The Stackridge story continues as Esoteric reissue the recording and video of the revived band’s landmark 2007 concert at Bath’s Rondo Theatre.

Release Date:  26^th April 2024

Label: Esoteric Recordings

Formats: 2xCD + DVD Boxset

As you may be aware, we’ve been keeping a close watch on Cherry Red/ Esoteric’s reissue programme of the Stackridge back catalogue.  That programme had, by September 2023, taken us as far as the band’s 1975 concept album, Mr Mick, the final Stackridge offering before the original band decided to call it a day.  We indicated, in our review of Mr Mick, that, even though the band folded in April 1976, the Stackridge story was far from over and, by way of proof that there was still life in the old engine, Esoteric have now come up with yet another Stackridge gem – the reissue of The Forbidden City, a flawless document of the revived, reinvigorated, Stackridge, in concert at The Rodo Theatre, Bath, on 1^st April 2007.

Stackridge had made their first tentative steps towards reforming during the late 1990s and, in summer 1999, a Stackridge lineup comprising James Warren, Jim ‘Crun’ Walter, Mike Evans, Richard Stubbings, John Miller and Tim Robinson recorded a new Stackridge album – Something for the Weekend – and embarked on a UK Tour.  Stackridge were back.  A Y2K Cropredy appearance was followed in 2005 by a further album, Sex And Flags and, what’s more, the inimitable Mutter Slater was persuaded to return to the band’s ranks. 

By early 2007, the Stackridge lineup had stabilized to feature the core foursome of James Warren, Andy Davis, Crun Walter and Mutter Slater, with supplemental assistance from Glenn Tomney (keyboards and trombone), Nigel Newton (lead guitar), Andy Marsden (drums), Rachel Hall (violin) and Sarah Mitchell (violin and vocals).  And it was this lineup that set off on a spring 2007 tour, heralded by the concert preserved in its entirety on The Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City was originally released as a 2007 live 2CD set and a DVD and both have been unavailable for some years.  This new Esoteric product gathers both CDs and the DVD in a single clamshell boxset.  It’s a wonderful memento of a tremendous band performing at the very peak of its powers.

I was lucky enough to catch this particular incarnation of Stackridge in action when they appeared at the 2008 Fairport’s Cropredy Convention.  On that occasion, the years fell away as Stackridge surged through their unique back catalogue and, although it was recorded at a different show, The Forbidden City allows this particular Stackridge aficionado to relive a magical afternoon once again.

In compiling their setlist for the Bath show, Stackridge focused heavily on material from their early 1970s heyday, with a few songs – Something About the Beatles, Grooving Along the Highway on a Monday Morning Once and Help Under Doors taken from Something For the Weekend.  And, of course, both Andy Davis and James Warren had enjoyed considerable success in the 1980s with Stackridge offshoot band, The Korgis and, by way of acknowledgement of those days, outstanding renditions of Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime and If I Had Had You – the Korgis’ highest-charting singles were also included in the evening’s repertoire.

But, overwhelmingly, Stackridge Vintage 2007, was a celebration of some of the most eclectic, quirky, tuneful and – yes – esoteric music ever committed to record and, on The Forbidden City, Stackridge pay the most sincere tribute possible to some fantastic songs.  Go through your recollection of the greatest Stackridge moments and you’ll find most of them preserved here.  Dangerous Bacon, The Volunteer, Anyone for Tennis?, Friendliness, The Galloping Gaucho – they’re all here, performed in note-perfect form by a set of musicians at the very top of their game. 

There’s lots of lesser-known Stackridge material here too, including the only recorded version of Mutter’s fabulous Dancing on Air, Crun’s Wonderful Day (from the Sex and Flags album), Andy’s wonderful The Last Plimsoll, Happy in the Lord, from the criminally-underrated Extravaganza album and a pair from the Mr Mick project – Fish In A Glass and Can Inspiration Save the Nation.  All are performed with love and pride, and the pleasure that the band take from playing these classic songs – and the audience take from hearing them – is palpable, particularly on the DVD.

But, inevitably, it’s with the solid-gold Stackridge showcase songs that the sparks really start to fly.  The peerless Syracuse The Elephant is as heart-wrenching as ever, the band visit their earliest glory days with Teatime – introduced by James as: “The first song played at the very first Glastonbury Festival in 1969 by a band called Stackridge.  Or was it 1970?  Anyway, it was in Doncaster” – Lummy Days was anticipated and thoroughly enjoyed by all, and the evening is brought to raucous close with the unbeatable trio of Slark, Do The Stanley and Dora the Female Explorer.  My only regret is that space could not be made available for Purple Spaceships Over Yatton or Coniston Water – fine songs, both – in the setlist but, otherwise, The Forbidden City is Stackridge in a nutshell.

The interaction between band and audience is particularly evident on the DVD.  Fan interviews – predominantly with the kind of earnest, articulate and no-longer young men that make up a sizeable proportion of the Stackridge fanbase – demonstrate the devotion that, I suspect, continues to exist, and each of the four core members – Mutter in particular – display a clear empathy with the audience; Crun’s “Gay Polish Welder” joke raises a laugh, Mutter almost bursts with enthusiasm as he leads the crowd in the ”Oooooooooh…” interlude between verses in The Galloping Gaucho and his cry of “Oi cahn’t ‘ear yer!” entreats the crowd into a state of full participation in the singalong bits of Slark.

Perhaps Mike Tobin summarised it best in his informative notes in the booklet that accompanies the boxes: “When would you be able to go to a concert that featured The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Frank Zappa, Fairport Convention and Sir Edward Elgar? Answer – If you go to a Stackridge concert”. Forbidden City is a product to treasure and, to the still-considerable army of Stackridge followers, it’s indispensable.

Watch Stackridge perform The Galloping Gaucho – live at The Rondo Theatre, Bath, 1st April 2007 – here:

Stackridge online: Website / Facebook (fan forum)

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