LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

In the world of the internet and instant access to worldwide archives of information, it seems there are no longer any mysteries or secrets. You can generally expect to find out something about most people who have ever done anything vaguely noteworthy, and often more than you want to know about people who haven't. "

Occasionally, though, something crops up that defies even the most diligent research and the widest spectrum of lateral thinking. The Knocker Jungle album has so far proved to be one such example. The story so far is as follows: "

In the autumn of 2007, Acrobat Music acquired the catalogue of recorded works owned by The Kruger Organisation. This was a catalogue built up over the years by legendary music biz entrepreneur Jeffrey Kruger, who founded the equally renowned Flamingo jazz venue in Wardour Street in the 50s, and had significant success with releases on his Ember Records label. "

In researching the extensive archive of over 20,000 titles in the catalogue, among the wealth of well-known material, several obscure names caught our eye, which none of us had ever heard of (and we are talking about several guys who have all been around the business for the best part of 40 years). Among them was Knocker Jungle. "

A quick trawl around the web did not evince a great deal, apart from the fact that almost all the results were for people offering rare copies of their 1970 vinyl LP on Ember at extremely fancy prices - some into the hundreds of pounds. Clearly, this was an item that, at least for a niche market, was of significant interest. The blurbs associated with the sites offering LP for sale told us that it was a folk/rock album released around 1970, which sold very few copies and was now a collectors' item. "

One other gem we discovered was that Knocker Jungle had supported Mott the Hoople at a gig in Potters Bar on 12th December 1970. "

This is perhaps the rarest album on Ember. The band had already taken their collaboration as far as their individual musical tastes would allow and had split before it was released. Further, due to an "offensive hand signal" inside the cover many shops refused to stock it. As a result it was completely withdrawn from sale almost immediately after release, with only a tiny handful of First Pressings ever sold! "

This type of music has generated a lot of media attention over the last few years, however, it is this lost gem now that seems to be galvanizing such a groundswell of interest amongst the Cognoscenti. "

Adding to this veneer of mystery is that very little is known about the artists prior to the release of the album and certainly not after. Beyond a Spanish only 7" containing two tracks from the album, and gigs in the seedy confines of Wardour Street's "The Temple", the duo have proved to be immune from Internet Search Engines and very little appears. It is this scarcity that seems to be stoking the flames of interest and adding to the mystic! "

Produced and keyboards by Tony Cox, with Dave Mattacks of classic period Fairport Convention on drums."