Mike Stuart Span - Timespan (1967-69 Psychedelic Rock)

VENENO RARO!! RARE POISON!!
O ALBUM É COMPOSTO DE SINGLES, DEMOS E UMA SESSÃO DA BBC!! SÃO QUINZE FAIXAS GRAVADAS ENTRE 1967 E 1969 E ALGUMAS DELAS AINDA QUANDO A BANDA SE CHAMAVA LEVIATHAN!! A BANDA FOI FORMADA EM 1964 E TERMINOU EM 1969!! A BANDA FAZIA UM SOM PSICODÉLICO PESADO COM GUITARRAS ESTRIDENTES E POR VEZES FUGINDO DISSO QUANDO ABORDAM UMA SONORIDADE MAIS HARD-BLUES-SOUL!! NUMA COMPARAÇÃO DARIA PRA DESTACAR AS BANDAS "TOMORROW" E "YARDBIRDS"!! SÓ COMO COMPARAÇÃO!! VENENO RARO E RECOMENDADO!!
*ATÉ SE ACHA ALGUMAS POSTAGENS DO ALBUM NA NET MAS NUNCA COMPLETO E MUITO MENOS COM TODAS AS CAPAS COMO ESSA DAQUI!!

"Uma banda com um nome confuso e uma história confusa, o Mike Stuart Span conseguiu gravar um clássico single psicodélico britânico em 1967, "Children of Tomorrow". A canção atingiu um ponto médio entre o clássico hard mod-pop e do psicodelismo inicial de grupos do Reino Unido como o Pink Floyd e Tomorrow. O problema é que quase ninguém realmente ouviu o disco, já que foi prensado apenas 500 exemplares em uma pequena etiqueta independente.

O grupo de Brighton tinha sido em torno desde meados dos anos 60, e gravou alguns singles para a Columbia e outras para a Fontana, com uma abordagem muito mais pop convencional. Mas na banda tinha alguém chamado Mike Stuart que começou a confiar muito mais no material próprio e psicodélico em 1967. A maior parte deste material nunca foi além de fitas demos. A banda foi pressionada pela gravadora para fazer um som mais pop em 1968, que decepcionou, ajudando a esmagar qualquer perspectiva de os músicos se afirmem como uma presença significativa na cena British Psych.

No final dos anos 60, a Mike Stuart Span participaramu de um documentário de TV na BBC que alcançou sucessos da banda ao longo de um ano. No momento em que foi ao ar em setembro de 1969, no entanto, o grupo mudou seu nome para Leviathan, assinou com a Elektra, lançado alguns singles, completou um álbum que ainda inédito. Nada do que foi gravado da banda se compara a "Children of Tomorrow", embora a maior parte do material original foi infundido com o mesmo anseio. Mas eles deixaram para trás uma série de demos com guitarras psicodélicas e com boa melodia e harmonia. O interesse pela banda aumentou em 1980, quando "Children of Tomorrow" foi apresentado com outras compilações psicodélicas. Finalmente em meados da década de 90 foi editado um álbum inteiro de faixas, retiradas de singles, demos e uma sessão da BBC."

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Fifteen tracks from 1967-1969 (some from the very end of that span were recorded when the group were known as "Leviathan"). "Children of Tomorrow" and its B-side are the only two of these items that saw official (and very limited) release; the rest are taken from demos and a 1968 session for John Peel on the BBC. While "Children of Tomorrow" is the unquestioned highlight, much of this is pretty fair pop-psych. It takes a more raucous guitar-based approach than many of their psych contemporaries, only faltering when the band occasionally opts for a hard blues/soul approach. If you like British cult bands of the time such as Tomorrow, or are in the market for psychedelia that dips the usual spacy lyrics and full harmonies in guitars that owe a lot to late-'60s Who and Yardbirds, you'll be satisfied with much of what's on tap here.
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Biography by Richie Unterberger

A band with a confusing name and a confusing history, the Mike Stuart Span did manage to record a classic British psychedelic single in 1967, "Children of Tomorrow." With its driving power chords, squealing guitar leads, and haunting harmonies, the song struck a classic midpoint between hard mod-pop and the early psychedelia of UK groups like the Pink Floyd and Tomorrow. The problem was that hardly anyone actually heard the record, as it was pressed in a run of 500 copies on a small independent label.The Brighton group had been around since the mid-'60s, and recorded a few other singles for Columbia and Fontana with a much more conventional pop approach. There was actually no one named Mike Stuart in the act, which began to rely much more upon self-penned psychedelic material in 1967. Most of this never got beyond the demo/Peel session stage, though. The band were pressured by management to make an out-and-out pop single in 1968 that flopped, helping to squelch any prospects of the musicians asserting themselves as a significant presence in the British psych/prog scene.In the late '60s, the Mike Stuart Span were actually featured in a BBC TV documentary entitled A Year in the Life (Big Deal Group), which charted the band's successes and (more commonly) failures over the course of a year. By the time it aired in September 1969, however, the group had changed their name to Leviathan, signed with Elektra, released a few singles, completed an unreleased album, and broken up. Nothing else they recorded matched the brilliance of "Children of Tomorrow," though most of their original material was infused with the same yearning for some sort of just-around-the-horizon utopia. But they left behind a number of demos that demonstrated a promising ability to wed hard psychedelic guitars with a fair knack for melody and harmony. Interest in the band increased in the 1980s when "Children of Tomorrow" was featured on a few psychedelic compilations. An entire album's worth of tracks, culled from singles, demos, and a BBC session, finally saw the light of day in the mid-'90s.
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Leviathan

Rechristened Leviathan, Elektra launched their recording career in April 1969, with the simultaneous issue of two singles. Three of the chosen tracks - "Remember The Times", "Second Production" and "Time" had been initially been conceived as Span recordings, and the newly composed "The War Machine" completed the quartet. Elektra's media campaign was titled 'The Four Faces of Leviathan'.[2] Despite the commercial failure of both singles, work continued on the band's album at Trident Studios. As a taster for the LP, a further single coupling "Flames" and "Just Forget Tomorrow" was recorded in the summer. By the time that it surfaced in October 1969, however, Leviathan had split up. Holzman stated dissatisfication with the album,[2] and Bennett, who had returned to the band part-time, felt that he could earn more as a building site labourer.
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Mike Stuart Span
Stuart Hobday - (vocals)
Roger McCabe - (bass guitar)
Dave Plumb - (tenor saxophone)
Garry Parsley - (trumpet)
Jon Poulter - (keyboards)
Gary ‘Roscoe’ Murphy - (drums)

Leviathan
Stuart Hobday - (vocals)
Roger McCabe - (bass guitar)
Brian Bennett - (lead guitar)
Gary ‘Roscoe’ Murphy - (drums)

01 - Children of Tomorrow 3:20
02 - Second Production 3:44
03 - Remember the Times 2:50
04 - Time 4:10
05 - Concerto of Thoughts 3:05
06 - Flames 5:05
07 - Through the Looking Glass 5:46
08 - Rescue Me 3:41
09 - World in My Head 4:31
10 - Evil Woman 7:55
11 - Blue Day 6:15
12 - Through the Looking Glass (Bbc Session) 4:56
13 - My White Bicycle (Bbc Session) 3:20
14 - Time (Bbc Session) 4:09
15 - Children of Tomorrow (Bbc Session) 3:18

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