with their studio release, the band's live shows attracted them some attention (mostly in England), and the band managed to hold together until 1973 while touring and recording occasionally, including tracks for a proposed second album in 1972 and the beginning of a third before waning interest and the theft of their equipment caused the groups to dissolve in 1973. Neither of the band's other albums was released at the time, although numerous compilations and "reissues" of dubious legitimacy have been made available since that include some of these recordings, most notably the album Cracks In The Illusion Of Life. The band's debut was reissued in 2007 on Orc Records with bonus material including much of the previous unreleased studio work. Guitarist Willy Finlayson went on to stints with the bands Meal Ticket, Bees Make Honey, and his own group the Hurters, as well as an appearance on Manfred Mann's Earthband release; apparanetly uncredited. Lead vocalist Linnie Paterson, who had left the group before they recorded Power Of The Picts, joined Beggar’s Opera; sadly he passed away in 1990. Robert 'Smiggy' Smith, who also parted the group prior to their album, joined the aptly-named Blue, Alby Greenhalgh joined the rockabilly outfit the Flying Saucers, and bassist Jake Scott formed the obscure jazz group Xu-Xu Plesa.  

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