I'm ready (Humble Pie) (LP 2789 - 2790)

Humble Pie Performance Rockin' The Fillmore (CD, A&M Records, 1971) **

Humble Pie The Crust of Humble Pie (Vinyl, Immediate Records, 1972) ****  

Genre: Rock

Places I remember: Fives; Spellbound Wax Company

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Cold Lady

Gear costume: Home and Away 

Active compensatory factors: By rights I should love Humble Pie. The double guitar attack (Peter Frampton and Marriott) and the voice of Steve Marriott are big draw cards. 

But when I bought Performance I was hugely disappointed. The long rambling numbers and the obnoxious side of Marriott on a few numbers mean I shelved the album. Rolling Stone being the worst offender - apart from being just plain offensive it's also just plain boring. Sixteen minutes looong! No thanks.

The album hasn't grown on me since, although the more focused songs like Four Day Creep and Stone Cold Fever have meant that I've hung onto it. 

The Crust of Humble Pie is a compilation put out by Immediate in 1972. Interestingly, none of the Performance songs make an appearance on the compilation.

Instead, it presents 10 songs from the band's first two albums on Immediate (As Safe As Yesterday Is, Town and Country). For my money these are far superior to the bombastic stuff they churned out for A&M.

There are a few lingering elements from The Small Faces on these songs and Steve Marriott is in fine vocal form. At his best he is peerless.

Where do they all belong? I love The Small Faces and there is more to come when we get to them in the collection, but I'm not tempted to buy any more Humble Pie beyond The Crust of Humble Pie.

You can do it (Natural Gas) (LP 175)

Natural Gas Natural Gas (Vinyl - Private Stock Records, 1976) ***

Genre:  Apple/ Dark Horse Records (of course Private Stock is neither of those but I group Badfinger related albums all together)

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Christmas Song




Gear costume: Little Darlin'

Active compensatory factors: Of course, Joey Molland's voice is very familiar from those Badfinger songs, but hardly anyone remembers this band. The band is obscure enough that there is not even a wikipedia article on them!

On the surface it's a supergroup of sorts. Some of the bands the membership of Natural Gas have been part of: Badfinger, Humble Pie, Colosseum, Uriah Heep, Rare Bird, Sutherland Brothers & Quiver.

It's a nice collection of largely undistinguished songs from various band members. Naturally, I'm more partial to Joey's tunes, but even his contribution doesn't come anywhere near his Badfinger output.

Where do they all belong? Natural Gas was a brief interlude before Joey went back to the Badfinger name with Tom Evans.