Details: UK three CD set. Having documented the British psychedelic scene with anthologies devoted to the years 1967, 1968 and 1969, Grapefruit's ongoing series fearlessly confronts the dawn of the Seventies with a slight rebrand. New Moon's In The Sky: The British Progressive Pop Sounds Of 1970 features (appropriately enough) seventy tracks from the first year of the new decade as the British pop scene adjusted to life without The Beatles. This set concentrates on the more song-based recordings to emanate from British studios during 1970, whether from a pure-pop-for-then-people perspective or the more concise, melodic end of the burgeoning progressive rock spectrum. We acknowledge the end of the road for some bands who'd achieved a modicum of late Sixties success (Honeybus, Love Sculpture, Plastic Penny) while also charting the arrival of various acts like Curved Air, Atomic Rooster (about to score two major hit singles in the space of six months), Stray, future heavy metal major leaguers UFO, Affinity and Cressida, all of whom were able to combine underground rock credibility with an appreciation of the three-minute pop song. We also feature a number of successful late Sixties acts attempting to stay relevant in the new decade and adapt to a changing musical landscape (The Hollies, The Move, Status Quo, Procol Harum, The Tremeloes etc). But as always, we also shed light on the lost and buried: the studio-only creations, the Beatles disciples, the psychedelic folk adventurers, the one-shot-and-you're-out releases, the pseudonymous pranksters and the backroom duckers and divers that littered the industry at the turn of the decade. Housed in a clamshell box containing a 52-page booklet that's crammed to bursting point with group bios and obscure photos/memorabilia, New Moon's In The Sky is a fascinating document of a febrile period. It's also yet another essential Grapefruit package.

New Moon's In The Sky: British Progressive Pop Sounds Of 1970 /Various (CD)