Although the lushly-arranged, harmony-based late 60s Sunshine Pop sound is most readily associated with America in general and the sun-kissed California region in particular, the reality is that it was always an international phenomenon.
The three-CD set, ‘What A Groovy Day’ is a thrilling four-hour celebration of Britain’s contribution to the genre, ranging from household names (The New Seekers, Cliff Richard, Petula Clark, The Hollies, Herman’s Hermits) to terminally obscure acts like Infinity and The Mellow Yellow, who failed to release anything at the time.

Throughout the 70s, Folk Heritage and its offshoots released limited-edition pressings of albums by various bands and singers, most of whom were active on the thriving north-west England folk club circuit. With most releases limited to 200 copies or less, and only available from the folk club where the performer was resident, many of the albums have gone on to become hugely collectable. ‘Before The Day Is Done’ assembles the cream of the label’s roster during its late 60s/early 70s heyday.

While the early 70s musical landscape in Britain was largely dominated by introspective singer/songwriters, Bubblegum Pop and underground Rock bands, a handful of acts bravely continued to pursue the classic mid-60s group sound.
With the aid of increasingly sophisticated recording studios, they majored in crisp, muscular, hook-laden three-minute pop songs, bursting with chiming Rickenbacker guitars, irresistible choruses and Beatles/Beach Boys-inspired close harmonies.
A few (Slade, Pilot, the ill-starred Badfinger) found commercial success, but the likes of Starry Eyed And Laughing, Shape Of The Rain and Octopus proved to be the right bands at the wrong time – too late for the British Invasion that had swept America in the mid-60s, too early to hitch a ride on the late 70s Power Pop bandwagon.

After The Beatles captivated a generation with their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Los Angeles music scene moved beyond the previously-dominant surf, hot-rod and girl group discs to fashion a spirited response to the British Invasion.

The first-ever complete anthology of their work, the 2-CD set ‘Hush Your Mouth’ brings together their small but valuable cache of mid-Sixties acetates, their feverishly-pursued Polydor single, a clutch of August 1964 live cuts (including three tracks now being heard for the first time) and those early ‘90s recordings – which initially gained a partial release as ‘No Concessions’ before an expanded version appeared in 2017 as ‘Backlash’.

Presented in a striking clamshell box that houses a 48-page booklet crammed with rare facts and photos, ‘Box Of Pin-Ups’ also includes formative efforts from young hopefuls Elton John, Jimmy Page, Rod Stewart and Marc Bolan, all of whom would eventually shake off their status as minor players on the mid-60s London club scene to become pin- ups in their own right.

Housed in suitably evocative artwork and a stylish clamshell box design, Separate Paths Together provides a wide-ranging, four-hour overview of the pop stars, the club folkies, the rock band refugees, the stoned poets, the political agitators, the wry humorists and the bedsit bards that came together to make up a vibrant, multifaceted scene.

Three CD set. Coming together at the end of the Sixties, Essex band Dear Mr. Time were a five-piece progressive rock outfit influenced by the likes of King Crimson and The Moody Blues. The independent Square label released the band's seven-ages-of-man concept album Grandfather in early 1971. With Vertigo's interest in signing Dear Mr. Time scuppered by the fact that Square had signed them to an exclusive three-year deal, the band decided to split before a second album could be recorded. By the early Nineties, original copies of Grandfather were selling for large sums of money, and the album was counterfeited several times before finally being legally reissued in 2010. Buoyed by the reception that the official reissue received, the core members of Dear Mr. Time reconvened, recording two further albums - Brontosaurs And Bling and Time - as well as recording tracks for a proposed fourth album. This anthology of the band's work assembles all three Dear Mr. Time albums and adds that proposed fourth album. We also add some fascinating early Seventies home demos from guitarist and chief songwriter Chris Baker, performing a batch of songs that would have formed the basis of that aborted follow-up to Grandfather. With a booklet that illustrates the band's story with rare photos and new quotes, our expanded release of Grandfather is the final word on a progressive rock band who, although they made a limited impression at the time, have now attracted collector interest for more than three decades.

Established in 1967 at the height of their powers, The Beatles’ Apple operation saw the group embrace and encourage a wealth of contemporary musical talent, offering studio time and demo facilities alongside recording and publishing contracts. This unique opportunity attracted artists and songwriters from across the musical spectrum, and GOOD AS GOLD presents a snapshot of that talent, spanning the years 1967 to 1975. From the psychedelic tinged sounds of the mid-late 1960s onwards, the label matured and evolved alongside its audience and remains as compelling today as it did during those halcyon days.

Three CD set. Long-established as a hugely popular radio format, the Classic Rock sound was established in the Seventies, when numerous British bands from a pop or blues-based background pioneered a muscular, riff-based sound that dominated American FM airwaves and led the most successful practitioners to fame, fortune and all manner of related excess. But although there are innumerable radio stations now devoted to the baby boomer sounds of Classic Rock, their innately conservative, playlist-based nature means that the same heavyweight tunes are endlessly recycled: the casual listener could be forgiven for thinking that the careers of major bands like Thin Lizzy and The Who didn't extend beyond 'Whiskey In The Jar', 'The Boys Are Back In Town' and 'Won't Get Fooled Again'.

Evolving from the line-up that had recorded the highly-regarded Ora LP in 1969, Byzantium recorded two early Seventies albums – 'Byzantium' and 'Seasons Changing', both featuring future Ian Dury MD Chaz Jankel - for the A&M label.
After leaving A&M, the band self-financed the 1974 'Live/Studio' album in an effort to attract new representation before splitting the following year.

In the teenage wastelands of grey early Seventies Britain, where the musical landscape was dominated by introspective singer-songwriters and dour rock bands, the emergence of the outrageous, androgynous, peacock-plumaged Glam Rock scene provided a vital spark in the dark.

Released in 2015, Grapefruit’s 3-CD multi-artist British underground folk compilation Dust On The Nettles was widely praised, with a five-star review in The Times hailing it as “a delight from beginning to end”.A long-overdue follow up to that set, Sumer Is Icumen In tightens the mesh by focusing on the point when traditional folksong and the burgeoning late Sixties counterculture collided, largely courtesy of seminal acts like the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention and Pentangle.