Brand New CD

1. Breadfan
2. In The Grip Of A Tyre Fitter's Hand
3. I Ain't No Mountain
4. In For The Kill
5. I Can't See My Feelings
6. Napoleon Bona Part I & II
7. Parents
8. Hammer and Tongs
9. Breaking All The House Rules
10. Zoom Club

Budgie are one of the forgotten 'heroes' of seventies heavy rock. They paid they dues, wrote some good songs and some good-ish albums. The covers were what attracted most people when perusing the record racks: evocative, Sci-Fi paintings by Roger Dean. A shame that this album has such a boring cover - the Budgie crew were not exactly handsome chaps at the best of times.... but could they rock!
I recall an excellent gig they did - one of so many for this busy band - in Northampton back in the early-ish seventies... hot sweaty, loud, powerful stuff. Many of the highlights of their set and their career are on this album - I particularly like the track 'Breadfan'.... the bass belts out in awesome fashion. The dimunitive boss of the group whose name escapes me, he wrote most of the songs, played the bass, and it's his impressively wide ranging vocals we hear so well here. I remember he looked like Charles Hawtrey from the Carry On films but who cares when you can turn out songs as good as this.

All their own work and mighty fine stuff it is..... no seventies heavy rock collection is complete without something from Budgie. At least they get to stay in the catalogue even if all their albums have yet to be turned into CDs.....

One of my other favourites, 'Hustler' seemed to have vanished without a trace and I saw them as the support for no less a band than Queen in 1974!