350:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva och är nu mycket svår att finna.)
Principal Edwards Magic Theatre were a collective of musicians, dancers, poets and lighting technicians who were active between 1968 and 1971. This is their second and last LP, released januari 1971 on John Peel's Dandelion label.
Asmoto Running Band, produced by Nick Mason, Pink Floyd's drummer, is some sort of theme album, telling a spaced out tale of the Asmoto Running Band and someone called McAlpine’s. It's very far out and obscure, like a progressive folk Sgt Pepper.
The band would break up shortly after this release. The times they were a’changing (unfortantly), and this sort of theatrical, pretentious hippie-folk music was becoming pretty out of fashion by the early seventies. It's still a fun-loving and joyeous album that brings the listner back to those wild and hazy hippie days so long gone.
The collective was originally formed at the University of Exeter in the late 1960s and then was later based at farmhouse in Kettering, Northamptonshire. The group was signed to John Peel's Dandelion Records and their single, The Ballad of a Big Girl Now, was released in 1969. Following the single was the release (under the same label) of two albums - Soundtrack and The Asmoto Running Band - the second of which was produced by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd.
The sometimes whimsical, sometimes epic (verging on progressive rock) writing style of guitarist Root Cartwright was paired with the eclectic lyrical contributions of David Jones, Gillian Hadley and Monica Nettles, and was performed by vocalist Vivienne McAuliffe. The violin and recorders of Bindy Bourquin were another key element of the group's trademark sound.
Later, with a smaller nucleus (including new bassist Richard Jones from Climax Blues Band) and a name-change to, simply, Principal Edwards, they recorded a few new singles and a third album called Round One for Deram Records. Most of the Deram recordings were also produced by Nick Mason.
By the way, the album cover is designed by Hipgnosis!
01. Mcalpines Dream
02. Mcalpine V The Asmoto
03. The Asmoto Running Band (Houamih)
04. Asmoto Celebration
05. Further Asmoto Celebration (After The Ball)
06. Total Glycerol Esther
07. Freef (R) All
08. Autumn Lady Dancing Song
09. The Kettering Song
10. Weirdsong Of Breaking Through At Last
