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KISSING SPELL LABEL COMPLETE CD AND LP LIST :
-(it's possible that some items are still missing,
but it is the most complete list I saw so far)-

CD with voting : 5 = essential, 4 = highly recommended 3  = nothing special, but still good
  2 = limited appeal 1 = to avoid

KSCD901    Dark / The Jam 1975
KSCD912    Water Into Wine Band / Harvest Time
KSCD902    FLIBBERTIGIBBET /  MY LAGAN LOVE      3
KSCD903    Various / Beyond The Veil Of Time
KSCD904    Various / History Of Underground 4
KSCD905    Various / History Of Vol.2
KSCD906    Dark / Round The Edges    4 4
KSCD908    Supernaut / Same Title
KSCD909    Tir Na Nog / In The Morning 4 4
KSCD911    Axe / Music       4 3
KSCD914    Sindelfingen / Odgpig 5 2
KSCD915    Peggy's Leg / Grinilla    2
KSCD916    TICKAWINDA - Rosemary Lane.     5 4 4 3
KSCD917    DANCER - Tales Of The River Bank.        3 3 2
KSCD918    WATER INTO WINE BAND - Hill Climbing For Beginners (double cd) 5 4
KSCD919    DARK - Anonymous Days
KSCD920    JESSE  HARPER - Guitar Absolution.     4 4 3
KSCD921    TOBY JUG  WASHBOARD BAND Greasy Quiff. 5 3
KSCD922    STONE ANGEL - East Of The Sun.   5 3 3
KSCD923    RENAISSANCE / ILLUSION - Through The Fire
KSCD924    Renaissance - Live & Direct!
KSCD925    ÉISHTLINN : Éisht Linn    5 3 3
KSCD926    TELEPHONE BILL AND THE SMOOTH OPERATORS - Final Reminder
KSCD927    Infinity - A(1969-1970)
KSCD928    Dragon Milk  - Lion & The Unicorn
KSCD929    Greenman - What Ails Thee       3
KSCD930    Serenity - Piece Of Mind    4
KSCD931    Baby Whale - Old Man Of The Sea    3
KSCD9307   Wicked Lady / Axeman Cometh 2
KSCD9310   Shide & Acorn / Legend Of Dreamstones      5 5 3 3
KSCD9402   Dark / Teenage Angst (the early sessions) 2
KSCD9409   PINNACLE / CYBORG ASSASSIN   3 3
KSCD9430   Stone Angel / Same Title      5 5 4 4
KSCD9440-f Mourning Phase / Same Title 5 5 4 4
KSCD9450-f Caedmon / Same Title   5 5 3 3
KSCD9470-f Moths / Heron's Daughter
KSCD9480   Loudest Whisper / The Children Of Lir      4 4
KSCD9491   Daemon / Entrance To Hell
KSCD9510   Flibbertigibbet / Whistling Gigs To The Moon 5 4 3 3
KSCD9504   PARAMETER / GALACTIC RAMBLE   4 3 3 1
KSCD9508   WAITING FOR THE SUN / WAITING FOR THE SUN  1
KSCD9520   Mellow Candle / Virgin Prophet   5 4 3 3 3
KSCD9499   Wiched Lady / Psychotic Overkill      3
KSCD9569   Irmin's Way / Opus Destroy
KSCD9591   Last Straw / Alone On A Stone
KSCD9592   Axe / Live 1969
KSG001       N°.9 Bread Street / Same Title 4 3
KSG005       Skybird / Summer 1973
KSG006       Last Thing On My Mind
KSG007       Gagalactica      2
KSG008       Loose Routes 1.
KSG009       Loose Routes 2.

LP :

CA36003LP     Parameter / Galactic Ramble
KSF004LP       Mellow Candle / The Virgin Prophet
KSLP9589LP   Irmin's Way / Opus Destroy
KSLP9595LP   Axe / Live 1969
LP cover
THE KISSING SPELL LABEL
AND ITS ORIGINAL FOLK/ FOLKROCK / ACIDFOLK / PROGFOLK RELEASES
WITH LINKS, REVIEWS AND INFORMATION
INDEX 1 : A-P, INDEX 2 : Q-Z

Shide & Acorn 1, 2, 3, Sindelfingen, Stone Angel, Tickawanda,
Tir Na Nog 1, 2 , Toby Jug Washboard Band, V.A., Vulcan's Hammer,
Waiting For The Sun, Water Into Wine Band 1, 2, + links & overview label
CD cover
Go to
Kissing Spell list A-P -->
Go back to Psychedelic Folk, Acid Folk, Wyrd Folk index page
or to the general (radioshow related) music index page
The playlists with Kissing Spell releases you can find at the attached txt-file

Other seperate attached pages are "Midwinter - Stone Angel "
and "Mellow Candle - Flibberdigibbet - Eisthlin"

Remarks ? Please E-mail me.

EXTRA LINKS :
-The most complete list so far of Kissing Spell releases you can find further down-.

Another overview of folk releases (until '98 so not complete) :
http://www.mars.dti.ne.jp/~madcap/ben/kiss/kiss_list.html
(and http://strony.wp.pl/wp/sonaria/kissing.html)
A more recent list : http://www.greyhound-records.com/retback/Backtracks/labels/kissing.htm
Overview of Kissing spell with reviews : http://www.greyhound-
records.com/tradeback/This%20Week/05.2001/mixedcd.htm#e

Original label entry : http://www.kissingspell.com/
with contact at : info@kissingspell.com
(mail order and /or wholesale enquiries, distribution information
contact Will McCarthy. Tel: 0044 (0) 1647 281 141
Email to: will@kissingspell.com)

Several releases of Kissing Spell were first released on the Holyground label.
Original label entry : http://www.holyground.co.uk/index.html
with history at http://www.holyground.co.uk/history.html
with catalogue of their items with track list and covers
http://www.holyground.co.uk/catalogue.html

Overview of British folk with several of the Erewhon releases with original covers :
http://uk.geocities.com/treemusicuk/some_personal_views_on_british_f.htm
WATER INTO WINE BAND - Hill Climbing For Beginners (UK and US version) ***°°

Very English sounding acid accoustic music from 1974. At first I thought this was less essential as the second record, but it is in fact as much enjoyable. The long track is again the most interesting track altough all is very fine. Nice booklet too.
According to the label this is "For the first time, officially on CD with sleeve notes and previously unseen photographs, we have created a limited edition double pack including the original and highly acclaimed UK release plus the American mix done a few years later criticized by some purists. Now we can all make our own mind up!!!!!.  Both original sets of art work are included in this bumper pack of highly collectable Christian folk music from the 70's.      
   
Soundfile of title-track here & on http://psychic.tistory.com/171
Label entry : http://www.kissingspell.com/main/KissCat/Cat1/Water

According to the Bruton Town list voting of Hill Climbing : 1 vote : essential, 1 vote highly recommended
WATER INTO WINE BAND : Harvest Time (1976)****'

Nice quiet (acid and nice) folkrock band with very nice instrumentation. A few traditional elements integrated in some tracks. The long track is superbly arranged.

Website with sound fragment at http://www.one-way.org/jesusmusic/watrwine.htm
& http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Venue/1006/waterintowine.html
Some info at http://www.borderlinebooks.com/uk6070s/w2.html
Korean entry : http://www.changgo.com/changgo/search_detail?gubun=Album&a_show_r=n&al_code=40342
WAITING FOR THE SUN

An item I'm still curious for. Anyone has information ? Is it worth to trace ?

I found some information at http://www.borderlinebooks.com/uk6070s/w1.html

According to the Bruton Town list voting : 1 vote : "*" to avoid
VULCAN'S HAMMER : The Two Magicians ***

good traditional folk album

review of their album reissue here
Other review & info (Korean) : http://thrak.cafe24.com/html/vulcan.htm
Info : http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/folk/records/vulcanshammer.html
V.A. : HISTORY OF THE UK FOLK ROCK UNDERGROUND 2.

According to Greyhound Rec.this is an "18 track collection of the rarest psychedelic, esotreic & electric folk rock from the uk & ireland. includes tracks by mellow candle, shide & acorn, tir na nog, flibbertigibbet & many more."

According to the Bruton Town list voting : 1 vote : highly recommended

  V.A. : LAST THING ON MY MIND HOLYGROUND/WORKS VOL. 1

I did not hear this. According to Greyhound Rec.this is a "Lush remastered cd reissue of hopelessly rare 'private pressing' form '66. Very much part of the uk folk/rock scene featuring contributions from chris barber, mike levon, chris coombes & many more. the start of the 'holyground' label."

V.A. : LOOSE ROOTS 1 & 2 (?)

I did not hear thesie compilations. "The Holyground label under license to Kissing Spell presents these two compilations which represent volumes 10&11 of  "The Works" series. All recordings made between 1966 and 1975. Loose Routes starts in The Bretton in 1966 and ends in The Cass Yard in the early 70's, moving from folk to rock: from a mix of covers and new songs to wholly original music."

V.A. : LOOSE ROOTS 1

According to the label this is "a folk rock album, charts Mike Levon's and Holygrounds early career from 1966 to 1971, music from Moodie's Bar, a centre for folk singers and writers, in Wakefield, The Bretton Hall and ending up with recordings from the Cass Yard. The records made at Moodies Bar, and subsequently at the Bretton were recorded straight to master tapes often just using plastic mikes supplied with domestic tape recorders. On moving to Cass's yard Mike bought a  "Brennell", two mixing desks were installed and he also invested in a couple of AKG mikes. The sound quality improved!!
Bands include Number 9 Bread Street, Cross Section, A to Austr, Bill Nelson, early Thundermother and the beginnings of Astral Navigations and Jumble Lane."

V.A. : LOOSE ROOTS 2

According to the label this "takes Holyground from 1971 and the heavy psych-rock of Thundermother, through West coast sounds and progressive rock to 1975. Some performing bands paying for studio time, others just mates keen to have a go. Artists include Gygafo, Blue Epitaph, Skybird, Last Exit. Bill Nelson recorded Northern Dream, and early tracks as Be-Bop De Lux as yet unsigned to EMI. Chris Coombes was prolific, Steve Canning recorded acoustic songs with members of Lazy Days. Groups came from Leeds, Barnsley, and increasingly further a field. Newcastle Durham and Norfolk. Levon worked ceaselessly, sometimes recording with up to five or six bands a week.In 1975, at the height of all this frantic activity, Mike joined a group of others to establish a 16 track studio in Doncaster, the project folded and Holyground lay dormant until 1989."

More detailed information at the end of  http://www.holyground.co.uk/history.html
TOBY JUG WASBOARD BAND  : Greasy Quiff (1970)*°

Odd item. Folk Club music with elements of folk, 20's jugband kazoo like blues at the first 7 tracks. Sure this band would have been fun. Then follows a rock'n roll blues track, and mostly slightly underground bluesrock tracks, with still a hint of humour although less funny. I preferred the first half. But the last heavy fuzz guitar track I found very interesting too.
According to Greyhounds Records this is a "Reissue of rare (only 50 copies were pressed!) folk album from early '70s. Split between live & studio recordings. very much a busking type affair with washboards, kazoos, banjos, toby jugs etc. being used on this collectable piece."
According to the label this item is for the "First time on CD, 8 pages of rare pictures and sleeve note by a Radio 2 presenter! Highly original and very collectable, 50 copies pressed of vinyl in 1970. Half recorded in a Cambridge Folk Club and the other half round John's mum's place! Introduced on the record by Nick Barraclough currently presenting on BBC Radio 2, the album features the un-missable "Elastic Landlady" their very own and personal tribute to J--- -----ix!"

According to Steve Brooks at http://www.geocities.com/happysurfer1/ :

"The Toby Jug and Washboard Band - mid/late 1960's comedy blues / jug band Steve Brooks; Lead vocals, washboard, harmonica, banana, etc Trevor Vincent: Guitar, kazoo. Alan Vincent: Jug, bass Repertoire: early Jug Band classics and self penned material, mostly comedy and obscene. Recorded a famous album (Greasy Quiff) in 1969 which became a collectors item rated in the top three most expensive collectable LPs. in the world, (no 2 and 1 were rare Elvis and Beatles albums). It also featured an introduction by Nick Barraclough. Changed their name to Melton Constable for a couple of years and then reverted to Toby Jug and Washboard Band during a revival of interest in the early 1980's when we did three one hour shows for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire with Nick Barraclough and gigs at the Alma Brewery. The album has just been re-released on CD in 2001. Signed to Robert Stigwood and EMI for a while. Toby Jug toured or supported: Eric Clapton, Black Sabbath, Alexis Korner (he jammed with us as well at the Cambridge Blues Club over the Red Cow - where Fleetwood Mac and Free used to play each week), Martin Carthy, Geno Washington, we did Cambridge Folk Festival  of course, 6 spots on Look East on Anglia Television, Folk club circuit, etc." S.Br.

Label entry : http://www.kissingspell.com/main/KissCat/Cat2/Toby

According to the Bruton Town list voting : 1 vote : essential, 1 vote nothing special but still good
I lately also  bought "In the Morning" **** with the demo's from this group. The musical quality is surely as good as the official album.

Info : http://www.kissingspell.com/main/KissCat/Cat1/Tir

According to the Bruton Town list voting : "In the Morning : 2 votes highly recommended
TIR NA NOG ****

Beautiful item, amongst the essential folk releases. Condell's songs are a bit like Madden & Harris, O'Kelly's song are more like Donovan (with some tabla,..), the song from Dolan is a bit more in Heron style. I think the BGO releases is the same as the KS release.

According to Greyhound Records this is the "CD reissue of the first ever recordings by this brilliant irish folk/rock band which led to their deal with chrysalis in the 70's."

Bruton Town Newslist : "The first album is simple acoustic folk with weaving gentle male harmony vocals and a slightly doomed romantic, gothic feeling to the lyrics. The other later albums weave in some more rock elements." Mark Coyle

Info : http://www.borderlinebooks.com/uk6070s/t6.html

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TICKAWINDA : Rosemary Lane (1979)**°

Surely one beautiful gentle folk traditional but mostly just good traditional folk, not so renewing. I prefer mostly more adventurous folk.
According to the label this is "Possibly the most collectable album in the world, recorded in 1979. No one had ever been in a recording studio before, then an unknown, Clive Gregson who sometimes sat in with the band at the Rose And Crown Folk Club in Stalybridge, Cheshire came to lend a hand. Clive remembers, "The sessions were great fun. We cut everything pretty much live and I can still see the intense concentration on everybody's faces as we went for a take and the big smiules when we listened to the playbacks. Paul Adshead engineered the sessions with patience, skill and humour and the album was favourably received by fans and critics alike when it was released in 1979." Paul Adshead has been recalled to re-master from the original tapes for this very exciting release. The album has been packaged with the original art work and a sleeve note by Clive Gregson."
"The sessions were recorded at Pennine Studios, an eight track facility behind an engineering facility in Oldham." The first pressing sold out very quickly."

Label entry : http://www.kissingspell.com/main/KissCat/Cat2/Ticka

A quote from http://www.clivegregson.com/news.htm :

"Tickawinda who reformed specially for the occasion after a gap of almost 20 years! Their album Rosemary Lane was re-issued in 2001. It was the first album I ever played on and it was a pleasure to see them all back together again. I had a great night at The Red Lion in Birmingham. It was strange to not see the legendary Jim McPhee, who has now retired."

From http://uk.geocities.com/treemusicuk/some_personal_views_on_british_f.htm :

"wanted to hear this album for years. Meanwhile, it grew to one of the perfect folk albums in my mind. The circumstances were perfect for a large scale disappointment. But not only did it live up to the impossible expectations--it actually surpassed them! A few rather common traditionals and a fair deal of songs borrowed from the Bert Jansch/Pentangle repertoire might not sound like a very inspiring set, but truth is the performances are spot-on. So many folk acts have great female vocals and not even half as good male vocals. Not so in this case. The vocals are brilliant, the harmonies blend in perfection, the guitar playing is sometimes jaw-dropping. An excellent proof that there are still treasures to be found out there." Peter Scion

More info at http://www.borderlinebooks.com/uk6070s/t5z.html#Tickawinda

Clive Gregson (producer) website : http://www.clivegregson.com/news.htm
Homepage : http://www.tickawinda.co.uk/

According to the Bruton Town list voting :
1 vote : essential, 2 votes highly recommended 1 vote nothing special but still good

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STONE ANGEL

Quiet pastoral folkrock. The Stone Angel items are reviewed on a seperate page
"Midwinter - Stone Angel" with extra pictures and information.

According to the Bruton Town list voting :
Stone Angel : 3 votes : essential, 1 vote highly recommended
East of the Sun : 1 vote essential, 2 votes nothing special, but still good

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SINDELFINGEN : Odgepig  (1973)****°

Recommended item with advanced prog compositions with certain acoustic feel (somewhat like another UK group Gnidrolog). The item is also reissued by Hi-Note music.(with label at http://www.artist-shop.com/hinote/index.htm)
The Kissing Spell release has one bonus live track from 1973.

Review at http://www.gepr.net/sh.html#SINDELFINGEN
and at http://www.progressor.net/review/sindelfingen_1973.html
& http://www.vintageprog.com/sss.htm#odg
Info : http://www.kissingspell.com/main/KissCat/Cat2/Sindel
& http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2196

According to the Bruton Town list voting : 1 vote : essential 1 vote limited appeal

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SHIDE AND ACORN : Prinsess of the island (1970)***°'

Similar in style as LP. Second half of it is at its nicest. Although Stoneangel and Midwinter are always appreciated I heard this item does not satisfy some people that much. Never the less it's amongst my favorites.

Information : http://www.borderlinebooks.com/uk6070s/s5z.html
Korean entry at  http://www.changgo.com/changgo/search_detail?gubun=Album&al_code=29539

According to the Bruton Town newsletter voting :
Legend of Dreamstones : 2 votes : essential, 2 votes : nothing special, but still good
Princess of the Island : 1 vote essential, 2 votes nothing special but still good
SHIDE AND ACORN : Under The Tree (1971)***°

Similar or may be even more ethereal like Stoneangel, Midwinter. Subtle fragile music. Pastoral female vocals and instrumentation. "Princess of the Island" might be even nicer, surely the second part. The title track with sitar is very fine too! According to Forced Exposure this is "great hippie-pixie acid-folk from a bygone era."

Label entry : http://www.kissingspell.co.uk/Album.php?Catalogue_Number=KSCD9400
SHIDE AND ACORN : Legends,dreams and Stones (1970 ?)*°

Demo versions of the play. A few nice tracks, but mostly to fill gaps in curiosity. Recording quality is not optimal.