Mid '70s supergroup featuring Tony Asheton on vocals & organ and two Deep Purple members, keyboardist Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice. A superb memento of their short career together, the album is enhanced by a 28 page booklet featuring a 1995 interview with Asheton & Paice, plus three previously unreleased live recordings as bonus tracks: 'Ghost Story', 'Steamroller Blues' & 'Ballad Of Mr. Giver'. 12 tracks total.
Ashton and Lord first met in 1970, and ended up writing and playing together on a number of projects over the next few years, including the "First Of The Big Bands" album released in 1974; in many ways a prototype for the PAL project. Following Purple Mk 4's demised in March 1976, Paice Ashton Lord emerged amidst much fanfare.
Mysterious adverts in the music papers gave some hint of what was going on: "British Band Requires British Bass Player and Lead Guitarist for formation of new rock band by three established musicians." Paul Martinez, then in Stretch, got the bass player's job, guitarist Bernie Marsden (then with Babe Ruth) completed the band. The line-up was made official on August 21st 1976 and by September they were in the Musicland studios, Munich, recording.
By now, Howie Casey was part of the band on saxophone, having previously played with Wings, along with a brass quartet. The horns helped give the band their unique sound. The line-up was completed by two girl singers. The band stayed at an Arabella Hotel in Munich, home to the drunken American who, in trying to pronounce Alice In Wonderland, gave Jon the idea for the album title, to which Tony provided the lyrics. There was a lot more freedom within the band for Jon, with the guitar used more as a rhythm instrument. With Martin Birch (who had been producing Purple for many years) at the helm, the album took just ten days to lay down. Ian Paice feels they'd cut a good album, "PAL was trying to do something ahead of its time, the sort of thing Level 42 became, a cross between jazz and rock".
The post-recording period saw the construction of a large stage set at Pinewood put together by the guy who had done the stages for the "Spy Who Loved Me" movie. They also announced that a film about the band was being produced. The album release was eventually put back to March 4th 1977. "One of those rare combinations of musicians which catches fire and becomes something really exciting", wrote Beat Instrumental. A tour of selected cities across Europe was dropped leaving just the UK dates intact.
The group made their debut on the BBC TV show "Sight & Sound In Concert" on Saturday March 19th. A week later they opened their tour at the Birmingham Odeon supported by Bandit. Musically the band were at times a force to be reckoned with, turning out some ferocious r'n b flavoured rock, with a great duel keyboard style which was very adventurous. What it needed was something to build on top of this, Tony wasn't at all happy fronting such a large band. Once the tour was over, the group returned to Germany to begin work on their second album. This was 75% completed, when sometime in early 1978 they came to a decision to fold the band. Bernie Marsden joined David Coverdale in Whitesnake. Tony Ashton returned to his role as a producer. Paice, Lord and Martinez went off to back Maggie Bell, formerly of Stone The Crows but the project didn't last long and the following month Jon Lord also joined Whitesnake.
PAL were undoubtably overambitious but the album is one that grows on the listener. Ian Paice looks back on the band without regrets. "PAL was a brave experiment! I It was an experiment that cost Jon and I a fortune but I'm glad we did it".
This special edition contains a newly remastered version of Paice Ashton Lord's 1977 studio album (previously unissued on CD in the UK), together with around thirty minutes of previously unissued out-takes from their never released second album, which was taped in Munich and long thought lost. The CD was assembled with help of band members Tony Ashton, Jon Lord and Ian Paice and will be of interest to PAL and Tony Ashton fans as well as Deep Purple collectors. The bonus tracks with lead vocals are Steamroller Blues, Black And White, Goodbye Hello LA, and Ballad Of Mr Giver. Bonus instrumental tracks are: Dance Coming, Untitled Two, Nasty Clavinet, and Moonburn.
The album was never completed and some tracks lack finished solos, while others have only backing vocals. The master tapes for the second album were wiped over by the studio in the eighties, so the bonus material comes from a monitor mix done in 1977. This was never intended for release but it is all that now remains. The tracks are intended to give an idea of how the second album was shaping up. Given the source, the quality is fairly good (and has been digitally restored as much as possible) but collectors should understand that the recording and mix are not of studio quality. (comparing the mp3's of Ghost Story & Moonburn should give some idea)
|
