Clear Blue Sky - Clear Blue Sky (Reissue) (1970/2003)

Originally a trio of friends from school, John Simms (guitar), Mark Sheather (bass), and Ken White (drums) grew up in the Acton area of London and started as a college circuit blues-rock band called JUG BLUES (later MATUSE and then X). Impressing manager Ashley Kozak, the band were given a deal with Vertigo, changed their name to CLEAR BLUE SKY and recorded a self-titled record under the production of Patrick Campbell-Lyons. Still only eighteen, the three musicians mixed hard blues with progressive and psychedelic rock in an unusually mature way, and the LP was released in January 1971 sporting one of Roger Dean's earliest album covers. The group was occasionally compared to CREAM, LED ZEPPELIN and early JETHRO TULL, though the music had a firm prog sensibility unlike CREAM or ZEPPELIN and sometimes may even remind of RUSH.

CLEAR BLUE SKY's 1971 debut (reissued on Repertoire,1991) is considered their most important and the LP is a collector's item. The second record, "Destiny" [Saturn, 1990], released twenty years after the first (and then again in 1999 on Aftermath in CD format), is old material but shows an improvement in form and approach from the first session. 1996 saw the part-concept album "Cosmic Crusader" and later another theme record "Mirror of the Stars". "Out of the Blue", a collection of live and unreleased material, came out in 2001.

Considering their partially forgotten status, CLEAR BLUE SKY is a surprisingly tight and accomplished band that probably deserve more attention than they got the first time around.~ Atavachron