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Warhorse remasters
Cherry Red Records is preparing a remasters of the two Warhorse albums — the 1970 self-titled one, and the ’72 Red Sea. Both will be packaged together on a 2CD set, with 11 bonus tracks between them and an illustrated booklet. Release date is set for April 26, 2024.
Formed in early 1970 by former Deep Purple bassist Nick Simper, the band began life as backing band for singer Marsha Hunt. The group also initially featured Rick Wakeman, but he departed the band in April 1970 to join Strawbs. Signing a licensing contract with Vertigo Records, the bandās self-titled debut album was released in November 1970. The release was followed by touring, but the bandās line-up evolved further before the recording of their second album, āRed Seaā, issued in June 1972.
Soon after this, drummer Mac Poole departed join Gong and was replaced by Barney James. Warhorse would continue until 1974, but vocalist Ashley Holt and Barney James would depart to join Rick Wakeman in his band The English Rock Ensemble.
The two albums recorded by Warhirse are fine examples of Progressive Hard Rock of the era. They are both featured in this collection, along with eleven further bonus tracks comprising demos and live recordings.
Track listing
DISC ONE
Warhorse
- Vulture Blood
- No Chance
- Burning
- St. Louis
- Ritual
- Solitude
- Woman of the Devil
- Ritual (live)
- Miss Jane (demo)
- Solitude (live)
- Woman of the Devil (live)
- Burning (live)
DISC TWO
Red Sea
- Red Sea
- Back in Time
- Confident But Wrong
- Feeling Better
- Sybilla
- Mouthpiece
- I (Who Have Nothing)
- Ritual (live)
- Bad Time (demo)
- She Was My Friend (demo)
- Gypsy Dancer (demo)
- House of Dolls (demo)
- Standing Right Behind You (demo)
More info and pre-orders are available on cherryred.co.uk
Thanks to Uwe Hornung for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Yo,
Good stuff, no-doubt Nick will be pleased to be both remembered & reissued lol !…
Further scoping reveals that there’s some DP material available from these folks, namely an expanded release of “Perpendicular” but it’s out-of-stock with no restock update, the black-sheep but US-of-A aimed AOR sounding “Slaves & Masters”, & an amazingly good Mk-II live offering “Stuttgart 1993″…
There’s no Rainbow available.
There’s some Be Bop Deluxe “Hot Tubes”, but all sold out, with no restock update…
Mountain are listed, but there’s no recordings.
West Bruce & Laing are available, but only the live offering “Live & Kicking”, with the incredible sophamore release ” Whatever turns you on” listed, but unavailable….(Big bummer here with this news)…
One wonders how these labels manage to get some, but not all discographies of bands…But at the least it’s an avenue to possibly find that elusive, missing CD…The prices are fair imo, but watch-out for shipping costs, as all of a sudden your CD becomes quite expensive imo. Better for local / UK markets only perhaps.
I’d be considering an e-bay or Discogs search first if I didn’t live in the UK for these releases.
Peace !
January 29th, 2024 at 03:28Well, ‘Stuttgart 1993’ is out there for quite some years now and is indeed a great sounding recording. I attended the show and it must have been one of the best ones I have ever been to. ‘Anya’ alone is worth the purchase.
https://www.amazon.de/Live-Stuttgart-1993-Deep-Purple/dp/B000LRY97W
January 29th, 2024 at 09:23@ 1
” Further scoping reveals that thereās some DP material available from these folks, namely an expanded release of āPerpendicularā but itās out-of-stock with no restock update”
Were you high typing this or am I going retard?
Years ago I bought 2nd hand the Japanese version incl Dont hold tour breath.
I even bought that weird fanclub EP with some bandmembers fooling around.Was its name Dick Pimple?
January 29th, 2024 at 23:49No contest to the earlier on pressed 12 Inch of Son of Alerik.
Good from a historical viewpoint that these are re-released – though if truth be told Warhorse is probably my least liked pre- or post-Purple membership spin-off outfit of any former DP player. I like Trapeze, Zephyr, James Gang, Kansas, Captain Beyond, Rainbow, Whitesnake, Episode Six, IGB/Gillan, PAL, Hughes Thrall, Black Sabbath, Joe Lynn Turner’s Fandango, Nick Simper’s Fandango, Colosseum II and even Gary Moore all better.
Warhorse sounds incredibly archaic to me (more Iron Butterfly than Deep Purple), much more 60ies than 70ies, operatic vocals, clumsy & lumbering arrangements, quaint production – if you compare Red Sea (the album) to Machine Head, the idea never crosses your mind that these are works from the same era as indeed they are. Machine Head introduced a sound for the future, Warhorse was firmly rooted in the past: There is a reason why that band never made it.
Needless to say, I’m still gonna buy it!
January 30th, 2024 at 03:13Yo,
@3 said qt.”Were you high typing this, or am I going retard”?…
Neither lol ! If you go to the website, click-on-bands, & A-Z appears…Click on D, then scroll down to find Deep Purple…All I could find I mentioned, 3 x albums, with only 2-available…They also had some Alan Parsons Project albums too, that were “deluxe” editions with bonus CD’s & books etc etc, but I didn’t mention that as its not close enough to DP in any regard. The 11-album Boxed set from 2011 is cheaper than these on offer & has the complete discography, but some folks need the full-Monty, so-to-speak on particular albums.
Peace !
January 30th, 2024 at 12:29RV, the 2014 HNE Recordings (a Cherry Red sub-label for Hard Rock/Heavy Metal just as their 7 T’s label is for Glam and their Esoteric Recordings labels dedicated to Prog) reissue did indeed for the first time pull together
DONāT HOLD YOUR BREATH (Japan bonus track)
and
SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE SCREAMING (Single edit)
on one release. Calling their Purpendicular release “expanded” because of that is perhaps a stretch though. It’s still well worth having as it was remastered by Andy Pearce and offers a lot of sonic detail you don’t hear on the original master (without being shrill, Pearce opts for a warm sound), it’s all more ‘there’, Gillan’s vocals too. I’d say it’s the best version of Purpendicular available.
Pearce has remastered quite a bit of Purple Family stuff in the past:
https://www.discogs.com/artist/397869-Andy-Pearce?searchParam=deep+purple
Since Cherry Red sometimes only obtain fixed term licenses for their reissues, there is no reprinting once all stocks are sold after a few years. The original rights are likely still with Sony Music as legal successor of RCA —> BMG —> Sony BMG.
January 30th, 2024 at 15:28Ok, thanx guys.
Not that I ll be rushing out to seach for it.
“I never been a easy man, so hard to please”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_Fnpo5DhOg&ab_channel=JustASimpleMan
January 31st, 2024 at 23:47I’m spinning the new Warhorse remasters from Esoteric Records/Cherry Red which arrived over the weekend as a double CD.
First impression: The remaster of the debut is for lack of a better word very pleasant, natural-sounding and organic, the previous one has always sounded a little on the rough/abrasive side. That is gone now. And of course Nick’s bass can be heard well (but not to the detriment of other instruments). Red Sea’s remaster is cripser than what was available before and brings out the vocals a little more.
The music and songwriting is of course unchanged, slightly quaint and not quite cutting edge even for the time. My biggest gripe is Ashley Holt’s singing, what Glenn Hughes must be to some people, Ashley seems to be to me. I neither like his raw growl nor his screams nor his vibrato nor his falsetto nor his over-theatrical singing on ballads such as Solitude, can’t help it! And if he does none of these things, than his voice sounds sometimes uncannily like Rod Evans’ baritone, i.e. more 60ies than 70ies.
Neither the guitar (the 2015 deceased Ged Peck sounds more like early Blackmore, but I think I prefer Pete Parks who replaced him and stayed with Nick for decades in various formations, he’s more rhythmic than Ged and also does more harmony work which I like) nor the Hammond playing (Frank Wilson) is bad, but you know who (Blackmore + Lord) it just ain’t either. And Mac Poole (also deceased in 2015) tends to be all over the place with his drumming, but has none of Paicey’s accuracy, he sounds like Keith Moon in places minus the entertaining madness.
A gent by the name of Steve Pilkington did the booklet notes and he’s done his research. Some input from Nick about how the band’s relationship with Vertigo soured after the second album and its shoestring budget – with Warners appearing to be the white knight and offering a new deal, but the oil crisis then leading to a signing stop out of the blue for new acts. Tough luck.
A demo recording (lifted straight off a very crackly acetate and not that different from the recorded version) of Burning (featured on the debut in its final version) provided by Nick in 2024 is the only bonus track that has not been available before. It’s track 14 on the second CD.
Oh yeah, Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople is quoted as gushing to Nick at one point after a joint Warhorse/Mott the Hoople gig: “You guys can’t fail to make it!”, but even the great ‘Unter can’t be right all the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1B-oHjTiI0
May 14th, 2024 at 22:38