ECLIPSE

The 1970s career of Jade Warrior can be divided into two phases - the Vertigo era, when the band were built around the core trio of Tony Duhig, Jon Field, and Glyn Havard, and the Island Records period, when Havard had departed and Duhig and Field took the band in a different direction. For a good long while, however, the last chapter of the Vertigo period had gone unheard, save for a few stray tracks on Vertigo Records promotional compilations. In 1973, Jade Warrior were on the back foot, with relations between Havard on the one hand and Duhig and Field on the other becoming strained.

From the start, both parties had rather distinct musical visions - Duhig and Field being more for the new agey side of the band's sound which would (naturally) come to predominate the Island era, whilst Havard was keen on somewhat more conventional psych/prog material (which, naturally, tended to feature his lead vocals more). If one thing defines the Vertigo era of the band, it's the tension between these styles, and when it worked best, as on the debut, the blend was rather unique; conversely, my feeling that the weakest album of the period was Released stems in part from the way the balance between mellow experimentalism and more straight-ahead rocky nuimbers felt off.

By 1973, the balance was well and truly off. In particular, in late 1972 the band undertook a tour of America (off the back of Barazinbar, the proggiest piece on Released which had ended up becoming an unexpected radio hit over there) which turned into a bit of a farce. Their management had failed to get them the correct work permits and they were forced to cool their heels and delay the start of the tour until the paperwork got sorted out; as the band sat there in a foul mood, existing divisions began to fester.

As Esoteric were preparing their 2023 two-CD reissue of Eclipse and Fifth Element, the two albums Jade Warrior recorded in 1973, Field and Havard were able to touch base and compare notes with the benefit of hindsight, and come to the same conclusion: on these two albums, Glyn was stepping into the breach and filling a gap left when both Tony and Jon were simply too discouraged to contribute as much to the writing as they previously had.

The result is a snapshot of a path not taken, particularly on Eclipse, which the band had recorded after they got home from the US safe and sound. Fifth Element is a more questionable matter, since it was finished off in a hurry after the band went on a brief, abortive tour of Holland and got the news about Vertigo cancelling their contract; one could certainly question whether it really represents Jade Warrior at all, or whether it consists of a mashup of Glyn Havard solo pieces and rough sketches for the Island albums.

Eclipse, though - that's another matter. The band had completed the album to their satisfaction before they left for Holland (setting aside some off-cuts which would later make it onto Fifth Element), a test pressing was made (perhaps representing the ultimate in Jade Warrior rarities), and as mentioned, a few choice songs (Mwenga Sketch and Holy Roller) had even made it onto Vertigo's Suck It And See sampler records. As far as the band were concerned, this was definitely the next Jade Warrior album, and Vertigo agreed... right up to the point when they didn't. Abruptly, behind the scenes machinations at Vertigo saw the release of the album abruptly cancelled, leaving it on a shelf for some 25 years until it saw the light of day in 1998.

This is definitely a Havard-heavy Jade Warrior, with the blend of heavy psych and early prog (I think Glyn must have been listening to a lot of King Crimson's Islands or In the Wake of Poseidon and a good amount of Jethro Tull) which characterised his contributions to the band dialled up. At the same time, Duhig and Field are not absent as such, and flourishes of their New Agey style can be found here and there. Indeed, perhaps because he was more confident taking the lead at this point, Havard's psych numbers aren't quite as strident and brash as they are on Released, leading to a blend which seems to be surprisingly cohesive despite the shift in the internal chemistry of the band.

What would have happened had Eclipse been released on schedule? It's entirely possible we'd have never got the Island albums - or it might have fallen down a commercial hole and the future of the band would have remained exactly the same, it's hard to say. Nonetheless, it's a good thing that it finally saw the light of day. Esoteric's recent 2CD release of this and Fifth Element is perhaps the best one-stop way of getting the full picture of what Jade Warrior were doing in 1973.