Rainbow chaser - the 60s recordings (Island years)

"Rainbow Chaser: The 1960s recordings (The Island Years) is a diligent, fascinating release which plugs gaps in the Nirvana story. In contrast, its liner notes tell the band's story without considering the collection's contents. How they began recording an aborted third album for Island and then left the label is not explained. It would also have been good to know about the Sue & Sunny single and how Campbell-Lyons and Spyropoulos were teamed up with Spooky Tooth but, alas, neither are addressed. Nonetheless, this fine package is an essential document of British pop at its most boundary pushing in the period before the progressive-rock era".

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"Nirvana's debut album, The Story Of Simon Simopath - regarded as the first narrative concept album - was the tale of a boy who, unpopular at school, dreamed of growing wings to escape from reality. When he becomes an adult he has a nervous breakdown and ends up boarding a rocket, where he befriends a centaur and a tiny goddess called Magdalena. She works at the Pentecost Hotel, and the two fall in love and get married - and you can't get more Prog Rock than that. Their second album, All of Us, was recorded in 1968 and released in August that year. A step forward from their debut LP and spawning the classic single Rainbow Chaser, it is widely regarded as a psych-pop classic. Listening to them today, Nirvana's music sounds as fascinating and informed as it did in the late '60s and their influence continues to this day".

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