Saturday, February 2, 2013

ROCKIN' HORSE • YES IT IS

Here's a write up from the Sing Sing website about this record:

Rockin' Horse - "Yes It Is" has been critically hailed as one of the true lost British power pop relics. When the late Greg Shaw (Bomp Records & Magazine) created his Voxx subsidiary, the first single he decided to reissue was Rockin' Horses' 1971 magnum opus single, "The Biggest Gossip in Town." Shaw declared that the single was the greatest power pop song of all time - heady stuff. The power pop sounds of "Yes It Is" have been favorably compared to the best of The Beatles "Let it Be" era and Badfinger's early 1970 efforts. As an homage, the band's name was drawn from The Beatles "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and the album title itself from The Beatles b-side of "Ticket to Ride."
   Rockin' Horse was formed in 1971 by lifelong best friends, Jimmy Cambell (The Kirkbys/23rd Turnoff) and Billy Kinsley (The Merseybeats/The Merseys) after the end of their respective Liverpool bands had split. Joining the Liverpool core duo were hired studio guns, Bonny Falloon (guitar), Stan Gorman (drums) and Michael Snow (keyboards). Having been schooled in the very same musical influences as the fab four, the end result is eerily similar to the sound The Beatles were creating at the end of their career during 1968-1970. The album was not an attempt to "ape" The Beatles sound, but more the end product of having grown up as contemporaries of The Beatles in Liverpool and listening to the same records and playing the same circuits. How could they not end up sounding similar? 
   Locating a copy of the original album is close to impossible and very expensive. Now you can own one of the greater power pop recordings of all time on vinyl with its original Hipgnosis sleeve design.

Looks like this record has been out of print for a while now, here is a link to Discogs where you might just luck out, trust me it's worth the money. Rockin' Horse • Yes It Is on Discogs


Release Country: UK
Release Year: 1971 / Reissue Date: 01.12 
Original Label: Philips