CASTLE MUSIC

Chairmen of the Board - Finders Keepers - The Invictus Anthology

Released on 18 November 2002.

I've got a soft spot for the Chairmen. Bittersweet was one of the first albums that I bought and i loved it, played it to death, but I don't own it now. One of those that disappeared through time - where do they go.

Of course, all the hits are here, and they were good weren't they - no they are good. Interesting bill poster on the sleeve notes where the Chairmen were top of the bill ahead of other more established names (even though General had been around for as long as the others)- but in that chunk of time they were very big indeed, particularly as I recall (maybe wrongly) on this side of the water.

The voices, General Johnson's in particular, were so distinctive and visually as well, I well remember the giant Afro on Top of the Pops. It didn't matter that they were to a degree 'manufactured' because we were used to this. Even the substandard material is distinctive and therefore to an extent listenable to, but in the early stages this was a rare occurrance.

'Bless you' was a great bside, still one I particularly like. Of the hits I like the bluesy Chairman of the Board with Harrison Kennedy on lead and the 'Patches' like story tale of Elmo James. Patches itself was also covered. Pay to the Piper was strong to, written by General Johnson and Greg Perry and featuring Danny Woods on vocal. Johnson and Perry also wrote 'Men are getting scarce', an amusing piece of backlash material!

Johnson and Perry were starting to predominate even HDH around the time of the Bittersweet album, and the title track is great stuff, but sadly never sold as a single because it was too..well bittersweet for the commercial marketplace. Great album track though, and a great album. I'm on my way to a better place was the hit of this period. There's a whole lot of influences in there, blues and gospel and much more, and as a result there is a loss of direction. Let me down easy is a good one amongst some lesser ones plus Funny how time, a great song anyway in anybody'd book. Commercially this showed as well and there was a major change in about 1973 to a more funky outlook.

Seemingly this was imposed by the label and the best thing out of it was Finders Keepers. The final album did give rise to a good title track Skin I'm in and moving into Psychedelia with Life and Death.

This a pretty complete perspective of the group and the period but I do think it would be a little stronger if it was cut down a tad, maybe to a double rather than a treble.