Miles Out to Sea: Roots of British Power Pop 69-75 - Miles Out To Sea: The Roots Of British Power Pop 1969-1975 / Various

Three CDs. Four-hour anthology of recordings that anticipated the late 70s Power Pop movement. Featuring Badfinger, Slade, The Move, Stealers Wheel, Pilot, Dave Edmunds, Brinsley Schwarz, Honeybus, The Kinks, The Who, etc. While the early 70s musical landscape in Britain was largely dominated by introspective singer/songwriters, Bubblegum Pop and underground Rock bands, a handful of acts bravely continued to pursue the classic mid-60s group sound. With the aid of increasingly sophisticated recording studios, they majored in crisp, muscular, hook-laden three-minute pop songs, bursting with chiming Rickenbacker guitars, irresistible choruses and Beatles/Beach Boys-inspired close harmonies. A few (Slade, Pilot, the ill-starred Badfinger) found commercial success, but the likes of Starry Eyed And Laughing, Shape Of The Rain and Octopus proved to be the right bands at the wrong time - too late for the British Invasion that had swept America in the mid-60s, too early to hitch a ride on the late 70s Power Pop bandwagon. 'Miles Out To Sea' assembles the pick of these recordings, with household names and hit singles (including The First Class's classic Beach Boys cop 'Beach Baby') joined by cult Power Pop names (Rockin' Horse, Liverpool Echo, Pagliaro) obscure one-off 45s (Atlantis, Fresh Air, Big Star-soundalikes Rotten To The Core), cuts from privately-pressed or non-UK albums (Rusty, Shakane, Majority One, Ironbridge) and many unreleased-at-the-time tracks (including pre-Records band The Fabulous Ratbites From Hell and a previously- unissued demo by pre-Rusty act Sheephouse, who cut a collectable Decca single).