If Cherry Red's Esoteric Recordings imprint has anything to say about it, the music of Audience will soon discover a new audience!  Esoteric has recently reissued all four of the British band's studio albums, originally released on the Polydor and Charisma labels between 1969 and 1972.

Audience, a.k.a. Howard Werth (acoustic guitar/vocals), Keith Gemmell (flute/tenor sax/clarinet), Trevor Williams (bass) and Tony Connor (drums) formed out of the ashes of the band The Lloyd Alexander Real Estate which featured Werth, Gemmell and Williams.  "We were getting a little bit bored with the blues/soul/Motown thing that we'd been doing," confessed Werth in Sid Smith's copious new liner notes to the reissue of 1969 Polydor debut Audience.  "We wanted to be part of that [experimental] scene."  Audience made its first onstage appearance at a Marquee Club audition night with John Richardson on drums.  They shared the bill with none other than soon-to-be-famed artists Gilbert and George.  Though Richardson's connections helped earned the band its Polydor contract, he soon departed Audience to be replaced by Tony Connor.

With the line-up solidified, producer Chris Brough took the group into the studio where its distinctive sound was captured on record on a set of group-penned original songs.  That sound was largely attributable to Werth's nylon string guitar and Gemmell's horns, which were played through effects modules.  "We'd get stuck with the progressive rock label a little later because we were from that era," Werth observed, "but I think we had a little bit more of an American influence whereas a lot of the progressive bands were showing a bit more of a European influence."  Despite its inventive sound and material, Audience failed to make waves on the charts, leaving the band and its label at an impasse.  Quickly deleted from the catalogue, the Audience LP routinely would fetch hundreds of pounds in the years to come.  Esoteric's reissue adds three bonus tracks: "Paper Round," "The Going Song" and "Troubles."

Audience remained a draw on the live stage, however, and a support slot in October 1969 with Led Zeppelin at London's Lyceum Theatre led to the band's signing with the Charisma label.  Though Shel Talmy (The Who) was originally set to produce the album that became Friend's, Friend's, Friend, he was dissatisfied with the group's material and parted ways with the group.  Audience relocated from Talmy's preferred locale of Olympic Studios to Morgan Studios (where the debut record had been cut) and the band members opted to produce the album themselves.  "Belladonna Moonshine," the one song Shel Talmy liked, was chosen as the first single and earned the band a slot on Top of the Pops.  Another track, "It Brings a Tear," was written for the soundtrack to the 1969 improvisational film Bronco Bullfrog.  B-side "The Big Spell" (included among the seven bonus tracks on Esoteric's reissue) was revived years later on the soundtrack to BBC television drama Life on Mars.  The album showed the breadth of Audience's influences; "Ebony Variation" was even based on a Mozart concerto!  As well as the classical inspirations, the album's mystical lyrics lent the group a home in the progressive crowd, but Friend's, Friend's, Friend too failed to register with record buyers.  Esoteric's reissue adds six previously unreleased remixes of album tracks made by famed producer Gus Dudgeon in 1971 at Trident Studios.

Gus Dudgeon would be at the helm of Audience's next album, 1971's The House on the Hill.  "Gus packed quite a punch in those days; he could get away with quite a lot more than we could have done if it had been just us on our own," Werth commented to Sid Smith.  Though the sound was more polished, The House on the Hill followed in the stylistic footsteps of Friend, with ample use of effects as well as classical influences.  "Raviolé" punningly name-checked Ravi Shankar as well as the bullfighting expression "Olé!" in its title; Robert Kirby (later of The Strawbs) provided the string arrangements.  Big ballad "I Had a Dream" would, like Friend's "The Big Spell," gain new fans decades later when it was heard in Life on Mars.  Dudgeon also oversaw the first cover on an Audience album, a version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' blues staple "I Put a Spell on You."  In addition, Audience revisited its own "House on the Hill" from the 1969 album in a new arrangement; it of course lent its title to the new album.  The LP was successful enough in Europe to attain an American release on Elektra; soon, the band was playing the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles and supporting Faces on tour.  The single track "Indian Summer" (which was featured on the American release of the album) has been added to The House on the Hill, along with the single mix of "You're Not Smiling" and a previously unissued mix of the same song.

Touring proved stressful, however, and with personal tensions rising, Keith Gemmell departed Audience before the completion of recording 1972's climactic album Lunch.  Gus Dudgeon returned for this LP, part of which had been recorded prior to Gemmell's exit.  Famed sax man Bobby Keys was dispatched to replace Gemmell; Jim Price also augmented the band on trumpet and trombone, and Nick Judd joined on piano.  Once again, the original songs incorporated touches of classical and R&B, but Werth contends that , without trying to compare his group to The Beatles, "if House on the Hill was Sgt. Pepper, then Lunch was The White Album...Lunch was a lot of different songs without much connection to each other."  The expanded Audience line-up took to the road to promote Lunch, but by the end of 1972 the band had broken up.  All of its members went on to make more music in bands like Hot Chocolate (Tony Connor), Stackridge (Keith Gemmell) and even a reformed Doors (Howard Werth).  Three bonus tracks have been appended to this reissue including the new-to-CD "Elixir of Youth."

Ben Wiseman has remastered all four titles from the original master tapes, and Sid Smith's notes feature in all four deluxe booklets.  This quartet of Audience reissues is available now from Esoteric Recordings at the links below!

Audience, Audience (Polydor 583 065, 1969 - reissued Esoteric ECLEC 2494, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1. Banquet
2. Poet
3. Waverley Stage Coach
4. River Boat Queen
5. Harlequin
6. Heaven Was an Island
7. Too Late I'm Gone
8. Maiden's Cry
9. Pleasant Convalescence
10. Leave It Unsaid
11. Man on Box
12. House on the Hill
13. Paper Round (Bonus Track) (previously released on Audience, Lilith LR332, 2011)
14. The Going Song (Bonus Track) (previously released on Audience, Lilith LR332, 2011)
15. Troubles (Bonus Track) (previously released on Audience, Lilith LR332, 2011)

Audience, Friend's, Friend's, Friend (Charisma CAS 1012, 1970 - reissued Esoteric ECLEC 2499, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1. Nothing You Do
2. Belladonna Moonshine
3. It Brings a Tear
4. The Raid
5. Right on Their Side
6. Ebony Variations
7. Priestess
8. Friend's, Friend's, Friend
9. The Big Spell (B-side of CB 126, 1970)
10. Nothing You Do (Gus Dudgeon Remix)
11. Belladonna Moonshine (Gus Dudgeon Remix)
12. It Brings a Tear (Gus Dudgeon Remix)
13. The Raid (Gus Dudgeon Remix)
14. Ebony Variations (Gus Dudgeon Remix)
15. Priestess (Gus Dudgeon Remix)

Tracks 10-15 are previously unreleased

Audience, The House on the Hill (Charisma CAS 1032, 1971 - reissued Esoteric ECLEC 2492, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1. Jackdaw
2. You're Not Smiling
3. I Had a Dream
4. Raviolé
5. Nancy
6. Eye to Eye
7. I Put a Spell on You
8. House on the Hill
9. You're Not Smiling (Single Mix - from Charisma CB 141-A, 1970)
10. Indian Summer (Charisma CB 141-B, 1970)
11. You're Not Smiling (previously unreleased promotional radio version)

Audience, Lunch (Charisma CAS 1054, 1972 - reissued Esoteric ECLEC 2493, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )

1. Stand by the Door
2. Seven Sore Bruises
3. Hula Girl
4. Ain't the Man You Need
5. In Accord
6. Barracuda Dan
7. Thunder and Lightnin'
8. Party Games
9. Trombone Gulch
10. Buy Me an Island
11. Grief and Disbelief (Outtake - first issued on Audience Unchained, Virgin CDVM 9007, 1992)
12. Hard Cruel World (Charisma single CB 196-B, 1972)
13. Elixir of Youth (from Audience, Charisma CS 7, 1973)