All you can… eat?

From Friday 4th December, another “Bandcamp ‘fee-free’ Friday“, you can fund three more albums on our Bandcamp page!  The new albums are Recorded Delivery, This City Is London, and All You Can… Eat? (a FREE FESTIVE FEAST of the musical kind :-)). https://twelfthnightuk.bandcamp.com/music

Recorded Delivery  is a LIVE compilation put together after Geoff’s tragic passing by his great friend Andy Labrow. It spans Geoff’s musical career from 1983 to 1992 and features tracks recorded both as a solo artist and with his bands, Twelfth Night, The Bond and Eh! Geoff Mann Band. It was originally released as the first in a series of CDRs back in 2003.

For this Bandcamp release we have delved back into the archives and added a further FIVE tracks – hoping that they are ones that Geoff himself would have approved of! They include two tracks from both The Bond and Eh! Geoff Mann Band, plus our version of The Ceiling Speaks from the 1983 Reading Festival, which saw Geoff singing his heart out in front of the biggest audience he (and Twelfth Night) ever had. We feel we have done justice to the memory of our dear friend, and hope you agree this compilation is worthy of the Mann. PS. One of The Bond tracks features the rare appearance of a drummer you might be familiar with!

This City Is London is Clive Mitten’s follow up to his acclaimed Age Of Insanity album released under the C:Live Collective banner. It comprises FOUR very different imaginings/mixes of the track This City Is London . One is a classical style instrumental, another is a contemporary hip-hop remix! And all of them show the wide range of Clive’s talents.

And the FREE album?  Twelve tracks for the Twelfth Nights of Christmas :-)

All You Can… Eat? is a new collection of tracks, from various members and friends of the Twelfth Night family, designed to introduce you to some excellent tunes you may not yet have discovered. We have also included a couple of lesser-known TN tracks. Hopefully you will love every one, but in any case we hope they will entice you to investigate the parent albums further. All these albums can be found on our Bandcamp page.

Following on from our previous sampler the title, All You Can… Eat?, is derived from the names of the first two Island Records compilations, but using the words we didn’t use first time round! These albums introduced me to a number of artists whose music has stayed with me ever since, and hopefully our sampler albums will have the same effect on you.  We would like to say a big thank you to Spencer Rowbotham for the artwork.

To get the sampler album go to https://twelfthnightuk.bandcamp.com/album/all-you-can-eat – where you will also have the option to pay something if you wish.

Here are some details of the tracks included.

1.  CASINO (Geoff Mann & Clive Nolan) – Beyond That Door (parts ii & iii). The closing track of the Casino album; it is archetypal prog with amazing guitar from Karl Groom[A5] . Geoff’s brilliant lyrics are thought-provoking as usual. Just ask Clive Nolan when the penny finally dropped :-). The album is a triumph, and shows Clive & Geoff’s mastery of the prog-rock concept album.

2.  TWELFTH NIGHT – Rick’s Theme. An instrumental demo from 1985, written by Rick, embellished by the guitar wizardry of Andy Revell. Taken from Virgin’ On The Ridiculous.

3.  COBURG – This City. One of the best of the Fact & Fiction cover versions issued on Disc 3 of 2018’s Definitive Edition it features the haunting voice of Anastasia Coburg backed by keyboard maestro Dean Baker. It is quite simply a beautiful reworking of the original song.

4.  TWELFTH NIGHT – Human Being. From the 2019’s live album A Night To Remember, this inspiring rendition showcases Mark’s vocals and Dean’s grand piano skills.

5.  (TWELFTH NIGHT) – ANDY SEARS – First New Day. Edited from MMX, the Twelfth Night album recorded and released in 2010, this features Andy’s solo spot in the live show.  This version of the track is performed at the piano, and sung by Andy wearing his heart fully on this sleeve. You can also watch the full-length version on the MMX DVD.

6.  IQ – Apathetic and Here, I. Taken from Mannerisms, the tribute to Geoff album first released in 1993 that also features Pallas, Pendragon, Galahad & TN amongst others… this is IQ’s reworking of the track from Geoff’s Second Chants album. Suffice to say Pete Nicholls, a close friend of Geoff’s, sings the song beautifully with passion and respect.

7.  A GEOFF MANN BAND – More To This. Taken from Loud Symbols.  With the characteristically ‘wobbly’ guitar sound pioneered by Geoff, expertly played here by John Maycraft, this uplifting song highlights Geoff’s ear for a good melody and hook line.

8.  THE BOND – Rest Assured. From the Won By One album, it shows Geoff’s increasing musical confidence and maturity. It is an uplifting song that deserves a wider audience.

9.  TWELFTH NIGHT – Deep In The Heartland. One of the lesser known songs in the TN catalogue this version, released on Collector’s Item, it was recorded for CBS Records in their London studios in July 1983. A live version can also be found on our Live And Let Live album.

10.  TWELFTH NIGHT – Pop Song. Previously unreleased! An instrumental track recorded in rehearsal at Reading University in January 1980, it shows the band attempting something more commercial. It was played live a few times under the mysterious title If You’ve Got The Scissors, We’ve Got The Cash, but was not developed further and was soon dropped from the set as we wrote newer and more progressive-type material. A lost opportunity? You can decide!

11. TWELFTH NIGHT – Last Song. Featuring on the Virgin’ On The Ridiculous album that we released in Nov 20, this demo version of XII’s opening track was recorded early in 1985.

12. C:LIVE COLLECTIVE – The Fifth Estate part two (A Requiem, Postscript). The brilliant closing sections with superb guitar work from Mark Spencer. The Age Of Insanity album also has stunning re-workings of We Are Sane and This City, so if you haven’t yet added this album to your collection hopefully this track will encourage you to take the plunge!

Posted Dec 8th 2020