Bristol Folk - "...a remarkable book..." (fRoots)

"Bristol Folk" includes in-depth profiles of over 30 Bristol-based folk artists and discusses the Bristolian folk club scene and the local Village Thing and Saydisc record labels.

Artists covered include internationally-renowned names, such as Ian Anderson, Keith Christmas, Shelagh McDonald, Al Jones, Steve Tilston, Fred Wedlock, Bob Stewart, Stackridge, Sally Oldfield, Dave Evans, Folkal Point, Adge Cutler and the Wurzels and more: acid-folk; ragtime; rustic rock; psych-blues; superior bedsitter images galore. What a folk scene Bristol had!

Includes 34 pages of illustrations – many previously unpublished. these include cuttings from the Plastic Dog agency’s near-legendary Dogpress newsletter – one edition of which found itself being waved around at a Parliamentary hearing on obscenity!

Full description of Bristol Folk

The Famous Charisma Discography - "Mind-boggling in its intricacy" (Pete Frame)

The Famous Charisma Label was formed by Tony Stratton Smith and was home to Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator, Hawkwind, Peter Hammill, Monty Python, Sir John Betjeman, Rare Bird and more. Those who knew Stratton Smith have said that he named the label after what he himself had in abundance, charisma!

His vision to sign anything good of its kind led to Charisma becoming home to several uncompromising and ground-breaking progressive rock bands, a maverick classical conductor, a cross-dressing Australian satirist, a cult TV comedy combo, a sports commentator or two, a singing school teacher, a well-known psychoanalyst and even the Poet Laureate. Strat then got it completely wrong, as far as the music industry was concerned, by actually caring about his acts. The rest, as they say, is history.

Full description of The Famous Charisma Discography

The Saydisc and Village Thing Discography - NEWLY PUBLISHED

Saydisc started life in 1965 by recording all aspects of Bristolian musical life, from folk and jazz to church bells and organs to mechanical music from old cylinders and music boxes. In 1968 it began to release contemporary British and classic American blues on the Matchbox label and pressed and distributed Johnny Parth’s legendary Roots label. 1970 saw the formation of the Village Thing label, which concentrated on the emergent post-blues, home-grown British folk scene. Amon Ra was formed in 1973 to present chamber music on authentic intruments.

The book includes a potted history of Saydisc and Village Thing, plus illustrations of almost all record sleeves to complement the extensive discography.

Full description of The Saydisc and Village Thing Discography