D I S C O G R A P H Y

 

 

First Light (2007)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Released: 2007

Label: Talking Elephant

 

 

Martin Turner's memories:

 

"Wishbone Ash made its very first recordings at West of England Sound studios in Torquay on 16/17 March 1970. We went in for a couple of days and laid down some demos. I don’t recall the sessions as being particularly great and am not sure if the recordings even still exist. A little later we made another recording at Advision in London with Phil Dunne and future Yes producer Eddy Offord. The pair of them took turns to do sessions with us. They would book us in at ten o’clock at night and we’d be booked in until midnight – just a couple of hours each night, although we generally used to run quite a bit over time.

 

Over a period of a couple of weeks, we managed to record an album’s worth of material which we did, at the time, consider a pretty decent recording and something good enough to be released by a record label. It was pretty much the same material which was eventually featured on the first Wishbone Ash album release – songs such as ‘Blind Eye’, ‘Lady Whisky’ and ‘Queen of Torture’ – but obviously this was an earlier recording.

 

Worthy of note are a trio of obscure tracks recorded during these sessions – an early version of ‘Alone’, a track that would eventually be revamped for our second album Pilgrimage; a song called ‘Roads of Day to Day’, which had been largely written by Andy, plus an untitled jazzy instrumental piece. When we later came to record our first album properly, these songs were shelved in favour of our lengthy stage favourite ‘Phoenix’, which we didn’t have at the time of the Advision sessions.

 

The Advision recordings were considered lost for many years until a private collector managed to locate an acetate of them, which was used to produce the First Light CD in 2007. Listening to these recordings today, the music sounds full of energy and gusto, with the band sounding very young and naïve. The recordings do have a certain charm though, even if vocally we sound like a bunch of choir boys!"

 

 

adapted from the book "No Easy Road - My Life and Times With Wishbone Ash"