JUST A COLLECTION OF ANTIQUES AND CURIOS, 1970

After Dragonfly failed to achieve commercial success, Ron Chesterman decided to leave: Cousins and Hooper decided to go for broke. Recruiting Rick Wakeman they took him to Paris (he spent his honeymoon there!) to play at the Rock'n'Roll circus. Shortly after their return, the final piece of the jigsaw - the rhythm section of the Velvet Opera, John Ford and Richard Hudson, replaced Lyndsay Cooper on string bass who'd been with them for the Paris trip. The group was now an electric outfit.

Spectacularly, after a brief tour with Roy Harper to work in the new numbers, they also managed to electrify the audience and the music press at a truimphant showcase concert at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall in July 1970, where Wakeman was acclaimed as a keyboard genius. The concert was recorded for a live album, which was the band's first release in North America.

Dave Cousins (vcls, ac/el gtrs, dulcimer)
Tony Hooper (vcls, ac gtrs, tamb)
Rick Wakeman (org, pno, harpsichord, celeste)
Richard Hudson (congas, perc, sitar, vcls)
John Ford (bs, vcls)

Track listing

Vinyl album (UK): AMS 994 (A&M, Oct 1970) - DELETED. See Two covers - a feature showing the two back covers which were used for the original vinyl album. Issued with brown A&M label, query whether re-issued at later date with silver label.

Vinyl album (US): SP 4288 (A&M, 1970 ??) - DELETED..

CD: D32Y3524 (A&M Japan/Canyon Records, 1987) - DELETED. Outer sleeve matches the later version, probably the US issue (address given for A&M is the North American address). Three inserts - a 25th A&M anniversary mini-catalogue, a biog in Japanese (with tantalisingly English headings) and a 2x2 size folded reproduction of the engraving on one side, with the lyrics in readable size print on the other. Nicely done.

CD: SRMC 0080 (Si-Wan, 1997). Packaging matches the earliest version, ie. with the moody photo. The inner spread with the engraving and the lyrics is reproduced (tiny tiny print), the sleeve notes are in Korean

CD: 540 938-2 (A&M, 1998, REMASTERED WITH 3 BONUS TRACKS). Inner includes front and both versions of the back cover (the "moody" one was shot from my own copy) and the engraving. No lyrics, instead, new sleeve notes by Dave Cousins and John Tobler.

Charts

UK Chart: 27
US Chart: not placed

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