Spirogyra - Bells, Boots And Shambles (1973) LP

Founded in Bolton, UK in 1967 - Disbanded in 1974 - Reformed in 2004 - Martin Cockerham died in 2018

Although this group is hailing from Canterbury, they are not to be classified as such. Those musicians developed one of the better examples of prog-folk or folk-prog. The original line-up consisted of main writer Martin Cockerham as singer and guitarist, the beautiful and well known to progheads Barbara Gaskin on vocals, Steve Borrill on bass and Julian Cusack on violin. Although Dave Mattacks (of FAIRPORT CONVENTION fame) played drums on all three SPIROGYRA albums, he was never a member but a guest on the albums.

Their first album, "St-Radiguns" was quite successful and very adventurous and can compared to COMUS's First Utterances. Very moody, politically conscious songs full of great interplay (much like THE TREES) and with a great duo of voices in the COMUS or JEFFERSON AIRPLANE manner are the main assets of the highly recommended album. The follow-up "Old Boot Wine" however did not manage to succeed quite as well and Cusack appear only as a guest but they had a keyboardist instead. By the time of the third album "Bells, Boots and Shambles", the band was down to just Cockerham and Gaskin with both ex-member Cusack and Borrill appearing as guest. This album was quite a return to form and there are some real epics full of cello for great melancholy moments. Sadly, this proved to be their last album. Barbara will go on with local bands as HATFIELD AND THE NORTH as one of the Northettes, than work with NATIONAL HEALTH and in the 80's work with Bill Bruford and Dave Stewart.

Highly recommended and much more so than some other folk band (FOREST, HORSLIPS) especially regarding the prog contents.