FIRING ON ALL SIX

I recently acquired this album again after having sold my vinyl original during my poor student years. Ahhh the memories - surviving on beans on toast and vast amounts of beer. Anyway. I remember well seeing this band on 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' - they played 'The Ballad of Crafty Jack'. Fantastic track - nice bass, excellent vocals and fat funky synth. This song also featured on a free 'Sounds' LP which as a sampler also featured Boston,Frank Marino and Journey.

The stand out on this album for me is vocalist John Sloman - he reminded me of my two heroes at the time - Plant and Coverdale. He went on to join Uriah Heep - the band who were my first real favourites. Paul 'Tonka' Chapman of UFO fame was probably the best known musician in the band - the others are also excellent in their weapon of choice and in particular Dixie Lee on drums. Dixie Lee - showbiz name surely - he went on to form Dixie Dreggs with Ronnie James Dreggs. Actually he did'nt.

The album opens with a nice uptempo rocker 'The Bells of Berlin' - a song I really like until you listen to the twee lyrics - if English isn't your first language you won't notice this downfall. Next comes the aforementioned 'The Ballad of Crafty Jack' - excellent song. 'Time Lays Down' continues the funky feel with a nice driving bass - vocals particularly Plant-esque. 'Hypnotic Mover' COULD almost have been included in 'In Through The Out Door' - pretty Zep-like if you ask me.

'Lovely Lubina' opens with nice drumming and is another showcase for Sloman. Its another great track and keeps up the feeling of funk-edged rock. 'Seasons In Your Eyes' opens with electric piano and is a ballad - it has a relaxing feel to it and is perfectly acceptable as ballads go. 'Rivers Overflowing' gets things moving again and is probably my second fav song on the album. Nice funky chops and each band member contributes to an upbeat (almost cheerful) song - play it loud!! 'All of us all of you' opens with a riff which MUST have been lifted from another band - ITS SO OBVIOUS!! Fifteen seconds or so (check it yourself) - after that it becomes its own song without any reappearance of said riff. This is an album of its time - 1977 - its not the most original album in the world - but I like it and it works. Is it prog? Who cares?