LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

• Packaging: Four-panel digipak with booklet
• Recordings: BBC Top of the Pops radio performances recorded in London between October 1967 and November 1969
• Includes several interview segments

Live on Air collects a series of BBC radio performances by The Foundations, recorded during the group's peak years between 1967 and 1969. Taken from appearances on the radio edition of Top of the Pops, these sessions capture the band performing their major hits alongside soul standards, album material and several less familiar songs.

The Foundations were one of Britain's first successful multiracial pop groups, combining musicians from Caribbean, British and Sri Lankan backgrounds. Their distinctive sound brought together American soul, rhythm and blues, brass-led arrangements and immediately accessible British pop songwriting.

The earliest recordings feature original lead singer Clem Curtis and include performances of “Baby, Now That I've Found You,” “Things Get Better,” “Harlem Shuffle” and “Help Me.” Curtis's forceful soul delivery is supported by the band's full instrumental line-up, including guitar, organ, bass, drums, saxophone and trombone.

Later sessions document the arrival of Colin Young, whose lighter but equally distinctive voice became closely associated with “Build Me Up Buttercup.” The collection also includes performances of “Back on My Feet Again,” “New Direction,” “In the Bad, Bad Old Days” and “Born to Live, Born to Die.”

Several tracks are accompanied by short interview segments, offering contemporary glimpses of the band between performances. Repeated songs such as “Back on My Feet Again,” “Help Me” and “In the Bad, Bad Old Days” appear in recordings made on different dates, allowing the development of the group's live sound to be heard across the collection.

Beyond the familiar hits, the disc includes energetic interpretations of “Harlem Shuffle,” “It's Alright” and “Am I Grooving You,” together with more obscure Foundations material such as “A Whole New Thing,” “Waiting on the Shores of Nowhere” and “Baby, I Couldn't See.”

Live on Air provides a lively alternative to the group's polished studio recordings, preserving the immediacy of their BBC performances during one of the most successful periods in British soul and pop music.

Track listing:

1. Now That I've Found You – 11 October 1967
2. Things Get Better
3. Baby, Now That I've Found You
4. Harlem Shuffle
5. Help Me – 8 January 1968
6. Back on My Feet Again – with interview
7. It's Alright
8. A Whole New Thing – 8 March 1968
9. Back on My Feet Again
10. Build Me Up Buttercup – with interview, 22 November 1968
11. Am I Grooving You
12. New Direction – 17 January 1969
13. In the Bad, Bad Old Days – with interview, 11 April 1969
14. Any Old Time
15. In the Bad, Bad Old Days – 25 April 1969
16. Waiting on the Shores of Nowhere – 23 June 1969
17. I Don't Know Why
18. Help Me – 19 November 1969
19. Baby, I Couldn't See – with interview
20. Born to Live, Born to Die