RECORD COLLECTOR: 'Delight? It's f**king heavy man!... Joynson stitches together an astonishing amount of information across these two books...'
The Tapestry Of Delights: Expanded Two-Volume Edition
by Vernon Joynson *****
Delight? It's f**king heavy man!
No, that's not the brown acid kicking in, Vernon Joynson's Tapestry Of Delights really has doubled in size since it's 2006 edition - clocking in at over 5kg and covering UK psych and prog from 1963-76. You're free to argue the toss over whether those start and end dates cast too wide a net over questionable inclusions, but most hardened collectors will be tossing something else over the wealth of information here. And besides, there's nothing more psychedelic than a reckless lack of restraint; Shirley Bassey, welcome in...
Wielding personnel listings, potted biographies and timeframe-relevant discogs, Joynson stitched together an astonishing amount of information across these two books (packaged together, but split down A-K and L-Z). Sure, sure, check The Beatles and Hawkwind listings; get all hurdy gurdy about Donovan, why don't you... More exciting are provocative entries for the likes of Gilchrist, whose one 1975 7", Guardian In The Sky / Heading For The Grave, is simply listed: "Both the single and artist have been forgotten in the mists of time."
All we can say is: they must be painfully obscure. After all, Joynson's managed to discover The Lost - he even details what thery recorded to acetate in Birmingham in 1967. The only nag: a central colour section apiece adds much-needed vibrancy. With so many album sleeve reproductions, full-colour printing would really blow some minds.
Jason Draper
SHINDIG: The Heaviest Tapestry
The definitive UK R&B, psych and prog encylopaedia, THE TAPESTRY OF DELIGHTS, is back and bigger than ever
"When I was building up my personal collection in the late '70s and early '80s, I was frustrated by the fact that the groups who released many of the albums I was looking for weren't even featured in the rock and pop encyclopaedias of the era," explains Vernon Joynson about the primary signifier behind him writing his own tailored epics. "I set out to try to rectify this and ensure that many bands that may have been forgotten in the mists of time got more of the recognition they deserved. I think I was the only person doing this at the time. It was 1982 when I set to work on my first book and it's all mushroomed from there."
Now, with the fourth edition of The Tapestry Of Delights - a hefty two volume edition, totalling over 2,000 pages - Joynson is back with his most expansive effort yet, one which took him four years to compile. "I had a brief break after completing the expanded edition of Fuzz Acid & Flowers Revisited and then set to work on this," he chortles. "At first I was only intending for it to be the same size as Fuzz Acid & Flowers Revisisted, but as I delved deeper and deeper it soon became apparant that to include everything I wanted the book would have to extend over two volumes. I do feel bad about this because it is inevitably more expensive for the punters as a result."
In regard to the other psych music enclopaedias/reference books out there - by Patrick Lundborg (RIP), Richard Morton Jack and Hans Pokara, to name but three - Joynson describes the differing factors in his own entries, "Patrick's have more of a focus on private pressings and don't really cover the best known artists. Richard's focus more on comment on the music and Hans' are the most visual, essentially they contain colour photos of mostly very rare album covers (with rarity ratings) from all over the world. The geographical focus of Hans' book is worldwide, whereas all the others focus on particular countries or continents. I would say mine are more encyclopaedic than the others. They contain much more information on band personnel and bibliographies. They also contain much more detailed discographies (including reissues) than the others, but they also cover rarity and comment on the music too. The reason they are always longer than the others is because they do have more features. They have developed their own niche market. I do get the impression that a lot of punters like to buy all four authors; publications anyway."
JAZZWISE:
For jazz-rock and progressive fans, as well as followers of the harmonica wailing rhythm and blues, psychedelic, folk, beat and rock groups active in the UK from 1963 to 1976, this behemoth of a book, originally published in 1995 as a 600 page guide and expanded to 980 pages in 2006, has just doubled in size again to a whopping 2,080 pages for what's said to be its final edition.
Split, rather sensibly, across two volumes (the weight of a single book might have proved hernia-inducing even for Arnold Schwarzenegger) this alphabetical encyclopaedia documents every UK group and solo artist making music from 1963 until 1976 when punk's 'year zero' obliterated the landscape, and tracked down all their albums, EPs and single releases (plus subsequent reissues and archive releases on CD). It also includes entries for many key jazz musicians, including Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes, Michael Garrick, Graham Collier, Alan Skidmore, Ian Carr and Keith Tippett among others, and some notable unsigned bands who played key UK venues from this period, but who sadly never got beyond the demo tape stage.
In addition to a dungeon-deep discographical trawl for each entry and rarity ratings for each original LP pressing, author Joynson and his dedicated team of expert contributors have included extensive biographical details and personnel for all entries, as well as evaluation of the music and individual recordings. Handsomely illustrated with rare photo's, period press adverts and colour sections for the more eye-catching album sleeves, this exhaustive tome certainly lives up to it's name, and a quick dip into it's pages almost inevitably results in many 'lost' hours and an 'album wants list' of wallet-traumatising proportions. Who, for instance, knew that Louis Moholo and Dudu Pukwana were part of Simba, a short-lived group that released an Afro-rock single version of 'Louie Louie' on the Fire label in 1971? Or that saxophonist Jimmy Skidmore released an album for DJM entitled Skidmarks, the title of which must have regretted ever since? Was Allan Holdsworth's first pro group really called 'Igginbottom'? Or Mike Ketley, the recently-retired managing director of Yamaha Music UK, was in the 1968 mod-psych group Penny Peeps? Even Jazzwise's editor (and at least another of its writers) crops up here in a number of different groups - an inglorious testimony perhaps to their misspent youth. These, and thousands of other fascinating, curious or simply forgettable facts from a period increasingly referred to as 'a golden age' in UK music, await your discovery. (Kevin Whitlock)
ALL ABOUT JAZZ:
The word "cornucopia" could have been invented just for this immense two volume set. Contained within its 2,000 plus pages lies a veritable wealth of information. First published in 1995 at a modest 700-odd pages in length, and following several revised editions, this is author Vernon Joynson's attempt to cap them all with a vastly expanded edition. The time period covered, the "Beat, R&B, Psychedelic and Progressive" age, was an extremely important era and not least for British contemporary jazz.
A surprisingly large amount of jazz is featured here, especially where there has been any sort of a connection with rock or progressive genres. So the inclusion of bands such as Colosseum, Nucleus, If, Keef Hartley Band and Zzebra comes as no surprise, however what is particularly gratifying is the expansion of detail this edition affords to these groups. It should be noted that the time period covered is fairly strictly adhered to, but whilst the two final Nucleus albums recorded on the Mood label in the 1980s are understandably not mentioned, Tony Coe's Zeitgeist recorded in 1977 is given a paragraph.
As an example of the expanded entries, the third edition's (1998) coverage of Colosseum (albeit without the short-lived Colosseum II) was approximately half a page, whereas in the expanded edition it has grown to a full two and a half pages. Rather oddly John Dankworth the doyen of modern British jazz, is omitted here despite having made several key recordings during this period, however some of his band's alumni including Michael Gibbs Henry Lowther and Kenny Wheeler are given entries. Curiously, other contemporary jazz musicians from the "old wave" are given space here, such as Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Ross, Ronnie Scott and the one-off big band album by Kenny Clare and Ronnie Stephenson, Drum Spectacular.
Of the British jazz "new wave" there are entries for the likes of Neil Ardley and the New Jazz Orchestra (although not credited as such), Harry Beckett, Graham Collier, Lol Coxhill, Michael Garrick, John McLaughlin, Chris McGregor, Harold McNair, Mike Osborne, The Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet, Ray Russell, Alan Skidmore (also his father the late Jimmy Skidmore), John Surman, John Taylor, Mike Taylor, Keith Tippett, Mike Westbrook, and Norma Winstone. Gratifyingly, another new entrant, virtuoso pianist Stan Tracey is given an appropriately sizeable listing spanning a whole page.
The crossover jazz-infused progressive bands are properly represented and constitute the likes of Egg, Gilgamesh, Gong, Hatfield and the North, Henry Cow, Isotope, King Crimson, Matching Mole and Soft Machine. In addition to Howard Riley and the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, both cited in previous editions, new entries from the free jazz world include ones for Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley.
Most of the entries recorded during the chronological period discussed are accompanied by short critiques and brief biographical details of the musicians and there are several pages of tantalising colour plates of album covers. Also, interspersed amongst the pages are historic gig advertisements, serving as a poignant reminder of the many and varied venues that have now sadly bitten the dust along with so many of the bands.
What is singularly delightful in this work is the excitement generated by the serendipitous discovery of jazz entries scattered amongst the pop and rock; hybrid curios such as Chitinous by the Chitinous Ensemble (the title of which is unacknowledged in its entry here) is just one example.
For non-jazz fans though the prodigious space allocated to progressive, pop, and rock music is hugely rewarding and there's space enough for some relatively obscure bands such as the short-lived Principal Edwards Magic Theatre or Raw Material and even some spoken word items like an album by poet Adrian Mitchell or the several Monty Python's Flying Circus LPs.
Vernon Joynson has diligently researched this reference book and produced something of prodigious proportions and not merely in terms of its size. It reflects a period when contemporary music had surely reached one of its creative zeniths. This is a highly recommended work of significant historical importance and easily stands the test of time.(Roger Farbey)
