Luis Fernandez' reviews of some of the ARGENT albums yesterday reminded me that ARGENT are in the ProgArchives. Now, although I have been a fan of ARGENT since the mid 1970s, I never thought of the band's music as Progressive Rock, just Rock plus some pop. Nevertheless, the band made some great music in my opinion. I love Russ Ballard numbers such as 'Schoolgirl' and his post-ARGENT pop (e.g. 'I Don't Believe In Miracles'), and of course the excellent ARGENT rock numbers 'God Gave Rock & Roll To You', 'Hold Your Head Up', 'Thunder & Lightning' etc.

If you want to check out ARGENT though, my advice is to think twice before buying Epic Records' "The Argent Anthology - A Collection Of Greatest Hits". It's only got 8 tracks - hardly a proper anthology - and two of them are not that good. It's better to buy the original albums. It's a shame that a decent "Argent Greatest Hits" album has not been released. The Japanese album "Hold Your Head Up - The Best Of Argent" at least has 15 tracks rather than the measly 8 on the Epic Records album, but is missing some ARGENT classics such as 'Thunder & Lightning', 'It's Only Money', 'Liar' etc.

Any other ARGENT fans out there?

Yeah, great band Fitz, at least up until when Ballard left. After that they ran out of steam. They had a fair amount of singles success, but I reckon they were still essentially a prog band. My favourite is their "Nexus" album, which had great tracks such as "Music from the spheres", and "The coming of Kohoutek".

Isn't it time CBS remastered and re-released their early albums?

Apparently so:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001E5T24/ref=sr_aps_music_1_2/026-7193092-6110015"> As Far As I Can See - released  spring 2004

"As Far As I Can See", released spring 2004, has been garnering some wonderful reaction........ "Miss this one at your peril" - The Times "Drop dead gorgeous melodies and slinky hooks" - Mojo "Blunstone's voice and Argent's songwriting are unaffected by age" - Sunday Express        Track listing 1. In My Mind a Miracle 2. Memphis 3. Southside of the Street 4. I Want to Fly 5. Time To Move 6. I Don't Believe In Miracles 7. As Far As I Can See 8. With You Not Here 9. Wings Against The Sun 10. Together 11. Look For A Better Way

Who's "we"?  

I ain't mixing nobody up... it's (stage whisper) Dick.

Fitzcarraldo wrote:   If you want to check out ARGENT though, my advice is to think twice before buying Epic Records' "The Argent Anthology - A Collection Of Greatest Hits". It's only got 8 tracks - hardly a proper anthology - and two of them are not that good. It's better to buy the original albums. It's a shame that a decent "Argent Greatest Hits" album has not been released. The Japanese album "Hold Your Head Up - The Best Of Argent" at least has 15 tracks rather than the measly 8 on the Epic Records album, but is missing some ARGENT classics such as 'Thunder & Lightning', 'It's Only Money', 'Liar' etc. Any other ARGENT fans out there?

I have that and the great thing is that it has the full unedited version of 'Hold Your Head Up'.You will find some gastly edits around the place that chop up or..God forbid... omit completely Rod Argent's wonderfull hammond solo.

Easy Livin wrote: I don't think, unless memory fails me, Ballard was ever in the Zombies. Are we perhaps mixing up Ballard and Colin Blunstone, who was in the Zombies (but not Argent), and has been working quite a bit lately with Rod Argent?

Your'e right in my rush I should have said Blunstone.

richardh wrote: I have that and the great thing is that it has the full unedited version of 'Hold Your Head Up'.You will find some gastly edits around the place that chop up or..God forbid... omit completely Rod Argent's wonderfull hammond solo.

Other dreadful edits to watch out for:

Ten year after, "Love like a man". The single version replaces a superb guitar solo with a single wah wah'd note.

Justin Hayward, "Forever Autumn", the ending of the single version is downright amateur.

Free, "All right now", some versions completely omit the guitar solo.

Rare Bird "As your mind flies by". This excellent 10 minute track is chopped in half on some compilations.

Uriah Heep "Look at yourself", the single version just cuts bits out randomly.

I'm sure there are many more!

Fitzcarraldo wrote: Luis Fernandez' reviews of some of the ARGENT albums yesterday reminded me that ARGENT are in the ProgArchives. Now, although I have been a fan of ARGENT since the mid 1970s, I never thought of the band's music as Progressive Rock, just Rock plus some pop. Nevertheless, the band made some great music in my opinion. I love Russ Ballard numbers such as 'Schoolgirl' and his post-ARGENT pop (e.g. 'I Don't Believe In Miracles'), and of course the excellent ARGENT rock numbers 'God Gave Rock & Roll To You', 'Hold Your Head Up', 'Thunder & Lightning' etc. If you want to check out ARGENT though, my advice is to think twice before buying Epic Records' "The Argent Anthology - A Collection Of Greatest Hits". It's only got 8 tracks - hardly a proper anthology - and two of them are not that good. It's better to buy the original albums. It's a shame that a decent "Argent Greatest Hits" album has not been released. The Japanese album "Hold Your Head Up - The Best Of Argent" at least has 15 tracks rather than the measly 8 on the Epic Records album, but is missing some ARGENT classics such as 'Thunder & Lightning', 'It's Only Money', 'Liar' etc. Any other ARGENT fans out there?

The best intro i could think of is the live album Encore which has got all the prog tracks (bar two: one off In Deep - Candles on The River -  and one off Nexus - Keeper of The Flame) - plus proggier version of their hits. I Am The Dance Of The Ages really does it for me!

But I do not like the Pure Love suite on All Together Now!

 Correct me if I'm wrong, here!

Should there not be someone fixing the artwork of Nexus?

 It seems to completely wrong , Colors are wrong , centering is wrong, also!

Russ Ballard was in the 60s beat band Unit Four Plus Two, famous for having a hit called 'Concrete And Clay', and before that was in Adam Faith's backing band The Roulettes. I shouldn't know that really- I'm only 17!

I have 'Encore' by Argent, and it's a terrific live album with great sound and fantastic solos.

By the way Easy Livin, the Argent albums 'In Deep' and 'Nexus' have just been remastered on a 2CD set by the label Edsel, who've been releasing CBS albums by Soft Machine and Al Stewart, plus the Kevin Ayers Island albums.

I'll need to watch out for that Salmacis, sounds good!

I picked up the Al Stewart remaster of 3 of his early albums on 2CDs, and it was superb.

Man, I continue to be in the minority when it comes to Argent but I think that Circus is awesome and that side one of Counterparts (will it ever be re-released?) is good even though side two is garbage.  I like Nexus, too. It surprises me that Circus gets ripped so much on these prog sites. "Circus", "Highwire", and "Trapeze" are all excellent songs! And definitely prog. "On My Feet Again/I Can't Remember, but Yes" from Counterparts is also great, as is "Time" from the same album.

I will admit, though, that one of the biggest mistakes I ever made was buying the album from the Argent spinoff band "Phoenix" which had guitarist John Verity, bassist Jim Rodford, and drummer Robert Henrit. Now that was grabage!

Russ Ballard is okay. I really like "Man for All Reasons" on Nexus, but most of his other stuff doesn't do much for me. I can't listen to the first Argent album that came bundled with the re-release of Circus. It does nothing for me. Which is kind of weird since I enjoy repeated listenings of The Odyssey and the Oracle, the Zombies last album.

And it is true, Ballard was never in the Zombies. I don't know who the guitarist was but Rod Argent's writing partner Chris White played bass, I think.

Easy Livin wrote: "Winnebago"? Isn't that the American version of Caravan?

You're wasted on this forum Easy,you should be on The Stage...........

hopefully there will be one leaving here soon....

I have Nexus.I think the Argent  written songs are prog.The Ballard songs are  poprock oriented with hit potential.

This album has a lot to offer.

I love it.

The Nexus cover got fixed thanks to Joren and Fitz!

Thanks guys

Hugues