Stackridge — Stackridge
Released in the year 1971 this self-titled debut album is sort of a halfway house between folk-rock, light prog/ symphonic rock, and story-led singing-song writer fare- all edged with some reward deviations into other genres & tuneful/ quirky pop-rock touches. Here from Cherry Red’s Prog/ related label Esoteric is a CD reissue of the album.
The CD comes presented in a glossy four-panel digipak. On its outside we get a reproduction of the Hipgnosis album's cover artwork of an illustration of a flock of seagulls- between the beach & clear blue sky. Inside is a red-tinged inverted picture of the five-piece band. We also get inside a twenty-four-page glossy booklet- this features a new nine-page about the band/ the album, concert poster art, lyrics and full credits.
Stackridge where formed in Bristol/ Bath area in 1969 by Andy Cresswell-Davis(lead guitars, keyboards, vocals) and Jim "Crun" Walter(Bass)- with Crun later becoming an on/off member. With the band having a fairly shifting lineup over their career- their first run was between 1969 & 1976- when they released five albums- Stackridge (1971), Friendliness (1972), The Man In The Bowler Hat (1974), Extravaganza (1975), and Mr Mick (1976). The band regrouped between 1999 & 2015- putting out another three albums- Something For The Weekend (1999), The Original Mr Mick (2001), and A Victory For Common Sense (2009).
This self-titled album was first released on MCA Records in August of 1971, and featured nine tracks, which had runtimes between two and a bit minutes, and the epic fourteen. The line-up for this album was Andy Cresswell-Davis - electric and acoustic guitars, lead and backing vocals, piano, harmonium. James Warren - electric and acoustic basses, lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar. Michael Evans - violin, backing vocals. Michael "Mutter" Slater - flute, backing vocals. Billy "Sparkle" Bent - drums, triangle. And as you can imagine with that instrumental selection the tracks cover a fair bit of sonic ground.
The first half of the album moves from “Percy The Penguin” with its steady bounding bongo beat, chiming clean guitar & harmonium tones, Beach Boy-like harmonizing vocals, and seaside sounds. Onto lightly jigging ‘n’ trumpeting folk-rock chugg of “Dora The Female Explorer”. Through to the playful-to-grandly dramatic orchestral led tones of “Essence of Porphyry” which sort of sit somewhere between pastoral English pomp and more darting Zappa-like workouts.
In its second half we go from pop rock meets violin swoon of “Marigold Conjunction”. Onto light bass bounce, jigging strings, and wacky lyrics of “Marzo Plod”. With the album been finished off with the epic “Slark” which moves from jaunting flute and string folk-rock-lined storytelling. Through to more mellow reed & string led orchestration, onto playful/ vocal stretched jam-out/ march.
This reissue takes in four bonus- taking in B side “Everyman” which is a nice slice of mellow/ tuneful string led & harmony folk-edged folk rock. And three tracks from the band's 1971 session with John Peel.
As debut albums go Stackridge is a decidedly charming, and largely successful affair. The band sounds both confident and daring. Sure, some of the tracks overlean on the band’s influences, and some of the longer songs feel a little overindulgent/overstretched- but as an opening statement, this is most worthy.