Martin Briley / Brian Engel - Between The Sea and The Sky

Imagine coming off the back of a defunct group, with no hits, but who have admittedly just released one of the best Pop Psych singles in the UK ever, and being thrown into George Martin's Air Studios on a publishing/production deal and told there you are to "make an album." a slight license with the factual there but essentially this is what happened to Martin Briley and Brian Engel.In 1969, late of Mandrake Paddle Steamer and their classic 'Strange Walking Man', these late teens art students were given access to Air Studios and budgets for orchestras plus musicians to come up with hit singles. What they actually came up with was an almost concept album that exhibited all that had influenced them to that point, and let loose their humor and imagination. Sadly with the exception of one single ('Pale Green Vauxhall Driving Man') released under the name Prowler, a couple of years after the event, the recordings lay on the shelf, and are released for the first time now. Briley played with GreAenslade and Liverpool Echo, then as session guitarist with the Hunter Ronson band, Meatloaf and Ellen Foley before going solo. RPM.