VA - Gathered From Coincidence: The British Folk-Pop Sound Of 1965-66 (2018)

Across three CDs and 79 tracks, Gathered From Coincidence examines every aspect of the British mid- Sixties folk-pop boom, incorporating Dylan-inspired singer / songwriters with a commercial pop sensibility, the more introverted beat groups, Marianne Faithfull-inspired female chanteuses and R&B hoodlums in newly-pensive mode, all bound together by the 6 or 12-string thrum or Rickenbacker clang. Ranging from massive chart hits to records that barely sold in double figures, Gathered From Coincidence includes the true believers, the musical dilettantes, the young wannabes, the cash-in merchants, the old guard looking to resuscitate a fading career and, of course, the earnest protest singers – and, just for good measure, we’ve also rounded up a handful of folksploitation discs fromthose positioning themselves for roughly three minutes as anti-protest protesters. With a significant number of tracks making their CD debut and even a couple of previously unissued cuts, Gathered From Coincidence is a fascinating, even revelatory overview of a still largely-neglectedstitch in pop’s unending tapestry: that curiously downbeat two-year period between the dying embersof the beat boom’s irresistible exuberance and the arrival of psychedelia’s swirling multi-coloured hues. It features The Searchers, Peter and Gordon, Marianne Faithfull, Donovan, The Kinks, Manfred Mann etc.