30TH ANNIVERSARY ANTHOLOGY

While compilations are often little more than a record company endeavouring to squeeze a bit more income from their back catalogue, this "30th Anniversary anthology" represents an excellent way of obtaining Procol Harum's first four albums, together with numerous singles As and Bs, rare tracks and alternative mixes.

Those first four albums, "Procol Harum", "Shine On Brightly", "A Salty Dog" & "Home" are included chronologically, and in their original track order on discs one and two, with the exception of the title track of "A salty dog" which is removed to the third disc so as to appear with the other singles. These albums show the rapid development of the band, to the stage where they started to fall apart. The proto-prog classic "In held 'twas in I", (relatively) recently covered by Transatlantic, is essential listening for anyone with even a passing interest in our genre.

The out-takes on the third disc include a couple of wonderful variations on "A whiter shade of pale", one of which is the mono backing track. The original A side of that song is also on disc 3, as it never appeared on an official Procol Harum album. Likewise, we have the original single version of "Homburg" plus two alternative takes.

In all, a reasonably priced, cost effective way of obtaining four complete albums by the band, plus a host of essential non-album singles etc. The packaging is informative and tasteful too.