Of the many psychedelic groups who recorded unreleased material in the 1960s that didn't get issued until decades later, http://store.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,4395102,00.html - Canterbury Glass was one of the more unusual and interesting. The tracks they recorded for a prospective album in 1968 mixed classical religious music and psychedelic-progressive rock not as a gimmick, but with reasonable dignity and creativity. While only four of the six tracks from these sessions could be retrieved when http://store.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,4395102,00.html - Canterbury Glass material was finally released on CD in 2007, these added up to 40 minutes of well-recorded music, providing a reasonable facsimile of what might have appeared had the band landed a recording contract.

http://store.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,4395102,00.html - Canterbury Glass ' origins lay in the mid-'60s London folk-blues duo of Malcolm Ironton and Michael Wimbleton, who as Mick & Malcolm recorded a couple of singles for Pye. Forming a band after their Pye days ended with drummer Dave Dowle and bassist Tony Proto, Ironton eventually turned to a more psychedelic direction under the influence of bands like http://store.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,431290,00.html - Pink Floyd and the Moody Blues. Ironton and Proto began writing material, sometimes sung in Latin, that drew on the classical-flavored music sung and played in cathedrals. Adding keyboardist/guitarist Mike Hall (whose organ would give the group's material much of its classical/religious flavor) and singer Valeri Watson (who also played flute), http://store.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,4395102,00.html - Canterbury Glass played in London venues like Middle Earth and Eel Pie Island.

London arranger http://store.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,652985,00.html - Harry Roberts heard a two-song demo, and with his partner, Olympic Studios owner http://store.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,671262,00.html - Cliff Adams , arranged for the group to record an album's worth of material at Olympic. The six tracks, which fused guitar-based psychedelia with choral harmony vocals and heavily classical-influenced melodies and keyboards, were designed to draw a deal from bigger labels, but Polydor and CBS both passed on the band after showing some interest. The band broke up soon afterward, though not before future http://store.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,434992,00.html - Genesis guitarist http://store.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,439808,00.html - Steve Hackett , who'd played on one track on the sessions, joined as guitarist for a short time. Drummer Dave Dowle joined Brian Auger's Trinity in 1969, and quite a while later, he turned up in http://store.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,509349,00.html - Whitesnake . Four of the six tracks from the sessions comprise the bulk of the 2007 CD Sacred Scenes and Characters, with one of the two previous demos added as a bonus cut. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide