GRAVE NEW WORLD

When I read listeners who write that the departure of Wakeman from the Strawbs turned them into a regular rock band, I feel and immediate need to reply. To my humble opinion, Blue weaver is "the" progression the band needed for to step forward into the arena of the dinosaurs. Wakeman was a great virtuoso, especially on the Grand piano and on the Hammond organ. The mellotron, when used by him, sounded like it sounds in most of the early-Prog bands: a wall of sounds. Weaver tuned the mellotron into an integral part of the musical texture, as he used it's various sounds. Hearing "The Young man and the flower" with the Chorus sound-like mellotron and the Harmonized vocals of the rest four members, makes you feel like hiding from a snow storm inside a Gothic Church. Listening to the hymn "New World" were Weaver Blow his Horn-sound mellotron, together with John Ford's phenomenal Bass work, make you feel like being there - in the middle of a northern Ireland street fight in 1972, watching the blood in the dust - exactly were the cities heart beats.

Last summer, I Caught that very incarnation of the band (excluding Hooper and Including Lambert and Willoughby) in a gig in London. The Show started with the electric Dulcimer of Cousins, introducing the long-live opener Benedictus. It sound's like I was there 32 Years ago, when this masterpiece was released.