They shoulda been contenders.  The collected works of hotly-tipped 70s rockers, Snafu – assembled for our delectation.

Release Date:  31^st May 2024

Label: Grapefruit/Cherry Red Records

Formats: 4xCD Boxset

Were they funk?  Were they Southern Rock?  Were they country-rockers?  Or were they straight-down-the-line heavy rock?  Snafu, the mid-70s brainchild of vocalist Bobby Harrison and wonderkid guitarist Mickey Moody were all of these things, and more and, in an era when bands were expected to define their formula and stick to it, that versatile approach may very well have been the recipe that led to their undeserved downfall.

They were an excellent band, of that there’s no doubt, capable, on their day of stealing any show with their musicianship and their spine-tingling presence, and it’s difficult to hazard any guesses as to why they never really made it out of rock’s second division.  They certainly had the exposure; they were regulars on the 70s festival circuit, thrilling audiences at the 1975 Reading Festival and the widely-publicized 1976 Great British Music Festival.  They were also, for quite a while, the go-to support act for the big seventies headliners and toured with, amongst others, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Status Quo, Deep Purple, The Doobie Brothers and Nazareth.  But, it’s the music that provides the lasting memories and, after they’d called it a day in 1976, Snafu left behind a legacy of three splendid – and criminally under-rated – albums, now collected here, along with a selection of non-album singles, studio out-takes and live recordings in this latest boxset offering from our friends at Cherry Red Records.

The boxset is the usual high-quality, comprehensive and informative Cherry Red package.  It’s a 4-CD set, each of the first three discs featuring one of the band’s albums – the eponymous 1974 debut, the sophomore 1974 follow-up, Situation Normal and the final Snafu album, 1975’s All Funked Up.  Each disc includes bonus tracks, mainly taken from BBC Sessions (both John Peel and Bob Harris were fans of the band, and Snafu made regular appearances on Top Gear and The Old Grey Whistle Test) and the set is completed by a disc of live recordings, taken from BBC Sessions and from a January 1976 gig at Nottingham’s Trent Polytechnic.  As usual, the packaging is lavish – each disc comes in its own album cover reproduction sleeve and the whole lot is housed in a tasteful clamshell box.  The accompanying booklet – with its detailed band biog, written by David Wells – is interesting and well-illustrated; it all makes for a hugely satisfying product!

The seeds that were to germinate into Snafu were planted when Bobby Harrison, ex-Procol Harum and formerly drummer/vocalist with Freedom, met up with Juicy Lucy guitarist Micky Moody, in the bar at London’s Speakeasy.  The pair collaborated to write a track, Long Gone, originally intended for inclusion of Harrison’s planned solo album, and they realized that their styles and tastes were compatible.  Drummer Terry Popple – formerly a bandmate of Moody’s in Tramline – ex-Paladin keyboardist Pete Solley and bassist Colin Gibson – who’d seen service in Newcastle psych outfit, Skip Bifferty and Ginger Baker’s Airforce – were signed up and Snafu was born.  And, yes, they did take their name from the American Service slang acronym…

The debut, self-titled Snafu album is an enduring showcase of what this most eclectic of bands were all about.  Opening track, Long Gone – that initial collaboration between Messrs. Harrison and Moody – is rocky and funky, Said He The Judge demonstrates that there was considerable substance in the comparisons with Lynyrd Skynyrd that Snafu were to attract throughout their existence, whilst the influence of The Band is clearly audible in the country-flavoured offerings – Monday Morning, Country Nest and Funky Friend.  Elsewhere, there’s a jazzy feel to the chunky Goodbye USA, whilst That’s the Song, the album’s closing track, is a nod in the direction of gospel.  Reviews were favourable and the UK music papers were predicting big things for Snafu in 1974 but sales of the album – and the stand-alone single, Dixie Queen (also included here) – were disappointing.  It was time to try again…

It was with follow-up album, Situation Normal, that I started to personally sit up and take notice of Snafu.  The album hit the shops in October 1974, and it remains a wonderful hoard of busied treasure.  Once again, the choice of material covers a lot of ground; with the raucous swagger of Lock And Key -perhaps Snafu’s signature number; the song’s opening line provides the title for this boxset – sitting comfortably alongside the smooth balladry of Jessie Lee and No Bitter Taste, the retro-jazz of Ragtime Roll and the spidery funk of Playboy Blues.  And, if good-natured bluegrass knockabout is your thing, you’ll find that in here, too, with the hilarious Brown Eyed Beauty And The Blue-assed Fly.  Situation Normal is a tremendous album – it still sounds great today – and it deserved far more success than it received.  Perhaps, as David Wells suggests in his booklet notes to this boxset, the album’s poor sales were the result of disinterest and inaction on the part of the band’s management and record company.  Whatever the reason, the public were denied access to an album that could, and should, have made Snafu a household name.

By mid-1975, change was in the wind in camp Snafu.  Pete Solley left and was replaced by ex-Jackson Heights keyboard man Brian Chatton, as the band returned to the studio to record their third, and final, album, All Funked Up.  It’s very much an album that does exactly what it says on the tin.  Augmented by second keyboardist, the one and only Tim Hinkley and backing vocalists Liza Strike and Viola Wills, All Funked Up saw Snafu move away from the Americana influences that had informed much of their earlier work, to focus more upon soul and funk.  And the result was another fine album.

Band compositions like Bloodhound, Deep Water and Bar Room Tan sit alongside contributions from new boy Chatton (Turn Around and the album’s irresistible closer, Dancing Feet) and a glorious rework of the majestic Lock and Key, but it’s probably the proliferation of cover versions that make All funked Up such a notable product.  The album opens with Snafu’s cover of the Allman Brothers’ song, Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’ and the band take deep dives into their new soul-dominated direction with creditable stabs at Stevie Wonder’s Keep on Running, Otis Redding’s Hard to Handle and Brenda Holloway’s 1964 hit, Every Little Bit Hurts. Sadly, All Funked Up followed its predecessor albums into the realm of undeserved obscurity and, after a further single, Are You Sure (included here as a Disc 3 bonus track) and a 1976 tour, Snafu called it a day.  They made three great albums and they were a powerful live act, as the collection of live cuts included on Disc 4 of this set readily testifies.  Snafu deserved so much more than they received.  They shoulda been contenders.

Watch Snafu perform the funked-up version of their signature song, Lock and Key in a June 1975 appearance on the Supersonic TV show here:

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