Say what you like about Richard Branson and his diverse businesses successes, in the early 1970s his Virgin Records released some ground-breaking albums, many of them proggy to some degree. No doubt the huge success of Tubular Bells funded much of this experimentation, and for this we should be wholly grateful. Here’s an eclectic mix of many of the bands signed to Virgin in 1973-1975: a diverse bunch but some reals gems here.
- TANGERINE DREAM Overture to Oedipus Tyrannus
from the Virgin sampler V (1975) - ROBERT WYATT Yesterday Man
single a-side (1974) - SLAPP HAPPY / HENRY COW Extract from the Messiah
from Desperate Straights (1975) - TOM NEWMAN Sad Song
from Fine Old Tom (1975) - STEVE HILLAGE Pentagrammaspin
from the Virgin sampler V (1975) - KEVIN COYNE Marjory Razorblade
from Marjory Razorblade (1973) - CLEAR LIGHT Extract from Clear Light Symphony Part 1
from Clear Light Symphony (1973) - HATFIELD AND THE NORTH Your Majesty Is Like A Cream Doughnut
from The Rotters’ Club (1975) - WHITE NOISE White Noise II
from White Noise II – Concerto for Synthesizer (1974) - IVO CUTLER Go And Sit Upon The Grass
from Velvet Donkey (1975) - FAUST The Sad Skinhead
from Faust IV (1973) - MIKE OLDFIELD Extract from Hergest Ridge part 2
from Hergest Ridge (1974)
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