Clear Blue Sky - Clear Blue Sky (1971 / 2003 / Akarma)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Artist: Clear Blue Sky
Album: Clear Blue Sky
Released: 1971/2003
Genre: Heavy Prog
Progarchives: Originally a trio of friends from school, John Simms (guitar), Mark Sheather (bass), and Ken White (drums) grew up in the Acton area of London and started as a college circuit blues-rock band called JUG BLUES (later MATUSE and then X). Impressing manager Ashley Kozak, the band were given a deal with Vertigo, changed their name to CLEAR BLUE SKY and recorded a self-titled record under the production of Patrick Campbell-Lyons. Still only eighteen, the three musicians mixed hard blues with progressive and psychedelic rock in an unusually mature way, and the LP was released in January 1971 sporting one of Roger Dean's earliest album covers. The group was occasionally compared to CREAM, LED ZEPPELIN and early JETHRO TULL, though the music had a firm prog sensibility unlike CREAM or ZEPPELIN and sometimes may even remind of RUSH. CLEAR BLUE SKY's 1971 debut (reissued on Repertoire,1991) is considered their most important and the LP is a collector's item. The second record, "Destiny" [Saturn, 1990], released twenty years after the first (and then again in 1999 on Aftermath in CD format), is old material but shows an improvement in form and approach from the first session. 1996 saw the part-concept album "Cosmic Crusader" and later another theme record "Mirror of the Stars". "Out of the Blue", a collection of live and unreleased material, came out in 2001. Considering their partially forgotten status, CLEAR BLUE SKY is a surprisingly tight and accomplished band that probably deserve more attention than they got the first time around. - By Atavachron (David)
Tapestry Of Delights: This hard rock/progressive album is now quite sought-after by collectors. The semi-pro band came from Acton, West London and were discovered by Patrick Campbell-Lyons of Nirvana, playing in a local youth club. He signed them to Vertigo in 1970 and the three members were only eighteen when they recorded the above album. In Europe it was retitled Play It Loud and issued in a different sleeve. They split in 1973 and John Simms went on to Tangerine Peel, The Needle, Separate Energy and ended up in Ginger Baker's touring band. Clear Blue Sky reformed in 1990 and they issued an album of post 1973 outtakes entitled Destiny. They also have one cut, Bird Catcher, on Vertigo's 1971 Heads Together, First Round compilation. - Vernon Joynson.
Album Reviews:
#1: Clear Blue Sky were still in their teens when they were discovered by Nirvana's Patrick Campbell-Lyons, and their youth shows. Clear Blue Sky, the trio's one and only album, is a mishmash of hard rock leanings, prog rock fascinations, and occasionally jazzy delivery that is best regarded today by collectors of classic Vertigo albums and early Roger Dean artwork. John Simms' vocals are extraordinarily uncertain, and the record itself sometimes sounds more a youth club rehearsal than a major-label release. Campbell-Lyons' production doesn't help much either, remaining strictly in the sonic background. That said, it is certainly an ambitious effort — a freshman term paper for aspiring young metalheads. Side one is devoured wholly by "Journey to the Inside of the Sun," a three-part thunderclap that not only provided labelmates Black Sabbath with the title "Sweet Leaf," it also rode rock's current fascination with the classics by hijacking an element of Gustav Holst's The Planets suite for an occasional quirky interlude. Other diversions crop up on side two, as "Tool of My Trade" and the almost acoustic "My Heaven" at least kick off with something less than the full frontal riffery of the other numbers, while the closing "Birdcatcher" (the band's best-known number, courtesy of its inclusion on the fabled Heads Together, First Round Vertigo label sampler) sounds extraordinarily close to period Budgie and, "Sweet Leaf" aside, is the best-developed track on the album. - By Dave Thompson, AMG.
#2: Listening to this spectacularly ignored 1970 offering with the benefit of hindsight, one could say that Clear Blue Sky were either visionary geniuses, or lucky amateurs who picked a good day to rent the studio. Barely out of high school, this guitar-driven (with the odd flute or organ) power trio delivers an inventive set of neo-prog pyschedelic blues-metal, despite the somewhat crude production and sloppy mix. In terms of thier contemporaries, the sound falls somewhere between the Groundhogs and Budgie; but the scary thing is that if you were to do a blindfold test with a room full of college students and tell them this was a new lo-fi alternative band...they would believe you! Just listen to the album's best track, "My Heaven", and tell me you couldn't pass it off as Swervedriver or The Bevis Frond! With the promising raw talent displayed, one wonders whatever became of these guys. Collector's note:Roger Dean did the album cover art! - By D.Hartley, Amazon.
#3: Clear Blue Sky was a power progressive-rock trio from Acton, West London. Considered a semi-pro band when Patrick Campbell-Lyons of Nirvana discovered them, they proved at their tender age(s) of 18 years they could play like seasoned pros on their self-titled Clear Blue Sky album. With the hundreds reissued vinyl LP’s I have covered since 2000, this is one of the few groups that are still active with their own website. I really like the energy and straight ahead rock sound they had. For a trio they were very powerful. After I heard the first song, an instrumental that runs nine and half minutes, I knew that this band had what it took to please these fussy ears. I noticed at the end of the last track on side two there was a very subtle flute playing before the song closed out, so they were heading into a much more complex territory before they ever got out of the studio. Just to clarify something to the entire group progressive rock enthusiasts reading this review, today this band would probably fall into the hard rock or metal-prog category, in 1970 they were a prog-rock trio. Another interesting note is that the cover of their first album featured one of the very first cover designs by artist Roger Dean. This a gatefold LP that opens to a picture of what looks like a Mech Warrior (Microsoft game) with a character driving the machine that you would see on the old cartoon Space Ghost (ever watch Cartoon Network?). They are keeping the music alive today so check out their website, their entire catalog is available for purchase right off the site. Rating: 4/5 - By Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck, July 2003, Progressive World.
|
