Trapeze - 1970 - Trapeze [Threshold] (2004)
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Trapeze - Trapeze
Rock - Hard Rock - Prog-Rock/ Art
1970 - [Threshold] (2004)
NIGEL WILLIAMSON JAN 2004
Trapeze were born in the halcyon days for British prog rock of the late 1960s. Drummer Dave Holland had served his multi-hued time in Pinkertons Assorted Colours, a band much championed by mid-60s pirate radio and who achieved brief notoriety when one of the fountains in Trafalgar Square was dyed red by the band in an ill-conceived publicity stunt. Guitarist Mel Galley came from the even more obscure Red Caps, white the talented bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes seems to have had little previous form at ail. The trio first came together to form Finders Keepers with guitarist Alan Clees and singer lan `Sludge' Leeds, before Galley, Holland and Hughes stepped out on the high-wire to form Trapeze, with the addition of singer Johnny Jones and keyboardist Terry Rowley.
It was this line-up that came to the attention of fellow Midlands band the Moody Blues, then one of the most highly-successful acts in British rock and who were in the process of creating their own record label. Trapeze became the first signing to Threshold, named after the Moody Blues' 1969 chart¬topping album On The Threshold Of A Dream.
Trapeze's famous patrons ensured the album received considerable attention on its release in 1970 and it became a favourite with Radio One's more album-oričnted DJs, such as Bob Harris and Pete Drummond. Produced by Moody Blues bass player John Lodge, the album is a classic period example of English prog, mixing pastoral whimsy, swirling psychedelia, rock guitars and pop harmonies. It would be an exaggeration to call it a `concept' album. But on the original release the tracks were deliberately run into each other, suggesting the album should be heard as an entity rather than a collection of individual songs. In addition, the album is bookended by a recurring dream-like fragment, which gives the impression of the record taking the listener on a journey. Or, as we would no doubt have said in those heady days of 1970, on a trip. And from that phrase you may take whatever connotations you like. With its tinkling nursery rhyme effect, the IT'S ONLY A DREAM fragment that opens the album evokes the spirit of Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland, a notable influence on English psychedelia of the time, readily heard in the work of Syd Barrett and others. The psychedelic fairy tale feel continues with THE GIANT'S DEAD HOORAH, complete with such quaintly naive expressions of hippie liberation philosophy as, "We're free to do what we want, free to say what we say."appled, pastoral feel white Hughes's gentle ballad NANCY GRAY probably has more in common with Donovan than with his later work in Deep Purple. Side one of the original vinyl release concluded with FAIRYTALE/ VERILY VERILY/FAIRYTALE, an extraordinary, extended centre-piece to the album, written by Jones and Galley. It's a characteristic example of the kitchen-sink school of pop psychedelia, for everything has been thrown in - an organ fugue, heavy guitars, a jazz break, classical piano and a baroque arrangement for acoustic guitar and flute. Then just when you think
ail over, the speakers fade up again with a Keith Emerson-style organ riff and some wailing rock vocals. Side two opens with IT'S MY LIFE, not the driving r&b number which was a hit single for Eric Burdon and the Animais in 1965, but a tremulous hippie ballad. AM I, another Hughes composition, features some lovely acoustic guitar and suggests Love's Forever Changes may have been an influence. Then cornes SUICIDE, the album's heaviest track, which builds to a nightmare¬inducing crescendo which sounds like a cross between Hawkwind's first album, the organ pyrotechnics of The Nice and early Pink Floyd. It must have sounded as scary as hell if you were on acid. WINGS is built around a clever guitar motif and a classic rock vocal before the mood changes again on ANOTHER DAY, a lovely song full of fine harmonies that the Hollies would have been proud to call their own. SEND ME NO MORE LETTERS luxuriates in classical strings before building up to a big, sweeping pop chorus before childlike, ethereal voices briefly reprise IT'S ONLY A DREAM. Today, the album sounds very much of its time and Trapeze never really made anything else quite like it. By the release of the second album, Medusa, later that same year, Jones and Rowley had gone, reducing the band to a power trio.
It proved to be a smart move, for the slimmed-down line-up toughened up the sound and went down a storm in America, prompting Galley, Holland and Hughes to up sticks and relocate to Texas. Over the next three years they built a steadily-growing fan base across the southern states, and were barely ever off the road, completing six back¬to-back American tours. When he wasn't otherwise required by a group called Led Zeppelin, an old mate from Wolverhampton called John Bonham sat in with them on drums. It was the same Galley/Hughes/ Holland line-up that in 1972 went on to record the third Trapeze album, You Are The Music...We're Just The Band, re-released on Lemon Recordings in 2003 (CD LEM 4).
It was an indication of Trapeze's growing reputation that when bassist tan Glover quit Deep Purple in September 1973, the band - at the time riding high with such chart-topping albums as Fireball and Machinehead - turned to Hughes to replace him. A test of' album, Final Swing, collected the cream of Trapeze's material recorded with Hughes, although the bassist/singer would later briefly return in 1976, before leaving again for a solo career and to work variously with Black Sabbath and Gary Moore's band. It also marked the end of the Threshold era.
Galley and Holland set about restructuring the band and the result was that Trapeze expanded to a five-piece with the addition of Bob Kendrick on guitar and Pete Wright on bass, as they signed a lucrative new recording deal with Warner Brothers. The new, two¬guitar line-up kicked off with the 1974 album Hotwire and followed it a year later with the ten-track Trapeze.
After that, the Trapeze story grows increasingly complicated as the band appeared to change its line-up as frequently as its underpants. Hughes briefly rejoined, as other members Ieft or were sacked. The 1978 album Running found new vocalist and old Wolverhampton friend Pete Goalby strutting his stuff, before he went on to join Rainbow and then Uriah Heep. When founder member Holland quit to join Judas Priest and Galley signed up with Whitesnake, it looked as if it was ail over for Trapeze. But then the original power trio of Hughes, Galley and Holland reunited for American tour dates in the 1990s to keep the original, Trapeze flying.
Tracks listing : (40:11)
01 It's Only A Dream (00:42)
02 The Giant's Dead Hoorah! (03:32)
03 Over (03:36)
04 Nancy Gray (02:47)
05 Fairytale (07:39)
Verily Verily
Fairytale
06 It's My Life (02:47)
07 Am I (03:07)
08 Suicide (04:49)
09 Wings (03:28 )
10 Another Day (02:35)
11 Send Me No More Letters (04:32)
12 It's Only A Dream - Reprise (00:37)
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