''Extravaganza'' is the fourth album by the British rock group

Stackridge Stackridge were a British progressive rock/folk rock group which had their greatest success in the early 1970s. History Classic period Stackridge Lemon were formed from the remains of a previous band, Grytpype Thynne, by Andy Davis and James ...

. The album was produced by

Tony Ashton Edward Anthony Ashton (1 March 1946 – 28 May 2001) was an English rock pianist, keyboardist, singer, record composer, producer and artist. Early life Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, Ashton spent his formative years in the seaside town of Blac ...

AIR Studios Associated Independent Recording (AIR) is an independent recording company founded in London in 1965 by record producers George Martin, John Burgess (record producer), John Burgess, Ron Richards (producer), Ron Richards, and Peter Sullivan (rec ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. The band experienced a significant lineup change after its previous album, with James Warren, James "Crun" Walter and Billy Sparkle all leaving. The album was originally released in the UK on

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

's label,

The Rocket Record Company The Rocket Record Company is a record label founded by Elton John, along with Bernie Taupin, Gus Dudgeon, Steve Brown and others, in 1973. The company was named after John's hit song " Rocket Man". The label was originally distributed in the UK ...

. Stackridge was the first group signed to the new label. A different version of the album was released by

Sire Records Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records. History Beginnings The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gotteh ...

in the U.S and Canada. This version removed two songs already released on '' Pinafore Days'' and added "Do The Stanley" from a UK single and "The Indifferent Hedgehog" from the UK album '' The Man In The Bowler Hat''. Singer and songwriter

Gordon Haskell Gordon Haskell (27 April 1946 – 15 October 2020) was an English musician and songwriter. A pop, rock, jazz, country and blues vocalist, guitarist, and bassist, he was a school friend of King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp. The two first worke ...

rehearsed with Stackridge for a short time during 1974. Though Haskell decided not to join Stackridge the group recorded one of his songs. Originally called "Worms", the version on ''Extravaganza'' was re-titled "No One's More Important Than the Earthworm". The song "Happy In The Lord", written by Phil Welton, was a cover of a song originally performed by the band Fat Grapple, and released by them as a single in 1975.

Track listing

Side one

#"Spin 'Round the Room" (Rod Bowkett, Lucy Vernon) – 2:45 #"Grease Paint Smiles" (Bowkett, Bathos) – 4:04 #"The Volunteer" (Andy Davis, Smegmakovitch) – 5:05 #"Highbury Incident (Rainy July Morning)" (Davis, Bowkett, "Mutter" Slater) – 4:02 #"Benjamin's Giant Onion" (Bowkett, Bathos) – 4:04 #"Happy in the Lord" (Phil Welton) – 3:51

Side two

#" Rufus T. Firefly" (Bowkett) – 4:51 #"No One's More Important Than the Earthworm" (

) – 5:12 #"Pocket Billiards" (Bowkett) – 4:04 #"Who's That Up There with Bill Stokes?" (Bowkett, Davis) – 4:36

Track listing: U.S. version, Sire Records SASD-7509

#"The Volunteer" (Davis, Smegmakovitch) – 5:05 #"Rufus T. Firefly" (Bowkett) – 4:51 #"No One's More Important Than the Earthworm" (Haskell) – 5:12 #"Grease Paint Smiles" (Bowkett, Bathos) – 4:04 #"Happy in the Lord" (Phil Welton) – 3:51 #"Benjamin's Giant Onion" (Bowkett, Bathos) – 4:04 #"Pocket Billiards" (Bowkett) – 4:04 #"The Indifferent Hedgehog" (Davis, Graham Smith) – 3:15 #"Do the Stanley" (Wabadaw Sleeve) – 2:53 #"Who's That Up There with Bill Stokes?" (Bowkett, Davis) – 4:36 Note that "Bathos", "Smegmaokovitch" and "Wabadaw Sleeve" are entities invented by the band to signify the whole band. Many lyrics were joint efforts.

Deluxe version

''Extravaganza'' was reissued in 2023 by Esoteric Recordings (through Cherry Red Records). The first CD includes the complete original album, the songs credited to Andy Davis, Smegmakovitch unless otherwise specified. The 2nd CD contains eight additional bonus tracks recorded for BBC Radio One “In Concert” in January 1975. Tracks are: CD 1 #"Spin 'Round the Room" (Rod Bowkett, Lucy Vernon) #"Grease Paint Smiles" (Bowkett, Bathos) #"The Volunteer" (Andy Davis, Smegmakovitch) #"Highbury Incident (Rainy July Morning)" (Davis, Bowkett, "Mutter" Slater) #"Benjamin's Giant Onion" (Bowkett, Bathos) #"Happy in the Lord" (Phil Welton) #"Rufus T. Firefly" (Bowkett) #"No One's More Important Than the Earthworm" (

) #"Pocket Billiards" (Bowkett) #"Who's That Up There with Bill Stokes?" (Bowkett, Davis) CD 2 #"The Volunteer" (“In Concert” 17th January 1975) #"Who’s That Up There With Bill Stokes?" (“In Concert” 17th January 1975) #"No One’s More Important Than the Earthworm" (“In Concert” 17th January 1975) #"The Galloping Gaucho" (“In Concert” 17th January 1975) #"Pocket Billiards" (“In Concert” 17th January 1975) #"Spin ‘Round the Room" (“In Concert” 17th January 1975) #"God Speed the Plough" (“In Concert” 17th January 1975) #"Dora the Female Explorer" (“In Concert” 17th January 1975)

Personnel

*Andy Davis (Andy Cresswell-Davis) –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

*Michael Evans -

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

*Michael "Mutter" Slater -

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

, vocals *

Keith Gemmell Keith Gemmell (15 February 1948 – 24 July 2016) was a British musician. He was best known for being a member of art rock band Audience from 1969 to 1972 and from 2004 to 2016. He was also a musical arranger and composer, published digital sh ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

*Paul Karas - bass, vocals *Rod Bowkett - keyboards *Roy Morgan -

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Production

*Produced by

and Stackridge *Engineers:

Geoff Emerick Geoffrey Ernest Emerick (5 December 1945 – 2 October 2018) was an English sound engineer and record producer who worked with the Beatles on their albums ''Revolver'' (1966), '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' (1967) and ''Abbey Road' ...

, Pete Swettenham, Gary Edwards *Recorded at AIR Studios, London, England 1974 *Remastered under the watchful eye of Andy Davis and James Warren at Sundried Artists by Glenn Tommey during November 2006.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Extravaganza (Album) Stackridge albums 1975 albums The Rocket Record Company albums Albums recorded at AIR Studios