A reissue of the original Watercourse Way would be welcome.
A reissue of the original Watercourse Way would be welcome.
It has been released twice:Originally Posted by Oreb
http://plum.cream.org/sky/sky5.htm
The entirety of this website is essential. Vicky, if Mark isn't aware of it, he should be: http://plum.cream.org/sky/
Good site.
Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?
Their early albums were on CD on a few budget labels like Music Club, Success etc. but have been unavailable for years, so this is timely.
I have the first two. The 'classical' stuff is their least interesting; the long tracks Francis Monkman wrote, however, are very good indeed.
Hiya, many thanks for the comments--yes we are pretty aware of all this but Ive mentioned to Mark as well
Great Balloon Race though as asked about is definitely being done and yes Mark is very aware of this site mentioned above.
Interesting. At first I thought you would be re-releasing everything on the Sky label. Some stuff has had a release on CD, but not everything and the re-issues done by Sky, are poor. Bonus-tracks from another album, tracks in the wrong order and missing tracks.
I have the first 5 albums on vinyl and the first 2 twice. Besides I own 2 DVD's.
Occasionally I see a Best of Sky volume (I don't know).
I think its a catalogue that has had a bit of a mixed reissue history and hence why we hope to put this right.
Williams did several prog-ish solo albums -- "Changes," "John Williams & Friends" (inc. Morris Pert), "The Magic Box" (inc. John Etheridge and Richard Harvey from Gryphon). By-and-large these are adequately available, as Williams is the biggest name to come out of Sky.
Edit: "Changes" seems to be the one with Wakeman, and it is *not* readily available. So.. yeah.
Awesome! Sounds like a great opportunity for those (like myself) who are not familiar with this group to get more familiar with them.
I like it, maybe in the way I like say Vangelis. Ive had a bit of Sky 2 on today and whilst it sounds like a back hand compliment to say its very good to work to--it is indeed good to work to. I hope people discover a band full of taelented guys that seem to have been a bit forgotten and yet here in Europe and I know in Australia were very successful..
Great news. Since the first album, they have been part of my steady diet of prog. Have a few on CD, but would love all the reissues!
Part of the charm of the original releases were the liner notes for each song by the bandmembers; will those be included as well?
I never got around to replacing my Sky vinyl that was lost in a basement flood... looking forward to these.
Sky 2 was huge in the Netherlands. I can see this come out in a 2-CD edition, not unlike the package for Barclay James Harvest 'Victims Of Circumstances'. Or maybe they would ALL look like this, and Sky 2 and Sky 5 Live (both doubles) more like Hawkwind's recent Steven Wilson-mix.
Can't wait!
This is the best way to get these excellent albums:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cavatina-The...liams+cavatina
Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?
I have the 2005 Sanctuary remasters of Sky and Sky 2. The treble was cranked up too high on both of them. I trust that the Esoteric remasters will sound better.
... And Dweller on a Treshold too would be nice.
Me too. A huge, huge fan since way back. I wore out several cassettes of Five Live back in the '80s - the tape was really thin. Really enjoyed the extended live version of "Meheeco" on that. And I was lucky enough to get a CD copy of The Great Balloon Race years ago - apparently this is pretty rare nowadays. I've got a VHS copy of the Westminster Abbey concert - good to see this is being released as a DVD extra - it cost me about £25 from Record Collector Magazine back in the late '80s!
Im just about to watch the DVD !!
Truth be told, Williams was a pretty big name before he went into Sky. And Monkman and Harvey apparently knew each other quite well from their Royal Academy of Music days. Of course, Harvey went on to score some pretty interesting film music during the 80s and 90s, such as this GREAT one starring a rather young (and hitherto unknown) Tom Wilkinson:
And this untimely classic:
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Indeed, it seemed the whole point of Sky, at least in the beginning, was that it was a rock band that included Williams.
AND - fwiw - I never ever heard the 'p' word used in relation to Sky back then. Not even Monkman himself would apply that term about his newfound "ensemble". I remember it being referred to as "cinematic instrumental jazz-rock-classical" and things like that, but nothing that would indicate that somehow Sky were in the company of artists that many folks by 1979-80 seemed eager to forget ever existed.
I still think the debut Sky has something sweet about it, although I wouldn't exactly say I dig the damn thing. But interestingly, that overtly clinical and somewhat sterile sound reflected deeply on other groups emerging later in the 80s, notably French acts like Edhels, Eclat and early Minimum Vital.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
I'll be buying them (probably)
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
I must research the history on Energism. I would be very interested in hearing this record.
Predictions Pt 1 & 2 would be even better!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks