England 'Garden Shed'

Tracks
England: Garden Shed (1977)
1. Midnight Madness
2. All Alone
3. Three Piece Suite
4. Paraffinalea
5. Yellow
6. Poisoned Youth

Total Time: 47.41

Martin Henderson (bass and vocals)
Franc Holland (guitar and vocals)
Robert Webb (keyboards and vocals)
Jode Leigh (percussion, vocals, and bass).

Being the (perhaps not so) closet Prog anorak that I am I belong to a few Internet discussion groups. They are sometimes time consuming and argumentative affairs but you do tend to get pointed in the right direction of new interesting things and 'lost classics'. An LP that keeps cropping up, as one of these classics is England's 'Garden Shed'.
Now I remember seeing England a few times in the mid 70's mainly supporting The Enid. I remember them as being quite good, a bit arrogant on stage (on at least one occasion The Enid had to switch off the power as England would not leave the stage to allow the headliners on) but as far as a "legendary" "classic" No - it just didn't ring true.
I had to admit that the album as with all of my vinyl collection was consigned to the attic (but I just can't part with them) and had laid to rest for more time than I can comfortably remember. However, the album had been re-mastered and re-released on CD in a very limited quantity a few years ago and snapped up like the proverbial hot cakes. Although completely unavailable now, someone very kindly put his CDR to good use (thanks Pete).
So here I am sitting down waiting to rediscover an album that I haven't heard for at least a decade or possibly two……….

.1. Midnight Madness

"Plink plink" - synthesiser light strings -orchestral horns it's The Enid! - Now if you are talking about 'Lost Classics' their 'In The Region Of The Summer Stars' is the very top of my list. I digress, vocals and guitar enter - Kayak!! 'Royal Bed Bouncer'. Yet another lost one. Slow bit - electric piano - Supertramp 'Crime Of The Century' they keep rolling in. OK maybe derivative but its still good.

2. All Alone

Lone grand piano accompanying lone vocals. Again I am so reminded of Kayak

3. Three Piece Suite

Bird Song - Lush Mellatron (Think 'Fountain of Salmacis') - its Genesis meet Supertramp this time with added Gentle Giant. Nice melodic vocals with a guitar solo straight from Camels Andy Latimer's desk top. And here's Kayak again….. I do rather like this keyboard riff at the end…

4. Paraffinalea

YES !! - But maybe 'Drama' era and that was released three years after this - No it isn't ITS SPOCKS BEARD!!!

5. Yellow

Wash of string synth. Strummed acoustic guitars. Harmony vocals - Hackettesque guitar lead line - Druid 'Towards The Sun'? Another lost …um well perhaps not.

6. Poisoned Youth

Oh well time for the 16 minute magnum opus.
Thudding Chris Squire Bass line. Cross-channelling vocals. Dramatic keyboard theme etc etc

All in all 'Garden Shed' is a good and rather enjoyable album. The musicianship is highly competent and the re-master is as crisp or even crisper than the day it was recorded. But it's so derivative of a lot of things - a real mixture of sounds from other English (and one Dutch) bands all of which were around just before them: -
Camel
Druid
The Enid
Genesis
Gentle Giant
Kayak (especially)
Supertramp
Yes

Good album it is, but a long way from being a 'lost classic'. Why it has wrongly gained this accolade is perhaps simply down to the Internet being still largely dominated by an American audience. An audience that will not have heard of, in particular, The Enid and Kayak, two of England's stronger influences. People have also given this album another accolade - ' The first' or 'the father' of the 'Neo Prog' movement. Again no.- If there is any band England closely resembles more than any other it is Holland's Kayak and their classic 'Royal Bed Bouncer' hails from 1975. England may have helped put the pop song into English prog but then again who actually heard this album in 1977? - I only did because they supported my favourite band…Anyway 'Neo' prog was born out of Genesis. There is far more Yes influence in 'Garden Shed' than Genesis. Now, if there is a direct future tense relationship between England and any wave of Progressive rock there are shared similarities in the current work of Spocks Beard and Echolyn - Both American bands. American bands - American Internet…Confusion reigns.

'Garden Shed' was a debut album. Debut albums will naturally always be, to a lesser or greater degree, influenced by the bands own mentors. After a couple of tours and a second album, if to survive, the band will go on to develop its own sound. England like Druid, Kayak and perhaps The Enid were robbed of this opportunity by the advent of 'Punk'. Without that radical change in UK pop and rock culture my own belief is The Enid could have been as big as Yes and Genesis - England - well who knows.

Ian Oakley February 2001

Phish & Chips