365 Albums 256 to 270

1. Night of Doom Rick van der Linden 1978
2. Old Friends New Friends Rick van der Linden 1995
3. Solo Rick van der Linden 1981 (I notice now that I chose this before. Consider it replace by van der Linden's 1978 album GX1)
4. Julie Fowlis Live at Perthshire Amber Julie Fowlis 2011
5. Mar a Tha Mo Chridhe (As My Heart Is) Julie Fowlis 2007
6. The Beauty of Bojoura 1970
7. The Beatles Live at the BBC The Beatles 1994 (recordings 1963-65)
8. CU Jan Akkerman 2004
9. Finnegan's Wake Tangerine Dream 2011
10. Oil in the Family Jan Akkerman 1981
11. Swung Vol 1 N van der Steenhiven, B Jacobs and P van der Linden 2014
12. Into the Electric Castle Ayreon 1998
13. Magical Mystery Tour 1967
14. Islands Mike Oldfield 1987
15. The Seer Big Country 1986

365 Albums 61-75

1. Indelible Grace Side A Side B 2001 (Rerelease 2008)*
2. Revolver The Beatles 1966
3. Father of the Bride Vampire Weekend 2019
4. Scribbled in chalk Karine Polwart 2006
5. Diamond Life Sade 1984
6. Pictures at an Exhibition Emerson Lake and Palmer 1971
7. Fragile Yes 1972
8. Feels Like Home Norah Jones 2004
9. Solo Rick van der Linden 1981*
10. How to save a life The Fray 2006
11. The Home Concert 2008
12. Hommage aan Rogier van Otterloo Jacobs, van Leer, van Dijk, Jacobs 1990
13. Moving Waves Focus 1971
14. Les Deux Amis Les Deux Amis Plays Focus 1985*
15. Zooming into Focus Texel 2018

(* Suitable for Sunday playing IMHO)

Retro Album of the Week 19 - Trace

This week I want to feature the self-titled first album by the Dutch band Trace which came out in 1974. The rise of the band Focus in the seventies meant that some of us her in the UK began to look to see what else Holland had to offer in this field. We had heard of Ekseption and it was with the demise of that group and the departure of Pierre Van Der Linden from Focus that the line up for this album came about. Ekseption didn't want (the late) Rick Van Der Linden (a sort of Dutch Keith Emerson) for some reason and so Phillips gave him the opportunity to forma  new band. He tried working with the Ekseption drummer but that failed. Then with Pierre Van Der Linden (second cousin of Rick they now say; I had thought they were completely unrelated) and Jaap Van Eik (bass) forming a trio he got it together with this album. (They were to have been Ace but the name had been taken so someone suggested Trace). The album was no Moving Waves as far as success was concerned but I just loved it and still do. They did come to Cardiff but it was prayer meeting night so I didn't join my friends for that. What I like is the reworking of Bach, Grieg and folk tunes from Scandinavia and Scotland plus the obligatory solos for bass and drums. The synthesisers sound dated now but were state of the art then an can still sound good. Much later copies of the album add two bonus tracks. Two further albums were produced after this one with altered line ups. This is by far the best.

What seventies prog rock was all about

This video of the late Rick van der Linden's Trace has it all - hair, satin, banks of keyboards, a drum break, etc, etc. Not to everyone's taste I'm sure.