Writing On The Wall ‎– The Power Of The Picts (Acme) LP

Product Description

Scottish heavy rock band The Writing On The Wall made it big on the
underground rock scene in the late 1960’s through a highly dramatic stage
act. They regularly played the Middle Earth club, went on tour with the
likes of Ten Years After, held a lengthy residency at the Marquee where
they were supported by up and coming acts such as Wishbone Ash. As
others retreated to “be-denimed slothfulness” The Writing On The Wall
became more theatrical , featuring choreographed fights, dressing up as a
Caveman, a High Priest, a Monk and a Witchfinder, and the destruction of a
Bubble car in support of the recently introduced breathalyser test. Melody
Maker felt sufficiently disturbed to comment that the band had ‘the
reputation of being violent to frightening extremes’. However John Peel
was suitably impressed and the band recorded two Top Gear sessions for
Radio 1.
The Middle Earth club launched a label with this maniacal rock band as lead
off act, releasing a single and LP in 1969. Both items today are rare, and
highly collectable, holding their worth in the Price Guides. These items
form Disc one of this Power of the Picts double CD collection, its title
repeating the title of the only LP . The band continued to record demos but
a second LP deal failed to materialise with any label. Live work continued
to impress and in 1972 they were invited to play in Brazil at the Rio Song
Festival, which they did in front of a 60,000 live audience and millions of
South American TV viewers.
Enough was earned to fund the recording of a full second LP . Although
never released, from it came the bands most fully realised creation, the
song Buffalo, managing at turns to be both menacing and elegiac. A severely
truncated version was released as a single by PYE in 1973 and graces comps
today such as Sanctuary’s ‘Gather in The Mushrooms’. Fortunately, the
original full length version survives and it is featured on Disc two. The rest
of Disc two contains the best of the other recordings made during 1971-
1973 , including two stand out rockers in Man Of Renown and Bellyful of
Rock ,recorded for a Scottish TV show. – All recordings digitally remastered
and this glorious package includes an interview with band leader
Jake Scott.

Track listing:
It Came On A Sunday
Mrs. Cooper’s Pie
Ladybird
Aries
Bogeyman
Shadow Of Man
Taskers Successor
Hill Of Dreams
Virginia Waters
Buffalo
Child On A Crossing
Lucifer Corpus
Buffalo (Demo Version)

Acme ADLP 1091