Man In The Bowler Hat

Bought it around 1974. Still exciting to listen to. Now I own all of their CDs. A masterpiece that still sounds fresh.

If you are looking for great melodic pop then look no further. Man in a Bowler Hat is simply the best successor to Abbey Road that you will ever find. It's not that Stackridge sound exactly like the Beatles, it's that they embody the same creative and melodic spirit like no other band. It helps that this album was produced by George Martin but the similarities were there all along. Yes Stackridge take diversions and yes they are sometimes a comedy/novelty act but Bowler Hat is a consistently good pop album from the first note to the last. My rating is for the music content on this CD but I do have some critical comments about the Angel Air reissue: ARTWORK: Awful! The only black mark I can find on the whole Stackridge remaster program is that the artwork is hideous. I mean BAD! The colors on the covers are not accurate and the images are very fuzzy. Some of the liner note photos are pixilated and hardly worth using. I can't say enough bad things about the artwork. Truly some of the worst reissue artwork I have in my collection - especially give the high quality of the original LP art. PACKAGING: Fair. With bad artwork its hard for the packaging to be good. The problem is that the packaging looks like a homemade job at best and just isn't consistent with the amazing cover art the band had going for it. The photos in the booklets are minimal and the memorabilia looks like it was photographed by kids. The liner notes are okay but just not detailed enough to be worth the time to read them. BONUS TRACKS: None. Note that the Amazon listing is wrong as of the writing of this review. This CD is the orginal album only (10 tracks). For the bonus tracks you need to buy Friendliness. SOUND: Unforunately the Edsel is still the way to go for the original sound of the album. This one uses modern mastering which some will like and audiophiles will hate. Fortunately it's the music that prevails here. For the high prices of the CDs and for a band that had interesting LP covers I wish Angel Air had invested just a little more in the art and packaging. Perhaps that's looking a gift horse in the mouth?

The Man in the Bowler Hat must represent the peak of Stackridge's achievement. Teamed up with Beatles collaborator George Martin, the band scale new heights of melody, invention and offbeat humour. Classic moments include the live favourite The Galloping Gaucho (what were they taking - and where can I get some?), The Road to Venezuela, a wistful tale of lustfulness in Latin America, and God Speed the Plough - which manages to evoke the England of a bygone age just as effectively as the music of Delius, Vaughan Williams and Elgar - from a rock band! If you are new to Stackridge this is the one to buy! I can't listen to this album without wanting to pull on my Morris Dancing gear, grab a pint of summer ale and smile ridiculously all day. If that sounds appealing your money will be well spent here.

A great unknown treasure from the 60’s and 70's, just pick this wonderful melodic but very different record (cd) and sit back and enjoy something quite different but at the same soul lifting as you become at bliss with play being put on not for you but for all.

Another "hooked me" by Amazon. I bought one CD by the group (Anyone For Tennis)and really ejoyed it, so I istended to the preview and bought another by the same group. They have a new album out - you can actch one song from it performed live on You Tube - Stackridge appeared on Craig Fergusen (after Letterman) a few months ago. Amazon shipping great, on time, nice boxes.

I wanted to try this one out. George Martin and all that. The arrangements and musicianship are just fine. I think this kind of music either grabs you or it doesn't. It has an old-timey music hall feel about it that really isn't my thing. After about 6 listens I like it better than after the first. I'll listen some more and revise my review if need be.

Great album. Thank you very much...

Great (yet obscure) album from a wonderful band who have been playing together since the 60s.

QUE pour les inconditionnels de pop musique et connaisseurs de ce groupe

Be-bop deluxe meets XTC meets City boy, would be the best way to describe this album. This Stackridge release pre-dates the notable offerings from the more successful bands I've listed above.What can I say about "the man in the bowler hat '' to do it justice. This is one of those "every home should have one essential" releases. The opener 'Fundamentally yours' blows me away from the keyboard opening to the rocky drumming and superb deep bass lines and a fine tune with just the right vocals to match the quirky lyrics. Highlights abound on this album, but I'll give special mention to 'the road to Venezuela ' and ' The last plimsoll. ' The latter would be one of my 8 choices for 'desert island discs.' After I bought this, I read that, several longstanding fans ( which counts me out) , say this is the best album the band did. They had a number of line up changes after this, their most successful release. This is 5 star stuff, and like 'Stu Nunnery's little known of eponymous album (also 1973), Stackridge MITBH album is , for me at least, a lucky and recent find.

Found myself singing the road toVenezuela the other day out of nowhere, went on-line and bought this. They were one of the great off the wall bands of the 70s to see live and I have great memories of Doing the Stanley at various venues. However, I had forgotten what a great recording band Stackridge were too, not having played my vinyl versions for 20 years. Still sounds fresh and quirky with some great melodies and I am now going around singing the Galloping Gaucho- my kids love it really and I will now work on Devo with them.

I love Stackridge and here you get them at their peak, quirky, inventive and very English. Not sure how much this remaster adds apart from the second disc which, to be honest, I could have done without. But it is great music,

If you are tired of Stackridge - you are tired of life - to steal a lyric from an esteemed writer. Under the tight direction of a master at the recording desk, created whilst across the ocean Nixon is being impeached and at home the nation struggles under political uncertainty and power-cuts - a cult band from the Avon Cities created a timeless bunch of songs with all the panache of music hall vaudevillians - who 4 years earlier had opened the first ever Music Festival at Worthy Farm near Glastonbury. See this band LIVE before the nurse smiles serenly at you lying in the bed by the door in the Clement Atlee ward. Failing that - buy this album and close your eyes you will experience a range of musical styles - Stackridge combine the oral tradition of telling stories with tunes that will hook your imagination and put a spring in your step.