Thursday 10 June 2010

British Guitarist Alan Ross: Unrecognised Genius



Guitarist Alan Ross played on 2 of John Entwistle's solo albums in the early 70's, "Whistle Rhymes" and "Rigor Mortis Sets In". He was also part of Entwistle's touring band during that period. In 1973, he played guitar on Tim Hardin's album "Painted Head". That same year, he formed a band called Ro-Ro with bass player Warwick Rose and they released an album called "Meet At The Water" on the Regal Zonophone label. The album is now extremely hard to find and goes on ebay for anything between GBP 200 and GBP 300. By 1974, he formed the group "Ross" with former Indian Summer keyboard player Bob Jackson. The band's career seemed to take off when they landed themselves a contract with RSO Records. They recorded 2 brilliant albums for the label, "Ross" and "The Pit And The Pendulum", released in 1974 and 1975. Eric Clapton, who was also an RSO artist toured the USA in 1974 and the Ross band was on the same bill. The band disbanded after two albums. In 1976, he appeared on the band Stars' self titled album. He released another 2 albums in 1977 and 1978, "Are You Free On Saturday" and "Restless Nights", this time for a small British label, Ebony Records under the name Alan Ross Band. In 1980, he appeared on an album by Wilson-Gale called "Gift Wrapped Set". In 1983, he played on Alexis Korner's album "Juvenile Delinquent". With the exception of a few minor session jobs in the late 80's and early 90's, Alan Ross disappeared. Last year, thanks to the contacts I made through my Alan Ross website, I was able to locate Alan Ross. His neighbor saw the site and contacted me. Apparently, Alan now helps his wife run a horse sactuary in a town called Finchingfield in Essex, England. Amazingly, a couple of days after I discovered this information, I was contacted by a representative of a Japanese CD reissue label called Airmail Recordings, who wanted Alan Ross' contact info to discuss the reissue of his four albums from the 70's. Airmail and Alan signed a deal and the four albums are now available in Japan in the mini LP replica CD format!!
Those four Ross albums had suffered the same fate as the LPs I wrote about earlier in this blog. God bless the Japanese for giving everyone an opportunity to own these albums on CD, digitally remastered no less!! For fans outside Japan they are a bit pricey but definitely worth buying. The best online Japanese CD store is CDJAPAN.CO.JP After you register with them click on the 4 links that you can find in the comments section of this post to buy them with your credit card.

Before they were reissued on CD, I had included the following links for people who wanted to listen to some mp3's which I had made from the original vinyl LPs:

http://www.waliditayim.com/lookingdown.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/caroline.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/swallow.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/discovery.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/standing.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/soslow.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/mystefied.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/punishment.mp3

5 comments:

  1. These are the CDJAPAN.CO.JP links where you can buy the 4 CD reissues:

    http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=DAKAIRAC-1551

    http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=DAKAIRAC-1552

    http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=DAKAIRAC-1553

    http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=DAKAIRAC-1554

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  2. I played with Alan in a band with Andy Fraser in 1980 in LA. I stayed in touch and saw him in London on several tour visits and then lost contact. I would love to find him.

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  3. Thanks for this. I've been a fan and loved listening to the Pit and the Pendulum since 1975. Accidentally finding the album in a Melbourne second hand record shop.

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  4. I bought the first Ross album when it came out on vinyl in 1974, still have the copy !

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  5. restless nights was great and I remember a song called Alright by me

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