Prog Britannia - Album Reviews

MANDY MORTON     A feline folk singer who once led the wonderfully-named band Spriguns of Tolgus and who now devotes her life to looking after and writing mystery stories about cats, including "The Cat and the Pendulum", "Murder on the Santa Claws Express", "Magical Mystery Paws" and many other feline fables. 

MOTHS      The Moths have been quietly biding their time in the deep recesses of your wardrobe for the last fifty years, but they're about to re-emerge like a chrysalis with the release of a brand new album any day now, appropriately titled Moths50. 

Moths - I Shall Be Released

MOUNTAIN ASH BAND     A nine-piece Prog Folk commune led by Lynda Hardcastle, who then made the most amazing comeback since Dusty Springfield with the all-female folk trio Grace Notes. 

  1976: Mountain Ash Band - The Hermit - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mxkDzJgL_zSii8f1awa_4RU3flYdCr1KQ

  1998: Grace Notes - Red Wine & Promises - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nuUOV6hPCAO5HHfKEsYqvPvmhOlq2oiZA

  2001: Grace Notes - Anchored to the Time - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k58wVtMI4dQIp3txpMw83Doh05V8FCum4

  2008: Grace Notes - Northern Tide - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k2pm5om5PaEdVYzKG2y6OMOJ8ifvxWy6E

  2012: Grace Notes - 20 - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ngqxso-uf-oDC_Qurn62snDQhodq7ZRl0

MOVING HEARTS      More Irish than a Leprechaun in Limerick! Are Celtic rockers Moving Hearts the third-best Prog Folk band from Ireland? 

Is Sinead O'Connor Catholic? 

MUSHROOM   There's an old adage that says to be treated like a mushroom is to be kept in the dark and fed on a diet of manure. You can't hide anything from airport security though, especially if you happen to be Sharon Stone. 

TOM NEWMAN     He's more than just famous for producing Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells (which would rank as an amazing achievement in anyone's C.V.), but Tom Newman is also an outstanding musician in his own right with thirteen (virtually unknown) solo albums to his credit. Tom is a good friend of Virgin typhoon Richard Branson - who knows a thing or two about dirigibles - and whose main claim to fame is having once starred in an episode of Baywatch where he was rescued from drowning in a water skiing accident by The Hoff. 

THE NORTH SEA SCROLLS     An alternative folk band who turn out to be ruder and more controversial than Bernard Manning and with an album that includes the song "Enoch Powell - He's the Man for Me"- so not an album to include in your great aunt's Christmas stocking.   

Bernard Manning and Richard Wilson together on The Mrs. Merton Show - "I don't believe it!"  

ODIN DRAGONFLY     The gentler feminine side of Mostly Autumn, featuring salubrious Sirens Heather Findlay and Angela Gordon with two lovely Prog Folk Offerings. 

OLIVER     A reclusive folk singer known only by his first name who makes Mike Oldfield seem like the life and soul of the party by comparison. Standing Stone is an ultra-rare Prog Folk album (only 250 copies were ever pressed) recorded by part-time farmer and reluctant musician Oliver Chaplin at a remote sheep farm in Wales whilst surrounded by various animals and "small winged creatures", so don't be too surprised if you hear the occasional bleating sheep or twittering birdsong in the background, and if anyone's lucky enough to own the original vinyl album (fat chance!) and wishes to sell, then they should have enough money to retire to a remote sheep farm in Wales. Baa. 

ORPHEUS GHOSTSONG      Spooky psych-folk from Orpheus Ghostsong. Don't have nightmares.

 

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Ghostwatch:- The creepy Channel 4 show that actually drove someone to commit suicide, although not as scary as Jim'll Fix It.