Thursday, July 2, 2026

If - British Radio Sessions 1970-1972 (FM)


IF
British Radio Sessions 1970-1972 - (On The Air)
Venues Unknown
Sources Vary
London, England, UK
Recorded between 12-xx-1970 & 07-xx-1972
FM Broadcast Recordings
Flac Level 8 & MP3 320kbps
Cover Art Included

Lineage: CD Image > Nero 2015 Platinum > CD-r > E.A.C. (secure) > Wave 16bit > Traders Little Helper (align sector boundaries) > Flac Level 8

01 Your City Is Falling 3:58
02 I Couldn’t Write And Tell You 7:08
03 Sunday Sad 6:57
04 Tarmac T Pirate And The Lonesome Nymphomaniac 3:12
05 Upstairs 3:50
06 Sweet January 5:32
07 Forgotten Roads 4:00
08 Fibonacci’s Number 7:53
09 Seldom Seen Sam 4:33
10 Far Beyond 4:59
11 The Light Still Shines 6:35
12 What Did I Say About The Box, Jack? 8:18
13 Waterfall 5:39
14 Seldom Seen Sam 7:19
80 mins

Tracks 01-04 Broadcast December 1970
Tracks 05-08 Broadcast June 1971
Tracks 09-10 Broadcast September 1971
Tracks 11-14 Broadcast July 1972


Lineup:
Jim Richardson - bass (tracks: 1 to 10)
Dave Wintour - bass (tracks: 11 to 14)
Dennis Elliot - drums (tracks: 01 to 10)
Cliff Davies - drums (tracks: 11 to 14)
Terry Smith - guitar
John Mealing - keyboards (tracks: 1 to 10)
Dave Greenslade - keyboards (tracks 11 to 14)
Dave Quincy  - saxophone, clarinet
Dick Morrissey - saxophone, flute
JW Hodkinson - vocals

Now for my next installment of my Salute To Progressive Rock Bands we have If. If is a British Progressive Rock/Jazz Rock band that, like Chicago and Blood Sweat & Tears merged Prog-Rock, Rock, Blues and Big Jazz horns. If was though a little more Progressive Rock than the a fore mentioned bands. The first song "Your City Is Falling" is the perfect track to set the scene for the rest of the show. The song starts with its chorus that sounds like something The Mothers Of Invention would come up with around 200 Motels era. It then morphs to a smooth Jazz that soon is taken over by a Hammond organ riff like Greg Allman. Vocalist J.W. Hodkinson has a bit of a unique way of blending a tone like Pete Townshend with the power of Roger Daltry, the drama of Greg Lake's delivery, sometimes with a Jack Bruce phrasing. Guitars that can sound like Pat Metheny's clean tone to fuzzed out wah-wah that would make the most diehard of the Fillmore freak go wow man. They really are hard to explain to the uninitiated, my advice is to download this CD if you love trying different. If you are a fan of Focus, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Terry Kath era Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, throw them in a blender and your starting to understand.

Cliff Davies went on to make Ted Nugent's solo career a success. Dennis Elliot went on to play in Foreigner. Dave Greenslade would go on to work with Coloseum, Greenslade & as a solo artist. John Mealing played sessions for Mick Ronsoon, Leo Sayer, & John Entwistle ultimately joining The Strawbs. J.W. Hodkinson formed Rogue. Dick Morrissey went on to pay sessions with more names to count than we have space. Dave Quincy formed Zzebra. Dave Wintour went on to session work, including the bass on the Rocky Horror Picture Show track "Dammit Janet".

Flac

MP3


5 comments:

  1. Thanks for this. Light years better than a compilation I heard a couple of years ago.
    Nice to see you back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Sir Billy Himalaya it's good to be back. Glad your enjoying the If collection. I actually heard about them through bootlegs. This BBC collection and a show I have of them from Stockholm, Sweden 1978. I now have a few of there albums and I really like them. The Stockholm show I have will be posted in the near future as well. Enjoy the tunes.

      JustDave

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  2. Great to see this! Haven't listened to IF for a couple years. First heard them in 1976 when I came back from a semester in England and the LP Double Diamond came out. Double Diamond was (is?) as British beer I had liked so I gave the album a listen. Liked it and put it into the college radio station play rotation. Have the promo copy in my basement somewhere with all the DJ's comments on the various tracks. Not a lot of boot stuff out there so really looking forward to the Stockholm show. Here's the only one I have https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XMZ6TlcgPMsR4IVQkea8bf5shlP60IBr?usp=sharing
    It's pretty common but if you don't have it feel free to post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Boorad3000, I became aware of IF by this bootleg which I downloaded in 2020 from the Rockasteria blog. The description of their sound in the post is my actual initial impression of the album. I can't believe I missed these guys in the 1970s. Thank you for your copy of the My Father's Place show. I have 2 versions of it already but each one is different having been recorded by 2 different people. Looking forward to comparing the 3 of them.
      Dave

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