(2021) Global Village Trucking Company - Smiling Revolution


Review:
…Between March 1972 and their final performance at The Nottingham Boat Club in August 1975, the Global Village Trucking Company played 390 gigs. In that time, they gained many friends, fans and admirers. A Global Village gig was always a special occasion, full of unexpected moments and often passages of true inspiration. They were constantly pushing and stretching the boundaries, with a huge appetite for improvisation that often took them to giddy musical heights. It was for good reason that they were frequently referred to as Britain’s answer to the Grateful Dead. And amongst this there was also a lot of damn fine playing, a repertoire of outstanding songs, a charismatic frontman, and an ability to take the audience with them to wherever they chose to go that night. They never lost sight of giving people a good time, and very few people left a show without a smile on their face. In that three and a half year period the key line up of the band was singer, chief songwriter and rhythm guitarist Jon Owen, James Lascelles on keyboards, drummer Simon Stewart, Michael Medora on lead guitar, and John McKenzie on bass. Aside from being stalwarts of the UK gig circuit and Festival scene, Global Village Trucking Company recorded a series of sessions for the legendary DJ John Peel. Their communal life at Beehive Cottage in the Norfolk countryside attracted the interest of the BBC, who made a documentary on the band, By Way of a Change. The group made their first appearance on record in January 1974 on the album Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwall’s Dance Hall, a live double album at an event staged by the alternative music and events promoters which also featured Henry Cow, Camel and Gong. Following this Global Village Trucking Company recorded their only album at Rockfield Studios intended for release on a new label to be established by Dave Robinson (later founder of Stiff Records). The proposed record company failed to materialise and by the summer of 1975 the band had called it a day and an arrangement was made with Virgin Records to release the album posthumously on Virgin’s Caroline label. Forty years on, Smiling Revolution has been compiled by the band and gathers together the band’s legendary album as originally intended, their tracks from the Greasy Truckers release, John Peel session tracks and other previously unreleased delights, all superbly remastered by acclaimed producer Robin Millar.





Tracklist:
Disc 1
1. On the Judgement Day
2. Lasga's Farm
3. Love Your Neighbour
4. If You Don't Mind (Me Saying)
5. Short Change / Tall Story
6. Smiling Revolution
7. Skytrain
8. Watch Out There's a Mind About
9. The Inevitable Fate of Ms. Danya Sox
10. Down in the Lowlands

Disc 2
1. (It Ain't No) Apple Pie
2. Pebbles
3. Love Will Find a Way
4. Watch Out There's a Mind About (Live)
5. Look Into Me (Live)
6. Earl Stonham (The Gunslinger) (Live)
7. You're a Floozy Madame Karma (But I Love Your Lowdown Ways) (Live)
8. Everybody Needs a Good Friend (Live)


Media Report:
Genre: remastered, rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits