Free Hand Prog It’s a strange prospect to promote an album years after it was recorded. “I don’t think any of us were thinking back then that any of this would happen now with us in our 70s..
. it is a bit odd, really,” says ’s Kerry Minnear (keyboards, mallet percussion, vocals and a multitude of other instruments) in his soft, Dorset burr. Derek Shulman (lead vocals, main lyricist, woodwind) adds: “Honestly, I’m enjoying talking about it, because when the band finished.
.. it could have been grief, but I just didn’t want to go back and revisit it.
But now it’s a pleasure. There was no expectation that this was going to be preserved.” “That’s very true,” says Minnear.
“I think the multitracks only survived because Gary [Green – guitar and vocals] stepped in and then dumped them on me when he moved to the USA. They’d been up in my loft for years until interest started to bubble, and they’ve served us really well.” In many ways, the creation of in the spring of ’75 was an artistic venting at the relief the band felt having finally escaped from a troubled professional relationship with the WWA record label and from equally disheartening management obligations.
They were primed and ready. “We were at a pretty good high, we’d established the band and were doing comparatively good business in Europe and North America,” says Derek. ”I think we were quite mature as a band, and recording proved a happy experience.
” Ray Shulman (bass, stri.