Think Pink! The Island Book Of Records Volume 2 - 1969-1970

Edited by Neil Storey,

Published by Manchester University Press.

reviewed by Stuart Penney.

In late 1970 I took a job as a gofer at the famous classical music publisher Universal Edition.  At age 20 I had little interest in classical music and found the work mostly dull, what with all those Mozart scores and their endlessly confusing Köchel numbers.  But there were the occasional bright spots, such as when I stumbled upon a little-known 18th century Italian composer and cellist by the name of Francesco Zappa.  I’m sure we only sold a handful of his scores during the entire time I worked there, but it was always a thrill to see them sitting in the racks, dusty and neglected, tied up with brown paper and hemp string, bearing a faded label reading simply "Zappa."  14 years later the “other” Zappa would record an album of Francesco’s work arranged for Synclavier (an early digital synthesizer) in an attempt to introduce his long-forgotten namesake to the modern world.

As well as the usual Romantic, Baroque and Classical era guys, Universal Edition also published works by a number of 20th century composers including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Richard Rodney Bennett, Harrison Birtwistle and David Bedford whose manuscripts were often unorthodox and fun to examine, even for those who, like me, didn't sight read.  For example, Bedford had a piece wittily titled “Whitefield Music 1 for 12 chime-bars, 12 tuned milk bottles, 4 drums,” and another called “With 100 Kazoos.”  The latter work was commissioned by the BBC to be performed as part of Pierre Boulez's series of concerts at the Roundhouse in 1972.  Boulez refused to conduct the piece.

As for Stockhausen, instead of conventional musical notation, some of his scores used squiggles, symbols and moving parts, including holes cut in the pages behind which cogs and wheels turned, revealing a variety of pictures indicating various random sounds and tempos to be played.  Picture the elaborate revolving sleeve of Led Zeppelin III and you’re still not even halfway there.  Those Stockhausen scores were eye wateringly expensive even in 1970 and I can only imagine how much they are worth today. 

Why am I telling you this? Well, another 20th century composer whose work UE handled was Béla Bartók, which is where our story begins.

One day I was summoned into the manager’s office at Universal Edition and asked if I had heard of a “pop group” (his words) called Emerson, Lake & Palmer.  The boss was a stuffy old geezer who cared little for popular music, so it seemed a strange question.  I told him that, yes, I was familiar with the group and was also aware that their self-titled Island debut LP had recently been released.  I was tempted to add that I’d also witnessed the second-ever ELP live performance at the Isle of Wight Festival in August 1970 but felt this might be over-egging the pudding.

He appeared satisfied with my answer and reaching into his desk drawer, pulled out the petty cash box and handed over two crisp five-pound notes, instructing me to “Go and buy three copies of their gramophone record,” adding “and remember to get a receipt."  Universal Edition were located in the heart of the West End, literally yards from the Dean Street branch of the famous One Stop Records store, and many a happy lunchtime was spent there browsing the import LP racks. Returning with the trio of ELP albums (they cost a little over £2 each), I left them on the manager's desk (with the change and receipt) and assumed my task was finished.  But over the following week I was to see a lot more of those records.

It seemed the Béla Bartók estate had become aware that the track "The Barbarian" on the Emerson, Lake & Palmer album was an arrangement of Bartók's 1911 piano piece “Allegro Barbaro.” It was still in copyright, but the record cheekily credited the piece only to ELP. Bartók's widow was understandably miffed at this and contacted the band to request the credit be corrected, which is where the UK branch of Universal Edition came in.

It was bizarre to see three pink label copies of the ELP record spread out on the boss’s desk for days while what I imagined were high powered telephone negotiations went on with someone at Island records or the band’s management regarding the composer credits.  

It didn’t happen right away, but by the time Emerson Lake & Palmer was reissued on the group’s own Manticore vanity label in 1973, Bartók was correctly listed as co-composer alongside the band members on the sleeve credit for “The Barbarian,” while “Bartók” alone was credited on the label.

Incidentally, Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ILPS 9132) was the penultimate UK album to wear the famous Island pink label, the very last one being Tea for the Tillerman (ILPS 9135) by Cat Stevens which closed out the decade in late November 1970.  

I think it’s fair to say British underground rock, folk rock and blues pretty-much began with Island records circa 1967.  In response EMI set up the Harvest label, Philips gave us Vertigo and stuffy old Decca revamped their existing Deram label, which had started life in 1966 releasing mainly MOR material, turning it into a full-blown hippie haven for the likes of the Moody Blues and early releases by Bowie and the aforementioned Cat Stevens. 

All these imprints had their glory years and moments of magic, not to mention a boatload of obscure (ie poor selling) LPs, some of which are now worth a king’s ransom on the collectable vinyl market.  But in my view, none of those major label spin-offs could compete with the proudly independent Island label for quality and consistency. 

Like many an old head, one of the first Island label records I ever owned was the legendary sampler LP You Can All Join In (IWPS-2).  Released in April 1969 it contained a cross-section of artists who went on to do great things (Jethro Tull, Free, Fairport Convention, Traffic) plus a few who fell by the wayside (Wynder K. Frog, Clouds and Tramline).  Ironically, Tramline’s contribution to YCAJI was “Pearly Queen” a Jim Capaldi / Steve Winwood song from the second Traffic album.  It was all a little incestuous, but in the nicest possible way.

1969 and 1970 is considered by many to be Island's golden era and this is the period covered in the second volume of Neil Storey’s The Island Book of Records, published at the tail end of 2024. My copy has only just arrived, courtesy of Amazon who lost the first order, hence the lateness of this review. Volume one centered on the label’s earliest years from its calypso, ska and soul inception in 1959 through to 1968 and the start of the home-grown British rock explosion.  

This latest edition examines the legendary pink label releases in all their prog, folk and blues rock glory.  With Fairport, Tull, John & Beverley Martyn, ELP, Free, Cat Stevens et al taking centre stage, every album cover and single sleeve is present and correct (UK and foreign releases), most shown in full 12” LP-size.  They are discussed via brief interview quotes from band members, journalists and those who worked in and around Island during the period.  Author / editor Storey also contributes where clarification is required (see the Bumpers sampler below).  There are also countless music magazine ads, contemporary reviews and press cuttings, ads and other ephemera.

Following a lengthy dissertation on Blind Faith (their sole album may have been on Polydor, but Steve Winwood was still firmly contracted to Island at the time) the book kicks off with Tons of Sobs (ILPS 9089) the debut LP by Free. From there the 430-page hard cover volume works its way chronologically through the pink label years album by album, including all those missing numbers which have confounded archivists for years (Volume one ran to a not-inconsiderable 390 pages).  

For example, folk blues artist Ian A. Anderson who appeared so prominently on the cover of the You Can All Join In sampler was cruelly dropped from the label at the eleventh hour allegedly due to a clash of names with the Jethro Tull front man.  Ian A’s 1969 LP Stereo Death Breakdown, scheduled to be released on Island with the catalogue number ILPS 9094, eventually turned up on the United Artists label instead and the Island number remained unused.  I daresay Anderson has been counting the money this savage blow has cost him ever since.

Other “missing” catalogue numbers include unreleased albums by Hard Meat, Wynder K. Frog and the band Clouds.  Some were issued in the US while other gaps were filled by compilation LPs released only in France.

Once the catalogue hit its stride, however, it was all killer and very little filler.  Few labels can boast Island’s strike rate of blue chip, timeless records from the late 60s and beyond.  It really is hard to find even a mediocre album, never mind a bad one, listed here after 1968.

The bulk of the book is devoted to the legendary pink label era and the records we have treasured for more than half a century.  There is detailed coverage of King Crimson’s In The Court Of The Crimson King, Nick Drake’s Five Leaves Left, Fairport Convention’s Liege & Liege plus other massively influential early LPs by Martyn, Free, Tull, Mott the Hoople, Spooky Tooth and Traffic.  Foreign releases are included along with subsequent UK pressings on the pink rim palm tree label, which superseded the three famous pink label designs in late 1970. 

With their none-more-hippie ethos, Quintessence were a different and somewhat more obscure kettle of fish, and they often seemed out of step with the label’s big names.  But you can count me as huge fan of their heavy raga rock.  And let’s not forget this ragbag outfit from Ladbroke Grove also gave us two of the most elaborate Island album sleeves of the period, one of which opens up from the centre like a Buddhist altar.  For that reason alone, Quintessence should be forever cherished.

I was intrigued to see White Noise’s An Electric Storm (ILPS 9099) discussed at length. This early electronic album from 1969 really was an Island oddity, quite unlike anything else coming from the label at that time. Keen-eyed viewers of Danny Baker’s 2015 sitcom Cradle to Grave may have spotted a giant poster for this little-known album, along with another for Free’s Heartbreaker (ILPS 9217), on the fictional bedroom wall of the 15-year-old Danny.  

As far as it relates directly to the main Island (ILPS) numbering system, the Chrysalis label is also covered here.  Founded in 1967 by Chris Wright and Terry Ellis, Chrysalis (Chris+Ellis = Chrysalis) started life as a management company and booking agency, representing Ten Years After and Jethro Tull.  Early albums by Tull, Blodwyn Pig and Clouds were licensed to the Island label, while TYA were signed to Deram.  Island boss Chris Blackwell promised Wright and Ellis their own label identity should Chrysalis artists reach an agreed number of chart entries, and the target was achieved in fine style when Tull's second album Stand Up (ILPS 9103) sprinted to #1 in September 1969.

The first LPs to wear the green Chrysalis label with its red butterfly logo were Getting To This (ILPS 9122) by Blodwyn Pig and the third Jethro Tull album Benefit (ILPS 9123) released simultaneously in April 1970, although both still carried Island catalogue numbers at this stage. Several more Chrysalis / Island hybrid releases by Tull, Mick Abrahams, Clouds, Tir Na Nog and Procol Harum followed before Chrysalis finally hatched (or should that be metamorphosed?) and flew the nest, launching its own dedicated UK numbering series in August 1971 with Ten Years After's A Space In Time (CHR 1001).

An entire section is devoted to the trio of famous pink label sampler LPs You Can All Join In, Nice Enough to Eat and Bumpers. Inspired directly by the CBS Rock Machine Turns You On samplers which started it all, they were big sellers and introduced the Island catalogue to a generation of record buyers. 

Some years ago, I co-wrote a series of Island articles for Record Collector magazine, one of which focused on the sampler LPs (reproduced on my blog HERE). It highlighted the errors, discrepancies and downright cock-ups featured on Bumpers (IDP 1) the only double album to receive a pink label release.  Retailing at a shade under 30 shillings (soon to be £1.50 after decimalisation) it was incredible value, but not quite in the way Island had intended.

Whether it was wildly inaccurate track timings, incorrect mixes or simply bogus and misleading sleeve information, hardly a track on Bumpers was untouched by inconsistency and an already splendid album became an essential purchase.  It’s good to see Storey has listed the errors I first documented, plus a few more besides. 

At around £80 this is not a cheap book, but for Island aficionados it’s worth every penny.  Beautifully designed, lavishly illustrated and forensically researched, the 3kg tome is streets ahead of anything yet published about the label.  We’ve been promised several more volumes taking us through the 70s and into the 80s, each one covering possibly a couple of years of Island’s history.  If this comes to pass I’m sure they’ll all be excellent but somehow I doubt future books will scale the giddy heights of this one.  I maintain 1969-1970 was indubitably Island’s peak period.  And I’ll fight anyone who says differently.

The Ultimate Nick Drake Rarity?

 

How did an impossibly rare Nick Drake vinyl LP turn up in a tiny Australian outback town? Stuart Penney tells the story

Nick Drake’s records have always been somewhat elusive.  In fact, until the digital age arrived, and music became freely available to all, his vinyl LPs were invariably hard to find and generally quite expensive, too, even as reissues.  Why was this?  Let’s put it down to that old cliché supply and demand.  Except, unfortunately for Nick the demand didn't arrive while he was around to enjoy it.

In July 1969 his debut Five Leaves Left was released to modest interest from the folk music community, but widespread indifference from the general record buying public.  Initial sales of that LP can only be described as woeful.  I’ve heard it said that just 400 copies of the first pressing of FLL were sold in the weeks after release.  That number sounds a little low even for the most willfully obscure niche artist and I’d guess 2-3,000 copies is probably closer to the mark, certainly during Nick’s lifetime.  But then, on the other hand, that low figure could explain the crazy prices we see today, with pink label original copies regularly changing hands for £1,000 or more online.

Poor sales notwithstanding, Five Leaves Left had one important thing in its favour: it was on the Island label.  Since diversifying from Jamaican music and soul into white boy prog, psych, blues and folk around 1967, it’s probably fair to say Island had released barely a bad album.  Just about everything on Chris Blackwell’s label was worthy of investigation back then and Nick’s debut surely gained a following wind from groundbreaking releases by his Island stable mates John Martyn, Traffic, Jethro Tull, Free, King Crimson, Cat Stevens and the rest, even if it didn’t necessarily translate into sales.  If any UK record company could lay claim to the handle “trademark of quality” at that time, surely it was Island.

Sales wise, Drake’s final two records Bryter Layter (1971) and Pink Moon (1972) fared little better than his first and a reluctance to play live certainly didn’t help matters.  To his credit Blackwell refused to delete the albums despite the poor sales.  Then, following Nick’s death in 1974, the Island boss vowed that the three LPs would remain on catalogue as long as he had a say in the matter.

All of which brings us to my own copy of Five Leaves Left.  Although I never owned a first pressing of the LP in 1969, I knew people who did, and we fell in love with Nick’s hypnotic songs, unique guitar style and his voice like warm molasses.  Robert Kirby’s haunting string arrangements on four tracks were the icing on a delicious cake.

Naturally, as fully paid-up wannabe "heads my pals and I were acutely aware of the nudge-nudge nature of the album title.  It was a reference to the insert found towards the end of each packet of Rizla cigarette rolling papers, warning users they had "only five leaves left."  Despite being scarcely able to stump up enough cash for a ten bob (50p) deal between us, this surreptitious reefer reference made us feel like we were somehow part of Nick's impossibly hip gang.

I watched over the years as those early, original Nick Drake vinyl LPs rocketed in value, even after the CDs became available.  It seemed that a combination of the always collectible Island label and the desire to own an original piece of Nick’s legend had driven prices into the stratosphere.  How we wished we’d had the foresight (or, indeed, the wherewithal) to buy a dozen copies in 1969.

By the mid-80s I was living in Western Australia and had started my own second-hand record store, stocked with thousands of LPs I brought over from London.  As luck would have it, 1985 was the perfect time to open such an enterprise in Australia.  Collectable records were starting to become big business in Britain, with Record Collector magazine taking its first faltering steps and record fairs popping up everywhere.  But the boom had yet to take off down under, especially in the sleepy west coast city of Perth.  So, for a few years I had the rare vinyl field almost to myself, especially as so many people started to jettison their LPs in favour of the newfangled CD format.

One day I received a call asking if I would be interested in buying a large record collection.  The LPs were located about a two-hour drive east of Perth in a small country town with a population of (according to Wikipedia) just 725.  It transpired that following a divorce, the owner had moved to the east coast a decade earlier, locking up the house and its contents.  Now he had decided it was time to sell up.

I was given the keys by his ex-wife and drove out to take a look.  The scene which greeted me was like something from a Stephen King movie.  The house looked virtually abandoned.  The electricity was disconnected, so the place was dark and gloomy, with everything covered in a decade’s worth of dust and cobwebs.

The furniture was old and threadbare and there were torn and dirty bedsheets covering the windows as makeshift curtains.  And there, taking up all available floor space in every room (bathroom, toilet and an outbuilding included) were thousands upon thousands of records.  When I counted them later it turned out there were around 8,000 LPs and almost as many singles.  It took three trips with two cars and a box trailer to take them all back to Perth over a couple of weekends (see photo below).  It was the kind of score every record dealer dreams of.

I won’t bore you with too many details of the collection, but you name it, and it was probably there: all the early UK Elvis LPs on HMV, both unfeasibly rare Blossom Toes albums and clean original copies of every conceivable 60s collectible album, including items by the Artwoods, Davy Graham, the Zombies and countless more besides.  And there, almost unnoticed amid the tsunami of rare and desirable items was a UK copy of Five Leaves Left.

Apart from a few dozen choice items which I still have, I sold most of the collection over the years.  But I kept the Nick Drake LP simply because it wasn’t in the best of condition.  For a start the sleeve was in two halves, so I assumed it was damaged and therefore unsaleable.  That was not the case, but thankfully I didn’t know any better at the time.

It proved to be a good move because since then it's been identified as an advance promo copy of Five Leaves Left sent out to reviewers and the like with the sleeve (front and back) in two separate pieces, or "slicks," which are slightly taller than normal.  Other differences include the Island box logo and catalogue number on the back cover.  This appears in black on all regular released copies, but it printed in green ink here and is the only known Island release to use this colour typeface.

 

The matrix number in the runout grooves is also the lowest one ever seen for this release:

Side One: ILPS 9105 A//2 111.  Side Two: ILPS 9105 B//2 113

On side one the tracks “Day Is Done” and “Way To Blue” are reversed on the label and sleeve.  The album actually plays “Way to Blue” followed by “Day is Done.”  On subsequent pressings this error was corrected on the label, if not the sleeve.

On my copy the pink Island label (with its Witchseason logo) is almost white.  Whether it was always like this or has faded due to exposure to the sun, I can't say. 

So, what I initially thought was a damaged and virtually worthless item was in fact correct and incredibly rare.  I’ve no idea how many were made like this, but I’ve only ever seen a handful for sale online, so I’d estimate no more than 50 copies were produced.

As I write (January 2024), only one copy of this item is currently for sale on Discogs with an eye-watering asking price of £6,000.  That figure may seem crazy and who knows if it will even sell at that price.  But such is the collectability of Nick Drake and the pink Island label today I'm sure it will find a good home eventually.

Would I part with my copy?  Well, I do also have back-ups in the form of the CD and an early 70s vinyl pressing on the Island pink rim palm tree label (even that is a £150 item in nice condition), so yes, I probably could live without the original.  Maybe I should take it on Antiques Roadshow, assuming their pop culture expert has even heard of Nick, that is.  But then again, perhaps I’ll hold onto it a while longer and see where the price ends up five years from now.

Footnote:

In early 2024 esteemed music journalist and broadcaster Danny Baker announced he was about to sell his massive personal record collection.  In the Nick Drake section of the online auction catalogue Danny added this comment:

"The night before my records were carted away by [auction house] Omega - four men, five hours in the shifting - my son came round and I asked him again if there were any final records he wanted for himself. He said no. Then, after a minute or so, he said, “Actually Dad, I haven’t ever had a good copy of Five Leaves Left.  Do you have a spare?”  Well I didn’t have a “spare” but I did have the mint original.  So I gave it to him.  That’s why it’s not here and there’s a grand I’ll never see again.  Likewise my signed copy of John Martyn’s Solid Air.  I taught that kid well..."

The first of several loads of records packed and ready to go

Fill Your Head With Rock! Part 3 - Island & Vertigo Sampler LPs

UK Sampler Albums 1968-1975 - Part 3

by Stuart Penney

Island: Part 1 - Nice Enough To Join In

If any single record company can be credited with lifting the humble sampler LP from the bargain bins and placing it front and centre as a fondly remembered art form, it must surely be the Island label.  Island released only around half a dozen samplers between 1969-71, but at least four of them are still considered absolute classics of the era. 

Established in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell during the late 50s, Island began operating in London in May of 1962.  The label's output up to that point had been almost exclusively of West Indian origin, but in the mid-60s Blackwell began to sign British artists whose work he and producer/A&R man Guy Stevens admired.  The Spencer Davis Group were among the first of these in 1964, but the SDG releases and other artists were initially licensed to the decidedly more pop-oriented Fontana label.  

Things moved quickly and from 1967 to 1969 the Island artist roster grew to resemble a veritable who's who of British underground rock, with John Martyn, Traffic, Jethro Tull, Free, Fairport Convention, King Crimson, Blodwyn Pig and others turning out high-quality, timeless albums almost weekly.  It's probably no exaggeration to say that by 1970 Blackwell had assembled a stable of talent the equal of any UK label, with scarcely a duff album to be found in the entire catalogue.  This was even more remarkable considering Island was a proudly independent company without the resources and major label backing enjoyed by their main competitors Deram, Vertigo and Harvest.  

With this early success came the first batch of Island samplers and four were released in 1969 alone.  The first and perhaps the most celebrated was You Can All Join In.  Named after a Dave Mason song from the October 1968 self-titled second Traffic album, YCAJI contained tracks by many of the big Island signings of the day (Free, Tull, Fairport, Traffic), plus a few also-rans (Clouds, Tramline, Wynder K. Frog).  There was even a Spencer Davis Group track, lifted from their Island Best Of LP, plus contributions from both Art and Spooky Tooth, who were essentially the same band.  Art had evolved into Spooky Tooth in late 1967, but their only album Supernatural Fairy Tales lived on in the Island catalogue. 

Equally as important as the music in this case was that distinctive and much-discussed You Can All Join In sleeve.  Snapped from above on a stepladder by the Hipgnosis photographer, the front cover shows a rag tag collection of 29 musicians.  Fashionably unsmiling with collars turned up against the wind and hands thrust deep into the pockets of army greatcoats, leather jackets and (real) fur coats on a cold winter’s morning, no one looked too happy to be there at that hour of the day.  

So, who exactly was present on that fateful morning in early 1969 when the cream of Island's roster gathered, shivering, in Hyde Park?  By referring to the accompanying diagram and key below, everyone on the cover can be quickly identified.  But this is where it gets a little complicated, as not everyone is fully visible.  However, thanks to a Dutch pressing of You Can All Join In (retitled The Best Of Island), it’s possible to detect a few more faces. Both versions of the sleeve are shown here.

The Dutch release shows a little more of the sleeve photo on the left revealing three people not seen on the UK version.  These extras are (from the bottom) Chris Mercer, late of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers but then blowing sax with Wynder K. Frog.  Above Mercer's head is a brown coat collar, together with a similarly-coloured clump of hair.  These belong to a then considerably more hirsute Richard Thompson.  Immediately above Thompson's head, directly to the left of Neil Hubbard, we see a small amount of darker frizzy hair.  Sadly, this is all that is visible of original Jethro Tull drummer Clive Bunker.

There has, over the years, been much speculation as to who was positioned out of camera range further to the left.  Various names have been mooted including John Martyn (unlikely), members of Blodwyn Pig (very unlikely), and King Crimson (extremely unlikely indeed, since they weren't even signed to Island at that point).  No, it's far more probable that these stragglers were the remaining members of Spooky Tooth, along with, possibly, various representatives from Tramline.  Paul Kossoff, as the only member of Free not accounted for, was probably safely tucked up in his Golborne Mews bed at that unsociable hour.  Dave Mason, whose song gave this sampler its name is also nowhere to be seen.  Mason was in and out of Traffic several times between 1967-69, so he had probably bailed yet again by the time the cover photo was taken.

Then there's the sorry tale of nearly-man Ian A. Anderson (he's the bearded, bespectacled, fur-coated figure at No.16).  Ian A. was dropped from the label shortly after the cover shoot and does not appear on the album.  If his account of how he lost his Island contract is to be believed, the folk blues practitioner and future editor of the late, lamented fRoots magazine (1979 - 2019) was unceremoniously dumped due to an unfortunate clash of names with the Jethro Tull front man.  Ian A. did record a full album for Liberty in 1969 however - Stereo Death Breakdown (LBS 83242E) - and appears on the Son Of Gutbucket sampler discussed elsewhere.  In 1970 he founded the folk label Village Thing.

Someone else who appears on the sleeve yet didn’t play on the album was Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre (No.6).  “A Song For Jeffrey” the album’s opening track was recorded by the earlier This Was Tull line-up, with Mick Abrahams on guitar.

Saddest of all is the Fairport Convention drummer Martin Lamble (No. 19).  In May 1969, within weeks of this photoshoot, he was killed aged 19 when the band’s van crashed near the Scratchwood Services (now known as London Gateway) on the M1 motorway on the way back from a gig at Mothers Club in Birmingham. 

Two people on the cover later played at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969.  They were Neil Hubbard (No. 2) and Bruce Rowland (No. 5).  Both went from Wynder K. Frog to Joe Cocker’s Grease Band and hence, to Woodstock. 

Coincidentally, after leaving Fairport Convention, Ian Matthews (No.14) formed Matthews Southern Comfort who scored a worldwide hit single with a cover of, you guessed it – Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock”.

A pair of musicians pictured on the sleeve eventually played with two different bands on the record.  Rebop Kwaku Baah (No. 22) and Bruce Rowland (No. 6), both members of Wynder K Frog at the time, later became members of Traffic and Fairport Convention respectively.

Retailing at 14s/6d (72½p) You Can All Join In reached #18 in the UK album charts and remained on catalogue for several years, appearing on at least four different Island label designs into the 70s.

YOU CAN ALL JOIN IN (Island IWPS-2) 1969

SIDE ONE:

1. Jethro Tull - A Song For Jeffrey

2. Spooky Tooth - Sunshine Help Me

3. Free - I'm A Mover

4. What's That Sound - Art

5. Tramline - Pearly Queen

6. Traffic - You Can All Join In

SIDE TWO:

1. Fairport Convention - Meet on the Ledge

2. Nirvana - Rainbow Chaser

3. John Martyn - Dusty

4. Clouds - I'll Go Girl

5. Spencer Davis Group - Somebody Help Me

6. Wynder K. Frog - Gasoline Alley

You Can All Join In - Key To Sleeve Diagram:

1. Clive Bunker (Jethro Tull)

2. Neil Hubbard (Wynder K. Frog)

3. Gary Wright (Spooky Tooth)

4. Glenn Cornick (Jethro Tull)

5. Bruce Rowland (Wynder K. Frog)

6. Martin Barre (Jethro Tull)

7. Mick Weaver (Wynder K. Frog)

8. Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull)

9. Patrick Campbell-Lyons (Nirvana)

10. Ashley Hutchings (Fairport Convention)

11. Alex Spyropoulos (Nirvana)

12. Chris Wood (Traffic)

13. Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention)

14. Ian Matthews (Fairport Convention)

15. Steve Winwood (Traffic)

16. Ian A. Anderson

17. Jim Capaldi (Traffic)

18. Mike Harrison (Spooky Tooth)

19. Martin Lamble (Fairport Convention)

20. Simon Nicol (Fairport Convention)

21. Harry Hughes (Clouds)

22. Rebop Kwaku Baah (Wynder K. Frog)

23. Chris Mercer (Wynder K. Frog)

24. Simon Kirke (Free)

25. Paul Rodgers (Free)

26. Billy Ritchie (Clouds)

27. Andy Fraser (Free)

28. Ian Ellis (Clouds)

29. Sandy Denny (Fairport Convention)

You Can All Join In sleeve diagram thanks to © Julia Wytrazek – https://juliaillustrates.com/ from an original idea by Chris Savage.

Almost as famous as You Can All Join In was Island’s next rock sampler Nice Enough To Eat which arrived in late 1969.  Although lacking some of YCAJI’s obvious eye-catching appeal, the NETE sleeve had many visual delights - the surreptitious concealment of a few suspicious-looking pharmaceuticals among the alphabet biscuits and Smarties was a particularly nice touch, for example.

Musically speaking, though, it was no contest.  In terms of value for money - it was another 14s/6d (72½p) special - NETE easily outranked its illustrious predecessor and just about every other sampler album you care to name.  Tull, Fairport, John Martyn, Free, Traffic and Spooky Tooth were again represented, but this time there were several new names to ponder as the second wave of Island signings began to make their presence felt.

Accordingly, Nice Enough To Eat was probably the place where most late 60s record buyers first chanced upon the music of King Crimson, Nick Drake, Mott The Hoople, Blodwyn Pig, Dr. Strangely Strange and Quintessence.  Not only that, it was also almost certainly the first - and last - time they would encounter the mysterious Heavy Jelly.

The Heavy Jelly saga is a long and, at times, extremely tedious one and only certain aspects of it need concern us here.  Briefly, after a 1968 Time Out magazine hoax album review of a non-existent band named Heavy Jelly had stirred up interest, the race was on to produce a real record by an actual group of that name.  Island got there first in January 1969 with the single “I Keep Singing That Same Old Song”/”Blue”.  This incarnation of Heavy Jelly (there were, ultimately, at least four different versions of the band) was none other than UK psych/pop merchants Skip Bifferty and the epic eight minute-plus A side was the work of their bass player Colin Gibson.

Just to complicate things even further, the version of “I Keep Singing That Same Old Song” which closes Side One of Nice Enough To Eat features a very different mix to the Island single.  Although a further single and full album credited to Heavy Jelly later appeared, this was a completely different band with no connection to either Island or Skip Bifferty.

Keen-eared King Crimson followers will no doubt notice the absence of the ominous pre-take tootling which is faintly audible just before “21st Century Schizoid Man” kicks in at the start of In The Court Of The Crimson King.

The artwork was by Mike Sida who designed/photographed several classic Island album sleeves including Spooky Two, Free's Tons of Sobs and Fire and Water and Traffic's Last Exit and John Barleycorn Must Die.

As befits this pair of timeless sampler LPs, You Can All Join In and Nice Enough To Eat were reissued in 1992 on a single 21 track CD, cunningly-titled Nice Enough To Join In (IMCD 150).  In order to fit both albums onto one disc, three tracks from NETE were jettisoned (Tull, Fairport and - presumably because Island no longer owned the rights to their material - King Crimson).  Curiously, the NETE album sides were reversed on the CD.  YCAJI, however, appeared unchanged.

NICE ENOUGH TO EAT (Island IWPS-6) 1969

SIDE ONE:

1. Fairport Convention - Cajun Woman

2. Mott The Hoople - At the Crossroads

3. Spooky Tooth - Better By You, Better Than Me

4. Jethro Tull - We Used To Know

5. Free - Woman

6. Heavy Jelly - I Keep Singing That Same Old Song

SIDE TWO:

1. Blodwyn Pig - Sing Me A Song That I Know

2. Traffic - Forty Thousand Headmen

3. Nick Drake - Time Has Told Me

4. King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man

5. Quintessence - Gungamai

6. Dr Strangely Strange - Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal

Island: Part 2 - The Sue Years

In 1963 Chris Blackwell signed a deal with the prestigious US R&B label Sue Records to license their records for UK release.  Sue had earlier released records in Britain via Decca's London label.  

With Guy Stevens at the helm, the UK Sue label thrived between 1963-68, producing some of the greatest US soul/R&B collections of the era with several volumes of The Sue Story and other legendary compilations.  UK releases were given their own distinctive yellow and red label design but were, for the most part, incorporated into the main Island numbering system.  

Problems began when Island began to lease recordings from other US labels and release them under the UK Sue banner, which was not in the agreement.  The US label terminated the deal with Island and UK Sue releases returned to Decca.  Island wound down its involvement with the Sue label in the late 60s but not before releasing two classic 1969 Island samplers compiled by Guy Stevens. 

Drawing tracks from nine LPs and five singles This Is Sue! (IWP-3) was a genuinely great soul/R&B compilation with tracks by Roy Head, Robert Parker, Shirley & Lee, the Phil Upchurch Combo, Bob & Earl etc.  The fact that only around half of the 14 tracks originated from the US Sue label appears to have gone unnoticed.  

One oddity on This Is Sue! was “Incense” by The Anglos.  Strongly rumoured to be Steve Winwood recording under an alias at the time, this track was issued as a single several times in the 60s, starting in 1965 on the short-lived Brit label, followed by Fontana and Island.  Winwood denied involvement with the song, but he did record elsewhere under the name “Steve Anglo”, so while the evidence pointed to him, it actually turned out to be a US band fronted by one Joe Webster.  “Incense” was written and produced by the esteemed Jimmy Miller, an American based in London, later known for his production work with the Rolling Stones, Blind Faith and Traffic.  

Next up in the Island sampler series was Put Your Tears Away (IWPS-4) a one artist collection by Jamaican singer/songwriter Jackie Edwards.  This was followed by another essential Guy Stevens-compilation This Is Blues (IWP-5).  Showing the sleeves of 12 now incredibly rare Sue LPs on the back cover it featured 14 tracks by Freddy King, Otis Rush, Elmore James, Junior Wells, Homesick James and the like. 

THIS IS SUE! (Island IWP-3) 1969

SIDE ONE:

1. Roy Head - Treat Her Right

2. Derek Martin - Daddy Rollin' Stone

3. The Righteous Brothers - Little Latin Lupe Lu

4. Hank Jacobs - So Far Away

5. Bob & Earl - Harlem Shuffle

6. Barbara Lynn - Oh! Baby

7. Phil Upchurch Combo - You Can't Sit Down

SIDE TWO:

1. Bobby Parker - Watch Your Step

2. Larry Williams - Bony Maronie

3. Jimmy McGriff - The Last Minute

4. Robert Parker - Barefootin'

5. Shirley & Lee - Let The Good Times Roll

6. The Anglos - Incense

7. Roy 'C' - Shotgun Wedding

THIS IS BLUES (Island IWP-5) 1969

SIDE ONE:

1. Homesick James - Crossroads

2. J. B. Lenoir - I Sing Um The Way I Feel

3. Elmore James - It Hurts Me Too

4. Buster Brown - Doctor Brown

5. Sonny Boy Williamson - No Nights By Myself

6. Willie Mae Thornton - Tom Cat

7. Freddy King - Driving Sideways

SIDE TWO:

1. Lowell Fulsom - Talking Woman Blues

2. Lightnin' Hopkins - Wonder What Is Wrong With Me

3. Frankie Lee Sims - What Will Lucy Do

4. Otis Rush - I Can't Quit You Baby

5. Junior Wells - Prison Bars All Around Me

6. Sammy Myers - Sleeping In The Ground

7. Tarheel Slim - Number 9 Train

Island: Part 3 - Bumpers and El Pea

The idea behind the Bumpers album title was a play on the word “bumper”, meaning plentiful or larger than usual.  They could have used a car bumper to illustrate the pun, but instead went for the name of a now long-forgotten type of sports shoe.  Way back before the marketing men turned the humble running shoe into “lifestyle brand footwear”, trainers or basketball shoes were known as “bumpers”.  I suppose the closest thing today would be the ever-fashionable Converse sneakers.  

The cover artwork was by Tony Wright, who designed literally dozens of 70s album sleeves for Island, including Traffic’s oddly-shaped duo The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys and Shoot Out At The Fantasy Factory along with Sharks’ First Water, John Martyn’s One World and Bob Marley’s Natty Dread.

On Nic Oatridge’s website https://www.oatridge.co.uk/bumpers.htm he quotes Tony Wright: "Yes I did the artwork.  It was originally a series of prints in multiple colours.  (Chris) Blackwell purchased 100 of them from a store on the Kings Road, London and from them came up with the name Bumpers for the album, as that's what these kind of sports shoes were called at the time.  Island chose the colour way and asked my approval and paid me £200 for the rights.  Guy Stevens had a friend called Mike Sida, who would have normally got the job of doing the cover and allowed him to put the package together.  I provided the logo for the front.  Why he thought an Aztec figure (on the back cover) was appropriate I never understood.  But it took me a couple of years to begin worrying what went on the back of an album cover.”

Where to begin with Bumpers?  There’s lots to unpack here.  In their haste to get the sampler into the shops, Island jumped the gun at almost every turn, using half-finished tracks, incorrect mixes and often erroneous sleeve notes.  And yet, 50 years later, this only adds to the mystery of this weird and wonderful double LP.  So numerous and complex are the discrepancies, red herrings and outright cock-ups lurking within the only Island pink label double album, a track-by-track run-through seems the simplest way to sort it all out:

BUMPERS (Island IDP-1) 1970

SIDE ONE:

1. TRAFFIC – Every Mother's Son

Apart from a slightly longer fadeout and a discrepancy in the composer credits (Jim Capaldi is mysteriously uncredited on label and sleeve), no real differences to the John Barleycorn Must Die version are apparent here.

2. BRONCO – Love

At this stage the first Bronco album was still some months away, so the Bumpers sleeve notes were incorrect on both counts when they claimed that “Love” was "from ILPS 9134 - Bronco".  When it eventually appeared (as ILPS 9124), Bronco's debut was titled Country Home.  ILPS 9134, of course, was subsequently allocated to Nick Drake's Bryter Layter.

Due to an extended fadeout, the Bumpers' version of “Love” runs for 12 seconds longer than the officially released track (and, spookily, Country Home actually features a track titled “Bumpers West”!)

3. SPOOKY TOOTH – I Am The Walrus

Although probably the same take as the version on The Last Puff, the Bumpers track features different lead guitar overdubs amid a somewhat heavier mix.

4. QUINTESSENCE – Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga

This is where it starts to get weird.  The Bumpers sleeve notes claim that “Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga” is from the self-titled second Quintessence LP (ILPS 9128) which, as any fule kno, is a studio album.  In fact, the recording used here was an unavailable-elsewhere, full-blown live version.  The Bumpers version turned up many years later as a bonus cut on the Repertoire label CD of the Quintessence album. 

SIDE TWO:

1. MOTT THE HOOPLE – Thunderbuck Ram

Very little difference to the Mad Shadows version here, although a subtly different mix lends the Bumpers version a slightly more strident feel.

2. JETHRO TULL – Nothing To Say 

Not nearly as powerful as the Benefit version, the Bumpers track appears to have lost something in the transfer.  Otherwise, the title says it all.

3. JIMMY CLIFF – Going Back West 

Another case of premature ejaculation by the Bumpers compilers, it seems.  To quote the sleeve notes, “Going Back West” is "From ILPS 9133 - Jimmy Cliff released Autumn '70".  Well, not only does that catalogue number relate to John & Beverley Martyn's Road To Ruin album, but the mooted eponymous Jimmy Cliff LP appears to have been delayed/postponed somewhere along the way and “Going Back West” did not surface until 1973 on the album Struggling Man (ILPS 9235) 

4. BLODWYN PIG – Send Your Son To Die 

Although the label claims 5:35 for this track, it actually runs for only 4:35 - which is, in itself, an eleven second increase on the Getting To This album version!  Assuming that both versions are identical takes and (probably) originate from the same mix, how, then, do we account for the extraneous eleven seconds?  Simple - the Getting To This track runs a little faster than the Bumpers version, making the song sound quite different and, of course, explaining the time difference.  Composer credits on the label read 'N. Abrahams', thus turning Mick into 'Nick', presumably?

5. DAVE MASON - Little Woman 

Quite why the (then) non-LP B-side of Mason's February 1968 solo single “Just For You” (WIP 6032) was included here (some two and a half years after its original airing) is anyone's guess.  Since the A-side was credited to Traffic when it appeared on Last Exit (ILPS 9097), there's even an outside chance that this could be them too - although it must be said that both songs certainly have the feel of solo, multi-tracked efforts.  “Little Woman” and “Just For You” ended up on Mason's 1972 double LP compilation Scrapbook (ICD 5).  The Bumpers’ (label and sleeve) list the publisher as Island Music, whereas the single claims Blue Mountain Music.

SIDE THREE:

1. JOHN & BEVERLEY MARTYN - Go Out and Get It  

Aside from Bumpers all-too-familiar habit of mis-timing the tracks (this one is listed at 3:15, some 9 seconds longer than its true length), there are no other major discrepancies here.

2. KING CRIMSON - Cadence & Cascade

At 3:30, Bumpers understates the timing of “Cadence & Cascade” by no less than 13 seconds.  Mind you, even at its true length of 3:43, that still leaves a whopping 53 seconds shortfall between this and the full version on In The Wake Of Poseidon (ILPS 9127).  An early fade-out can be blamed for the truncated Bumpers track, a theme which Robert Fripp took even further on the 1976 compilation The Young Person's Guide To King Crimson (ISLD 7) when he lopped a further seven seconds off poor old “Cadence…”.  Also worth noting are the remixed cymbals and hi-hat on the Bumpers' version.

3. IF - Reaching Out On All Sides

If's self-titled debut LP claims a time of 5:14 for this track, whereas Bumpers plumps for 5:35.  Both are incorrect since the true time is actually 5:40!  All versions sound identical, however.  Incidentally, on the original album and single, this song is referred to as “I'M Reaching Out On All Sides”.

4. FREE - Oh I Wept

Apart from Paul Kossoff losing an 'f' from his name on label and sleeve, what else is different here?  Only a totally different Paul Rodgers' vocal track, that's all!  And as if that weren't enough to make Bumpers an essential purchase, the bass guitar parts are also noticeably different.  The Bumpers version later turned up as a bonus track on the 2001 CD of Fire and Water.

5. NICK DRAKE - Hazey Jane

“From his album to be released Autumn ‘70” read the sleeve notes.  The unnamed album was, of course Bryter Layter and when it appeared in late 1970 it contained two numbered versions of “Hazey Jane”.  Perversely, “Hazey Jane II” (Side 1, Track 2) preceded “Hazey Jane I” (Side 1, Track 5) in the Bryter Layter running order.  Although not identified as such, what we have here is “Hazey Jane I”.

SIDE FOUR:

1. FAIRPORT CONVENTION - Walk Awhile

No changes from the Full House version here.

2. CAT STEVENS - Maybe You're Right 

Now, this is a strange one.  It appears that during the tape transfer or re-mastering stage something went horribly wrong with “Maybe You're Right”.  On Cat’s debut Island LP Mona Bone Jakon this track is in the key of G throughout.  The Bumpers' version, although starting off in G, slows down and switches to the key of F# around two thirds of the way through!  This presumably accounts for the distinctly off-key piano figure and eleven second time discrepancy.  

3. RENAISSANCE - Island 

Everything here, including (for once) the track timings, is correct.

4. FOTHERINGAY - The Sea

While both Bumpers and the Fotheringay album claim a time of 5:25 for this track, 5:30 is closer to the truth.

5. CLOUDS - Take Me To Your Leader

Despite Bumpers' bold claim that “Take Me To Your Leader” originates from "their Chrysalis album to be released Autumn '70", this track was never issued elsewhere in the UK at the time, although it was released in several European countries as an Island single (6014 017).  What's more, there was no "Autumn '70" album, since Clouds' second LP Watercolour Days (Chrysalis ILPS 9151) would not appear until the spring of 1971.

“Take Me To Your Leader” had, in fact, already been aired on the US-only Clouds' album Up Above Our Heads (Deram DES 18044).  In 2010 the BGO label issued a 34 track double CD Up Above Our Heads (Clouds 1966-71) containing both Island albums (Scrapbook and Watercolour Days), plus the US Deram LP. 

BUMPERS DOWN UNDER

A version of Bumpers was released in Australia and New Zealand with an almost identical sleeve but a very different track listing (see below).  The local independent Festival label distributed Island’s releases down under at that time and presumably it was they who insisted on the inclusion of several tracks which had been big hits in the UK (eg Free’s “All Right Now”), possibly in an attempt to boost sales in that part of the world.  

The inside gatefold sleeve artwork showing assorted band photographs pinned to a tree was reproduced exactly but in black and white instead of colour.  No matter that some of the artists in the pictures did not feature on the Aussie pressing – notably Jethro Tull, Clouds, Dave Mason, King Crimson etc.  Tull was signed to their US label Reprise in Australia, so that could explain their absence from the Antipodean version of Bumpers.

BUMPERS (Island SIL 107/8) 1970 - Australia / New Zealand Version

SIDE ONE:

1. Free - All Right Now

2. Quintessence - Notting Hill Gate

3. Traffic - Empty Pages

4. Spencer Davis Group - I'm A Man

5. John and Beverley Martyn - Primrose Hill

SIDE TWO:

1. Cat Stevens - Mona Bone Jakon

2. Mott The Hoople - You Really Got Me

3. Cat Stevens - Lady D'Arbanville

4. Jimmy Cliff - Wonderful World, Beautiful People

5. Fotheringay - Peace In The End

SIDE THREE:

1. Spooky Tooth - I Am The Walrus

2. If - The Promised Land

3. Tramline - Somewhere Down The Line

4. Alan Bown - Loosen Up

5. Fairport Convention - Crazy Man Michael

SIDE FOUR:

1. Jimmy Cliff - Wild World

2. Spooky Tooth - Love Really Changed Me

3. Dear Mr. Fantasy - Traffic

4. Quintessence - Shiva's Chant

5. Amazing Blondel – Anthem

EL PEA 

The final UK Island LP pressed with the legendary pink label is thought to be Cat Stevens’ Tea For The Tillerman (ILPS 9135), released in late 1970.  So, by the time the El Pea sampler appeared in July 1971, Island had already switched to the first of their equally famous “palm tree” labels.  The UK had also embraced decimalisation in February of that year and the El Pea double album retailed at £1.99 without any of those pesky shillings and pence to worry about.

The El Pea album title, clearly, was an excruciating pun on “LP” and, as if to drive the point home, several giant peas were pictured across the foldout sleeve.  The cover itself was a short-lived and best-forgotten design construction known as Av / Pak, consisting of a single thickness outer card sleeve wrapped around two PVC inner sleeves which housed the records (audiophiles may prefer to look away now).  Each PVC sleeve had a strip of foam fixed along the opening edge, ostensibly to clean dust from the record as it was removed.  This contraption was doomed to failure for several reasons.  Firstly, the plastic sleeves tended to degrade over time, undergoing a chemical reaction known as “out-gassing” (sometimes called “off-gassing”) whereby they slowly released a gas trapped in the PVC.  The gas reacted with the record itself, giving the vinyl a cloudy appearance and often causing surface noise (the same thing can happen to LPs stored long-term in hard PVC outer sleeves). 

If that weren’t bad enough, the foam strip also had a tendency to react with the vinyl after a year or two, often literally eating into the lip of the LP where the two came into contact, rendering the first track on the record unplayable.  To cap it all, the foam strip eventually turned brittle and crumbled to dust inside the PVC sleeve, creating even more problems.  The only other releases I could find which used Av / Pak sleeves were the Colosseum album Colosseum Live (Bronze ICD-1), 1971 pressings of Pentangle's Basket Of Light (Transatlantic TRA 205), Mr Fox - Gipsy (Transatlantic TRA 236) and CMU - Open Spaces (Transatlantic TRA 237) but there probably are others. To absolutely no one’s surprise the design was not popular with record buyers and mercifully, the idea seems to have been consigned to the dustbin of vinyl history shortly afterwards.

  

A saving grace was the inside sleeve which featured 20 quite splendid illustrations of the musicians by Alan Cracknell.  There were 21 tracks on El Pea, but as Mike Heron appeared on the album twice - solo as well as with the Incredible String Band - he was pictured only once, as part of the ISB.  Alan Cracknell also designed the sleeves for Matching Mole’s self-titled debut album on CBS and the first Wild Turkey LP Turkey on Chrysalis, both from 1972.

Alongside the Island old guard (Tull, Traffic, Fairport, Nick Drake, Mott The Hoople, Cat Stevens, Free and Quintessence) were recent signings Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Mountain, Heads Hands & Feet and, newly arrived at Island from Elektra, the Incredible String Band.  Meanwhile Sandy Denny, Mike Heron and Mick Abrahams were featured as solo artists with albums of their own.  

In most of mainland Europe, (where buyers of El Pea were spared the self-destructive Av / Pak sleeve) the Heads Hands & Feet track “Song For Suzie” was replaced by John & Beverley Martyn's "Auntie Aviator" from their Road To Ruin album.  This was probably because HH&F were not an Island act in most territories outside the UK, being signed to the Capitol label. 

Compared to Bumpers, there were not too many glaring errors to report this time.  The only major mistake on El Pea concerned the Nick Drake track.  It was listed on the sleeve and label as “One Of These Things First” from Bryter Layter, but the record actually played the track “Northern Sky”.  

“Don’t Look Around” by Mountain marked the first appearance of an American act on any of the Island rock samplers.  Mountain’s records were licensed to Island from the US label Windfall between 1970 to 1974.

EL PEA (Island IDLP-1) 1971

SIDE ONE:

1. Traffic - Empty Pages

2. Sandy Denny - Late November

3. Alan Bown - Thru The Night

4. Heads Hands & Feet - Song For Suzie

5. Fairport Convention - Lord Marlborough

SIDE TWO:

1. Jethro Tull - Mother Goose

2. Quintessence - Dive Deep

3. Amazing Blondel - Spring Season

4. McDonald & Giles - Extract from Tomorrow's People: The Children Of Today

5. Tir Na Nog - Our Love Will Not Decay

6. Mountain - Don't Look Around

SIDE THREE:

1. Free - Highway Song

2. Incredible String Band - Waiting For You

3. Cat Stevens - Wild World

4. Bronco - Sudden Street

5. Mike Heron - Feast Of Stephen

SIDE FOUR:

1. Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Knife Edge

2. Nick Drake - Northern Sky (listed on label and sleeve as One Of These Things First)

3. Mott The Hoople - Original Mixed-Up Kid

4. Jimmy Cliff - Can't Stop Worrying, Can't Stop Loving

5. Mick Abrahams - Greyhound Bus

Vertigo – Watch This Label!

"I was sitting in traffic, it was raining; my car windows were steamy and I wanted to look at something in a shop window across the street.  I drew an increasingly large circle, like a spiral, in the fog of the auto glass.  That was the starting point for the 'swirl' label that we developed with the input of our in-house art team, Linda Glover and Mike Stanford. The whole point was to draw you in, and combined with the label name I conceived - 'Vertigo' - it captured the sense I wanted to create - a sort of hypnotic quality.  It was also visually a lot more interesting than bare typeface of the standard label logo and copy on virtually every other record.  I wanted this to function as 'art’ and couldn’t have done it without Linda and Mike."

Olav Wyper discusses the origin of the Vertigo label design with Bill Hart on The Vinyl Press website: https://thevinylpress.com/a-conversation-with-olav-wyper-creator-of-the-vertigo-swirl-records/

“Vertigo is the least pretentiously and most happily married of the ‘progressive’ labels to emerge from ‘neath the wings of the large record companies.”

International Times, Issue #74, February 1970

Launched by Philips/Phonogram in 1969 to compete with EMI’s Harvest label and Decca’s Deram offshoot, Vertigo managed to out-prog them all with an eccentric artist roster turning out some of the most interesting, not to say strangest, music of the early 70s.  Some early Vertigo signings such as Rod Stewart, Status Quo and Black Sabbath went on to enjoy decades of stardom while others, like Ben, Dr. Z and Jimmy Campbell quickly disappeared, making their records hugely rare and desirable today.  Mostly, though, between 1969-73 Vertigo quietly released a wealth of top quality progressive rock and jazz rock fusion albums the equal of any other UK label.

While the music was undoubtedly great, the label design itself was Vertigo’s mind-bending masterstroke.  Who wouldn’t enjoy the optical illusion of a three dimensional cone seemingly emerging from the centre of the record as Dr. Strangely Strange’s Heavy Petting album slowly revolved on the turntable?  Designers Linda Glover and Mike Stanford dreamed up the so-called “swirl” label design from an idea by Olav Wyper, the Vertigo boss.  Wyper had previously worked for CBS records and played a part in initiating the Rock Machine samplers in 1968.  In 1971 he launched the ill-fated RCA Neon label which lasted less than a year.

The Vertigo Annual 1970 sampler appeared at the end of a busy first year for the label with over 30 albums released.  Retailing at 55 shillings (£2.75) and containing selections from the first 16 Vertigo albums, it was top quality all the way with hardly a weak track.  Rod Stewart, Uriah Heep, Black Sabbath and Manfred Mann Chapter III were the big hitters, but Colosseum, Juicy Lucy (their “Who Do You Love” was the first single on Vertigo, fact fans), Nucleus and Cressida and the rest were all worthy inclusions.  

The sleeve design was the work of Keith MacMillan using his famous pseudonym “Keef” (he was also known as “Marcus Keef”).  MacMillan designed many memorable LP covers for Vertigo and other labels, including Island, RCA Neon and CBS, but he is perhaps best remembered for his artwork on the first four Black Sabbath albums and David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World infamous “dress” cover. 

Continuing the rocking horse theme, although displaying considerably more sleeve nudity was The Vertigo Trip, a 1971 double LP sampler released only in Australia.  The cover design owed much to “Keef’s” work, while the track selection (taken from 17 different albums released during 1970 and 71) had a slightly parochial flavour, kicking off with a version of the Easybeats’ “St. Louis” by proto metal outfit Warhorse.  The sleeve designer Ian Brown and photographer Nicholas J. van der Ley are credited with many Australian album covers, notably those by homegrown heavy progsters Buffalo, who also recorded for Vertigo down under. 

One of the best (and rarest) Vertigo samplers was the punningly-titled Heads Together / First Round from 1971 (a “head” being the name switched-on longhairs gave themselves at the time).  The self-important sleeve notes were at pains to make it clear this was not exactly a sampler, but it really needs to be included here:

Waiting in the darkness of many publishing offices are songwriters wanting their freedom - Songwriters' Workshop has opened the door.  Fourteen such songwriters have come together, not only to play football but also to create an album which we hope will indicate the importance of the songwriter.  Unlike a sampler, it does not represent other albums.  It is an entity, presenting new songs, new writers and giving light to songs that would otherwise be lost. This is just the first round of HEADS TOGETHER - a hope for the future. 

Cas Thomas - Songwriters' Workshop. 

Who doesn’t love a compilation LP with a motley collection of freaks and hippies mugging for the camera?  The faces may be less well-known, but this sleeve is almost up there with Island’s You Can All Join In for musician spotting.  Posing football team-style on the sepia tinted sleeve are: Pete Atkin, Mickey Jupp (Legend), Jimmy Campbell, Alex Spyropoulos (Nirvana), Ann Steuart (Tudor Lodge), John Dummer, plus assorted members of Jade Warrior, Magna Carta, Assagai, Daddy Longlegs and Clear Blue Sky.

There are no big names here, but this LP is notable for seven tracks which were either unreleased at the time or later appeared on labels other than Vertigo.

Sunbird – “Brother Bird”.  Sunbird was a progressive rock project by Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos of Nirvana.  This track turned up on a Philips label single.

Jimmy Campbell – “Lonely Norman”.  1970 outtake.  Unreleased until 2009 when it was added as a bonus track to Campbell’s Half Baked CD.

Martin Carthy – “Cold, Haily, Windy Night”.  Released in 1971 on Carthy’s Philips label LP Landfall.

Pete Atkin – “Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger”.  Released in 1970 on Atkins’ Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger LP on the Fontana label.

Legend – “Foxfield Junction”.  1969 outtake.  Unreleased until 2007 when it was added as a bonus track to the reissue CD of Legend’s self-titled debut album Legend. 

Lassoo – “Brothers”.  An unreleased track from a little-known Nirvana project. 

John Dummer’s Famous Music Band – “Nine by Nine”.  Appeared on the 1970 LP John Dummer’s Famous Music Band on the Fontana label.

Vertigo had dropped their iconic “swirl” label design by the end of 1972, so the 1973 double LP sampler Suck It And See appeared with the newly-introduced green “spaceship” label designed by Roger Dean.  Retailing at £2.29, it covered a lot of ground with artists as diverse as Jim Croce, Kraftwerk, Gentle Giant, Rod Stewart and (inevitably) Black Sabbath.  The cheeky album title and sleeve image showing a giant stick of rock was presumably a nod in the direction of CBS and their 1970 sampler Fill Your Head With Rock. 

Vertigo’s reign as kings of the progressive rock world was fading by 1973 but Suck It And See featured a couple of interesting prog oddities.  The Jade Warrior track “Mwenga Sketch” is described as being “From Their Forthcoming Album”.  But Jade Warrior’s fourth Vertigo album was cancelled, and in 1974 the band switched labels, moving to Island.  The aborted Vertigo album eventually surfaced in 1998 as Eclipse and “Mwenga Sketch” was given its first official release.  

Magna Carta’s “Time For The Leaving” is described as being from the live album Magna Carta In Concert, but is actually the version from their 1971 studio LP Songs From Wasties Orchard.

THE VERTIGO ANNUAL 1970 (Vertigo 6657 001) 1970

SIDE ONE:

1. Colosseum - Elegy

2. Rod Stewart - Handbags And Gladrags

3. Jimmy Campbell - Half Baked

4. May Blitz - I Don't Know

SIDE TWO:

1. Juicy Lucy - Mississippi Woman

2. Fairfield Parlour - In My Box

3. Magna Carta - Goin' My Way (Road Song)

4. Affinity - Three Sisters

SIDE THREE:

1. Black Sabbath - Behind the Wall Of Sleep

2. Gracious - Introduction

3. Cressida - To Play Your Little Game

4. Nucleus - Elastic Rock

SIDE FOUR:

1. Manfred Mann Chapter Three - One Way Glass

2. Bob Downes - No Time Like the Present

3. Dr. Strangely Strange - Summer Breeze

4. Uriah Heep - Gypsy

THE VERTIGO TRIP (Vertigo 6641 016) 1971 Australian Release

SIDE ONE:

1. Warhorse - St. Louis

2. Legend - Hole In My Pocket

3. Magna Carta - Time For The Leaving

4. Nucleus - We'll Talk About It Later

SIDE TWO:

1. Ian Matthews - Reno, Nevada

2. May Blitz - High Beech

3. Clear Blue Sky - Bird Catcher

4. Daddy Longlegs - Gambling Man

5. Graham Bond - My Archangel Mikael

SIDE THREE:

1. Black Sabbath - After Forever

2. Gravy Train - The New One

3. Beggars Opera - Memory

4. Patto - Hold Me Back

SIDE FOUR:

1. Gentle Giant - Funny Ways

2. Catapilla - Promises

3. Keith Tippett Group - This Is What Happens

4. Nirvana - Home (Salutation)

HEADS TOGETHER / FIRST ROUND (Vertigo 6360 045) 1971

SIDE ONE:

1. Jade Warrior - Telephone Girl

2. Sunbird - Brother Bird

3. Jimmy Campbell - Lonely Norman

4. Magna Carta - Good Morning Sun

5. Martin Carthy - Cold, Haily, Windy Night

6. Nirvana - Home

7. John Dummer's Famous Music Band - Nine By Nine

SIDE TWO:

1. Assagai - Cocoa

2. Daddy Longlegs - Gambling Man

3. Clear Blue Sky - Bird Catcher

4. Tudor Lodge - Willow Tree

5. Pete Atkin - Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger

6. Legend - Foxfield Junction

7. Lassoo - Brothers

SUCK IT AND SEE (Vertigo 6641 116) 1973

SIDE ONE:

1. Black Sabbath - Children Of The Grave

2. Beggar's Opera - Get Your Dog Off Me

3. Gentle Giant - Boys In The Band

4. Atlantis - Living At The End Of Time

SIDE TWO:

1. Kraftwerk - Ruckzuck

2. Jade Warrior - Mwenga Sketch

3. Aphrodite's Child - Four Horsemen

SIDE THREE:

1. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Jungle Jenny

2. Status Quo - Don't Waste My Time

3. John Dummer's Oobleedooblee Band - Oobleedooblee Jubilee

4. Jim Croce - Roller Derby Queen

5. Rod Stewart - It's All Over Now

SIDE FOUR:

1. The Spencer Davis Group - Catch You On The Rebop

2. Jackson Heights - Bump 'N' Grind

3. Ian Matthews - Devil In Disguise

4. Magna Carta - Time For The Leaving

5. Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Buddah

Coming up in Part 4, more legendary samplers from Blue Horizon, Dawn and Warner Brothers

Sections of the Island pieces above originally appeared in Record Collector magazine during 1996 in articles jointly written by Stuart Penney and Chris Savage. Chris originally came up with the idea for the You Can All Join In key diagram and thanks are given here.