Riding The Rock Machine: British Seventies Classic Rock 3CD

• Long-established as a hugely popular radio format, the Classic Rock sound was established – though not codified and canonised until some while later – in the Seventies, when numerous British bands from a pop or blues-based background pioneered a muscular, riff-based sound that dominated American FM airwaves and led the most successful practitioners to fame, fortune and all manner of related excess.

• But although there are innumerable radio stations now devoted to the baby boomer sounds of Classic Rock, their innately conservative, playlist-based nature means that the same heavyweight tunes are endlessly recycled: the casual listener could be forgiven for thinking that the careers of major bands like Thin Lizzy and The Who didn’t extend beyond ‘Whiskey In The Jar’, ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’.

• So allow the Grapefruit label to break down the walls of stultifying retroactive conservatism with an alternative look at the Classic Rock genre. Riding The Rock Machine features many of the era’s headline names (Lizzy and The ‘Oo, but also The Moody Blues, Free, Status Quo, Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, ELP, ELO, Uriah Heep etc) in slightly less familiar settings as well as some Classic Rock-friendly performances from acts who walked the walk and talked the talk but never quite received the same level of acclaim as the brand leaders.

• Housed in a no-expense-spared clamshell box with a lavishly annotated and illustrated 40-page booklet, Riding The Rock Machine features four hours of vintage sounds from British rock’s golden age as Grapefruit turns it up to eleven and goes where other labels fear to tread in search of the perfect riff. As our opening track proclaims, Long Live Rock’n’Roll!

1-1 –Rainbow Long Live Rock'n'Roll

1-2 –Uriah Heep Easy Livin'

1-3 –The Moody Blues I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band)

1-4 –The Alan Parsons Project I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You

1-5 –Foghat Slow Ride (Single Version)

1-6 –The Spencer Davis Group Catch You On The Rebop

1-7 –Yvonne Elliman I Can't Explain (Album Version)

1-8 –Faces Cindy Incidentally

1-9 –Procol Harum Robert's Box

1-10 –Blackfoot Sue Standing In The Road

1-11 –Medicine Head Back To The Wall

1-12 –The Who Success Story

1-13 –Trapeze Black Cloud

1-14 –Chris Squire Hold Out Your Hand

1-15 –Manfred Mann's Earth Band Spirits In The Night

1-16 –The Sensational Alex Harvey Band Boston Tea Party

1-17 –Jethro Tull Bungle In The Jungle

1-18 –Agnes Strange Clever Fool

1-19 –Fancy She's Ridin' The Rock Machine (Single Version)

1-20 –Sweet Action (Single Version)

2-1 –Foreigner Feels Like The First Time

2-2 –Nazareth This Flight Tonight

2-3 –Free Wishing Well

2-4 –Man Out Of Your Head

2-5 –Strawbs My Friend Peter

2-6 –Hawkwind Quark, Strangeness And Charm

2-7 –Silverhead Ace Supreme (Single Version)

2-8 –Status Quo Mystery Song (Album Version)

2-9 –Curved Air U.H.F.

2-10 –Magnum Baby I Need

2-11 –Electric Light Orchestra Showdown

2-12 –City Boy Momma's Boy

2-13 –Duffy The 1959 Rock'n'Roll Bop

2-14 –Rococo Hoodlum Fun

2-15 –Mick Ronson Only After Dark

2-16 –Strider Straddle

2-17 –Stray Move It

2-18 –Bullfrog Ice Cold Dick

2-19 –Maggot Shoelace

2-20 –Emerson, Lake & Palmer Lucky Man

3-1 –Roxy Music Street Life

3-2 –Be-Bop Deluxe Maid In Heaven

3-3 –Atomic Rooster Devil's Answer (US Album Version)

3-4 –Family In My Own Time

3-5 –Dana Gillespie Get My Rocks Off

3-6 –Hello New York Groove

3-7 –Thin Lizzy Jailbreak

3-8 –Tucky Buzzard Can't Live Without It

3-9 –National Flag Blowing A Million

3-10 –Hard Stuff Monster In Paradise

3-11 –Fat Mattress Black Sheep Of The Family

3-12 –10cc Life Is A Minestrone (Album Version)

3-13 –Sutherland Brothers & Quiver Dream Kid

3-14 –Smokestack Crumble Got A Bad Leg

3-15 –The Winkies Fever

3-16 –Mott The Hoople Ready For Love / After Lights

3-17 –Sad Café My Oh My (Single Version)

3-18 –Babe Ruth Jack O'Lantern

3-19 –Argent God Gave Rock And Roll To You