In Search of England: Barclay James Harvest's "XII" Gets 2CD, DVD Reissue with New Surround Mix

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Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings imprint has recently continued its campaign dedicated to U.K. prog heroes Barclay James Harvest with the release of the group’s 1978 album XII as a 2-CD/1-DVD set. This reissue follows similarly-formatted editions of the band’s Everyone is Everybody Else (1974) and Gone to Earth (1977), both of which were released by the label in 2016.

John Lees founded Barclay James Harvest in 1966 with Les Holroyd, Mel Pritchard and Stuart “Wooly” Wolstenholme. After one single for EMI’s Parlophone imprint in 1968, the progressive four-piece was moved over to the Harvest imprint. Barclay James Harvest remained on Harvest (got that?) for four LPs, but didn’t score their commercial breakthrough until a move to Polydor. Though label debut Everyone is Everybody Else didn’t chart, it became popular on pirate radio station Radio Caroline and also earned the band a slot with the influential John Peel on BBC Radio 1. Three years later, Gone to Earth would become a hit throughout Europe, going top 30 in the U.K. and even better in Germany, where it remained the sixth best-selling album of all time in the country well into the 21st century.

XII followed Gone to Earth and initially reunited the band with co-producer David Rohl. But tensions in the studio led Rohl to resign, and the band replaced him with Martin Lawrence. Released on September 15, 1978, the album found BJH continuing to explore a leaner rock sound. John Lees contributed five of its stylistically eclectic songs, Les Holroyd wrote four, and Wooly Wolstenholme two. The influences were diverse. The opening track, the rocking and risqué “Loving is Easy,” paid tribute to Free and guitarist Paul Kossoff, while “A Tale of Two Sixties” nostalgically name-checked the likes of Buddy Holly, David Bowie, and Love’s Arthur Lee. The seamier side of rock-and-roll was also addressed on the groupie story “Sip of Wine.” The piano-driven “Berlin” looked at that city, then still divided by the Berlin Wall, and “Fact: The Closed Shop” focused on a land even closer: the group’s native U.K., and its unions’ “closed shop” policies. The power ballad “In Search of England” imagined a dialogue between an old man and a boy. “Harbour” was written about the band’s coming home from a tour, likely from America, and employed a mellow, even country-esque vibe. “Nova Lepidoptera” returned to the familiar progressive territory of science-fiction, but the album-closing “Streets of San Francisco” was decidedly more down to earth – based on the popular American police drama!

XII managed a placement just out of the U.K. top 30 (No. 31!) and once again fared strongly in Germany, where it remained in the charts for months. It peaked there within the top 20, and sold roughly a quarter of a million units there in its first year on sale, earning a gold record. Esoteric’s reissue presents the original album on CD 1 in its 1978 stereo mix, plus five bonus tracks including the “censored” single version of “Loving is Easy” (recorded, in vain, in an attempt to get the catchy if provocative song on Radio 1), the single of “Berlin,” and three alternative mixes. The second CD premieres Craig Fletcher’s new stereo mix of the original album and includes a different bonus cut, an alternate version of “The Streets of San Francisco.” Finally, the DVD presents the original and new stereo mixes in 96/24 LPCM stereo, and Fletcher’s new 5.1 surround mix in DTS and Dolby Digital formats. The surround mix makes good use of the back channels, and its expanded soundstage allows the album to be experienced anew. The “San Francisco” bonus track is also available on the DVD. All formats have been newly remastered from the original tapes by Paschal Byrne.

The release, housed in a digipak, also includes a 20-page color booklet containing new liner notes by Keith and Monika Domone, as well as an illustrated fold-out lyric sheet. XII would be the final Barclay James Harvest album to feature the original line-up, as Wolstenholme left the group in 1979. The remaining trio stayed together until 1998, when the band splintered into two units, with Lees welcoming Wolstenholme back into the fold for his band, and Holroyd and Pritchard leading another version. Pritchard died in 2004, and Wolstenholme in 2010, but Lees and Holroyd still lead their bands today.

XII is available now from Esoteric Recordings at the links below!

Barclay James Harvest, XII (Polydor POLD 5006, 1978 – reissued Esoteric ECLEC 32563, 2017) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1: The Original Mix plus bonus tracks