Grapefruit, the Cherry Red imprint, have been releasing some fine collections recently and not only the excellent genre themed compilations. Forgotten bands are also celebrated and here we have The First Class. To some, a 3CD compilation from a band that are looked upon as a one hit wonder by many. As you might expect, that is not the case. There were two excellent albums, the first being one of the great lost Pop Rock albums, but there was a lot more including singles under pseudonyms, an unreleased musical and some real archive TV Advert Jingles that people of a certain age will well recall.
Pseudonym is the by word for both John Carter and Tony Burrows who were joined by Chas Mills as the voices behind The First Class. Carter wrote the songs with his lyricist wife, Gill Shakespeare, but Carter and Burrows's history started well before 1974. Both were members of The Ivy League and noted Session Musicians on many popular British songs, Carter was involved on Backing Vocals on I Can't Explain and It's Not Unusual as well as Lead Vocal on Winchester Cathedral as well as writing songs for the likes of Herman's Hermits.
Burrows most notable lead vocal was on Edison Lighthouse's Love Grows, probably my favourite ever single, and Brotherhood Of Man's United We Stand. They were studio guys, so when The First Class toured it was a completely different line up, Burrows and Carter had no wish to be a live band. That first self titled album is wondrous, a sort of Bubblegum Beach Boys The harmonies om What Became Of Me are magnificent on a song that gets a little Toytown at times. Funny How Love Can Be is a bit I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing, no surprise as Tony Burrows was the voice on the original Coke TV Advert.
I Was Always A Joker mines the territory that John Miles was to explore and is a splendid Big Ballad. All 11 songs are of the time, but the arrangements still sound wonderful now. Amongst the 11 Bonus Tracks, the songs for the intended musical, Bobby Dazzler are included. Bobby Dazzler is surprisingly good and doesn't sound a million miles away from what Roy Wood was to do on Eddy And The Falcons. Indeed, there are also hints of Mustard at times. The follow up album, SST was to follow two years later.
I Was A Star is top notch Bubblegum and Autumn Love features a wonderful arrangement on a song that would have been ideal for a stage show. In all, SST, which never had a release in America, was a tad New Seekers Easy Listening and there were hints of Disco that may not hit the spot.However, the start of those TV Jingles begins with the 14 Bonus Tracks and they are all really snappy 30 second ditties and the nostalgia will be unleashed with adverts for Birds Dream Topping and in particular, the ace Rowntrees Tots Jingle.
Disc 3 contains a whopping 35 songs, mainly due to plenty more TV Jingles including Birds Eye, Typhoo Tea and Ever Ready Batteries. Also included are five songs as alter ego Magic and three by South Bank Wheels. Discs 2 and 3 also include singles released up to 1983 when the curtain was finally raised. The price is worth the admission alone for that self titled debut album, but the inclusion of the hard to find second album, the unreleased musical and the TV Adverts make this a wonderful collection.
The album is released on the 27 January and can be pre-ordered here now.
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