Search - Stackridge :: Friendliness Plus

Before They Were Fab

Elessar Tetramariner | Ann Arbor, MI USA | 04/21/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a lost sparkly this is! Band pioneer Andy Davis (guitar, drums, mellotron, glockenspiel, lyrics, melodies)remarked that this album, overall, is his favorite of the 5 albums Stackridge bounced out to us fans between 1970 and 1975.Conceive: 3 intelligent, stardom-eschewing 20-maybe-year olds in 1970. (1)"Crun" Walter who could think up words and play bass (when not bricklaying); (2) Andy Davis, who wrote words and music, played guitar and keyboards and (3) Billy Sparkle who played drums and other percussion and had a place to practice. Crun (1) and Andy (2) hire an apple-cheeked flautist who loves Laurel & Hardy, and is willing to be shoved up frontand sing often, "Mutter" Slater, (4), then a mild-mannered guitarist/singer with fearsome diction (and even better lyricking),James Warren,(5). At (2)'s 21st birthday, in a pub, (5) accosts a violin-toting Mike Evans (6) who blithely said, "Rock music? Why not?"28 years later, I'm still tugged at the heart by 7/11ths of these tracks. "Lummy Days" remains their barnstorming jumpity show-opener on their current (2000) tour. "Teatime" is an affirmation of goodwill from within you and without you, and a rare number that starts as a children's song that evolves into a rochestra, and succeeds. "Anyone For Tennis" recalls Wimbledon or Pickfair (Mary Pickford's & Douglas Fairbanks' Hollywood mansion, 65 years before I write this) and the feel/tone of scores of lighthearted films of that time--but with enduring words. "Floating on the Serpentine in winter/ Left my Plus-Fours feeling somewhat splintered..." is just a teaser. Cheery rock. Heart rock. Friendliness. Gotta thank Mark "Moogy" Klingmann for helping write, "(You Gotta Have) Friends", but this album was birthed and toddled a year ahead of Bette Midler's upstage of Barbra Streisand, and without the brass.You can play this for your children (the over 3 and under 8 kind). Some children who are now sparkly ruude adults have remarked about how they enjoyed "Friendliness" when their parents played it back in...never mind.Like most writers/listeners, I have little passages of song that pop into my forebrain as often as a snootfull of thrust flowers do for my less fortunate co-writers. 5 of my 45 favorite 'happy'hooks come from this band. Do not pass them by if you have an antiquarian attidude, or just are reckless and won't make me to bite my tongue when this record isn't what I told you it was."

Unusual and delightful

Phil Lenoir | Puslinch, Ontario Canada | 12/21/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Stackridge plays music that is hard to define. There are suggestions of folk influences, but played with a psychadelic/rock slant. There is a great deal of orchestration on some tracks. Many songs are haunted by delightful melodies, especially the title tracks and There is no Refuge. The words are wonderfully quirky on others.There is a dischord on Purple Spaceships Over Yatton, that I once read was due to a mistake in the score, that makes me wince whenever I hear it. I regard the album as a must have for discerning collectors of music from this extremely inventive period in English popular music history. The music is likely to appeal to fans of artists like Fairport Convention, Kevin Ayers and Nick Drake whose output is also difficult to encapsulate in any one genre."