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An essential part of Jeff Lynne and psychedelic rock history

Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 05/05/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Before Jeff Lynne joined The Move and formed ELO with Roy Wood, he was a member of this Biringham quartet that produced music inspired by the mix of jangly music hall sounds and psychedelic rock. While the band never broke through to top the music charts, their music continues to be appreciated by fans of 60's music. Evolving out of Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders (which featured a young Roy Wood as a member), The Idle Race only made three albums and a handful of memorable singles before disbanding. The splintering of the group would result in Lynne's tenure in The Move, Electric Light Orchestra and The Steve Gibbons Band.



Featuring all the commerically available recordings by the band plus three previously unreleasd alternate versions of album tracks, this two CD set is a terrific blast from the past. When it first appeared in 1996 this set was snapped up by fans of the band, Lynne and ELO. Unfortunately it went out of print within a year of being issued.



The first two albums are terrific as are some of the singles. The third album had its moments as well although the band clearly was going in a very different direction with their change in line up. I wasn't aware that the Idle Race had covered Hotlegs' "Neanderthal Man" (although why they would want to cover one Godley & Creme's worst novelty songs is beyond me)and it isn't signficantly different from the original version.



Lynne was the band's main singer/songwriter/guitarist with Dave Prichard playing George Harrison to Lynne's Lennon & McCartney for the band's first two albums. Lynne raced out to join The Move before The Idle Race began recording their third album and Prichard does a terrific job stepping into the gap providing the songs for the band's third and final album "Time Is".



The 2007 reissue comes without two tracks "It's Only a Dog" and "Your Friend" that were on the previous edition due to licensing issues with Polydor. These two tracks were recorded as The Nightriders and appeared on the previous edition of the album. Lynne played guitar (but didn't write or sing)on thse tracks as he had just joined the band. Other than that this edition appears to be exactly the same as the previous one.



I'm not sure if this is remastered (it doesn't have any mastering credit for the CD)and the new copyright date is probably because it doesn't include the two tracks that were on the previous album. Although the use of noise reduction isn't as heavy handed as some other EMI releases, it is there but isn't as distracting as some other releases remastered at Abbey Road. Although this isn't the perfect release everyone wanted, it's darn close to perfection simply because the sound is pretty good and we get the songs that Lynne wrote/performed on with the exception of the previous mentioned single. We get the booklet as with the previous release which gives us the history of the band and credits for the recording of the albums. There is a note in small lettering at the end of the booklet that states that the two missing tracks aren't there for "legal reasons"(i.e., they couldn't license them).



I'm glad that I was finally able to buy this the big question is why it took EMI so long to reissue it. Nevertheless this will be a delight for faans of psychedelic British rock music (which is quite different from psychedelic American rock music), Lynne, The Move and ELO. A very nice job of repackaging the material and while the two Nightrider songs are missed they aren't as essential as the bulk of the material included here.



Message from the Country, Eldorado and my favorite (although probably not their best)Face the Music"

Brilliant Music!!!

Jamie | Franklin, Tunisia | 05/12/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This set has been re-released by EMI (deleting two songs from the previous issue, neither of which Jeff Lynne wrote or sang). These CDs feature the same mastering as before so if you were lucky enough to to have bought it there's no need to get it again. The mastering isn't great but it's not as bad as we've come to expect from Abbey Road. The digital tape hiss removal (NR) isn't as artifact laden as I anticipated. This CD is quite listenable though the mastering would've been better without the NR and heavy handed EQ."

Jeff Lynne at his very earliest and best

B. Margolis | Minneapolis, MN United States | 04/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In 1996, UK EMI issued this 2-CD set on their short lived PREMIER series, and it contained all 3 Idle Race LP's (with Lynne on only the 1st two) and all of the Idle Race singles, and to top it off, the rare Polydor single by The Nightriders, who became Idle Race.



The sound on all three albums were substantially better than the original vinyl LP's, however, they did make a few annoying mistakes.



"Come With Me", the lead-off track on the 2nd LP was horribly rechanneled on the LP and it's the same bad rechanneling on the EMI Premier CD.



All of the wonderful mono singles remain mono on the EMI Premier CD. Bummer.



The EMI Premier CD set was stupidly deleted by EMI within a year of its issue and it's been selling on eBay and through Amazon's used sellers for big bucks.



Thankfully, it's being reissued finally, but I hold little hope for EMI to make the corrections (see above).



If you like The Move or Electric Light Orchestra, you cannot live without this 2CD set."