One of the seminal psychedelic bands of the 1960's from Birmingham, UK. Only known for the one single in 1968 "Ice Cream Tree" / "Julius Caesar" on Mercury, (largely misunderstood from this to be a "pop" act). Birmingham's Breakthru were in fact one of the loudest, hairiest and most exciting "psychedelic" rock bands of their time. However, they could create soulful, sensitive or just plain "catchy" sounds too. Young and very fashionable, many audiences had seen nothing like them. They took their wild stage show, complete with smoke and lights, all over Great Britain: Playing many of London's most important clubs of the day in the progress, such as "Happening 44", "The Electric Garden", "Blaises" and "The Marquee". They also were resident at a club in Switzerland for a time, and made a big impression at Plumpton's 1969 "National Jazz abd Blues Festival".
Now released "ADVENTURES HIGHWAY" is their first complete album, and gathers together all their surviving recordings. Despite the sole single release, the band recorded much material from 1967 to 1970. Included here are their cancelled second Mercury 45 "Peer Gynt"/"Troubleshoot", alongside 14 other unreleased titles, and two which only made a brief appearance on a compilation, The "album" CD runs for over 50 minutes, and has been put together to show the band as the ex-members would like best to be remembered. The "E.P." disc contains their single release, alongside three of their earliest (more pop orientated numbers). Together, these show the band's musical range in full. In the overcrowded, constantly re-cycling '60s reissue market, this s new, fresh and largely unheard, restored as far as possible from original tapes and acetates, In development for over a year, this CD gives something different to the seasoned collector and curious "adventurer" alike.
Gary Aflalo vocals,blues harp 1965 to 1971
Keith (Smoke) Abingdon vocals,guitar 1965 to 1971
Bob Booth vocals,bass guitar 1965 to 1968
Geoff Garratley vocals,keyboards 1965 to 1969
Jim Leyland drums 1965 to 1967
Richard (Plug) Thomas drums,vocals 1967 to 1971
Frank Farrell vocals,bass,keyboards 1968 to 1971
Bill Hunt Keyboards,French horn 1969 to 1970 ---------------------- And our great road managers who always got us there: Colin Appleby Paul Dolman
ALBUM DISC 1. BELIEVE IT 2. HERE COMES THE END 3. SPOONFUL 4. LOVE IS STRANGE 5. ADVENTURES HIGHWAY 6. I HAVE A DREAM 7. GROWING OLDER 8. TROUBLESHOOT 9. (THE STORY OF) PEER GYNT 10. ALICE DROPPED OUT 11. HAPPINESS 12. SHAKE OFF THAT LEAD13. THE SAILOR SONG
E.P. DISC 1. ICE CREAM TREE 2. JULIUS CAESAR 3. YOURS 4. SUMMERTIME 5. TOYLAND
Influences
Ranging from blues to soul to progressive and pop, and all stops in between.
All content posted here on Psychedelic Central, excluding public domain graphics, youtube videos and other forms of public domain material, is copyright protected and may not be copied or used for any purpose without prior writen authorization and consent from the legal copyright holders.
