Cherry Red's Esoteric Recordings imprint has recently celebrated the recordings of prog-rock band High Tide on a lavish new 3-CD box set.  The Complete Liberty Recordings brings together the short-lived group's two albums and adds a bonus disc of demos and studio sessions recorded in 1969-1970.

As with so many bands of the era, High Tide refused to be boxed into one specific genre, melding a hard rock sound with psychedelic, progressive, folk, and classical flourishes.  Tony Hill (guitar/vocals), Simon House (violin/keyboards), Peter Pavli (bass), and Roger Hadden (drums) united in early 1969.  A veteran of the John Peel-championed band The Misunderstood, Hill was already attracting buzz around the U.K. scene and had played with David Bowie and Hermione Farthingale in The Turquoise.  The band signed a publishing contract with The Beatles' Apple Corps, and recorded three demos in March 1969 at Apple's studio with an eye to a recording contract.  Though a deal never panned out for High Tide to record on Apple, the demos garnered the attention of numerous labels, of which they and management team Clearwater Productions chose Liberty/United Artists.  John Peel hadn't forgotten Tony Hill, and he gave High Tide a Radio 1 spot.  Soon, the band convened at Olympic Studios to begin recording an album.

1969's Sea Shanties was recorded with producer Denver "Denny" Gerrard at sessions which also yielded Gerrard's own Deram album, Sinister Morning (reissued on CD by Esoteric in 2008), featuring High Tide as backing band.  The album was built around High Tide's stage act, with six fairly lengthy compositions (two of which were of nearly 10 minutes in length) showcasing their thunderous, proto-metal power anchored by Hill's guitar and given intriguing texture by House's violin.  The heavy riff-rock of opening track "Futilist's Lament" conjures up Black Sabbath meets The Doors, by way of Iron Butterfly with a dash of The Moody Blues.  Despite the Apple connection, High Tide evinced little influence of The Beatles or of pop in general.  The album, heard on Disc One of Esoteric's new set, caught on via the underground scene. Despite failing to chart, Liberty promised High Tide a second album.

Morgan Studios would be the setting for the self-produced, self-titled High Tide, presented on Disc 2 of the box set.  Engineer George Chkiantz returned for the sessions in spring 1970 which yielded four tracks - only three of which made the cut for the final album.  "Blankman Cries Again" and "The Joke" would fill Side One of the original LP, with the 14+-minute "Saneonymous" filling the second side.  The sound of High Tide was just as loud, in-your-face, and booming as Sea Shanties as the quartet became even more confident in their instrumental prowess.  Once again, though, the album failed to reach the mainstream and unlike Sea Shanties, Liberty declined to release it in the United States.  Liberty sponsored one more session for the track "Ice Age," but the band and label parted ways by the end of 1970.

Simon House departed the ranks to join The Third Ear Band.  In 1973, he was poached by Hawkwind, where he remained for five years until David Bowie came calling. Tony Hill, Peter Pavli, and Roger Hadden teamed up with the remnants of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown in Rustic Hinge, though that group's recordings remained unreleased for nearly two decades.  Peter Pavli went on to play with Hawkwind collaborator Michael Moorcock's band Deep Fix and with Hawkwind's vocalist Robert Calvert.  Tony Hill would reactivate High Tide in the mid-1980s for several archival releases and new recordings; Peter Pavli joined him along with a host of new players.  Hill passed away in 2022.

Esoteric's box set draws on the label's previous album reissues but reorganizes the bonus material, with most of it featured on a standalone disc.  Demos and Studio Sessions 1969 & 1970 includes the three-song Apple Publishing demo plus four outtakes from the Olympic Studios sessions and the final Liberty recording, "Ice Age."  One of the Olympic outtakes, "The Great Universal Protection Racket," was subsequently attempted again at Morgan Studios; that version is included as a bonus track on High Tide.

Within the clamshell box, all three discs are housed in gatefold sleeves with spines; a 36-page booklet has comprehensive liner notes by Esoteric's Mark Powell.  Audio has been remastered from the original tapes by Ben Wiseman.  A foldout poster, replicating an original advertisement for Sea Shanties, is also included.  The Complete Liberty Recordings might well leave a listener wondering how High Tide wasn't spoken of in the same breath as Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin.  It's available now from Cherry Red and Esoteric at the links below.

High Tide, The Complete Liberty Recordings (Esoteric QELEC 32827, 2023) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1: Sea Shanties (Liberty LBS 83264, 1969)

1. Futilist's Lament
2. Death Warmed Up
3. Pushed, But Not Forgotten
4. Walking Down Their Outlook
5. Missing Out
6. Nowhere

CD 2: High Tide (Liberty LBS 83294, 1970)

1. Blankman Cries Again
2. The Joke
3. Saneonymous
4. The Great Universal Protection Racket (rec. April 10, 1970 - Morgan Studios)

CD 3: Demos and Studio Sessions

Apple Publishing Demo (March 1969)

1. Pushed, But Not Forgotten (Demo)
2. Death Warmed Up (Demo)
3. Dilemma

Outtakes and Alternates

4. The Great Universal Protection Racket (rec. June 18, 1969 - Olympic Studios)
5. Time Gauges (rec. July 8, 1969 - Olympic Studios)
6. The Joke (First Version) (rec. May 6, 1970 - Olympic Studios)
7. Blankman Cries Again (First Version) (rec. May 6, 1970 - Olympic Studios)
8. Ice Age (rec. 1970)

CD 3, Tracks 1-5 from Sea Shanties, Esoteric ECLEC 2204, 2010
CD 2, Track 4 & CD 3, Tracks 6-8 from High Tide, Esoteric ECLEC 2203, 2010