Kestrel

Digitally remastered and expanded edition of the classic 1975 self-titled album by Kestrel. Hailing from Newcastle, the band featured Tom Knowles (lead vocals), Dave Black (guitar, vocals), John Cook (keyboards, mellotron), Fenwick Moir (bass) and Dave Whitaker (drums), who had previously been with Newcastle trio Ginhouse. Signing to Cube Records in 1974, Kestrel recorded their sole eponymously titled album in 1975, with the majority of the compositions written by Dave Black. A fine example of melodic progressive rock, the album featured some outstanding tracks, including the gorgeous "The Acrobat" and the stunning epic "August Carol". Inexplicably the album failed to sell in significant quantities and within a short time Kestrel disbanded, leaving just one album and a single as their recorded legacy. Four decades later, Kestrel is now rightly regarded as a true overlooked classic of the progressive rock era, with original vinyl copies being impossibly rare and changing hands for huge sums, particularly in Japan. This reissue of Kestrel has been expanded to include six bonus tracks, with four of them previously unreleased in the UK, and also includes a booklet that fully restores the original album artwork and features a new essay.