The Artwoods – Art Gallery

The new release from Top Sounds Records honours one of the mid 1960’s most revered cult bands with the label’s first single artist long playing record and CD – the Artwoods! The Artwoods – Art Wood, Derek Griffiths, Malcolm Pool, Keef Hartley and future Deep Purple organist Jon Lord – recorded for Decca, Parlophone and Fontana from 1964 to 1967 and their Decca back catalogue in particular has been well documented by retrospective re-issues and compilations. The thirteen canvasses in Art’s Gallery however are sourced completely from three live radio sessions that the Artwoods recorded for the BBC during 1965 and early 1966 and were not known to still exist. The British Broadcasting Corporation saved a number of tracks the group played for the Beeb and these have since appeared on the Cherry Red Steady Getting It set, the rest of the Artwoods’ radiophonic output however was not kept by the BBC with the tapes being erased or junked. Thanks to diligent home taping by a particularly keen fan at the time, the Artwoods’ music for radio on Art’s Gallery can again be heard in public for the first time in over fifty years. And besides welcome live takes of familiar favourites such as Oh My Love, She Knows What To Do and Don’t Cry No More, there’s a spoil of cool numbers that the band never committed to disc. There’s the upbeat jazz of That Healin’ Feelin and Smack Dab In The Middle, the slow burning blues of How Long, How Long Blues and Black Mountain Blues, the soulful grooves of Out Of Sight and I Got A Woman and the pure mod suave of Comin’ Home Baby (and more!). The music has been restored to the highest possible standards from the only known surviving reel to reel recordings and Top Sounds feel sure there’s a splendid time for all to be had from a visit to Art’s Gallery!

Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition, Reissue, Mono, Turquoise Vinyl