Hold your head up (Argent) (LP 3211 - 3216)

Argent  All Together Now (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1972) ***  

Donovan  Neutronica (Vinyl, Interfusion Records, 1981) **  

Henry McCullough  Mind Your Own Business (Vinyl, Dark Horse Records, 1975) **  

Jean-Luc Ponty  Individual Choice (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1983) *****  

Andy Pratt  Shiver In The Night (Vinyl, Nemperor Records, 1977) ***  

Andy Pratt  Motives (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1979) ***  

Genre: Prog rock, folk-rock, rock, jazz-fusion, pop 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records (on a recent trip to Auckland).

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Individual Choice (Jean-Luc Ponty)

Gear costume: In Spite Of All (Jean-Luc Ponty); Hold Your Head Up (Argent)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: A recent trip to Real Groovy meant that I could spend an hour going through the sale bins and this is what I came up with (all of these plus three Al Stewart albums for just over 50 dollars). Score!

I'd been after the Pratt and McCullough albums for a loooong time (you may remember I collect Nemperor and Dark Horse labels). A real bonus to get them $3 each in great condition.

So this lot have surnames A to M or are on labels I love - hence me bundling them here (we'll get to Al in the S section eventually).

First up Argent. I have looked longingly at the cover of this, their third album, since 1972 and have long known that Hold Your Head Up was the standout track, and so it proves to be when I finally get a copy ($6 - how could I resist?). 

It's definitely of its time - Rod Argent's keyboards are a feature natch, but the whole band deliver solid prog rock in 1972 on: Be My Lover, Be My Friend;I Am The Dance Of Ages; and especially Keep On Rollin'. 

I continue to look for Donovan albums and Neutronica is the latest. It's a bit of a weird one - not released in the UK or America, it has a preoccupation with topical issues like militarisation, nuclear proliferation and world hunger. All very worthy causes/issues, but they don't make for great folk-rock songs. Especially if you throw in eighties synths to the mix. They are all over the songs on side one.

Side two is the better of the two because it mostly takes a more acoustic approach and he uses some older anti-war songs like No Man's Land to make his point. Still - while it has its moments (all his albums do), this isn't an essential Donovan album.

Henry McCullough is reasonably well known from his time as a Wingman to Paul McCartney (that's his solo on My Love), and before that to Joe Cocker in The Grease Band (and before that Spooky Tooth). The Northern Irishman was in high demand before Wings and after leaving he played with a wide range of famous types before succumbing to the effects of a heart attack in 2016.

Mind Your Own Business was his first solo album and it appeared on George Harrison's Dark Horse label in 1975. He uses musician friends from before Wings to help him with it, such as most of The Grease Band and Mike Harrison from Spooky Tooth.

In keeping with most of the albums on Dark Horse, there are very little concessions paid to commercial interests. Basically, it appears Henry was left alone to do his rollicking goodtime pub rock chug thing. His vocals aren't particularly strong but meh. Who cares.

His comparatively rough and ready approach is so very different to McCartney's that it's no surprise he only lasted eighteen months in Wings.

Jean-Luc Ponty's Individual Choice has been a target for me ever since I saw the video of the title track on Radio With Pictures (the Karen Hay years) in the early eighties. Yes, it sometimes takes me a while but I eventually get my album!

The whole instrumental jazz-fusion album still sounds current and modern, even though it came out in the eighties and featured synths and violin. The whole thing works - spectacularly on some tracks (the violin virtuosity is breathtaking at times). Plus, Allan Holdsworth plays some terrific guitar on In Spite Of All.

The two Andy Pratt albums are okay - solid pop rock from the late seventies. Nice harmonies, okay songs, and professionally arranged. Bit bloodless though - I wouldn't normally bother with Andy. Still - my Nemperor Records collection just gained two new recruits. 

Where do they all belong? I love the sale bins at Real Groovy. I probably need another visit!