The new issue brings you about 85 pages added by Dick's manager Pete Grant, but sorry to say, instead of continue in the style of Dick's own writing, he uses individual stories to describe the latest years; e.g. a reunion concert with the Dick Heckstall-Smith Sextet, comments from Pete Brown, a lost project between Dick and Duffy Power. (No chapter regarding the Colosseum reunion!) An overview of Dick's recent record output is included, but the otherwise excellent discography found in the original book is gone missing...

As a bonus you'll get a 7-track CD (65.15) and though most of the tracks are from the 90's, Graham Bond Organisation and "Only Sixteen" dates from a 1966 session for auntie BeeB.

Believe it or not; the Gonks Go Beat soundtrack has now been given a CD release by the Japanese company Bridge. I bought a copy through eBay, but it's possible to go through their site as well.

"Love Is The Law", "Mighty Grahame Bond" and "Solid Bond" have now been given a digital release by German(?) company Sunrise Records. Although classified as "undergrounds", the sound is excellent throughout. Coverdesign pro as well. All the CD's contains bonus tracks, but soundwise I suspect they've been lifted from the "Jazz, Blues, Rock & Alchemy" bootleg...

Dick Heckstall-Smith's autobiography "The Safest Place in the World" is now to be re-released by Clear Press Ltd. With a new section added by Pete Grant, "Blowing the Blues" brings the story up to date. You'll otherwise find new photos and a CD with unreleased tracks in the new edition. Get it directly from www.clearpress.co.uk at a special price: £13.50 (list price is £16.95)

Like a one-man Yardbirds, Duffy Power traversed the 60s with a musical vision miles ahead of the game and accompanied by the very best players of the day - Big Jim Sullivan, the Paramounts (pre-Procol Harum), John McLaughlin and the future rhythm sections from both Cream and the Pentangle among others. An also-ran Larry Parnes artist, Duffy became one of Britain's most powerful R&B singers and songwriters, effortlessly incorporating New York soul, Latin rhythms, Al Jolson material, Delta blues and stunning pre-emptive moves toward jazz-fusion. While his incredible mid-60s Marquis Music publishing demos have been represented on CD before (on repackages of the 1971 Innovations compilation and on the 1995 RPM set, Just Stay Blue) this is the first time that his 12 all-but-unattainable Parlophone singles sides have been reissued. RPM have also painstakingly unearthed a dozen previously-unreleased EMI and Marquis Music cuts - including several steaming work-outs with the Graham Bond Quartet - and have re-sequenced in the relevant material from Just Stay Blue. With unbelievable sound quality, hearing lost tracks like Billy Fury-esque "Cupid's Bow" (1962) and exquisitely sung, sumptuously-arranged singles like Ben E. King-esque "Hey Girl" (1963), the blisteringly taut "Parchman Farm" (1964) and the fabulous 1967 baroque pop double-sider, "Davy O'Brian"/"July Tree", the listener comes out the other side simply astonished that Power didn't manage a single chart placing in his career.

Listening to his proto-Cream recordings on Disc Two - never issued at the time - it's also incredible that Power wasn't offered an album deal until the 70s. Complete with a colour fold-out with detailed sleevenotes and unseen pictures, this 34-track labour of love has to be a contender for issue of the year. Sublime.

There have been odder career moves, but Duffy Power's switch from Larry Parnes protege to deeply respected Brit blues artiste is unique - apparently it all turned on hearing The Best Of Muddy Waters round at Billy Fury's. The six Parnes-era 45s are skipped, starting instead with atmospheric Cupid's Bow from '62, a close cousin of Fury's "Wondrous Place". Duffy's first Parlophone 45, though, was a bizarre take on "I Saw Her Standing There", recorded with the Graham Bond Quartet but deemed "too jazzy" by The Beatles. Things would turn jazzier still later in '63 with Bond. The straight blues/jazz recordings are undeniable strong, but Duffy's rich voice works best when stretched by unfamiliar material: "Where Am I", a New York-style beat ballad is good enough to rival Tommy Hunt or Chuck Jackson; or "Love's Gonna Go" (a US only single) with its deep-well production and funereal piano. His sidekicks alone - Bond, John McLaughlin, Ginger Baker, Alexis Korner - would make this set indispenible to British blues fanatics, But Power's great voice and tough guitar style hog all the stand-out moments.

The Leapers and Sleepers 2CD compilation was released on Monday August 26. Although containing less Power & Bond Quartet outtakes than expected, the package does include six tracks with the Quartert with only one track issued before..... Not bad.

Included is both versions of "I Saw Her Standing There"; the first (unissued) one which the Beatles rejected + the far more common which was released on single. In my opinion the original is as good as the released one. The "feel" is however completely different on the two takes. While the single take is straight uptempo R&R, the rejected one is in a more groovy mode with more prominent organ. (A combination of Alexis Korner and Georgie Fame possibly?) But there's more gold to be found..... By mistake they've included a wrong take of "Farewell Baby", the flip side of "I Saw Her Standing There"!!! This is not mentioned in the sleevenotes and to my ears it sounds like an earlier take. Three tracks from later session is included as well. Here we find Duffy & the Quartet running through long, spirited versions of "Shake, Rattle And Roll", "What'd I Say" and "I Got A Woman". Great organ as usual otherwise nice, but too brief guitar work from McLaughlin.

"REDDING FESTIVAL - A blues aficoinado has uncovered unreleased albums by Jimi Hendrix sideman Noel Redding and 70s guitarist John Dummer, and is seeking record company interest to release them . Jeff ward found the box of unreleased tapes in Noel's airing cupboard, which include a master of an unreleased album, Nervous Breakdown, recorded in 1970 and featuring Roger Chapman one one track. The unissued Dummer project dates to 1974 and features Thump Thompson, Colin Earl, Pete Emery, Pick Withers and the final recordings of Graham Bond, as well as an original take on the Blues Band's Goin' Home, by Dave Kelly. The country-blues album was shelved but retained by Colin Earl".   Email Jeff Ward for details.

I heard this unreleased 11 track album earlier this year and yes, I can indeed confirm that Graham is to be found here. He blows more relaxed than usual and adds nice alto lines to three tunes. He's possibly on organ as well, but it's hard to say as the organ has no central place in the mix.

Børge Skilbrigt, former editor of the Bond fanzine GRAMBO and co-runner of this site, has been working on a book dedicated to Graham Bond for awhile. The book with working title "Solid Bond - Graham Bond Organized", is set to be published in late 2001 and will be a guide to his music. Apart from dealing with Bond´s record output as leader and sideman, facts concerning BBC radio sessions and film & TV appearances will also be found included. Otherwise a long gig list and lots of clippings. However, to make the book as complete as possible, he needs YOUR assistance. Please mail Borge Skilbrigt if you can contribute anything to his project. Tapes and ads/reviews from local papers are of great interest.....

The Graham Bond Organisation´s passionately uncompromising, expressive, Hammond-led R&B was perfectly suited to the sweaty Marquee and Flamingo. Somewhere between the cutting room and the shop shelves however, The Sound Of ´65 and There´s A Bond Between Us lost that raw, unrelenting, powerful drive in the pursuit of studio professionalism and polish. Choice covers like Hoochie Coochie Man, Wade In The Water, Got My Mojo Working and Last Night are all wild, hard-to-beat rendentions but the overall feeling is of a group best left in the 60´s. By 1971 Graham Bond had come over all Kula Shaker. Rehearsals were execuses for spellmaking magic and Hindu philosophy. During one ritual he held out a chalice, and pianist and Tibetan dhong player Victor Brox drank. Filled with perfume, he fell sick. With a man down no amount of hocus-pocus could stop the dreary, unspired New Age warblings of Holy Magick and follow-up We Put Our Magick On You from being just plain awful. Avoid! (Lois Wilson)

The real sound of ´65 was one glorious, amorpheus stew of Dylan and the Byrds, Spector and the Beach Boys, the Beatles and the Stones. Nevertheless, his nes band´s debut album gave former Alexis Korner sideman Graham Bond every reason for optimism. With rhythm section of Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, Bond on trademark Hammond organ and Dick Heckstall -Smith on sax, "The Sound Of ´65" married the jazzy R&B stylings of Georgie Fame or Zoot Money with a slightly more abrasive approach.

This was partly due to Bond´s uncompromising vocals, which led the band through magnificent interpretations of hoary old chestnuts like "Neighbour Neighbour" and "Got My Mojo Working" that made rival UK versions sounds positively anaemic. Throw in some useful originals, add Jack Bruce´s earliest vocal performances, and "The Sound Of ´65" more than justifies its reputation among collectors.

By the time of "There´s A Bond Between Us", released in late 1965, Bond had become probably the first musician to make regular use of the recently-manufactured Mellotron. Traditionally associated with the psych and progressive genres, there´s almost a frisson of exitement in hearing the instrument used in a jazz/R&B context, whether amplifying the gorgeous Bruce song "Hear Me Calling Your Name", shaping Bond´s own smoky ballad "Baby Can It Be True" or underpinning a peerless version of Roy Hamilton´s (and, much later, the Pointer Sisters´) "Don´t Let Go".

Success was not forthcoming, however, and the Organisation split a few months later when Bruce and Baker formed Cream. While Bond may´ve been a largely peripheral figure by the time of his death in the mid-70´s, these two albums - repacked by BGO onto one CD, with notes by Bond´s bigrapher Harry Shapiro - represent a considerable talent at the peak of his creativity. Lovely stuff.   (John Sturdy)

Coming Soon, the Jack Bruce SuperShow 2000, a live netcast show broadcasting Jack's music from through out his career including tracks recorded with the Graham Bond Organisation. The show will be pre-recorded on March 14th, and netcast from WSUM in Madison, Wisconsin on March 16th from 10:00 to 12:00 CDT (17:00 to 19:00 GMT) and 18:00 to 20:00 CST (01:00 to 03:00 GMT on March 17). Details at the Jack Bruce SuperShow 2000 website!.

The Graham Bond Organisation`s two legendary studio albums The Sound Of `65 and There`s A Bond Between Us now sees a digital release by British company BGO. Long awaited, the Columbia albums are to be found as a "2 on 1" CD with catalogue no. BGOCD 500. Although warmly welcomed it`s a pity that BGO has not gone for the original masters concerning the release. Instead of remixed/remastered tapes they have used the same source as Edsel for their 1988 release on DED 254; a dub taken from vinyl copies. BGO doesn`t deny this (as the CD rear clearly states), but in a way they spoil the whole thing with a sticker on the front claiming "Remastered From The Original Master Tapes".....

Compared with the Edsel vinyl release the CD suffers a bit from tape hiss, but that said it`s great to have the music available again. From the debut album we`ll find Organisation tunes like "Spanish Blues", "Little Girl" and "Baby Be Good To Me" working out fine opposite standards as e.g. "Got My Mojo Working". However, superb versions of "Who`s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf", "Last Night" and "What`d I Say?" combinated with strong self produced material as "Walking In The Park", "Baby Can It Be True", "Dick`s Instrumental" and "Camels And Elephants" makes the second album a real killer.

BGO has also simultaneously made Graham`s two Vertigo LP`s Holy Magick and We Put Our Magick On You available again. With German Repertoire issues now long gone it`s nice to have them back in stock. Though these albums might not present Bond at his absolutely peak, they`re interesting concerning how few he made during his lifetime. As the Organisation CD this one is also a "2 on 1" issue (BGOCD 483) However, to be honest this issue isn`t 100% perfect either. To fit both albums onto one CD BGO has simply chosen to drop some of the music from "We Put Our Magick On You"..... As the tracks "Forbidden Fruit pt. 1" and "Pt. 2" originally contains fades on their outtros/intros, BGO has now reduced the lenght further with editing out some extra bars and cleverly crammed the whole thing onto one CD. It`s a pity they haven`t gone for a 2CD set including the one and only Magick single "Twelve Gates To The City"/"Water Water" This Vertigo single is one of the few things from Graham`s later years not commercially available these days so it would have been good to find it here, but there you go.