Blond - The Lilac Years (1969)
Blond - The Lilac Years (1969)
Tommy Blom left the Tages just before the release the last single under the name Tages, so when they release
the I Read You Like An Open Book/Halcyon Days in november 1968 Tommy was not on the sleave but he had been on
the recording sessions that took place in june 1968 the a-side in Sweden and the b-side in England, but on the
promoting tour for the single in England it was the 4-piece band that was showing on the Tony Blackburn TV-show,
and it was that line-up that recorded The Liliac Years too, even that Anders Nord made some guitar fills on
Six White Horses and Caroline, but after the release of the album Danne and Anders spit from the group.
The line-up 1 of the Blond is just Tages line-up 4 because they just change their name to try to play more
above, but it was not so easy with all the restrictions on the immigration office, yeah it was there they
need to fill in the forms and be judged by the fools, then the American record company MGM they had the contract
with just close down the foreign offices, and the MGM had no distributions contract with English record shops,
but it not the first time the big companies betrayed the small people, so there was Tages promoting a single
at the Tony Blackburn Show but no records was availible in the shops, so then Tages change the name to Blond,
and their new manager make a contract with the Dutch Fontana label and they return to England to record this
album at Advision Studio and Anders Hendriksson produced the album as useal, but they even got a great help of
John Cameron with some of the arrange and Kathy Green even wrote some lyrics to their songs.
On the expanded material there is the wonderful Örjan single that Göran wrote and produced to his old friend the
singer of the disbanded Gothenborg group Que, and the Blond is playing on the single too with Örjan Ramberg
on lead vocals, so that single and the guitar fills on the two track on the album is all that Anders Nord made
with the Blond, he had play before Blond in the King George Discovery and after Blond he should form the Life,
Björn Linder had play in a group from Borås the Palmes, and Mats Landahl had play and sung in a group from
Gothenborg that was called Gentlemen Five, the album with Blond was even released in the USA in January 1970
on Fontana but with a new sleave with a front picture of line-up 2, yeah when they had a Dutch company it work.
Tracklist:
1. Six White Horses 2:24
2. Deep Inside My Heart 2:35
3. Sailing Across The Ocean 3:00
4. Time Is Mine 2:14
5. The Girl I Once Had 2:25
6. The Lilac Years 5:59
7. I Wake Up And Call 1:55
8. Sun In Her Hand 2:01
9. I Pick Up The Bus 2:41
10. There's A Man Standing In The Corner 2:05
11. (I Will Bring You) Flowers In The Morning 3:10
12. Caroline 6:58
13. Lost Child 2:46
14. How Can I Pray When I Don't Believe 3:18
15. Balladen Om Killen Del 1 4:20
16. Balladen Om Killen Del 2 2:37
17. The Weight (Live) 3:33