Garden of your smile (The Rumour) (LP 4554 - 4558)

The Rumour  Garden of Smiles  (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1971) ****  

The Rumour  Land of New Vigour and Zeal (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1972) *** 

The Rumour  Holy Morning (Vinyl, Karussell Records, 1972) ***

The Rumour  An Evening at Home (Vinyl, Karussell Records, 1973) *** 

The Rumour  The Rumour Collection (CD, Ode Records, 2009) ***** 

Genre: NZ Music, pop 

Places I remember: Slowboat Records, Real Groovy Records, Tron Records (Hamilton), JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Garden of Your Smile (Garden of Smiles)

Gear costume: L'Amour Est L'Enfant De La Liberte (Garden of Smiles)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7

Active compensatory factors: The Rumour are to me what Split Ends/Split Enz are to amigo K Simms. That is - a New Zealand band (like Headband) that I instantly fell in love with and became a completist for over the years.

The Rumour grew out of another band - The Surfires. When they spluttered to an end, John (a.k.a. Shade) Smith and his twin brother Gerard Smith formed The Rumour with the following line-up: Shade Smith (Guitar / Piano) Gerard Smith (Vocals); Colleen Ralph (Vocals); Sjaaki Koolan (Guitar / Vocals).

They recorded their debut Garden of Smiles in 1971. Ross Hindman (from Surfires' days) had replaced Colleen by this stage. From the album came the single L'Amour Est L'Enfant De La Liberte which was my first exposure to their brilliance. I still have the copy I bought in 1971. 

The album is excellent - full of their unique harmonies and Shade Smith's superb songs (he wrote everything and produced the album. He's a very talented guy!

Second album - Land of New Vigour and Zeal had two hit singles from it - Holy Morning and No Money On Our Trees. Sadly, my copy is a bit warped and although it still plays I'll need to find a better copy at some stage. The album's theme was focused on the NZ cultural identity and was partially successful. Apart from the two singles, the songs overall, weren't as strong as those on the debut. The orchestrations by Bruce Lynch are nice but they give the album an odd vibe - not very NZ actually.

A third album Holy Morning was also released in 1972 on budget label Karussell. It contained songs from the first two albums, plus a few new songs - cover versions like Our House and Leaving on a Jetplane.

The next two albums on my list are also compilations. The first, An Evening at Home is another el cheapo one from Karussell which covers similar territory to Holy Morning. The Rumour weren't best served by their record company.

The Rumour Collection is a much better compilation. There's a nice booklet and some love and care associated with the selections. There are also some songs by The Surfires  and some later hits (Queen Of Paradise) to give some context to the band. 

Where do they all belong? A band with a formidable catalogue given their short history.