Freedom

Black on White : SJPCD028

(This is a revised track-listing: it was criticised on the Tenth Planet vinyl reissue a couple of years back. The original LP had a very limited release in Italy and during the following decades has been changing hands for in excess of £250 per copy!

Band member Mike Lease hunted through his attic and found not only the original masters but also two further tracks not released on the original LP. These are all on this CD)

Bobby Harrison, drums and percussion
Mike Lease, electric organ and piano
Ray Royer, lead guitar
Steve Shirley, bass and lead vocal

Freedom was formed in the late summer of 1967 by two ex-Procol Harum members, Ray Royer and Bobby Harrison. Ray had joined Procol Harum during its formation [sic] and Bobby at the later recording stage. Both Ray and Bobby were dismissed to make way for Gary Brooker's former companions from The Paramounts, Robin Trower and Barry [sic] Wilson.

Ray suggested forming a band together with Bobby and called it 'Freedom' after the Charles Mingus tune. This was used to open their live act throughout the duration of the band's existence. [It was also recorded by The Paramounts]

Jonathan Weston, Procol Harum's former manager, dismissed at the same time, was enlisted to manage Freedom and auditions took place to complete the line-up. Steve Shirley from Bilston, Staffordshire, was recruited for bass and vocals, declining to join the In Betweens, an early incarnation of Slade. Tony Marsh, ex-Tornado and Screaming Lord Sutch, a proving-ground for the Rock Illuminati (Matthew Fisher being one) completed the line-up on keyboards.

Rehearsals began and we were soon commissioned to write the score for the Dino de Lautentis [sic] production Attraction / Black on White. Due to the tight schedule imposed, Tony Marsh was replaced by Mike Lease, already an established session-player having recently recorded with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones for Beverley Martin's album. We wrote and recorded 14 titles within two months and used Olympic Studios with Eddie Kramer and Glyn Johns engineering. The band, collectively with Jonathan Weston, produced it. Mike picked the string and horn players, wrote out their parts and conducted them: he was 22 years old.

We were asked to appear in the film playing the songs as a commentary to a film virtually without dialogue. In its original format it was 100 minutes long but has since been edited to 60 minutes. We were given a flat in Mayfair for the duration of the filming which has appropriately since been converted to a night-club.

Directed by Tinto Brass, avant garde and risqué for its time, Attraction / Black on White was critically acclaimed at the following Cannes Film Festival though it was always destined to be an art film. We were invited to play at Dino De Laurentis New Year's Eve party in Monte Carlo for our first gig. Our début single, Where will you be tonight / Trying to get a glimpse of you was released on Mercury Records, produced by Mike. Interestingly Trying to get a glimpse of you is currently enjoying a revival among collectors of psychedelia. The second single Kandy Kay / Escape while you can made too many concessions to commerciality and the band in this format broke up soon after.

Mike went back to Wales to become a full-time music student and was replaced by Robin Lumsden, a former member of the Power Pack, as was Bobby.

Freedom hit the road, or was it the deck!

Until recently we had no idea of the existence of this recording and the fact that it has taken 30 years to surface is a tragedy. We would like to thank all those that made it possible for you to hear this record.

Ray Royer

 Mike Lease is currently active playing fiddle on the Welsh and Irish folk scenes. Steven Shirley is still writing brilliant songs. Bobby Harrison went on to form various line-ups of Freedom and later SNAFU and a highly successful solo career. Ray Royer concentrates on Philosophy and Classical Guitar.

Additional Sleeve Note:

For a brief period in 1967-68 these four excellent players formed a truly magnificent combo and recorded a fantastic collection of songs, which in reality was a classic album, nothing like your average film soundtrack of a few catchy theme tunes and a lot of 'fillers' and adits [sic]. You can bemoan the fact that fame and fortune eluded them or you can choose instead to sit back and enjoy some truly magnificent music.

So why haven't you heard about it before, you may wonder? In fact even the group themselves never heard about this LP until recently, when they were approached in connection with this current release. At the time they thought they were writing no more than a film score. No one informed them about the very limited LP release, which occurred in Italy the following year.

The film itself didn't fare much better. It got well received in Cannes but soon after its Director became unpopular with the Italian Inland Revenue and had to leave the country in a hurry. He later became a successful director, in Hollywood, producing such box-office hits as King Kong and Flash Gordon but his 1968 film re-titled Black on White (in Italian Nerosubianco) faded into obscurity apart from the occasional re-run on Italian TV, in a heavily-edited version.

In many ways this LP could be described as 'the Great, Lost Procol Harum Album': Steve Shirley sounds uncannily like Gary Brooker in places, though there is a sensitivity in his voice which Brooker rarely reaches. Mike Lease comes from a background similar to that of Matthew Fisher - one track on the LP is even titled The Truth Is Plain To See!, (a line taken from a Procol big hit single - check out the organ solo on this one!). But there are also inspirations which sadly eluded Procol Harum: the magnificent 'cooking' beat and 'funky' feel for which Bobby Harrison must mainly be held responsible. In fact Harrison's drumming throughout the record is fantastic, loose and groovy in a Charlie Watts kind-of-way. Finally ay [sic] Royer's magnificent 'out of this worlds' [sic] psychedelic guitar work is miles away from the strict blues playing of Procol's Robin Trower (in fact, Ray Royer himself quotes his biggest inspiration as being James Burton).

Other comparisons come to mind, mainly highly successful acts like Traffic and the Kinks. But basically this album is unique. There were a lot of fine psychedelic singles released in the UK around this time, but good psychedelic albums were genuinely few and far between.

This is one of the very best.

Liner note copyright Claes Johansen, quoted by permission

Footnote: Mike Lease.

Originally designed for film track only, this is a mono recording: untypical for the late 60s. The present album is taken from a quarter-inch master copy fortunately, though unwittingly, preserved, more or less intact, by Mike Lease for a thirty year appointment with rock posterity.

Though the quality is generally surprisingly good, there are one or two technical blips, including the occasional drop-out. Despite this the band thought it preferable, on balance, to release the album in its naked entirety, carbuncles and all, and trust that the critical listener will exercise forbearance with the odd imperfection.