Scottish heavy rock band
Andersson, Christer | Sweden | 08/30/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Scottish heavy rock band Writing On The Wall made it big on the underground rock scene in the late 1960s through a highly dramatic stage act. They regularly played the Middle Earth club, went on tour with the likes of Ten Years After, held a lengthy residency at the Marquee where they were supported by up-and-coming acts such as Wishbone Ash. As others retreated to 'be-denimed slothfulness' Writing On The Wall became more theatrical, featuring choreographed fights, dressing up as a caveman, a high priest, a monk and a witchfinder, and the destruction of a bubble car in support of the recently introduced breathalyzer test. Melody Maker felt sufficiently disturbed to comment that the band had 'the reputation of being violent to frightening extremes.' However John Peel was suitably impressed and the band recorded two Top Gear sessions for Radio 1. The Middle Earth club launched a label with this maniacal rock band as lead off act, releasing a single and LP in 1969. Both items today are rare, and highly collectable, holding their worth in the price guides. These items form disc one of this Power of the Picts double CD collection, its title repeating the title of the only LP. The band continued to record demos but a second LP deal failed to materialize with any label. Live work continued to impress and in 1972 they were invited to play in Brazil at the Rio Song Festival, which they did in front of a 60,000 strong live audience and millions of South American TV viewers. Enough was earned to fund the recording of a full second LP. Although never released, from it came the band's most fully realized creation, the song 'Buffalo,' managing at turns to be both menacing and elegiac. A severely truncated version was released as a single by PYE in 1973 and graces comps today such as Sanctuary's Gather In The Mushrooms. Fortunately the original full length version survives and we kick off disc two with it. The rest of disc two contains the best of the other recordings made during 1971-1973, including two stand out rockers in 'Man Of Renown' and 'Bellyful of Rock,' recorded for a Scottish TV show. (Forcedexposure)
Writing on the Wall's only album was theatrical heavy blues-psychedelic-rock that, despite its power and menace, was too obviously derivative of better and more original artists to qualify as a notable work. The organ-guitar blends owe much to the Doors, Procol Harum, and Traffic, though the attitude is somehow more sour and ominous than any of those groups. The vocals are sometimes pretty blatant in their homages to Arthur Brown, particularly when Linnie Paterson climbs to a histrionic scream; Jim Morrison, Gary Brooker, and Stevie Winwood obviously left their imprints on him too. Throw in some of the portentous drama from the narrations to the Elektra astrological concept album The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds (particularly on "Aries") as well. A problem is, however, that not many singers other than Morrison and Brown could pull off this kind of solemn poetic mood, and on "Aries," to take one example, the attempt to create a seance-like atmosphere seems faintly ridiculous. To look at the positives, the band does play with a soul-rock crunch; the songs sometimes shift tempo (occasionally in and out of martial beats) and melody unpredictably, if not nearly as memorably as, say, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown did; and there are occasional off-the-wall touches of accordion and, on "Virginia Waters," speaking-in-tongues vocals with a nod to Family's Roger Chapman. (AMG)
"Power Of The Picts" Album 1969:
01. It Came On A Sunday
02. Mrs. Cooper's Pie
03. Ladybird
04. Aries
05. Bogeyman
06. Shadow Of Man
07. Tasker's Successor
08. Hill Of Dreams
09. Virginia Water
10. Child On A Crossing [Single]
11. Lucifer Corpus [Single]
"Buffalo" Album 1972 + Bonus:
01. Felicity Jane [1968]
02. Nobody Knows [Buffalo Album 1972]
03. Buffalo [Buffalo Album 1972]
04. Henry Dawson [Buffalo Album 1972]
05. Dianes Big Daddy [Buffalo Album 1972]
06. Live & Learn [Buffalo Album 1972]
07. Dream Yourself A Hero [Buffalo Album 1972]
08. Fishers Of Men [Buffalo Album 1972]
09. Tripsy Lady [Buffalo Album 1972]
10. Bellyful Of Rock [Live 1973]
11. Man Of Renown [Live 1973]
12. Buffalo [Demo]"
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1
