Introduction

Where But For Caravan Would I?

Indeed, where would I be? Not writing this, that's for sure. Whether or not that is a good thing is entirely for you to decide, assuming you get to the end of the book.

In the meantime, perhaps a word of explanation as to the hows and whys is in order. Firstly, the hows: how exactly does this work?

The book is divided into four sections. The vast bulk of the text is devoted to what can be termed the canon albums: the studio recordings of original material that are the bedrock on which the band's reputation and history are built. This begins with the Caravan album on Verve in 1968 and concludes with the double whammy of 2013's The Paradise Filter, to date the last album of original material, and The Back Catalogue Songs, 2014's reinvention of the pick of the old tunes. Not something that Caravan haven't tackled before, but the first effort with a settled full band line-up.

Within the canon section, there are some anomalies to this basic idea. Caravan And The New Symphonia is a live album but was released at the time of recording (unlike most of the later live releases) and most importantly, it has material that was new at the time of release as well as reworkings of existing songs. Cool Water was released nearly twenty years after its recording, but it did consist of new material that was recorded between Better By Far and The Album and so is obviously part of the canon, although it is discussed at the point of chronological date of release rather than the date of recording. Finally, All Over You and All Over You.Too are two albums usually included in the compilation sections of discographies as they consist of old songs: this is to ignore the fact these songs are re-recorded and in new arrangements. As such, they can be considered as a canon albums in as much as they show the reconvened band finding their way into a new phase, as represented by subsequent studio albums.

For the Verve and Decca albums, the bulk of the discussion is about the original releases and their running order. Extra tracks have been added to reissues, and these will be mentioned, but mostly they are alternate mixes and edits - attention is given to those tracks that are of note, but in truth the original albums as they played are the canon that fans have grown to love, and for better or worse (any original or thwarted intentions as to running order or tracks omitted aside) they are the canon as we, the listeners, know it, and judge it. These - with perhaps a few exceptions in the categories below - are what really matter.

Live albums and compilations are not discussed in such detail as the studio albums. This is partly to avoid repetition regarding songs, but also because, for the most part, they add little to the Caravan story. There are a few exceptions, and these will merit further discussion. There may be some compilations or live recordings missed - as with all bands of their vintage, there have always been fly-by-night licensees getting product in shops in a 'blink and you miss it' manner. I have tried to include all those that have at least something of interest, no matter how slight.

The BBC recordings are another matter again. In part, this is because the release of these sessions over the years has occurred in a fairly haphazard manner and so needs some clarification; also, because even when there is a supposedly definitive release, it still manages to omit some recordings. Of more import is the way in which these recordings demonstrate another side to the various line-ups that are not always reflected in the canon albums. There are covers, rougher versions of songs that sound semi-improvised in places, and some recordings that show clearly how studio-augmented and arranged pieces could be rearranged to be played as slimmed-down road versions by the band, shorn of extra musicians and arrangements. They can be enlightening and fresh, especially to a listener who has lived with the albums for four decades, yet was just that bit too young to have heard the session broadcasts or seen the band live in their first phase.

Pop and rock meant nothing to me before punk happened. I liked music from movies and TV, some of the classical tunes they played us at primary school, and country and western as the lyrics were stories. Bill Grundy and The Sex Pistols in December 1976 woke me up to the fact that there was something else out there. But the vinyl explosion of punk didn't really happen until the end of 1977. Meanwhile, I had discovered the music press thanks to a third- year secondary school acquaintance in the library (I was a first-year, and all misfits hung out in the library). Of course, that was full of music other than punk. And there was a Harlequin store (soon to be taken over by Our Price) round the corner from the school. By the end of 1977, there was a ton of vinyl being reduced as it was too long-haired, too prog, too weird to sell. I was a fast learner from the music press and had also discovered Alan Freeman, John Peel (not all punk at that stage), and Nicky Horne on Capital Radio. I put names on record sleeves together with loosely associated styles and things I'd heard.

Christmas 1977 saw record tokens and WH Smith tokens, and so it was in the Wood Green branch of Smiths that I bought my first Colosseum II, Peter Hammill, John Martyn and Camel albums. More pertinently, I bought a copy of Canterbury Tales, the best of Caravan released by Decca after Cunning Stunts (but not including anything from that) as a farewell/cash-in when the band went to Arista. The sleeve, with its faux-Chaucerian parade of musicians and associated Caravan personnel, took my imagination. The brief sleeve note was also the first time I had seen the phrase 'Canterbury scene'. I loved it all, but most of all I loved 'Nine Feet Underground', which I still think has everything that makes Caravan great, and is also one of the first tunes (or 'compendium of several tunes as a through-composed piece', though that's not so snappy) I'd put on a Canterbury Sound primer.

From there, I started to pick up the existing albums wherever I could find them. I was excited by the fact that Better By Far was only released the year before, though when I bought it at Easter 1978, the band were in the process of breaking up, reforming twice briefly for The Album and Back To Front before disappearing for nearly a decade. Those latter two albums were slightly bewildering at the time, as they sounded like the Caravan I was getting to know only in places. As the years have gone by, I understand why, and I have also grown to appreciate those tracks that don't quite fit but are not actually bad in their own right (I freely admit that I don't outright dislike anything the band have recorded, though I do think that some tunes just don't fit in for me, and though good songs may not be 'Caravan' songs).

From here, I became enamoured of the Canterbury sound - assisted no doubt by seeing National Health on The Old Grey Whistle Test and then buying their first album - and I still am. Caravan are the poppier, more accessible end of that. No great revelation in saying that, but I do think that this sometimes means they are underrated. What they do as a band is to walk that fine line between a sense of melody and structure that keeps the music easily accessible to even the most casual listener, while also exploring textures, harmonics, melody and counterpoint that can still be challenging and rewarding when listened to closely. In Pye Hastings, they have a songwriter with a grasp of concision, and in Geoffrey Richardson and the Sinclairs in particular, they have had musicians who have had the skill and questing imagination to take the arrangements and playing up a notch when the music demands. At which point I should add that I have always felt Richard Coughlan was an under-valued drummer by Canterbury sound and prog fans as he was not a showy player but rather worked to the demands of the music as a whole. Nonetheless, he has an instantly recognisable style, propulsive and with swing, with fills and rolls that always pushed and prodded at the music, shaping it from the bottom up.

Of course, the wonderful perverseness of most Canterbury sound players is that they have always bristled at there being such a thing. And it would be true to say that there are a lot of bands and musicians who have been co-opted into that style by fans and writers who have no real connection to the geographical area. However, they have been of a like mind and perhaps initially influenced by Canterbury musicians so that the style and feel have become greater than the sum of the parts.

So, what is that sound? In purely musical terms, it's perhaps best described as a compositional style that uses minor keys and chords to create a sense of melancholy, and perhaps at times bleakness. This is relieved by the use of melody that can be bitter-sweet and instrumental voicings in soloing that can be freewheeling and exploratory, creating a sense of release. The cornerstone of this sound comes from The Wilde Flowers, which brings us round to the first Caravan line-up of Pye Hastings (guitar/vocals), Richard Coughlan (drums), and the Sinclair cousins Richard (bass/vocals) and David (keyboards). In essence, Caravan were the last line-up of The Wilde Flowers, who at various times had included the Hopper brothers Brian and Hugh, Robert Wyatt,...