Jackie McAuley - S/T (Bra Progressiv Folkrock UK 1971) + Mini LP CD Single

250:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Mycket fin utgåva, släppt av Japanska "Arcangelo" 2005. Laminerat utvikomslag + Mini LP CD singel. Svår att hitta nuförtiden.)

Biografilänkar: Jackie McAuley 1971 och Jackie McAuley 1971

Spirogyra - Old Boot Wine (Progressive Folkrock UK 1972)

250:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Deras 2:a album från 1972. Nu sedan länge utgången utgåva, svår att hitta.)

Well, finally I have been lucky enough to track down an LP of this highly coveted album, however, its reputation exceeds its worth - to an extent. We are greeted with 'Dangerous Dave', which rocks out nicely, with a brief melancholic bit in the middle and back again. Hardly the stuff a prog-head looks for but the track is well composed. Van Allen's Belt is in a more sombre mood with acoustic guitar and piano. 'Runaway' strikes me as the most proggy piece on the album. 

It features 3 distinctive movements, some organ and lovely piano playing, vocals from Mark Francis and the beautiful Barbara Gaskin, and some bars in 7/8 !! Starting out uptempo, but finishing in a dreamy way with Gaskin's gorgeous voice - a well performed proggy-folk epic in under 5 minutes ! 'Grandad' is again a sombre piece of fragile beauty featuring a delicate Cockerham with his acoustic guitar, backed by Cusack's string arrangement. 'Wings of Thunder' is another rocker which is pleasant but without any 'twists and turns'. 

Side 2 opens up with the only long number, 'World's Eyes', of which the first half of the song recalls a bit of the eccentricities of their debut, 'St. Radigunds', containing a brief moment of manic energy which reminds me of zeuhl (don't ask how I get this, but it does), hyperactive bass from Borrill, some semi-tone riffs and strange vocals. The second half of the song settles into more conventional territory but still holds the attention. 

Most 'standard' track I find is 'Don't Let it Get you', a non-offensive ballad which doesn't out-stay its welcome. 'Disraeli's Problem' features more dreamy vocals from Gaskin, with mellow sections that I enjoy immensely. Last track, 'A Canterbury Tale', has a sombre first half which is beautiful, finishing with a multi-tracked Gaskin vocal backing with Cockerham singing over the top. A fine album for sure, but not quite the masterpiece I was hoping for.

Formed in Canterbury, England in 1970, Spirogyra was one of a group of young progressive folk bands signed to B&C Records at the same time as Steeleye Span. The band was formed by writer Martin Cockerham, vocalist Barbara Gaskin, Julian Cusack and Steve Borrill. Dave Mattacks played drums on their debut album in 1971. The sound on St. Radigund’s and the follow-up Old Boot Wine was similar to early Strawbs but also drew on the progressive ideas of the Incredible String Band. The songs sounded whimsically English and Gaskin’s voice gave them a pure, unsullied air. 

The final Spirogyra album, 1973’s Bells, Boots And Shambles, was recorded by Cockerham and Gaskin alone. Gaskin went on to work with Hatfield And The North and enjoyed a surprise UK chart-topper in 1981, in partnership with Dave Stewart, with a cover version of Lesley Gore’s ‘It’s My Party’. (NB: Not to be confused with the US jazz rock group Spyro Gyra.)

Musicians:
♦ Martin Cockerham - vocals, guitar
♦ Steve Borrill - bass
♦ Barbara Gaskin - vocals
♦ Marc Francis - vocals, guitar, keyboards

Guest musicians:
♦ Dave Mattacks - drums
♦ Julian Cusack - violin, keyboards
♦ Alan Laing - cello
♦ Rick Biddulph - mandoline

01. Dangerous Dave (4:16) 
02. Van Halen's Belt (2:35) 
03. Runaway (4:55) 
04. Grandad (3:23) 
05. Wings of Thunder (3:08) 
06. World's Eyes (7:31) 
07. Don't Let It Get You (4:28) 
08. Disraeli's Problem (4:15) 
09. A Canterbury Tale (4:03)

German Single 1972

Roy Orbison - At The Rock House (1:a Albumet US 1961)

250:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Roy Orbison's 1:a Album på SUN Records.)

Roy Orbison at the Rock House is the first album by Roy Orbison. It was released in 1961 by Sun Records at a time when Orbison had already moved to the Monument label but had not yet put out an album. Sun Records owner Sam Phillips had a collection of songs Orbison had recorded at Sun between 1956 and '58. Phillips capitalized on the national recognition Orbison had achieved at Monument through three major hit singles in 1960 and '61 that had gone to the top of the Billboard charts.

Most of the songs on Roy Orbison at the Rock House were written by Orbison but the songwriting credits were assigned to Sam Phillips, and are in the traditional rockabilly style the Sun label was known for. Notable exceptions are compositions by other Sun artists Harold Jenkins (better known as "Conway Twitty") and Johnny Cash. "Rock House" was written by Orbison and Twitty.

For this release all tracks except Devil Doll have been overdubbed with background vocals and/or additional instruments.

Although it was technically Roy Orbison's first album, At the Rock House wasn't really an LP effort on his part so much as a cash-in effort by Sun Records in the wake of Orbison's later success on Monument Records with "Uptown," "Only the Lonely," etc. And understandably, the sound is very retro for 1960-1961, comprised as the record is primarily of the rock & roll and hardcore rockabilly numbers that he cut for Sun in 1956 (with his original group the Teen Kings) and 1957, including the Johnny Cash-authored "You're My Baby," the Orbison/Harold Jenkins collaboration "Rock House," and Sam Phillips' "Mean Little Mama" and "Problem Child." 

Not everything is quite as briskly paced as those two numbers, but even the ballads, such as "Sweet and Easy to Love" and "Devil Doll," and the melodic "This Kind of Love" and "It's Too Late," have an edge to them -- they stand midway between the rock & roll that was happening in 1956 and the more lush and dramatic sound that Orbison would perfect at Monument Records from 1959 onward. All of the material is fascinating as a sort of alternate-universe version of where Orbison might've headed musically, and most of it is downright bracing and exciting, though it's easy to see why it never succeeded at the time -- numbers like "You're Gonna Cry" and "Problem Child" were a little too intense and ambitious as rock & roll, with too many changes and involved lyrics, to hold that audience en masse. It was some of the best and most intense rock & roll you could buy in 1961 this side of Elvis Presley, however, and heard today the album is a fascinating curio from what's usually thought of as a fallow period in rock & roll history.

01. "This Kind of Love"
02. "Devil Doll"
03. "You're My Baby" (Johnny Cash)
04. "Trying To Get To You"
05. "It's Too Late" (Chuck Willis)
06. "Rock House" (Phillips, Harold Jenkins)
07. "You're Gonna Cry"
08. "I Never Knew"
09. "Sweet and Easy to Love"
10. "Mean Little Mama"
11. "Ooby Dooby" (Wade Moore, Dick Penner)
12. "Problem Child" (Roy Orbison)

Led Zeppelin - Presence (Classic Album UK 1976) (SHM-CD)

270:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition. Reliefomslag + klistermärke. Utgången utgåva sedan länge.)

Presence is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released by Swan Song Records on 31 March 1976. It was written and recorded during a tumultuous time in the band's history, as singer Robert Plant was recuperating from serious injuries he had sustained in a recent car accident. The album received mixed reviews from critics and is also the slowest-selling studio album by the band (other than the outtake album Coda), only managing to achieve triple-platinum certification in the United States. Nonetheless, guitarist Jimmy Page describes Presence as the band's "most important" album, proving they would continue despite their turmoil.

Jimmy Page made the decision to record the album after Robert Plant sustained serious injuries from a car accident on the Greek island of Rhodes on 5 August 1975, which forced the band to cancel a proposed world tour that was due to commence on 23 August. At this point, Led Zeppelin were arguably at the height of their popularity. When he was taken to a Greek hospital after the accident, Plant recalled:
I was lying there in some pain trying to get cockroaches off the bed and the guy next to me, this drunken soldier, started singing "The Ocean" from Houses of the Holy.

During a convalescent period on the Channel Island of Jersey and in Malibu, California, Plant wrote some lyrics, and when Page joined him at Malibu, these compositions were fleshed out. The two prepared enough material for rehearsals to begin at Hollywood's SIR Studio, where drummer John Bonham and bass player John Paul Jones joined them.

After a month of rehearsals, the album was recorded in just eighteen days at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany, with Plant in a wheelchair. This was the fastest recording turnaround time achieved by the band since their debut album. The rushed recording sessions were in part a result of Led Zeppelin having booked the studio immediately prior to The Rolling Stones, who were shortly to record songs for their album Black and Blue. Upon their arrival, the Stones were amazed that Zeppelin's album had indeed been completed (both recorded and mixed) in a mere eighteen days. Page had simply stayed awake for two days straight to perform all of the guitar overdubs. As he later explained:

I just had to lay it down, more or less: first track... second track – you know, really fast working on that. And all the guitar overdubs on Presence were done in one night. But I didn't think I would be able to do it in one night, I thought I'd have to do it across maybe three different nights to get the individual sections. Everything sort of crystallised and you'll notice everything was just pouring out. I was very happy with the guitar playing on that whole album, you know as far as the maturity of playing goes.

Six of the seven songs on the album are Page and Plant compositions; the remaining song being credited to all four band members. This can be explained by the fact that the majority of the songs were formulated at Malibu, where Page (but not Bonham and Jones) had initially joined a recuperating Plant. With Plant at less than full fitness, Page took responsibility for the album's completion, and his playing dominates the album's tracks.

Both Page and Plant had planned this album's recording session as a return to hard rock, much like their debut album, except at a new level of complexity. It marked a change in the Led Zeppelin sound towards more straightforward, guitar-based jams. Whereas their previous albums up to and including the previous year's Physical Graffiti contain electric hard rock anthems balanced with acoustic ballads and intricate arrangements, Presence was seen to include more simplified riffs, and is Led Zeppelin's only studio album that features no keyboards, and with the exception of a rhythm track on "Candy Store Rock", no acoustic guitar. The record stands in sharp contrast to their next album In Through the Out Door, which features keyboards on all tracks and pushes Page's guitar into the background on several songs (most notably on "Carouselambra", where Jones takes the lead on a synthesizer for most of the song, and Page is not truly heard until four minutes into the song).

The changed stylistic emphasis on this album was a direct result of the troubled circumstances experienced by the band around the time of its recording. As Page said at the time:
I think it was just a reflection of the total anxiety and emotion of that period. There's a hell of a lot of spontaneity about that album. We went in with virtually nothing and everything just came pouring out.

Plant expressed similar views, stating:
It was really like a cry of survival. There won't be another album like it, put it like that. It was a cry from the depths, the only thing that we could do.

In contrast to earlier albums that contained several tracks that the band chose to play live at Led Zeppelin concerts, only two tracks from Presence were played in full on stage while the band was active. "Achilles Last Stand" and "Nobody's Fault but Mine" were added to the setlist for the 1977 tour of the United States and stayed through the band's final concerts in 1980. Some of the guitar solo from "Tea for One" was also incorporated into "Since I've Been Loving You" in these shows, but the actual song was never performed live until the Page and Plant tour of Japan in 1996, where it received three airings backed by an orchestra. "For Your Life" was played in full by Led Zeppelin for the first time at the Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert on 10 December 2007.

The cover and inside sleeve of this album, created by Hipgnosis, features various images of people interacting with a black obelisk-shaped object. Inside the album sleeve, the item is referred to simply as "The Object." It was intended to represent the "force and presence" of Led Zeppelin. In the liner notes of the first Led Zeppelin boxed set, Page explained:

There was no working title for the album. The record-jacket designer said 'When I think of the group, I always think of power and force. There's a definite presence there.' That was it. He wanted to call it 'Obelisk.' To me, it was more important what was behind the obelisk. The cover is very tongue-in-cheek, to be quite honest. Sort of a joke on [the film] 2001. I think it's quite amusing.

The background used in the cover photograph is of an artificial marina that was installed inside London's Earl's Court Arena for the annual Earl's Court Boat Show that was held in the winter of 1974–75. This was the same venue where the band played a series of concerts a few months after the boat show, in May 1975.

In 1977 Hipgnosis and George Hardie were nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best album package.

01. "Achilles Last Stand"   Page, Plant 10:25 
02. "For Your Life"   Page, Plant 6:24 
03. "Royal Orleans"   Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant 2:58 
04. "Nobody's Fault but Mine"   Page, Plant 6:27 
05. "Candy Store Rock"   Page, Plant 4:11 
06. "Hots On for Nowhere"   Page, Plant 4:43 
07. "Tea for One"   Page, Plant 9:27 

Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps (1:a Albumet US 1957)

280:- (24 Bit Limited Remaster Edition. 1:a Albumet US 1957 med Bonus Tracks. Strikt limiterad utgåva från OLDAY Records Japan.)

Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps is an album by Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps. It was originally released in 1957, four months after its predecessor, Bluejean Bop. It was released on the Capitol label.

Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps, cut in October 1956, only four months after its predecessor, came about under slightly less favorable circumstances than the Bluejean Bop album. Cliff Gallup, whose lead guitar had been so central to the group's original sound, and rhythm guitarist Willie Williams, who was only somewhat less important to their sound, had been gone from the band for nearly two months when producer Ken Nelson decided it was time to cut material for more singles and a second album. 

Gallup was persuaded to rejoin temporarily for the sessions that yielded this album, and with him he brought not only a hot-sounding instrument but one first-rate original song, "You Better Believe," alongside a few other notable band originals ("Cruisin'," "Hold Me, Hug Me, Rock Me") that are among the best songs Vincent and his band ever recorded. 

The sound ends up similar to the Bluejean Bop album, with a little more depth in places and Vincent showing more maturity and confidence, which is how he gets away with "Unchained Melody," the most challenging ballad he'd cut up to that time -- Gallup's trilled, mandolin-like playing (which turns up on "I Sure Miss You" as well) also serves to make this one of the more unusual and memorable of the many good versions of this song. Vincent's singing also stands out on his dark, moody, ominous rendition of the Delmore Brothers' "Blues Stay Away From Me." And the band runs circles around virtually every other white rock & roll outfit of the period. 

Unfortunately, Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps would also be the last time that this version of the band would turn up on record with Vincent -- Gallup soon left again, and in less than three months, every member of the group except drummer Dickie Harrell would be gone. In 1998, Collectables Records reissued this album, paired with Bluejean Bop, on Bluejean Bop/Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps.

Biography by AMG:
Gene Vincent only had one really big hit, "Be-Bop-a-Lula," which epitomized rockabilly at its prime in 1956 with its sharp guitar breaks, spare snare drums, fluttering echo, and Vincent's breathless, sexy vocals. Yet his place as one of the great early rock & roll singers is secure, backed up by a wealth of fine smaller hits and non-hits that rate among the best rockabilly of all time. The leather-clad, limping, greasy-haired singer was also one of rock's original bad boys, lionized by romanticists of past and present generations attracted to his primitive, sometimes savage style and indomitable spirit.

Vincent was bucking the odds by entering professional music in the first place. As a 20-year-old in the Navy, he suffered a severe motorcycle accident that almost resulted in the amputation of his leg, and left him with a permanent limp and considerable chronic pain for the rest of his life. After the accident he began to concentrate on building a musical career, playing with country bands around the Norfolk, VA, area. Demos cut at a local radio station, fronting a band assembled around Gene by his management, landed Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps a contract at Capitol, which hoped they'd found competition for Elvis Presley.

Indeed it had, as by this time Vincent had plunged into all-out rockabilly, capable of both fast-paced exuberance and whispery, almost sensitive ballads. The Blue Caps were one of the greatest rock bands of the '50s, anchored at first by the stunning silvery, faster-than-light guitar leads of Cliff Gallup. The slap-back echo of "Be-Bop-a-Lula," combined with Gene's swooping vocals, led many to mistake the singer for Elvis when the record first hit the airwaves in mid-1956, on its way to the Top Ten. The Elvis comparison wasn't entirely fair; Vincent had a gentler, less melodramatic style, capable of both whipping up a storm or winding down to a hush.

Brilliant follow-ups like "Race With the Devil," "Bluejean Bop," and "B-I-Bickey, Bi, Bo-Bo-Go" failed to click in nearly as big a way, although these too are emblematic of rockabilly at its most exuberant and powerful. By the end of 1956, The Blue Caps were beginning to undergo the first of constant personnel changes that would continue throughout the '50s, the most crucial loss being the departure of Gallup. The 35 or so tracks he cut with the band -- many of which showed up only on albums or b-sides -- were unquestionably Vincent's greatest work, as his subsequent recordings would never again capture their pristine clarity and uninhibited spontaneity.

Vincent had his second and final Top Twenty hit in 1957 with "Lotta Lovin'," which reflected his increasingly tamer approach to production and vocals, the wildness and live atmosphere toned down in favor of poppier material, more subdued guitars, and conventional-sounding backup singers. He recorded often for Capitol throughout the rest of the '50s, and it's unfair to dismiss those sides out of hand; they were respectable, occasionally exciting rockabilly, only a marked disappointment in comparison with his earliest work. His act was captured for posterity in one of the best scenes of one of the first Hollywood films to feature rock & roll stars, The Girl Can't Help It.

Live, Vincent continued to rock the house with reckless intensity and showmanship, and he became particularly popular overseas. A 1960 tour of Britain, though, brought tragedy when his friend Eddie Cochran, who shared the bill on Vincent's U.K. shows, died in a car accident that he was also involved in, though Vincent survived. By the early '60s, his recordings had become much more sporadic and lower in quality, and his chief audience was in Europe, particularly in England (where he lived for a while) and France.

His Capitol contract expired in 1963, and he spent the rest of his life recording for several other labels, none of which got him close to that comeback hit. Vincent never stopped trying to resurrect his career, appearing at a 1969 Toronto rock festival on the same bill as John Lennon, though his medical, drinking, and marital problems were making his life a mess, and diminishing his stage presence as well. He died at the age of 36 from a ruptured stomach ulcer, one of rock's first mythic figures.

01. "Red Blue Jeans and a Ponytail" (Bill Davis, Jack Rhodes) - 2:14
02. "Hold Me, Hug Me, Rock Me" (Vincent, Tex Davis) - 2:15
03. "Unchained Melody" (Alex North, Hy Zaret) - 2:37
04. "You Told a Fib" (Vincent, Cliff Gallup) - 2:21
05. "Cat Man" (Vincent, Tex Davis) - 2:18
06. "You Better Believe" (Cliff Gallup) - 2:01
07. "Cruisin'" (Vincent, Bill Davis) - 2:12
08. "Double Talkin' Baby" (Danny Wolfe) - 2:12
09. "Blues Stay Away from Me" (Henry Glover, Wayne Raney, Alton Delmore, Rabon Delmore) - 2:16
10. "Pink Thunderbird" (Bill Davis, Paul Peek) - 2:32
11. "I Sure Miss You" (Charles Matthews) - 2:38
12. "Pretty, Pretty Baby" (Danny Wolfe) - 2:27

Bonus Tracks:
13. "Be-Bop-A-Lula" (Capitol F3450 US) (6/4/56) (Capitol 45-CL 14599 UK)
14. "Blue Jean Bop" (Capitol F3558 US) (10/56) (Capitol 45-CL 14637 UK)
15. "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" (From Album "CRAZY TIMES" CAPITOL T1342 & ST1342 1960)
16. "Vincent's Blues" (From Album "SOUNDS LIKE GENE VINCENT" CAPITOL T1207 1960)

The Nice - The Toughts of Emerlist Davjack (1st Album UK 1967)

220:- (K2 Super Recording Limited Remaster Edition. Gruppens 1:a album och utgången sedan länge.)

The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack is the 1967 debut album by the English psychedelic rock and progressive rock group The Nice. It is considered one of the first albums in the latter genre.

The name Emerlist Davjack is a pseudonym created by combining the last names of the four members of the group; Keith Emerson, David O'List, Brian Davison, and Lee Jackson.

The album was promoted by a sampler featuring a commentary by John Peel, which included the following comments:

1967 was a strange year for pop music with groups experimenting with new sounds and bouncing on and off bandwagons with dizzying speed and agility. They were calling themselves ridiculous names and regretting it shortly. The Nice came together in a void and will be here when the others are in pantomime in Wolverhampton.

The cover, photographed by Gered Mankowitz, shows members of the band apparently unclothed except for being wrapped in cellophane.

The band was formed in May 1967 by Andrew Loog Oldham to back soul singer P. P. Arnold, a performer who reached a far higher level of popularity in Britain than her native America. After performing with Arnold through the summer, The Nice soon gained a reputation of their own. In August, former Mark Leeman Five and Habits drummer Davison replaced the Arnold's original drummer, Ian Hague. The first album by The Nice was recorded throughout the autumn of 1967, and in October of that year they recorded their first session for John Peel's Top Gear. Early work tended toward the psychedelia but more ambitious elements soon came to the fore. The classical and jazz influences manifested themselves both in short quotes from Janacek (Sinfonietta) and in more elaborate renditions of Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo a la Turk" which The Nice called simply "Rondo", changing the meter from the original 9/8 to 4/4 in the process.

For their second single, The Nice created an arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's "America" which Emerson described as the first ever instrumental protest song. It not only uses the Bernstein piece (from West Side Story) but also includes fragments of Dvorák's New World Symphony. The single concludes with a child (who, according to Emerson's biography, is P. P. Arnold's three-year old son) speaking the lines "America is pregnant with promises and anticipation, but is murdered by the hand of the inevitable." The new arrangement was released under the title "America (Second Amendment)" as a pointed reference to the U.S. Bill of Rights provision for the bearing of arms.

O'List left the group during the recording of their second album. The Nice briefly considered looking for a replacement but, (according to sources such as Mojo magazine) they followed the example set by 1-2-3 (later Clouds), and decided to continue as a rock organ trio. With O'List gone, Emerson's control over the band's direction became greater, resulting in more complex music. The absence of a guitar in the band and Emerson's redefining of the role of keyboard instruments in rock set The Nice apart from so many of its contemporaries.

The earlier work of French pianist Jacques Loussier and the more-or-less contemporary Charles Lloyd Quartet (featuring Keith Jarrett) can be seen as influences. Loussier took classical works, notably by Bach, and arranged them for jazz piano trio. The Charles Lloyd band was bridging the jazz and rock spheres and Jarrett's performances (which included playing inside the piano) received much attention. The Nice performed two pieces from the Lloyd repertoire: "Sombrero Sam" and "Sorcery". Part of the musical approach of The Nice was transferring the innovations of these jazz artists into an electric medium, one that was influenced by The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and The Beatles. Another influence was Bob Dylan, whose songs were common currency at the time and The Nice interpreted several.

The band's second LP Ars Longa Vita Brevis featured an arrangement of the Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite by Jean Sibelius and the album's second side was a suite which included an arrangement of a movement from J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. The group used an orchestra for the first time on some parts of the suite.

Perhaps as a foil for the highbrow aspects of their music, the stage performances were bold and violent, with Emerson incorporating feedback and distortion. He manhandled his Hammond L-100 organ, wrestling it and attacking it with daggers (which he used to hold down keys and sustain notes during these escapades). This was inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Don Shin, an obscure English organist, as well as earlier figures such as pianist Jerry Lee Lewis. Motörhead frontman Lemmy was a roadie for The Nice in their early days, and gave Keith Emerson his trademark knife that he uses to sustain organ keys.

Writing in the Los Angeles Times (January 4, 1970), Don Heckman pointed out this dichotomy.

"One might assume, in the face of such a visual display, that the Nice is a mediocre group that compensates for musical failings with a pop-rock version of the theater of violence. Far from it. The Nice is as musically proficient a group as one will hear anywhere on the pop scene. Their most attractive quality is the genuine spirit of improvisational invention and surging jazz rhythm which permeates their work [...]"

During the long and wildly popular tour that followed the release of their second album, the group spawned controversy when Emerson burned an American flag onstage during a performance of "America".

The third album, titled Nice in the UK and Everything As Nice As Mother Makes It in the US, featured one side recorded live on their American tour and one side of studio material.

The pinnacle of the band's artistic success was probably the Five Bridges suite, commissioned for the Newcastle Arts Festival, which was premiered with a full orchestra conducted by Joseph Eger on October 10, 1969 (the recorded version is from October 17 in Croydon's Fairfield Hall). The title refers to the city's five bridges spanning the River Tyne (two more have since been built).

The Nice provided instrumental backing for the track "Hell's Angels" on Roy Harper's 1970 album "Flat Baroque and Berserk".

One of the final appearances by the group was in collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by Zubin Mehta. This was broadcast in March 1970 on American television as part of the "Switched-On Symphony" program. Following standard television procedure of the day, The Nice's contribution (a version of "America") was recorded ahead of time and the band mimed for the cameras.

01."Flower King of Flies" (Keith Emerson, Lee Jackson) – 3:19
02."The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack" (Emerson, David O'List) – 2:49
03."Bonnie K" (Jackson, O'List) – 3:24
04."Rondo" [Instrumental] (Dave Brubeck, Emerson, O'List, Brian Davison, Jackson) – 8:22
05."War And Peace" [instrumental] (Emerson, O'List Davison, Jackson) – 5:13
06."Tantalising Maggie" (Emerson, Jackson) – 4:35
07."Dawn" (Davison, Emerson, Jackson) – 5:17
08."The Cry of Eugene" (Emerson, Jackson, O'List) – 4:36

Bonus:
09."The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack" [Single Version] (Emerson, O'List) – 2:48
10."Azrial (Angel of Death)" (Emerson, Jackson) – 3:44
11."The Diamond Hard Blue Apples of the Moon" (Davison, Jackson) – 2:47
12."America" [instrumental] (Leonard Bernstein, Davison, Jackson, Stephen Sondheim[13]) – 6:18
13."America" (Bernstein, Davison, Jackson, Sondheim) – 3:55