Stackridge – The Man In The Bowler Hat
(MCA Records 1974 MCG3501)
Matrix No’s: A1/B1 – UK Pressing
G&L Gatefold Sleeve in Excellent+ condition
– some wear to edges/corners & some ringwear & discolouration on back cover
Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some light surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)
Stackridge were a British rock group which had their greatest success in the early 1970s.
Stackridge Lemon were formed from the remains of Grytpype Thynne by Andy Davis and James “Crun” Walter during 1969 in the Bristol/Bath area of the United Kingdom. After initial experimentation, the word Lemon was dropped from the band’s name. The band played their first London gig at The Temple in Wardour Street on 6 February 1970. They were the opening and closing act at the first Glastonbury Festival between 19 September and 20 September 1970. During 1970 the members of the band shared a communal flat as their headquarters at 32, West Mall in Clifton, Bristol, the address of which Davis and Warren later used as the title of a song which appeared on the debut album Stackridge.
During 1971 Stackridge began serious gigging, although Crun left to take up bricklaying. Davis, Warren, Bent, Evans, and Slater embarked on a UK tour supporting Wishbone Ash. Later in the year they signed to MCA Records and recorded their first album Stackridge, at De Lane Lea Studios, London. They toured the UK as headliners with Renaissance supporting and played their first John Peel session for the BBC, which included a version of The Beatles’ Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).
The group continued on a year of touring, again with Wishbone Ash and Forever More. The second album Friendliness was quickly recorded in August 1972 and released in November with some songs that had started life in pre-Stackridge days. By this time Crun had rejoined the band which consisted of Davis, Warren, Slater, Evans, Walter and Billy Sparkle.
In February 1973 the band made their first television appearance on BBC2’s “The Old Grey Whistle Test”. They then toured during February and March with Camel in support. The third album The Man in the Bowler Hat was recorded during 1973 at AIR Studios, London with producer George Martin. The album was released in February 1974 to excellent reviews, but failed to sell in large quantities. This was the highest-charting Stackridge album in the UK, reaching no. 23. A different version of the album was released in the U.S. under the title Pinafore Days and became their only U.S. chart entry, peaking at no. 191, although a US tour never materialised. Almost as soon as the album was finished the band were joined by Keith Gemmell from Audience; and shortly thereafter Evans, Slater, Sparkle, Walter, and Warren all departed the band and were replaced by Rod Bowkett (keyboards), Rare Bird member Paul Karas (bass), and Roy Morgan (drums), as Davis took full control of the band. The group that went on tour to support the album sounded quite different from the one on the record.
The fourth album Extravaganza on Elton John’s record label The Rocket Record Company was recorded at AIR Studios with Tony Ashton producing and Rod Bowkett joining to contribute to the songwriting. The band now consisted of Davis, Bowkett, Gemmell, Karas and Morgan, along with the returning Slater, Evans, and Walter. Non-Stackridge written songs and cover versions became more prevalent. With more touring and an appearance at Wembley Stadium concert with Elton John and The Beach Boys, 1975 saw the recording of the band’s fifth outing in the studio, the concept album Mr. Mick. It was based on stories/poems by Steve Augarde and was eventually recorded at Ramport Studios, Putney with the revised line-up of Davis, Slater, Walter, Gemmell plus the addition of ex-Greenslade Dave Lawson on keyboards and Peter Van Hooke on drums.
The Rocket Record Company, the group’s record label, performed considerable editing on Mr. Mick, and insisted on the inclusion of a Beatles cover song, “Hold Me Tight”. The album received some good press, but some shows were abandoned on the grounds that the stages were too small. Stackridge performed a final show in April 1976, and shortly afterwards the band disintegrated. MCA Records released the compilation Do the Stanley late in 1976. It contained songs from the first three albums along with singles and a previously unreleased song “Let There Be Lids”, taken from live performances.
Stackridge officially announced in 1977 that they had disbanded; James Warren and Andy Cresswell-Davis formed The Korgis a few years later, and had some commercial success in the early 1980s.
BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert, released by Windsong in July 1992, raised renewed interest in the band. John Sherry, Roy Morgan and Rod Lynton proposed a reunion tour but this never materialized. The album was re-issued by Strange Fruit in 1996.
During 1996, talks were held between original members about possible reunion and recording started. And the following year, 1997 Stackridge – The Radio One Sessions was released by Strange Fruit Records.
By June 1999, the Come Back To Front UK tour was under way and June that year saw Something for the Weekend released, featuring the line-up of James Warren, Jim “Crun” Walter, Mike Evans, Richard Stubbings, John Miller, and Tim Robinson. This album featured “Something about the Beatles”. Then in 2001 Pick Of The Crop and The Original Mr. Mick were released on Stackridge’s own DAP Records. Mike and Jennie Evans were responsible for re-marketing the band, including setting up a website. There were infrequent live guest appearances by Mike ‘Mutter’ Slater. However, further turmoil within the band occurred as attempts to reunite the original band led to the Evans falling out with Warren, Walter and Slater as Davis came back to the fold; leading to Evans’ departure and Slater’s full-time return to the band.
2005 saw the release of the album Sex and Flags on Angel Air Records, a collection comprising many songs from ‘Something for the Weekend’, all six songs from the fan release only limited edition ‘Lemon’ CD in 2002, and two Andy Davis demo recordings. The album was the first since 1973 (apart from the ‘Lemon’ mini CD) to feature the core foursome of Warren, Davis, Walter and Slater. Stackridge signed up with reissue experts Angel Air in 2005. All the CDs have extensive sleeve notes, pictures of memorabilia and bonus tracks and two, Mr Mick and Forbidden City are double CD sets.
A spring 2007 tour was announced featuring this line-up, along with additional musicians. A show at The Rondo Theatre, Bath, on 1 April 2007 was filmed for a DVD, released under the title Forbidden City (also available as a CD release). The band continued to perform during 2008.
In 2008 it returned to the Glastonbury Festival to play the acoustic stage on Sunday afternoon. They also appeared at the 2008 Rhythm Festival in Bedford and at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention.
An album (A Victory for Common Sense – including a rework of the Korgis’s “Boots and Shoes”) was released on 13 July 2009 on Helium Records.
In June 2010 it was announced that Mutter Slater had resigned from Stackridge. The stated reason was that, because of his full-time job, he could not always accept weekday bookings without taking a day out of his holiday entitlement. The announcement concluded “The rest of the band are very sorry to see him go, but will continue as a seven piece at least until the end of the year. Rehearsals will take place over the next two months to create a new direction, ready for Autumn/Winter gigs.”
On 14 March 2011, the band performed live on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson performing “The Last Plimsoll”.
In April 2014 The Scotsman columnist Euan McColm suggested that UK Labour Party leader Ed Miliband was “more Stackridge than Beatles.”
In late 2014, Stackridge took a break from touring, and in early 2015 the band embarked on a UK tour as The Korgis. Around this time, the group announced that the last ever Stackridge tour would take place in Autumn 2015, called “The Final Bow”, at Fiddlers Club in Bristol. It commented on Twitter: “We have decided that our Autumn Tour will be our last gigs. We don’t want the gigs to be sad events but a celebration of all we have done”.
Former member Keith Gemmell died from throat cancer on 24 July 2016.
The Man In The Bowler Hat is the third album by the British rock group Stackridge. The album was produced by George Martin at AIR Studios, London and released in the UK by MCA Records. This was their highest charting album, peaking at number 23 in the UK Albums Chart.
A different version of the album was released by Sire Records in the US and Canada under the title Pinafore Days. The US album removed two songs and replaced them with two others (produced by Tony Ashton) from the UK version of the next Stackridge album Extravaganza. Although the front cover was the same, the jacket photos were changed to show the Extravaganza lineup. Pinafore Days was the only US chart entry for Stackridge, reaching number 191 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Track listing
All songs credited to Andy Davis, Smegmakovitch except where noted.
Side one
- “Fundamentally Yours”
- “Pinafore Days”
- “The Last Plimsoll”
- “To the Sun and the Moon” (Mutter Slater, Peter Denman)
- “The Road to Venezuela”
Side two
- “The Galloping Gaucho”
- “Humiliation” (James Warren)
- “Dangerous Bacon” (Warren, Smegmakovitch)
- “The Indifferent Hedgehog” (Davis, Graham Smith)
- “God Speed the Plough” (Wabadaw Sleeve)
Personnel
- Andy Cresswell-Davis – guitars, vocals, keyboards, percussion
- James Warren – guitars, vocals
- Michael ‘Mutter’ Slater – flute, vocals, keyboards, percussion
- Mike Evans – violin, vocals
- Jim “Crun” Walter – bass guitar
- Billy Bent (aka Billy Sparkle) – drums
- Additional personnel
- Reg Leopold – violin
- William Reid – violin
- Graeme Scott – viola
- Vivian Joseph – cello
- Jack Emblow – accordion
- Ray Davies – trumpet/cornet
- Derek Taylor – french horn and solo on “To the Sun and the Moon”
- B. Lamb – trombone
- M. Fry – tuba
- R. Chamberlain – clarinet/saxes
- Andy Mackay – sax on “Dangerous Bacon”
- Production
- George Martin – production, orchestration and piano on “Humiliation” and “The Indifferent Hedgehog”
Other credits
- Bill Price – engineering
- John Kosh – cover design
- John Swannell – cover photography
- AIR London – studios
- Big Ben Music/Christchurch Music – publishing
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