LEO'S SUNSHIPP We Need Each Other LP - Original 1978 US (Lyon's Record Co) NM/NM

	£		87
	$		115

The album includes the classic cut “Give Me the Sunshine” and the original recording of “I'm Back For More”, which was the big hit for Al Johnson a few years later. The other two tracks are “Madame Butterfly” and “Get Down People”. Instrumental or alternate versions of all four tracks are also included on this hard-to find, original pressing.

This is the original US first pressing, released on Lyons Record Co. in 1978 (NOT the re-issue, released on Expansion Records in 2007). 

Label: Lyons Record Co.
Catalogue #: L-1000
Matrix #: S5997

Condition:

LP (NM): Clean, shiny and in near-perfect condition, with only faint surface marks from inner sleeve wear. Hardly ever played, this beautifully maintained copy sounds bright and clear, with rich bass tones. No click or pops and no distortion or background noise.

Sleeve (NM): Stiff, flat and undamaged, with square corners; no bends, creases or tears and showing hardly any wear at all. Spine is rigid and intact, with all text clearly visible. Very slight wear to bottom-left corner. Still in original, opened, shrink-wrap.

Don't miss your chance to secure a near-mint example of this rare underground club classic
- you will not find a better copy!

Review: 

A truly great underground groover from the 70s – an album that hardly got any circulation at the time, but which has gone on to become the stuff of legend over the years! The album's a little unusual, in that it almost feels like an expanded package of 12” singles – consisting of four vocal tracks, that are all great club numbers, plus four instrumental/alternate versions. There's a nicely sophisticated feel to most of the numbers, leaning toward the Roy Ayers or Leroy Hutson side of the spectrum - more mid-tempo, mellow club than any sort of disco.

Leo's Sunshipp is one of those remarkable one-offs that pepper R&B history. The group's name may suggest something far more cosmic, but their music proves more a glide down the jazzy, soulful byways of mid-70s Leon Ware or Marvin Gaye. The group was so named because all three of it's main protagonists – Kenny Stover, Johnny Simone and Alvin Few, were born between 22 July and 22 August, in the sign of Leo – it was the 70s, after all.

The group's Marvin Gaye feel ran deeper than mere admiration; Stover and Simone had been backing vocalists for Gaye, with whom Stover's brother, Elgie, had a long-standing working relationship. Hooking up with Few, Leo's Sunshipp began to record an album, of which four tracks were completed before, tragically, lead vocalist Simone fell ill and died - Stover blocked the album's release and moved on to sing with Finished Touch. And that could have been it, until Lyons Records took the four tracks, added four instrumental/alternate mixes and “We Need Each Other”, the group's only release, came into being.

Of the handful of finished tracks, “I'm Back For More” has had the biggest after-life, being covered by Marlena Shaw, Al Johnson and Tavares; it is the epitome of a smooth groove. The Simone-written “Give Me the Sunshine” was the album's lead cut and clear stand-out. Owing a rather large debt to Roy Ayer's Ubiquity's, then two year-old, “Everybody Loves the Sunshine”, it is perfect summer-day soul, with Clarence Bell's synthesiser finding the sweet-spot over veteran arranger David Blumberg's strings.

“Madame Butterfly” features the vocal skills of Wonderlove backing vocalist, Shirley Brewer and late-period Supreme, Susaye Green; “ Get the People” is infectious, bongo-driven R&B with more impressive arrangements.

The material's vibrancy is, of course, bitter-sweet because the listener knows what was to happen next. Leo's Sunshipp could have been huge, or they may have churned out a welter of releases to an increasingly uninterested audience - we will never know. One thing is certain though; because of it's circumstances and unfinished nature “We Need Each Other” remains a legendary underground classic.

(adapted from Daryl Easlea's 2012 review)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/jm9p/

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