Arandora's Life (UK, Heavy Prog Rock) - nieznane zespoły
Na wstępie pragnę podziękować Richard Macdonnell (gitarzysta, kompozytor utworów
grupy Arandora's Life) za informacje o zespole.
Arandora's Life - lokalny zespół z Buckinghamshire, działający krótko (pod koniec lat 60-tych)
z około trzema koncertami na koncie.
Grupa bazowała na własnym repertuarze (muzyka - Richard Macdonnell, słowa - Howard Elson)
w konwencji heavy progressive rock, jako kwartet - w składzie :
- Richard Macdonnell (guitar)
- Howard Elson (vocals)
- Ian Meyer (bass)
- Mick Crowther (drums).
Nagranie przedstawione na kompilacji - "Samantha Promotions Volume One" :
- "A Million Steel Fingers" (1969, pierwotna nazwa - "Concrete Jungle"),
odbiegało stylistycznie od reszty utworów tego zespołu. Wielka szkoda, że inne utwory
Arandora's Life nie zostały utrwalone na winylowym nośniku.
Piosenka "A Million Steel Fingers" to (pomijając kwestie techniczne, itp) to jeden z ciekawszych
utworów na wspomnianej kompilacji, stylistycznie zbliżona do Candida Pax (LP "Day")
Richard Macdonnell :
"...Hi Paul
***** forwarded your email to me, and yes, I was in the band Arandora’s Life. I had thought this band was dead and buried many years ago, and I had no idea that we were on a compilation album. I’ll give you what I can remember (BUT, this was over 50 years ago!).
We were based in Buckinghamshire, England. It was roughly 1968/1969, and we were a 4 piece band (guitar, bass, drums, vocals). I played guitar, the singer was called Howard ...?, and I really can’t remember the names of the bass player and the drummer. We wrote all our own material – Howard did the lyrics and I did the music, and it was mainly in a prog / heavy rock style, although the song on the album was a bit blander than most of our stuff as I recall. That recorded song was originally called Concrete Jungle and had a short chorus over the 2 chords that follow the verses. I can’t remember why it was changed. None of us had been playing very long at the time, and I don’t think we were very good, but I suppose we enjoyed doing it. I think we only played about 2 or 3 gigs during the time we existed.
I’m fairly sure the recording was done in London, for some management company who were promising us work. All lies probably, as I’m sure nothing came of it. I found the album on YouTube, and personally I think it sounds awful. The recording was probably very rushed, and the production on our track is dreadful, although with hindsight, it’s perhaps a good thing that most of my guitar is buried in the mix. I was around 18 at the time, and had not been playing very long. Hopefully, I have improved a bit since then!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuKAMTK6gPI
Anyhow, thank you for your interest, and I wish you well.
Regards
Richard Macdonnell ... "
