"Sacred Scenes & Characters" - The Canterbury Glass album reviewed by Alan Hewitt.

From one end of Steve’s story to another. Here we have the very first “waxing” by the maestro from the heady days of 1968! Another rescue job has been done on an album which had been consigned to the vaults for so many years. Steve was never anything more than a “bit player” on this album and it also saw the start of another career now well known in Rock, that of Chris Kimsey whom many of you may know from his engineering/production work with U2. This album was his very first essay in that craft!

This is an altogether different album to the next project Steve was to appear on. Quiet World’s The Road album was a prime example of the early strivings towards concept music in Rock, what we have here on the Sacred Scenes & Characters album is an altogether looser compilation of musical ideas. With its feet firmly grounded in the experimental almost psychedelic music of the late 1960’s this album was never going to be a favourite of mine. However, the players are extremely competent at what they are doing but for anyone looking for a key to the early roots of Steve’s playing , you won’t find it here. His contribution, such as it is, is very much relegated to the background. An interesting listen nonetheless.

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