An Audience with AUDIENCE
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Bands, Artists and Genres Appreciation
Forum Description: Discuss specific prog bands and their members or a specific sub-genre
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=123640
Printed Date: July 18 2025 at 23:49
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: An Audience with AUDIENCE
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Subject: An Audience with AUDIENCE
Date Posted: July 30 2020 at 09:30
Friends, prog fans and countrymen, lend me your ears for an audience with AUDIENCE, one of the finest Jazz-Rock bands ever to emerge from this green and pleasant land of England. AUDIENCE are a band who deserve to be heard by a wider audience. Tell all of your friends about them and tell your FRIEND'S FRIEND'S FRIEND too. If you've ever wanted to admire the view from THE HOUSE ON THE HILL, then look no further than the rousing and uplifting music of AUDIENCE. This early 1970's band are still ALIVE & KICKIN' & SCREAMIN' & SHOUTIN' well into the 21st century with their marvellous UNCHAINED melodies. AUDIENCE are a much-under-appreciated band who deserve to be legends in their lifetime, unlike some of today's modern bands, who only deserve to be legends in their own LUNCH-time. Their four rare studio albums are worthy of being passed down through the generations to your children, and to your children's children's children too, and if you don't already have a son or daughter, then now might be as good a time as any to take your wife upstairs and make one.  AUDIENCE ALBUMS 1969: Audience 1970: Friend's Friend's Friend https://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=2285681" rel="nofollow - https://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=2285681 1971: The House on the Hill 1972: Lunch 1973: You Can't Beat 'em (Compilation) 1992: Unchained (Compilation) 2005: Alive & Kickin' & Screamin' & Shoutin' (Live)
|
Replies:
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: July 30 2020 at 09:42
|
AUDIENCE - Audience (1969) - Side One 1. Banquet 2. Poet 3. Waverley Stage Coach 4. River Boat Queen 5. Harlequin 6. Heaven Was an Island |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: July 30 2020 at 10:09
|
AUDIENCE - Audience (1969) - Side Two 7. Too Late I'm Gone 8. Maidens Cry 9. Pleasant Convalescence 10. Leave It Unsaid 11. Man on Box 12. House on the Hill |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: July 30 2020 at 10:13
|
AUDIENCE - Audience (1969) - Bonus Tracks 13. Paper Round 14. The Going Song 15. Troubles |
Posted By: FatherChristmas
Date Posted: July 30 2020 at 10:43
|
Great... worthy of a larger audience!!! ------------- "Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence" - Robert Fripp "I am an anti-Christ" - Johnny Rotten |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: July 30 2020 at 13:55
Haa! Good one, and I hope this thread helps win Audience some more admirers, and that they'll tell their friends and their Friend's Friend's Friend all about them and shout it from the rooftop of The House on the Hill. The videos for the second Audience album are on their way, just as soon as I've had my Lunch.
|
FatherChristmas wrote:Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: July 30 2020 at 14:40
two excellent albums, but TBH, the rest is generally best forgotten.
|
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: July 30 2020 at 16:05
Yes, those two particular albums are definitely the best audience to my ears.
 |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: July 30 2020 at 21:10
|
I also like the first one.....Lunch was a bit stale and unappetizing. I also have the vinyl You Can't beat Them which is a fair compilation...deserves more than 3 stars imho. I bought House On The Hill in 1972 (came out in 71) at college when I lived alone in a studio apt, and played it quite a bit. I started buying quite a bit of unusual prog and prog related bands in that year. ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: July 30 2020 at 21:19
| I've heard some songs on youtube and maybe on online radio. I remember them sounding quite a bit like VDGG(mainly because of the sax). |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: July 30 2020 at 23:22
Yes, the first album had a good Audience and I've heard they serve a good Lunch at The House on the Hill, after my Friend's Friend's Friend told me about it.
|
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: July 30 2020 at 23:25
I like Audience FAR more than VDGG. Van der Graaf Generator have never had much of a spark for me.
|
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: July 31 2020 at 02:41
|
OK, I shouldn't be too cruel with their debut album... it's OK, but pales in comparison with their next two. And yes, I still have the If You Can't compilation vinyl as well  (wish I still had FFF & HotH, though)BTW, I always thought it was Hugh Hopper (Soft Machine) that was carried out by the butler in the House on the Hill back cover. 
It's a combination of Werth's vocals and Gemmel's sax, IMHO FTM, when Jaxon got the boot from VDGG in 2007, many expected the remaining trio to fetck Keith Gemmel
|
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: July 31 2020 at 22:19
|
AUDIENCE - Friend's Friend's Friend (1970) 1. Nothing You Do 2. Belladonna Moonshine 3. It Brings a Tear 4. Raid 5. Right on Their Side 6. Ebony Variations 7. Priestess 8. Friend's Friend's Friend 9. The Big Spell |
Posted By: FatherChristmas
Date Posted: August 01 2020 at 07:07
|
Still great, but I don't think I'm a huge fan.The problem is that there are just too many great bands out there to get into them all. I reckon I discovered that on my "bands that could have been successful but weren't" thread... ------------- "Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence" - Robert Fripp "I am an anti-Christ" - Johnny Rotten |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: August 01 2020 at 07:45
Audience were one of the first bands I discovered when I first went online in 2010 and they're still the highest House on the Hill for me amongst British Jazz-Rock bands.
|
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: August 01 2020 at 20:47
|
AUDIENCE - The House on the Hill (1971) 1. Jackdaw 2. You're Not Smiling 3. I Had a Dream 4. Raviole 5. Nancy 6. Eye to Eye 7. I Put a Spell on You 8. The House on the Hill 9. Indian Summer |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: August 02 2020 at 06:23
|
AUDIENCE - Lunch (1972) - Side One 1. Stand by the Door 2. Seven Sore Bruises ( YouTube video unavailable) 3. Hula Girl 4. Ain't the Man You Need 5. In Accord |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: August 02 2020 at 06:43
|
AUDIENCE - Lunch (1972) 6. Barracuda Dan 7. Thunder & Lightning 8. Party Games 9. Trombone Gulch 10. Buy Me an Island |
Posted By: Cosmiclawnmower
Date Posted: August 05 2020 at 14:14
|
There was a rumour that after Jim Morrison died, the rest of the Doors were keen to have Howard Werth as a replacement! Don't know if its true or if he did indeed have a 'try out' for them!! Blimey, can you imagine!!? I love Audience too.. I don't think Werth's Voice is everyones cup of tea but I really like it and the fact that he only ever played an amplified nylon string guitar and never succumbed to steel strings or electric guitars.. well not in Audience, anyway.. I quite dig the Howard Werth and the Moonbeams lp 'King brilliant'! ------------- |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: August 05 2020 at 14:23
It took me awhile to get used to the sound of Howard Werth's nasal twang too, but I love it now. On the subject of The Doors, how about The Doors of the 21st Century, where Jim Morrison's spirit is still alive and kickin' in this amazing concert performance. |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: December 09 2020 at 09:07
|
An Audience appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test from 1972. |
Posted By: Progmind
Date Posted: December 09 2020 at 12:24
|
Great Band!! they opening for King Crimson several times in 1969/1970 My favorite is their debut
|
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: December 09 2020 at 12:36
Audience were a great band who completely passed me by in the 1970's, so I should have paid more attention to the Old Grey Whistle Test.
|
Posted By: Cosmiclawnmower
Date Posted: December 09 2020 at 14:20
Great, cheers Paul ! 2 tracks from their last lp 'Lunch'.. good to see Nicky Judd on Piano but i think Keith Gemmell had possibly jumped ship by then (i think he joined Stackridge..) so i guess thats Bobby Keys on Tenor Sax. I think overall Audience suffered the same fate as Family and Stackridge; however much they tried, promoters and producers just couldnt pigeon-hole them.. they really were unique sounding and refused to be classified and as such were rather a 'Marmite' act. Personally i think Howard werth had one of the best voices in English 1970's rock (but then i think Roger Chapman is one of the best vocalists this country produced too)------------- |
Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: December 09 2020 at 15:21
|
^ Cheers! I've always thought the band deserved a wider Audience.
|