GRAVY TRAIN

Pretty straight-forward guitar-and-flute orientated prog-rock that doesn't sound unlike Jethro Tull and features some seriously shredded vocals from the groups founder, leader, guitarist and main singer Norman Barrett. To cut a long story short, Gravy Train were a Lancashire rock group who released their eponymous debut in 1970. It failed to make a significant impact on the charts, but did give the group enough space to record three more studio albums that covered the same musical ground as this energetic-yet-hardly original slice of rocky prog. A lot of Gravy Train's appeal depends on whether you can dig Barrett's screeching vocals, and for those that can there are some small rewards to be had, especially in the album's lengthy closing number 'Earl Of Pocket Nook' and in the impressive flute-playing of J.D. hughes on the mid-tempo rocker 'Coast Road'. However, when compared to the prog era's big beasts like Genesis, Yes or Pink Floyd, Gravy Train seem very tame. Enjoyable, but hardly essential. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2010