A bona-fide amazing cult British album brought back to life! Not often that happens!
By the early 1970's Liverpool was no longer the "Beat City" of legend, it was rather down, the hangover of those days made worse by the early '70s drabness we all remember so well. Jimmy Campbell, poet laureate of Liverpool, had already made a major left turn from the melancholy psychedelia of The 23rd Turnoff to the even more downbeat, tell-it-like-it-is, stark acoustic sound of his solo debut Son Of Anastasia but he was about to make another, more significant turn, one which would nowadays be applauded as a stroke of genius, but which then was greeted like something akin to Dylan going electric by a press averse to nostalgic power pop of the Badfinger variety.
Teaming up with lifelong mate and ex-Merseybeat Billy Kinsley, Jimmy formed Rockin' Horse, the intention being, if the lyrical concerns were becoming increasingly bleak and inward-looking, they would be framed by the sounds of LIVE Merseybeat... pre-record deals, pre-everything, the sound of pals playing the Mersey R&B/girl group repertoire in someone's mum's back room... amps on HP, bottles of Double Diamond on the sideboard and harmonies aiming for Phil Everly.
Did they make it? Um, maybe... but that's not the point! Recorded almost live in the studio, the album succeeded so well in it's aim that today it sounds like the soundtrack to some forgotten Mike Leigh-esque movie classic. Back then it utterly baffled the UK media, who considered it some sort of perverse throwback... well, today we all know better.....today we might finally be ready for Jimmy Campbell and Billy Kinsley's crowning glory... ROCKIN' HORSE!
