THE LAST OF THE JUBBLIES

England was a British progressive rock band formed in 1975. England came a little late in the UK prog scene, coming at a bad time as punk rock was on the rise. So, imagine the following situation. We are in England in 1977. Punk rules. Bands like Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Stranglers, The Damned and other bands dominate the music world. Everything that was before, suddenly doesn't seem to exist anymore, or at least mercilessly kills everything else. The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis and so on, are all just considered the old dinosaurs of rock.

Just precisely in this explosive time comes a new unknown band, which calls itself cocky England, a progressive rock band that plays exactly in the musical interface between Yes and Genesis. After all, they had full page ads in some of the major music magazines of their debut studio album 'Garden Shed', which also appears on the well known and well acclaimed record label Arista. But what good is that? It's absolutely nothing. The album sinks like a stone in the water.

So, England only released one album in the 70's, 'Garden Shed', despite the major label Arista Records. But, ten years later in 1997, England released a second studio album 'The Last Of The Jubblies', which is a collection of unreleased tracks, including material from 76 and 77 and also some demo recordings. The band was reactivated around 1983/1984 and was reformed in 2005. In 2017 they released another studio album, their third studio album named 'Box Of Circles'.

The line up on 'The Last Of The Jubblies' is Frank Holland (vocals, guitars and piano), Robert Webb (vocals, keyboards and piano), Martin Henderson (vocals and bass), Geoff 'Jaffa' Peckham (vocals and bass) and Jode Leigh (vocals, drums, percussion and vibes).

Yes, this is England, the same band that released 'Garden Shed' in 1977. I think it have all the recordings the band ever made, besides 'Garden Shed'. England is known for their very Yes and Genesis influenced style. However, there are some differences. England paid more attention to the music than the lyrics. But when it comes to singing, I think England is more diverse in lead vocals as well as harmony vocals. Most of the music isn't as good as the songs on 'Garden Shed'. They've a bit more song structured tunes and less of the good bits with many things going on at once.

'The Last Of The Jubblies' has rough versions, because some things sound a bit bumpy and unfinished. Thus, one stands in sound technology in the shadow of the previous album and it's likely that the band broke apart during the recordings. While 'Garden Shed' still offered an ingenious blend of the style of Yes and Genesis, they had already broken away from these models a year later. The song material seems very spontaneous and the elements of the very complicated and sophisticated structures that characterize the classic progressive rock or artrock music are almost completely absent. Unfortunately, the unique magic of their debut has also been lost. It wasn't like many other bands.

So, 'The Last Of The Jubblies' is the second studio album of England and was released in 1997. The album has six tracks. The first track 'Creepin Instrumental' introduces the album in a fast-paced way, but basically consists only of a repetitive melody that varies only slightly. Only the middle part of this title gains some structure and has pretty nice Mellotron sounds. Nothing against spontaneity, but at such a piece one would have to file something else. The second track 'A One-Legged Day Tale' has a relatively memorable chorus that joins the song with the distinctive sounds of the clavinet. This is a brisk rock song, indeed. The third track 'Sausage Pie' actually has nothing to do with progressive rock anymore. In part you can even hear light reggae guitar chords. Thus, here it's just a very nice pop rock. The fourth track 'Tooting Bec Rape Case' annoys a bit with his high refraining vocals, but it can convince instrumentally. A guitar playing supported by a Hammond organ characterizes the instrumental passages and also the good Mellotron work comes to his deserved employment. The fifth track 'Mister Meener' sounds more like it was recorded just in 1970 and can't convince me totally. It's not bad but I can't see anything special on it. The sixth track 'Nanogram' has to be an outtake track from the recording sessions of the 'Garden Shed', since it still is, for me, a celebration of unadulterated progressive rock. Unfortunately, after just over four minutes, this fragment disappears and looks more like a fragment.

Compilation: Best known for their classic 'Garden Shed', England will forever be remembered as one of the few 'new' bands of the late 70's of the United Kingdom brave enough to make unadulterated, symphonic prog, on a major record label, at the height of punk. As I said before, 'The Last Of The Jubblies' consists of demo recordings made after the band found themselves without a label. I know that many people like to compare a lot of this album to England's original work. But let's face it. There's nothing else to compare with it. This album isn't as essential as 'Garden Shed' is. But, if you really like that album, you should get this one as well. It's not a bad album and you willn't lose your time really. 'The Last Of The Jubblies' is a worthwhile progressive rock artifact from this dark period of prog rock history.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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