LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Released by the Major Minor label in 1968, the self-titled July album has long been acknowledged by genre enthusiasts as one of the classic UK psychedelic one-shots, mixing the ambition and experimentation of “Sgt. Pepper” with a lo-fi charm and endearing garage band artlessness.

It is also one of the most hotly-pursued artefacts of the British psychedelic era, with an original UK copy (only graded at VG++) recently selling on eBay for around £3700.

Our definitive 6-CD overview of the band’s activities includes newly-remastered versions of the album in both mono and stereo formats (the latter only previously available on the original 1968 American release) as well as the various single issues, including a completely different recording of album nugget ‘The Way’.

Disc Three contains “The Second Of July”, a collection of pre-album demos that appeared in the mid-Nineties to capitalise on the band’s growing reputation as original copies of their LP began to sell for increasingly large sums of money.

The remainder of the boxed set consists of more recent July recordings following their triumphant return to live work a few years ago. Disc Four is the aborted album “Temporal Anomaly”, which was recorded circa 2010 but which gains a first-ever release, while Disc 5 is the appropriately-titled “Resurrection”, which received a limited release in 2013.

Disc Six comprises the latest July magnum opus, “The Wight Album”, which has been pieced together over the last few years by Tom Newman and Peter Cook at Tom’s recording studio on the Isle of Wight. Now finally completed, “The Wight Album” – described by Tom as “the greatest July album” – brings the July story bang up to date.

Housed in a clamshell box, and with a 40-page booklet containing a 7000 word essay on the band featuring new quotes and some priceless period photos, The Complete Recordings is an epic look at the studio activities of one of the biggest cults to emerge from the original British psychedelic scene.

Track Listing

DISC ONE JULY LP (MONO)

• MY CLOWN
• DANDELION SEEDS
• JOLLY MARY
• HALLO TO ME
• YOU MISSED IT ALL
• THE WAY
• TO BE FREE
• MOVE ON SWEET FLOWER
• CRYING IS FOR WRITERS
• I SEE
• FRIENDLY MAN
• A BIRD LIVED
BONUS TRACKS
• MY CLOWN (Single Version)
• DANDELION SEEDS (Single Version)
• HELLO, WHO’S THERE
• THE WAY (Single Version)
1-12 Originally issued on Major Minor MMLP29, July 1968
13-14 Single, Major Minor MM 568, released June 1968
15-16 Single, Major Minor MM 580, released October 1968

DISC TWO JULY LP (STEREO)

• MY CLOWN
• DANDELION SEEDS
• JOLLY MARY
• HALLO TO ME
• YOU MISSED IT ALL
• THE WAY
• TO BE FREE
• MOVE ON SWEET FLOWER
• CRYING IS FOR WRITERS
• I SEE
• FRIENDLY MAN
• A BIRD LIVED
1-12 Originally released in US only on Epic BN 26-416, 1968

DISC THREE THE SECOND OF JULY (DEMO LP)

• YOU MISSED IT ALL
• MY CLOWN
• DANDELION SEEDS
• THE STAMPING MACHINE
• A BIRD LIVED
• LOOK AT HER
• THE WAY
• FRIENDLY MAN
• I SEE
• THE GIRL IN THE CAFÉ
• YOU SEE ME, I SEE YOU
• MAN OUTSIDE
• MOVE ON SWEET FLOWER
• HALLO TO ME
1-14 Originally issued on Essex 1015LP, 1995

DISC FOUR TEMPORAL ANOMALY

• I LIKE IT
• IF
• A DAY TO REMEMBER
• ALL THE HOURS THERE ARE
• DON’T LET ME DOWN
• MAGICAL DAYS
• REGENERATION
• DREAMS
• I’M TALKING TO YOU
• LIGHTS
1-10 Previously unissued album recorded circa 2010

DISC FIVE RESURRECTION

• DREAMS
• I LIKE IT
• CAN I GO BACK AGAIN
• COUNTING THE MINUTES
• A DAY TO REMEMBER
• KING BEE
• ALL THE HOURS THERE ARE
• I’M TALKIN’ TO YOU
• LINEAR THINKING
• HEAVEN OR HELL
• MAGICAL DAYS
• REGENERATION

BONUS TRACKS

• CAN I GO BACK AGAIN (Extended Version)
• CAN I GO BACK AGAIN (Original Demo)
1-12 Originally issued on Neddysongs Recordings, 2013

DISC SIX THE WIGHT ALBUM

• THE DEVIL INSIDE
• SPECIAL GUY
• SOPHIE
• ANIMALS
• WE ARE THE MASTERS
• LOVE ‘N’ LOVE
• PROTEST SONG
• HENRY’S SQUIRREL
• IT’S UP TO ME
• SEEKING THE HACKSAW BLADES
• LET ME
• CATCHIN’ UP
• MODS OF RYDE
• THE GAME
• WHAT’S GONNA BE
• DISC KLINGON
• IT’S A FINE LINE
• DANCING
• TRUTH
• THE TRAVELLER
• HOME
• ONCE WHEN WE WAS FREE
• RIGHT PLACE WRONG TIME
Tracks 1-12 New Studio Album
DISCS 4 and 6, DISC 5 – TRACKS 13 and 14 – PREVIOUSLY UNISSUED