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... and Rocket Records

A Stackridge concert at this time would have also included some gems which were never to be recorded in a studio such as "McGregor/Zorgan's Daughter, (which contains the peerless line, "In the showers after hockey I eat radio- active monks"); "After The Tetracycline", "Lyder Loo", (originally mooted as a potential single), and "February In Shropshire" (variously sub-titled, "Enjoying The Pig", "Amanda Steps In", and "Paint The Wall Before It Rains").

Readers keen to divest themselves of a few groats may be interested to know that a version of "February In Shropshire" can be found on the latest Stackridge release, "Pick Of The Crop", recorded at Cropredy 2000.

In the USA, Sire released "Extravaganza" but had to remove "Spin Round The Room" and "Highbury Incident (Rainy July Morning)" because they'd already used them on "Pinafore Days"! Perversely they put in the strikingly poignant Andy Davis/Graham Smith composition "The Indifferent Hedgehog" (which the more astute amongst you will remember they'd removed from "Pinafore Days") and the parochial "Do The Stanley" ("God Only Knows" what Americans made of that!)

MEANWHILE ... Back in England (again) the band get an enormous break when Elton John added them to the bill of the "Midsummer Music" concert he was headlining at Wembley Stadium on 21st July 1975. Also on the bill were The Beach Boys, The Eagles, Joe Walsh and Rufus - all for the princely sum of Ł350! Years later in a concert retrospective "Q" would refer to the line-up as "misbilling of monumental proportions as the eccentric, some would say bucolic Stackridge rubbed riffs with both The Beach Boys and The Eagles." However, despite being nervous to the point of distraction, the band acquitted themselves well as concert openers, living up to M.M.s description of them as "one of the elite gigging outfits in the country" and "an exceptional group with a style of their own."

The future looked bright (although not necessarily orange) but as all cynics of advancing years know ... every silver lining has a cloud!