BLODWYN PIG ahead rings out PINK ISLAND LP PSYCH PROG

	£		35
	$		46

UK pressing on the pink Island label from 1969. The record is in excellent+ condition and the gatefold sleeve is in excellent condition.
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Here is a review:
Blodwyn Pig was guitarist Mick Abraham’s response to Ian Anderson’s more pop and folk-friendly inclinations for Jethro Tull, the group they both helped found at the start of the blues-based music boom of the mid-60s. Leaving Anderson in charge of the soul and future direction of the group, Abraham put together a credible if short-lived outfit producing two very good albums that struck a chord with record buyers of the day.
Blodwyn Pig was a rare example of an off-shoot band whose commercial appeal came close to rivaling that of its parent group; Tull’s Stand Up topped the charts in July ’69, Ahead Rings Out made it to number nine the following month.
It was always going to be Abrahams’ beast and unsurprisingly it stuck to the formula expressed on Tull’s debut, This Was. However the secret ingredient that gave them an edge was wind player and multi-instrumentalist, Jack Lancaster.
A more assured and robust soloist than Anderson, Lancaster’s playing moved between King Curtis or Coltrane as occasion demanded. The throwaway opener “It’s Only Love” is lifted by his sparkling, punchy horn arrangement, whilst “The Modern Alchemist” enables Lancaster to jazz it up large.
Featuring exemplary backing from Andy Pyle on bass and drummer Ron Berg, the album sits firmly in the long-coated underground brigade camp that stretched the blues, if not quite to snapping point, then at least into some interesting shapes and occasionally humorous squeezes. “The Change Song”, with its mockney ‘boy done good’ monologue shows the irony of white boys getting rich by singing the blues wasn’t lost on Abrahams.
“Leave It With Me” or “Sing Me A Song I Know” are pure Tull – close your eyes and it could easily be the cock-legged Anderson belting through those changes. Such similarities may help account for Blodwyn Pig’s commercial appeal which was consolidated on tours in both Europe and America ensuring their excellent sequel, Getting To This, charted at number eight when released in 1970.
Unlike its previous outing on the BGO label, this new collection gathers non-album singles on CD for the first time, including the Tull-heavy “Same Old Story”. Though such additions are welcomed the original running order has been tampered with. "Backwash", the short and sweet pastoral set-up / sucker punch for the aggressive blasting of “Ain’t Ya Comin’ Home Babe?”, is relegated to an almost-ran slot as the end of the album, replaced by a chronologically out of place “See My Way” from their follow-up album.
A now minor footnote in the Jethro Tull story, this reissue reminds us just how forceful and effective Blodwyn Pig were at their particular brand of jazz-tinged blues that never forgot to rock. Bracing stuff.

And here's another review:
The first thing that always hit me about Blodwyn Pig was what a big, big sound they had for a four piece band, no doubt due in part to their reed player managing the not inconsiderable feat of playing two horns at once. It was, and remains, a tremendously invigorating racket. And on their first album it's there from the start with no gentle introductions. Immediately, you hear the whole band giving it the proverbial six-nowt on the mighty 'It's Only Love', one hell of an opening gambit. Mick Abrahams sounds as if he's having a wail of a time, bellowing out his chops like a man possessed. The band sound raw, rough and slightly unrehearsed; the result a magnificent maelstrom of barely-controlled mayhem. It rocks like a bitch, believe me. And you'll know within three minutes whether or not this is the band for you.
'Dear Jill' is, in total contrast, a deadly slow and tightly rhythmic chunk of jazz-inflected blues. It's characterised by some highly inventive chord progressions well beyond the standard three chord blues base, and a gorgeous soprano solo by Lancaster that starts on a remote key totally alien to the rest of the song. Abrahams excels on bottleneck guitar throughout. The slowed down descending guitar/sax motif at the end of each verse is inspirational, vividly illustrating the tired and resigned lyrical theme.
'Sing Me A Song That I Know' goes back to the hell-for-leather approach of the opening track. Many people's first taste of prime Pig, due to its inclusion on the bargain-of-1969 'Nice Enough To Eat' sampler, it simultaneously delivers hard rock, heavy blues and red hot jazz inside three frenetic minutes. The contrast with Jethro Tull's contemporaneous (and equally wonderful) 'Stand Up' is so marked here that Abrahams' departure from that band the year before seems totally understandable. And, a slow intro notwithstanding, the pace slackens not one iota for 'The Modern Alchemist', a wild instrumental free-for-all that only just manages to stay within defined tonal boundaries with an almost palpable feeling of unrest. It ends Side One leaving you gasping for breath.
'Up And Coming' heralds Side Two with a deafening horn fanfare, before falling into a mesmerising laid back blues with some of the most ground-trembling bass on record. The magical central guitar solo has echoes of Clapton, Green and Page but is still unmistakably Abrahams, while Lancaster's gentle flute fills show what a stylistically different proposition he is to Ian Anderson on that most un-rock and roll instrument. If there IS anything on 'Ahead Rings Out' that owes anything to Tull, it's the album's second instrumental tour de force, 'Leave It With Me'. Here, Jack Lancaster can't resist blowing his flute just that little bit harder, and in doing so almost manages to outplay his better-known rival. Almost, but not quite. Think of the track as the speeded-up bastard son of 'Dharma For One' and 'Serenade To A Cuckoo' from the first Tull LP, and note Andy Pyle's cool bass solo in the middle. Once again, it rocks big-time.
'The Change Song' is given a spoken introduction by Abrahams in finest (Luton) Cockney patois. It's amusing, but cheapens what is actually a poignant acoustic duo of considerable charm; a welcome relief from the battery of noise dominating the album. The versatile Lancaster accompanies Abrahams' memorable slide playing with delectably fragile bowed and plucked violin.
After the brief but distracting 'Backwash' instrumental comes the album's heaviest track , 'Ain't Ya Coming Home Babe', built around a brain-numbing two-chord riff with thrilling unison guitar and vocal licks from Abrahams. It's long central section allows Lancaster and Abrahams to really stretch out over a different riff (unignorably close to Sabbath's 'War Pigs' of the following year). The song then returns to the dumb-ass simple two-chorder with which it started, before shifting its key upwards at the most unexpected place. A masterstroke with which to close the collection.
'Ahead Rings Out' also has that rare thing - a sleeve note - albeit one of considerable levity. I still wonder if Mick was taking the piss when he refers to having written 'The Change Song' in prison...
Maybe a record which went Top 10 and garnered substantial critical acclaim on its release falls outside the perameters of 'Unsung'. But I make no apologies for offering 'Ahead Rings Out' for consideration in these hallowed pages as it was deleted within five years, never to reappear until its low-key BGO reissue in 1990. Island (or Chrysalis, who hold the rights to the album) deserve our wrath for such sustained artistic starvation, for Blodwyn Pig's first album is a classic noisy hybrid of blues, jazz, a little folk, and a lot of hard, hard rock. It would be followed by the even more diverse and satisfying 'Getting To This' in 1970. One day soon, if you'll allow me, I'll have a rave about that one too.