Trapeze - Trapeze [1969/70 ][Expanded Edition, 2020] [WEB] [2CD]

An expanded 2CD reissue of the debut LP from Trapeze featuring the single ‘Send Me No More Letters’, plus ‘Suicide’, ‘Nancy Gray’ and ‘Another Day’ plus a stack of bonus tracks, demos and live sessions.

Sown from the seeds of two Midlands bands, Finders Keepers, featuring Mel Galley (guitar/vocals), Dave Holland (drums) and Glenn Hughes (bass/vocals), plus the Montanas’ John Jones (vocals/trumpet) and Terry Rowley (keyboards/guitar/flute), Trapeze were discovered by 60s beat supremos The Moody Blues, snapped up for their own Threshold Records label.

Trapeze would record three albums for Threshold. Produced by The Moody Blues’ John Lodge at Morgan Studios and Decca Studios in London, their debut LP was released in May 1970, featuring the single ‘Send Me No More Letters’, plus ‘Suicide’, ‘Nancy Gray’ and ‘Another Day’.

Their debut veers closer to the late ’60s psychedelic rock and progressive pop of their Moody Blues mentors than the the blues and soul infused hard rock that Trapeze are better known for. This newly remastered, expanded version of their debut now features both the UK and US single versions of their hit single, ‘Send Me No More Letters’. Four unreleased demos follow, including an early version of ‘Seafull’ that would appear on the following “Medusa” LP. Also previously unreleased are three BBC Session tracks, of ‘Another Day’, and two different sessions for ‘Send No More Letters’. This expanded collection finishes with three unreleased live tracks from July 1969 recorded at Wolverhampton’s LaFayette Club for the “Colour Me Pop” show. In a short set of covers made up of Steppenwolf’s ‘Magic Carpet Ride’, Fairport Convention’s ‘Meet On The Ledge’ (written by Richard Thompson) and finishing with The Nazz’s classic nugget, ‘Open My Eyes’ (written by Todd Rundgren), these live session tracks give a unique insight into Trapeze’s career prior to becoming Threshold recording artists.