McDONALD & GILES 1970 PINK ISLAND UK 1st PRESS KING CRIMSON

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McDONALD AND GILES

McDONALD AND GILES

ISLAND ILPS 9126 (UK) 1970

island records ltd, basing street, london w11

printed and made by the E. J. Day Group, London and Bedford

IAN McDONALD and MICHAEL GILES

WITH PETER GILES, STEVE WINWOOD, MICHAEL BLAKESLEY

IAN McDONALD  guitar, piano, organ, saxes, flute, clarinet, zither, vocals, sundries

MICHAEL GILES  drums, percussion (including milk bottle, handsaw, lip whistle and nutbox), vocals

PETER GILES  bass guitar

STEVE WINWOOD  organ, piano (solo on ‘Turnham Green’)

MICHAEL BLAKESLEY  trombone (on ‘Tomorrow’s People’)

strings and brass arranged and conducted by  MIKE GRAY

engineer  BRIAN HUMPHRIES

assistant engineer  RICHARD DIGBY SMITH

equipment  VICK and DIK

cover painting  CHARLOTTE BATES

photograph  RICHARD DiLELLO

recorded at Island Studios May, June, July 1970

all songs published by  E. G. MUSIC ©

ARRANGED AND PRODUCED BY IAN McDONALD and MICHAEL GILES for E. G. RECORDS

cover printed and made by the E. J. Day Group, London and Bedford

1970 UK PINK ISLAND white ‘i’ LABEL 1st PRESSING

matrix / stampers:

I L P S   9 1 2 6   A - 2 U    1    G

I L P S   9 1 2 6   B - 2 U    1    G    D

1st PRESS RECORD  mint

thick, substantial earliest pressing with factory-fresh glossy surfaces

there are no scratches or hairlines

no signs of handling or use although the labels suggest at least one play

a beautifully preserved  example and the finest I have seen in decades

ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND NOW SO PRISTINE AND SPLENDID

1st ISSUE PINK ISLAND LABELS  mint

except for one solitary faint spindle trace each side

otherwise perfect with lovely rich pink colour

all lettering, text and logos are bright, sharp, crisp and clear

no tears, writing, stickers, stains, scuffs, blemishes, marks, fading, faults

THESE ARE THE EARLIEST white ‘i’ LOGO LABELS FOR THIS LP

1st ISSUE ORIGINAL THICK, HEAVY COVER  excellent

nice undamaged spine is slightly faded, but all titles are bright and sharp

very minor signs of handling, minimal shelf wear, light bumps to corners

a tiny scuff to the inside gatefold layout top right corner

interior has the usual uneven centre fold and some tiny glue-spill areas

ALMOST EVERY E.J. DAY HEAVY FIRST PRESS I SEE IS THE SAME

ORIGINAL PALE BLUE INNER  excellent

not all copies included the ‘basing street’ inner, some being plain white

this example has minor handling creases, original glue-line ‘shadows’

purple ‘i’ logo (both sides) and correct address:

island records ltd basing street london w11

PATENT Nos. 1,125,555 & 1,072,844 MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN

SUPERB UK 1970 ORIGINAL

McDonald and Giles, having only recently departed from King Crimson following their landmark first album (although Mike stayed on to assist with the drumming on the second In The Wake Of Poseidon) immediately turned their attention to recording their own LP - the duo recruited Mike's brother Pete (an excellent bass guitarist) who had also been helping out temporarily on KC's Poseidon (freeing Greg Lake to concentrate on singing - although he too was about to depart, lured away by the promise of bigger things with Keith Emerson) - I clearly remember how, at the time, we young fans (I was just 14) were astonished and disappointed by all these sudden and seemingly headstrong desertions - ok, so the overall madness, lofty expectations and incredible pressure of the first US tour in 1969 all took their toll on the softer sensibilities of Ian and Mike (as well as Pete Sinfield!) - and Fripp was, by all accounts, a hard taskmaster. . . but hey! - who would voluntarily leave King Crimson? - well I'm still puzzling over it more than 40 years later and McDonald himself has said that he must've been out of his mind to go ("Why did you leave King Crimson? Ha, that question! There were a lot of reasons. I was nuts. I didn't realise what a good thing we had going. But although I wrote most of the music I still felt I couldn't do all I wanted to do through the group. . . Anyway, it taught me never to quit a good thing.") - what also surprised me way back then was that the McD&G LP was similar in approach to the King Crimson sound anyway (although when you have two such brilliant and distinctive players as these guys, this is somewhat inevitable) so I couldn't really see the need to abandon ship like that - admittedly, this is considerably more Beatlesque (although there's a little of that too, in early King Crimson) and it doesn't unleash the ultra-heavy side of KC (Schizoid Man, Pictures Of A City, Cirkus) but it is still pretty grand in its dimensions - whatever. . . a great album and one I always thought sits rather nicely alongside In The Court and In The Wake - 3 masterpieces in fact - right from the side one opener Suite In C, you are drawn into this intriguing record, packed with great musicianship and interesting observations - as the piece evolves into Turnham Green you realise again what a tight rhythm section the Giles brothers operate! - whenever I'm travelling on the District or Piccadilly Line in London and the tube train calls at Turnham Green station in Chiswick, I can't help thinking about this groovy little piece of music - the inclusion of Steve Winwood for this track was a nice move, as was the addition of Michael Blakesley's fine trombone work on Tomorrow's People - it's interesting that Pete Sinfield wrote the lyrics for side two's 21:45 minute epic Birdman and that, in fact, it was his original idea, having worked with Ian McDonald on the piece as far back as 1968 - also interesting to note that Flight Of The Ibis uses the original melody of KC's Cadence And Cascade (from In The Wake Of Poseidon) written way back in Spring 1969 (several months before In The Court was recorded, let alone Poseidon!) with words by B. P. ('Beep') Fallon - most of the remaining music was written by Ian McDonald, primarily while King Crimson toured the UK and America - Tomorrow's People is an early piece by Mike Giles, with words originally dating from 1967 - speaking of Mike, it's his drums that do it for me on this album (and they are such a h-u-g-e part of the unbridled excellence of KC's first two LPs) - surely the finest and most distinctive drummer of the progressive era - I like the way he uses drums so musically and to actively illustrate the piece, rather than simply accompany it - as Nick Logan wrote in the Saturday May 9th 1970 issue of New Musical Express (reviewing In The Wake Of Poseidon which was about to be released, on Friday May 15th, price 37 shillings and five pence) "Mike Giles' drumming, rhythmic patterns breaking like stormy bursts of rain, are the first signs of his immaculate and inventive drumwork throughout the set" . . .well said Nick . . .exactly!

© Chris Savage 2013

side one

SUITE IN C

including TURNHAM GREEN, HERE I AM and others

FLIGHT OF THE IBIS

IS SHE WAITING?

TOMORROW'S PEOPLE – THE CHILDREN OF TODAY

side two

BIRDMAN

involving THE INVENTOR'S DREAM (O.U.A.T.), THE WORKSHOP, WISHBONE ASCENSION,

BIRDMAN FLIES! WINGS IN THE SUNSET, BIRDMAN – THE REFLECTION

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1969!