By Jason Barnard
Beau aka Trevor Midgely, the twelve string folk wizard is particularly well regarded for his recordings for John Peel’s Dandelion Records label in the late sixties and early seventies. His second album, Creation (1971) for many, is his career highlight – his folk skills melded with a more experimental approach backed, at times, by Tractor/The Way We Live.
As the original vinyl release of Creation easily fetches three figures and digital still not quite cutting it for some, Sommor records have re-released this excellent album back on 12 inch. Tracks like “There Once Was a Time” still have great resonance on tale of the dangers of vanity, whilst Stephen Fry would recognise the sentiment of “Blind Faith”.
The original album finishes with the seminal “Silence Returns” which powerfully presents folk and blistering psych-rock (also heard on “The Smoke of Eden” above). Continuing this theme, assisted by Tractor, this release uniquely adds two previously unreleased bonus tracks from 1972 which were recorded for “High Mass”, an aborted third Beau album which was never released in this period.
So if you want to hear Beau’s classic album the way it was meant to be, without shelling out a king’s ransom, this is your chance:
