Greenslade

Greenslade
	General information
Genre (s)	Progressive , art rock
founding	1972, 2000
resolution	1976
Founding members
Keyboard	Dave Greenslade
Keyboard, vocals	Dave Lawson
bass	Tony Reeves
Drums	Andrew McCulloch
Current occupation
Keyboard	Dave Greenslade
bass	Tony Reeves
Keyboard, vocals	John Young
former members
Drums	John Trotter
guitar	Andy Roberts
violin	Graham Smith
Percussion	Barry Morgan
guitar	Mick Rodgers
Drums	Jon Hiseman
	Greg Jackman
	Jeremy Ensor

Greenslade are an English progressive rock band.

history

The band was founded in 1972 by Dave Greenslade . Greenslade (keyboard) and bassist Tony Reeves had previously played with the jazz rock band Colosseum . Keyboardist Lawson joined Samurai and Andrew McCulloch had become known as a member of King Crimson . He played drums on their third album Lizard (1970).

With this line-up, the band played three albums, Greenslade (1972), Bedside Manners Are Extra (1973) and Spyglass Guest (1974). The popular fantasy artist and Yes court painter Roger Dean was won over as a cover designer . He designed the multi-armed figure that has become iconic for Greenslade. However, none of the albums became an outstanding success. Tony Reeves left the band in 1974 and joined Curved Air , he was replaced during a US tour and on the fourth album Time And Tide (1975) by bassist Martin Briley , who also contributed some guitar passages on Time And Tide . In 1976 Greenslade broke up his band.

In 2000 the record company "Mystic Records" released the live album Live . Then Dave Greenslade decided to record a new Greenslade studio album. He tried to reunite the band and was able to win at least bassist Reeves for the project from the original line-up. The two went into the studio with drummer Chris Cozens and singer / keyboardist John Young (previously with Asia and Qango ) and recorded the album Large Afternoon (2000). It was produced by Chris Cozens. For the following tour, Cozens was replaced by John Trotter . A live release called Greenslade 2001 - Live: The Full Edition documents these concerts.

The band has not officially dissolved until today and plays concerts every now and then. In spring 2007 it consisted of Dave Greenslade, Tony Reeves and John Young.

Guitarist Dave ("Clem") Clempson (formerly Humble Pie , formerly Colosseum ) had a guest appearance on Greenslades third album , he can be heard on two of the pieces.

style

All Greenslade albums show a characteristic balance between songs and instrumentals, acoustic and electrical parts, progressive folk and rock , clad in soft sounds that mostly came from Greenslade's keyboards. Dave Greenslade's compositions and solos are characterized by light jazz colors.

The releases after the reunion in 2000 could not keep the compositional level of earlier albums. Both Cozens and Trotter are not comparable to Andrew McCulloch , and the finances for Large Afternoon were so limited that even the saxophone had to be imitated by the keyboard. In addition, the sound of the drums and some keyboards in particular was of poor quality and did not correspond to the usual sound form from the 1970s, which alienated many fans when they had heard of the new release at all.

Discography

Studio albums

1972: Greenslade
1973: Bedside Manners Are Extra
1974: Spyglass Guest
1975: Time and Tide
2000: Large Afternoon

Other

1997: Shades of Green (1972-75) (compilation)
2000: Live (Live 1973-75)
2002: Greenslade 2001 - Live The Full Edition