Beggars Opera - 1970 - Act One (full album)

Glasgow, Scotland, progressive rock band Beggars Opera was formed in the late 60s by Marshall Erskine (bass/flute), Ricky Gardener (guitar/vocals), Martin Griffiths (vocals/percussion), Alan Park (keyboards) and Raymond Wilson (drums). The group’s grandiose ambition was to fuse classical and progressive rock elements, an accommodation they achieved but only to moderate critical and commercial interest. The dominant Hammond organ sound drew comparison with the Nice, who were the leading organ-led prog band at that time. Signed to Vertigo Records, they made their debut in 1970 with Act One, released concurrently with ‘Sarabande’.
The single was the most successful of the two releases, charting in several mainland European countries. The album included a preposterous rendition of ‘Classical Gas’, which was eventually released as a single in its own right four years later. The group then expanded to a quintet with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Gordon Sellar (bass, guitar, vocals) for the follow-up collection, Waters Of Change. Abandoning some of the progressive rock elements of earlier recordings, the group pursued a more melodious rock direction on this album, heavily indebted to musical developments on America’s west coast.
Erskine had left the group by the time they recorded 1972’s Pathfinder, which included a cover version of Richard Harris’ ‘MacArthur Park’. Their final effort, 1973’s Get Your Dog Off Me, was completed as a trio, with Sellar joined by founder members Gardener and Park.
Defiantly cast in the shadow of the then-recently defunct Nice, but brimming with their own ideas and imagination, Beggars Opera emerged in 1970 with a debut album that still stands as one of the crown jewels of prog. Five tracks long in its original (Vertigo label) form, but bolstered with both sides of their debut single for the Repertoire CD, Act One is an audacious blending of hard riffs, Heep-esque vocals, and crazed organ and Mellotron, and it's those latter elements that most distinctly flavor the album. The opening "Poet and Peasant," based on Franz Von Suppe's overture of the same name, sets the scene with its multiple shifts in tone and tempo; the same composer's "Light Cavalry" then closes the disc in similarly dramatic style. "Raymond's Road" is the climax, however. An 11-minute orgy of sound that rides a "Rondo" rhythm, then sets a slew of classical snatches dancing above it. It's a breathtaking effort, a cross between a mad medley and a free festival freakout that so firmly establishes Beggars Opera's credentials that it seems impossible to believe that things never got any better for them.

Line-up / Musicians
- Martin Griffiths / vocals
- Alan Park / organ
- Raymond Wilson / drums
- Ricky Gardiner / lead guitar
- Marshal Erksine / bass guitar

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/beggars-opera-mn0000125699