Running
Free
Five Penny Piece
EMI
Columbia DB 8527
Release
Date: 10th January 1969
This
was the debut record by the band, issued early
in 1969. The record labels on both sides of
the single state that the record was produced
by Finito (a management company run by
Tony Palmer and Adrian Rudge)
for Noel Gay Productions. Sadly, the
record didn't, as they say, trouble the compilers
of the record charts. Neither side of this single
appeared on any of the band's albums and consequently
the record has become highly collectible.
Both songs were written by John Meeks and Colin
Radcliffe, who wrote much of the material on
their later records. Both sides of the record
sound more "folky" than some of the
band's later work, even though there is orchestral
string accompaniment to the band's otherwise
mainly acoustic guitar-based sound, with George
on string bass.
A minor but interesting point to note is that
on the demo label the band was shown as Five
Penny Piece ("Five Penny" as two
separate words), whereas on the official release
copy it was shown as Fivepenny Piece
("Fivepenny" as one word) - you can
see this on the labels displayed at the top
of the page.
Side
1
- Running
Free (Meeks-Radcliffe)
Side
2
- Land
Of Half Past Nine (Meeks-Radcliffe)
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7XCA
32317 - Front label |
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7XCA
32318 - Back label |
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Front
label of demo copy |
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Back
label of demo copy |
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