EXTRAVAGANZA

Stackridge's follow up to Man In The Bowler Hat is one of those albums that no one especially the hardcore fans seems to like. For starters, the group's self appointed leader Andy Davis forced founding members James Warren to leave along with the bassist Crun Walter which must have upset fans no end.Secondly Davis seemed determined to move the group's sound away from the rather soft centred and whimsical style that predominated the first three LPs which also proved unpopular. Rather surprisingly having effectively built the band up from scratch as it were with newcomers Keith Gemmel (ex Audience) on sax ,clarinet and flute, Paul Karas (ex Rare Bird) on bass and session keyboardist Rod Bowkett and drummer Roy Morgan on drums rather than taking centre stage as one might have expected, he actually took a back seat especially in the composition department. No fewer than 6 tracks were composed by Bowkett who also co-wrote two tracks with Davis. Infact Davis only contributed one song on his own. So much for the potted background-what about the album itself? Well, in a word it is brilliant. Not "It's OK but not really a proper Stackridge album is it what with a completely new line-up and where has all the whimsy disappeared to and what happened to James Warren and how come Paul Karas sings the opening track etc etc" but brilliant.Why brilliant? Two reasons basically. Firstly these guys can really play and secondly Roy Bowkett whoever he is (who IS he?) is not only a very talented keyboard player a damn fine composer as well. The opening track "Spin Round The Room" is a great 20's pastiche written by Bowkett and sung by Paul Karas (see what I mean?) "Grease Paint Smile" also by Bowkett is a darkly humorous song sung in a somewhat rueful and tired style by Davis."The Volonteer" is Davis' only sole contribution sung by Slater and is a terrific music-hall style song and definitely one of the highlights on side one."Highbury Incident" a Davis/Bowkett co-write has an excellent sax driven riff in the chorus and is strongly reminiscent of "The Lat Plimsoll" of the previous album but as with all the other songs on the album less meandering and more direct.The closest thing to a "Stackridge" song well apart from "The Volunteer" I suppose is "Benjamin's Giant Onion" which is slightly reminiscent of "Return Of The Giant Hogweed" by Genesis but this time it is the turn of the onions to take over the world. Silly but fun.The closing track is an excellent cover of the song "Happy In The Lord"So far so Stackridge as far as I am concerned. Side two is a wholly different matter. Apart from an absolutely fantastic Hammond organ and mellotron driven song called "Nothing's more Important Than the Earthworm"-surely the heaviest song the band ever recorded and arguably the best song Pink Floyd never recorded the whole side is dominated by 3 lengthy Zappa influenced instrumentals. Two of them are Bowkett compositions and one is a Bowkett/David co-write. I just cannot get enough of this highly complex yet supremely accessible type of playing. This album is so ridiculously underrated.I can understand fans being a little dismissive of it mainly I suspect because of the line-up change because the highly eccentric nature of Stackridge is still in place. It is just that the playing is substantially tighter and tougher here than on previous releases.I would not actually call this album a "materpiece" but it is absolutely essential.A great album- one of my absolute favourites.

Five stars