Canterbury Glass – Gloria

From the album ‘Sacred Scenes and Characters’. ”Of the many psychedelic groups who recorded unreleased material in the 1960s that didn’t get issued until decades later, Canterbury Glass was one of the more unusual and interesting. The tracks they recorded for a prospective album in 1968 mixed classical religious music and psychedelic-progressive rock not as a gimmick, but with reasonable dignity and creativity. While only four of the six tracks from these sessions could be retrieved when Canterbury Glass material was finally released on CD in 2007, these added up to 40 minutes of well-recorded music, providing a reasonable facsimile of what might have appeared had the band landed a recording contract. Canterbury Glass’ origins lay in the mid-’60s London folk-blues duo of Malcolm Ironton and Michael Wimbleton, who as Mick & Malcolm recorded a couple of singles for Pye. Forming a band after their Pye days ended with drummer Dave Dowle and bassist Tony Proto, Ironton eventually turned to a more psychedelic direction under the influence of bands like Pink Floyd and the Moody Blues. Ironton and Proto began writing material, sometimes sung in Latin, that drew on the classical-flavored music sung and played in cathedrals. Adding keyboardist/guitarist Mike Hall (whose organ would give the group’s material much of its classical/religious flavor) and singer Valeri Watson (who also played flute), Canterbury Glass played in London venues like Middle Earth and Eel Pie Island. London …
Video Rating: 5 / 5