THIS IS ISLAND

Island records have been around for much longer than many of us might think. Those who frequent this site probably, like myself, associate them with their sterling efforts of the late 1960s and early 70s to find and develop rock bands who wanted to push the boundaries. The label was however founded in Jamaica in 1959 by Chris Blackwell and Graeme Goodall. The two relocated to the United Kingdom in the early 60's, the label still being based on the music of the West Indies. It was only towards the end of the 60s that the focus shifted to British rock bands.

As a result of the change, Island issued a number of wonderful sampler LPs, including "Bumpers", "El Pea", and "You can all join in". This sampler comes a few years later, dating from 1974. Strangely, the album was only released in The Netherlands and Belgium, although it was readily available on import in the UK at the time.

By 1974, Island was enjoying a significant amount of commercial success, with bands and artists such as Cat Stevens, Sparks, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, The Sutherland Brothers, etc. all delivering hit singles. As a result, while this album features a number of bands and artists listed on this site, the tracks selected tend to be somewhat more commercial than those on previous samplers.

Among the best of the bunch here are Kevin Ayers wonderful tale of loneliness "After the show" and John Cale's deadpan "The man who couldn't afford orgy". Of the other bands listed on ProgArchives, Uriah Heep's "Something or nothing" was an obvious but unsuccessful stab at chart success from the "Wonderworld" album. Manfred Mann's Earth band's cover of Dylan's "Father of day" sees not only the title abbreviated, but the track itself loses about 7 minutes! Roxy Music's excellent "Street Life" was of course a highly successful single, as was their lead singer Brian Ferry's cover of "Smoke gets in your eyes". The rest of the tracks tend to be from the pop world, although the inclusion of songs by Sparks, The Wailers (no mention of Bob Marley), Sutherland Brothers, McGuinness Flint and Cat Stevens are all testimony to the quality of the label's roster.

With 15 tracks in total, this was a worthwhile collection at the time of its release, but most of what is here is of course now readily available elsewhere. That said, the Kevin Ayers song is well worth seeking out. It was never included on an original album, but has found its way onto the odd Ayers compilation.